LinkedIn is Not a Dynamic Recruiting CRM. Stop Treating It Like One. - Part Two

By Jessica Miller-Merrell

Check out part 1 in this blog series on the CRM. 

You’ve probably seen by now that LinkedIn shook the recruiting world momentarily when it changed its policy on downloading connections and contact information, requiring a waiting period of up to 72 hours. Previously, users could instantly download this information, which is obviously an important feature for recruiters and sourcers. After uproar from the media and the recruiting world, LinkedIn reversed this change and now once again offers an easy download.

While there’s no harm done in the long run since this decision was reversed, this occurrence provided a reminder to our industry that LinkedIn may be a frequently used tool for recruiters, but it is not a dynamic recruiting CRM. I mentioned in part one of this series that there are a number of obvious downfalls to using the social network as a CRM, but many recruiters are using it as such. If it’s not enough to know that integration with other candidate sources is a problem and that you don’t own the data you use of LinkedIn, then perhaps looking at how it stacks up against modern and future CRMs will shed a bit of light on how LinkedIn can complement, but not replace a CRM. 

There are four main areas of a modern CRM (candidate relationship manager) where LinkedIn and other social networking sites including Twitter, Facebook and Instagram fall short:

Fostering communication and connections

While LinkedIn is a great place to make connections and initiate contact, it’s not a place that truly fosters and encourages communication and connections between passive candidates, active candidates, recruiters, hiring managers and employment brand ambassadors. A modern CRM absolutely must provide this capability, and LinkedIn just isn’t the best place for this.

The ability to handle many candidates

Recruiters are handling more open positions and candidates than ever before, and these candidates are likely coming from multiple sources. LinkedIn is an incredibly useful tool for sourcing but it just doesn’t provide the ability to handle and keep track of the many open positions and hundreds of candidates a recruiter could be juggling at any give time.

Compliance and record keeping

One of the biggest jobs an HR department must undertake is ensuring compliance in hiring and employment, making it a major problem to use a social network as a CRM. Since it doesn’t offer record-keeping capabilities like a modern CRM should, you’ll either be forced to keep records in a separate system and transfer to another system upon hiring, or worse, you may not be keeping great records during the hiring process, putting your company at risk for legal exposure. A modern CRM simplifies record keeping and if used correctly, helps ensure legal protection if a situation arises.

The best of both worlds

While the two of the categories above touched on engagement and organization, it’s important to note that what a recruiter needs is a system that offers a way to engage with candidates and tools to keep it all straight, all in one place. There are plenty of tools that do one or the other, with LinkedIn being one of them, but a modern CRM delivers on both fronts. And having a system that is capable of both streamlines processes, leads to better tracking and follow up and makes life as a recruiter easier. 

Data ownership

Most importantly, is that you own the network, it's systems and accessibility. Unlike resume mining or other recruiter specific products, you are not just renting space. You and your recruitment team have full control over the candidate experience, information being shared and the manner in which candidates and prospects are communicated with. There isn't a limited number of email messages or search strings. You have full access to the dynamic candidate community you've worked hard to build and can engage, search and access on your own terms and at your own pace. 

This is a two part series on the candidate relationship manager or CRM. Click here to access part 1. 

TalentCircles is the most comprehensive candidate engagement platform on the market. Take a product tour or request a live demo today. 

Jessica Miller-Merrell, SPHR is a workplace and technology anthropologist specializing in HR and recruiting. She's the Chief Blogger and Founder of Blogging4Jobs and author of The HR Technology Field Guide. You can follow her on Twitter at @jmillermerell.  

LinkedIn is Not a Dynamic Recruiting CRM. Stop Treating It Like One. - Part One

By Jessica Miller-Merrell

LinkedIn is one of the most valuable tools a recruiter has at his or her disposal today. There’s no better place to see so many professionals all in one place, essentially providing you with one convenient place to source and learn about candidates. However, for as much as we rely on the social network to do our jobs, there are limitations to the system. I have seen so many recruiters treat LinkedIn as if it were a dynamic recruiting CRM or candidate relationship management system and as we were all reminded last week when LinkedIn announced a change to a long-standing policy concerning the ability to export a user’s connections and contacts, it certainly is not.

