THIS is How Network Recruiters Graded LinkedIn
We recently conducted a poll of Top Echelon Network recruiters by posting a question in the Members’ Area.
That question was as follows:
Which grade would you give your current satisfaction level with LinkedIn?
Results:
The choice of answers that we provided is listed below, along with the percentage of recruiters that selected each one:
- A — 7.3%
- B — 40.9%
- C — 30.7%
- D — 19.0%
- F — 1.5%
- Is there a grade lower than F? — 0.7%
Analysis:
How Top Echelon Network recruiters graded LinkedIn is not TOO surprising, although the grades overall might be lower than one would expect. There were a few recruiters who gave the social media site an “A” (7.3%), but “B” was far and away the most popular answer at 40.9%.
Another 30.7% of respondents chose “C” as their answer, while nearly 20% assigned a letter grade of “D” to LinkedIn. As if that wasn’t bad enough, 1.5% chose “F”, and another 0.7% wanted to know “Is there a grade lower than F?”
Keep in mind that these grades assessed recruiters’ overall satisfaction level with LinkedIn, not necessarily the social media site’s effectiveness in helping them source candidates and/or run their desks. Satisfaction encompasses a wide range of criteria, and effectiveness is ultimately just one of those criteria.
Conclusion:
There is NO doubt that LinkedIn has proven to be a great tool for recruiters—both corporate recruiters and agency recruiters—down through the years. And yes, it still is a great tool for recruiters.
However, as the results of this poll show, recruiters may not be as “in love” with LinkedIn as they once were. It’s not just about effectiveness in sourcing candidates. It’s also about the following:
- The site’s ease of use
- The specific product and service level offers that are available
- The different pricing structures of those offerings
- Customer support and technical support
At this point, the important question is this one: will recruiters’ overall satisfaction level with LinkedIn continue to decline over time? And if that happens . . . what happens next?