Hiring Managers Say LinkedIn Delivers Candidates

LinkedIn is the top networking site used by North American companies to find job candidates, according to a global survey by Right Management. More than 2,000 internal and external recruiters, human resource executives and hiring managers from 17 countries representing more than 20 industry sectors participated in the Right Management survey.

LinkedIn was reported as useful for sourcing candidates by 93% of the respondents in the U.S. and Canada. Although it trails LinkedIn in North America, Facebook is dominant among European and Asian employers.

Networking Sites as Source of Job Candidates
(Percentage that said site was “useful”)

	North America	Europe	Asia Pacific	Global
LinkedIn	93%	42%	32%	52%
Facebook	34%	62%	75%	58%
Twitter	18%	35%	48%	34%

Most people tend to think of social or professional networking sites just as job hunting tools. But career transition professionals are well aware that nearly all employers search these sites for possible job candidates. Our survey, in fact, says that nine out of ten large organizations in North America find at least one of these sites useful. It’s also evident companies consult more than one site when seeking suitable people for openings.

In addition to the top three networking sites, several were also found useful by respondents, including Peoplenjobs, Plaxo, Scout, Viadeo and Xing.

Although nearly all employers today use networking sites as a sourcing method, it is only one among several. Number-one is job postings on the company website followed closely by referrals from company employees. Third are ads in printed media and on job boards followed by informational interviews and staffing agencies.

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