Before this change, a recruiter could simply download a list of their connections. When LinkedIn made this change, they required that users request the information and then wait up to 72 hours for a list of their connections and contacts. Upon learning of the change, I immediately requested my profile copy, which was sent to me less than 24 hours later. While I’m certainly glad it didn’t take the full 72 hours, I think we can all agree that 24 hours is about 23.5 hours too long to have to wait for that information since most of us will access that information when we need it, not days in advance.

As you probably know by now, this change did not go over well. LinkedIn users, as well as the media, responded to the change with a firestorm of articles and posts via social media, forcing the company to reconsider their position and allow users immediate access.

The unexpected, inconvenient change and subsequent backtrack by LinkedIn highlighted something that many of us needed reminded of. As I said above, LinkedIn is a wonderful tool, but a dynamic CRM it is not. We want access to our contacts, relationships and community in real time. We don’t like waiting, but unfortunately only a true CRM can provide us with that kind of uninhibited and unlimited access. As long as we see and use LinkedIn for what it’s not intended to be and doesn’t have the capability to act as, we’re going to continue to be disappointed when things beyond our control occur.

Candidate Relationship Management: The Breakdown

A CRM offers functionality that LinkedIn doesn’t offer to the average user, or even those in the recruiter seat. There are many obvious flaws to using LinkedIn as your CRM, but there are essentially two main areas where things really break down. Most importantly, you can’t upload your own engagements, profiles and contacts of candidates you are engaging outside the network or community. This creates a major inconvenience, as you’ll most certainly have candidates you need to track outside of LinkedIn. If this isn’t the case, it should be! A CRM provides one central location for all those profiles to live, which LinkedIn doesn’t.

Secondly, LinkedIn has demonstrated that we don’t own our user information or data. We don't own our profiles, contacts, group members and status updates. We can request access to it, but it is in the hands of and at the mercy of LinkedIn. We can use it, but they are in charge of who has access to it, which isn’t true of a dynamic recruiting CRM. 

Aside from these two main areas, it’s also important for us to look at whether or not the social network will be able to meet our CRM needs in the future, even if it can’t now. Watch for part two of this series to see how LinkedIn fits in with the future of the CRM in HR and recruiting.

Be on the look out for part two in our CRM series. 

TalentCircles is the most comprehensive candidate engagement platform on the market. Take a product tour or request a live demo today. 

Jessica Miller-Merrell, SPHR is a workplace and technology anthropologist specializing in HR and recruiting. She's the Chief Blogger and Founder of Blogging4Jobs and author of The HR Technology Field Guide. You can follow her on Twitter at @jmillermerell.  

Quit Snooping on Your Employees on LinkedIn

By Jessica Miller-Merrell

LinkedIn, the recruiter’s social recruiting go to tool of choice is now over 225 million users strong. Social media and the Internet is a great way to stay up to date on professional information and news related to your job and career, but it is also a way to spy on your employees.

Having had resuming mining access to job boards for many years, I always cringed when hiring managers were allowed access to source using these systems for employees or worse I’ve had hiring managers' request to receive updates regarding employees who update their resume on a job board as well as LinkedIn. These databases and resources are not meant for spying they are for searching for qualified potential employees.

As the use of social recruiting and online tools grow, I become increasingly concerned about employee privacy and data not only for individuals but when employers use access for big data analytics and information as a way to predict an employee’s resignation or the beginning of their job search activity.

I speak out of experience I was nearly fired for recruiting on LinkedIn. And I plead. Quit snooping on your employees. Whether it’s Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or Four Square, access to employee information shouldn’t be used as a productivity-monitoring tool. Employers, particularly managers should focus on measurable results like meeting assigned expectations, deadlines and production metrics than social media activity.

Ever since social media came an important workplace topic the idea of privacy has been thrown out the windows. From employers wanting to gain access to employees' social media accounts to recruiters now trying to predict an employee’s next move. We’ve become so focused on the possibility of employees leaving that we forget to implement programs that focus on overall retention.

To me, the importance should be put on the actual culture of the company instead of all the moving parts that are being scrutinized in this technology age. The use of obtaining employee social media passwords and recruiters snooping on employees on LinkedIn would cease to be an issue if the culture was one that encouraged employee growth and opportunity.

Jessica Miller-Merrell, SPHR is a workplace and technology strategist specializing in social media. She’s an author who writes at Blogging4Jobs. You can follow her on Twitter @blogging4jobs. 

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