We had earlier written about referral based job networking sites and posed the question whether job networking sites were the future of e-recruitment and would they replace the current jobsite model?
I have heard seen and experienced real life cases where networking sites have not only been cheaper but effective as well. There are loads of friends of mine and even other CEO’s of startups who have been recruited or recruited themselves through sites like linkedin, orkut and the new rage facebook.
Even WATBlog/WATConsult which was recently on a hiring spree (and still is..) used Orkut to hire one blogger/web 2.0 consultant to add to its core team. I think hiring using web 2.0 and social media is definitely on the rise as it gives an overall perpective of the prospective hire and also to the hire of the prospective employer! Like in our case the the prospective new employee who came for the interview had gone through our website/blog and also understood what we do!!
One can also see this from the groups that are prevalent on orkut (india’s most popular social network) where in keywords like jobs, freshers, tech jobs throw up groups having thousands of members. (screenshot below)
So why do i feel that networking sites are a threat to the jobsite business in the long run? Here are my seven reasons!
1) Free access to huge database which has professional career details as well! (Orkut has more than 10 million indians registered!)
2) Instant contact and feedback through informal scraps! (One can directly connect through scraps messages etc. No need for emailers!)
3) Interest Groups helps in targetted recruiting! (The groups feature on most networking sites actually help you find your kind of hires in bulk without searching!)
4) Testimonials and Feedback – (A lot can be known about your prospective hire by just reading his or her profile and learning what his friends/colleagues say about him/her)
5) Build a Relationship before you Hire! – (Networking sites provide the possibility to build a relationship and know the hire and his temprament before you actually offer him or her a job.)
But are these 5 reasons enough?? According to this article recruiters seem to be taking to networking site when it comes to headhunting but liek all new trends even this one will take some time before its accepted or rejected by all. Recruiting through social media or networking sites is at a stage where recruiting through internet was 7 years back. So its no surprise that naukri itself is promoting brijj.com its recently launched career network to its database of job seekers through naukri emailers! (need any more reasons that recruiting through networking is the future?)
It is helpful in one way – but if someone is looking for a job, Job sites may be a better way.