New statistics have shown that more needs to be done to encourage the increasing number of people using professional networks, such as LinkedIn, to specifically use them for job-seeking purposes.
Recent figures from two different surveys have shown that, while more and more people in the UK have LinkedIn profiles, the number of people using them to find new work ranks the UK among the lowest in the world.
The Kelly Global Workforce Survey has shown that around 20 per cent of British job seekers use social media to find work – making them amongst the least likely to use it in all the developed nations surveyed. Only one per cent of those surveyed said they had found their job through social networking.
The graduate careers website, WikiJob, found, however, that approximately two-thirds of its users had registered on LinkedIn. This indicated that graduates are perhaps more familiar with and accommodating of the role of social and professional networks in recruitment and, as they become established in the workforce, so the occurrence of online recruitment through social networking will rise.
Ed Mellett, co-founder of WikiJob, said, “These results are evidence of the way in which graduates may have an advantage as the employment landscape changes.
“Networking online will give graduates access to an otherwise hidden job market, and the results from our user poll indicate it is likely that a large proportion of graduates are already actively pursuing these opportunities,” he added.
However Geoff Newman from flat fee recruitment agency is not surprised by the results.
“People in Britain are naturally reserved, find it difficult to ‘blow their own trumpet’ and are suspicious about privacy settings with popular social media. This makes them less inclined to be proactive using tools such as LinkedIn. Naturally though a new generation is aware of it’s potential and I’m sure will early adopters.
As featured in
