A year ago when I opened LinkedIn Group pages, the number of recruiters and recruiter offers was overwhelming. It seemed that LinkedIn was the playground of recruiters and that others didn’t get it. I would like to see the actual metrics that LinkedIn keeps on usage and audiences. It seems to me that things are changing quickly.
I now see corporate HR has taken over LinkedIn. Of the jobs posted in LinkedIn Groups, it seems that the vast majority are jobs posted by companies or corporate HR. What was once the recruiting resource of choice for independent recruiters seems to have been swallowed whole by the employers. What is your experience? Are you seeing employers overwhelm your groups and the jobs postings with their open positions?
So why has this changed so quickly and with such emphasis? Are recruiters finding less success with LinkedIn postings and slowing usage? Or perhaps corporate HR is finding that LinkedIn works? Do you think that LinkedIn Recruiter Professional Service is being sold and used by corporate HR in record numbers? Spending $5,000 on LinkedIn RPS is not as big a deal for a company as it may be for an independent recruiter. What are you seeing?
I question if the trend will slow or if this independent recruiter resource will forever be changed by the number of corporate HR users now exploiting LinkedIn as a candidate sourcing tool? Have you had any clients tell you, as they did in the old days with Monster and CareerBuilder, that if they find a candidate on LinkedIn, they will not honor your fee request? Are you prepared to address that one head on the first time it happens?