LinkedIn has become an invaluable tool for recruiters to vet and evaluate potential job candidates. With over 740 million users worldwide, LinkedIn is the largest professional networking platform and a key place for recruiters to find qualified candidates. But just how prevalent is the use of LinkedIn among recruiters screening applicants? Let’s take a look at the data and trends around recruiter use of LinkedIn for candidate screening and evaluation.
The Prevalence of LinkedIn Use Among Recruiters
According to multiple surveys and reports, the vast majority of recruiters are using LinkedIn to check out and vet job candidates during the hiring process. Here are some key statistics:
- 87% of recruiters use LinkedIn to check candidates, according to a 2021 MRINetwork Recruitment Trends study.
- 86% of recruiters use LinkedIn to evaluate candidates, per a 2022 Skillcast report.
- 75% of recruiters screen candidates via LinkedIn prior to contacting them, according to a 2022 OnePoll survey commissioned by ResumeLab.
- 70% of recruiters check LinkedIn profiles of prospective candidates, per a 2021 Robert Half survey.
The data shows a clear trend – the vast majority of recruiters rely on LinkedIn as a key part of vetting and evaluating potential job candidates during the hiring process.
Why Do Recruiters Use LinkedIn to Assess Candidates?
There are several key reasons why LinkedIn has become such a widely used and important screening and evaluation tool among professional recruiters:
Verifying Candidate Backgrounds
LinkedIn provides recruiters with a way to verify and cross-check information that candidates have provided on their resumes, job applications, and in interviews. Recruiters can check that:
- Candidates actually worked at the companies and jobs listed on their resumes.
- Candidates attained the educational degrees listed.
- Candidates have the skills, credentials, and certifications they claim.
This allows recruiters to flag any discrepancies or fabrications.
Assessing Communication Skills
A candidate’s LinkedIn profile provides writing samples recruiters can use to assess communication, language, and messaging skills. This includes:
- The overall LinkedIn profile summary section.
- Content written in the experience section.
- Articles, publications, or blogs posted by the candidate.
- Recommendations written by others that showcase writing style.
Recruiters can get a sense of how well and clearly a candidate can communicate vital information to an audience.
Evaluating Digital and Online Presence
A LinkedIn profile provides recruiters with insights into how a candidate presents themselves professionally online. Recruiters can assess:
- Profile completeness – are all key sections filled out?
- Quality of profile content – is relevant info highlighted?
- Profile customization – are customized sections and media used?
- Language and messaging – is it professional and appealing?
This allows recruiters to determine how digitally savvy and literate a candidate is in promoting themselves.
Identifying Potential Culture Fit
Recruiters can look for indicators on a candidate’s LinkedIn profile that could suggest an alignment with the company’s culture and values. This can include:
- Groups joined or followed.
- Causes or nonprofits supported.
- Volunteering activities and organizations.
- Shared connections and relationships.
These can give clues into company culture fit beyond skills and experience.
Passive Candidate Sourcing
Even when not actively hiring, savvy recruiters search LinkedIn to identify high-potential “passive” candidates not actively job seeking. Key profile clues can signal candidates worth connecting with or tracking for future roles.
What Specific Profile Areas Do Recruiters Review?
When screening and evaluating candidates on LinkedIn, there are several profile sections and components recruiters typically focus on reviewing:
Profile Photo
A profile photo allows recruiters to put a face to a name and see how professionally or approachably a candidate presents themselves visually. Some key checks include:
- Professional dress and appearance.
- Appropriate background setting.
- Warm and inviting facial expression.
- High-quality, well-composed photo.
A poor profile photo can create a bad first impression and undermine credibility.
Headline
A candidate’s profile headline or tagline offers recruiters a brief overview of their career focus and specialties. Recruiters look for:
- Concise, descriptive phrasing summarizing their profession.
- Keywords relevant to the open position.
- Mention of pertinent skills, titles, or certifications.
This offers a snapshot of how candidates describe and market themselves.
Summary
The profile summary section provides recruiters with critical insights into a candidate’s experience, skills, accomplishments, goals, and personality. Key checks include:
- Career highlights and capabilities.
- Chatty, personable language or formal and stiff?
- Unique value proposition and “sales pitch.”
- Grammar, spelling, brevity, and clarity.
This section can make or break overall candidate appeal and likeability.
Experience
The experience section offers recruiters a window into a candidate’s employment history, responsibilities, contributions, progression, stability, and gaps. Recruiters dig into:
- Companies worked at and position titles.
- Time spent in each role.
- Achievements and impact.
- Skills and competencies gained.
- Reasons for transitions.
Any resume embellishments or gaps are often flagged here.
Education
Academic credentials and educational background offer recruiters insight into a candidate’s foundation. Key checks:
- Degrees attained and fields of study.
- Educational institutions.
- GPA and honors if listed.
- Relevance of education to open position.
This offers confirmation of baseline qualifications.
Skills
The skills section allows recruiters to analyze both hard and soft skills. They look for:
- Technical skills required for the role.
- Transferable skills applicable to the role.
- Interpersonal and communication skills.
- Alignment skills have with experience.
Skills can indicate developmental areas as well as competencies.
Recommendations
Recommendations offer 3rd party validation of a candidate’s capabilities, achievements, and personality. Key aspects:
- Who provides recommendations?
- What skills and values are endorsed?
- How credible and enthusiastic are endorsements?
- Quality and depth of endorsements.
Genuine recommendations can heavily influence hiring manager opinions.
Groups and Profiles Followed
Looking at groups joined and profiles followed provides recruiters with added context into candidate interests and priorities. They allow:
- Gauging professional development priorities.
- Identifying passions and causes.
- Assessing potential culture add.
These less obvious profile areas offer additional insights.
Using LinkedIn Recruiter for Enhanced Candidate Screening
While a candidate’s public profile provides a wealth of information, many recruiters also leverage LinkedIn Recruiter for more robust screening and evaluation capabilities. Key features include:
- Viewing full candidate profiles beyond just public view.
- Contacting passive candidates not actively job searching.
- Advanced profile filtering and search options.
- Comparing candidates side-by-side.
- Rating, tagging, and tracking candidates.
LinkedIn Recruiter transforms LinkedIn into a full-featured talent sourcing and screening solution.
Best Practices for Candidate Screening on LinkedIn
Here are some best practices recruiters recommend when using LinkedIn to assess and screen candidates:
Check All Key Profile Sections
Conduct a comprehensive review of the candidate’s full profile, not just snippets that stand out. The devil can be in details recruiters might otherwise overlook.
Note What’s Missing or Sparse
Pay attention if certain sections seem too light or are missing entirely, like no skills, bare recommendations, or short experience section. Follow up on gaps.
Review Outside of LinkedIn
Also Google candidates and review their other social media accounts to look for any red flags not on their LinkedIn. A cross-check helps avoid surprises.
Compare to Resume
Set LinkedIn side-by-side with the candidate’s resume to identify any discrepancies in job titles, companies, dates, etc. Dig into any inconsistencies.
Trust But Verify
Treat candidate-supplied LinkedIn info as clues requiring verification, not established facts. Independently confirm key credentials and claims.
Document Concerns
Note any LinkedIn profile areas of concern and share findings with the hiring team. Red flags become group insights versus just individual gut reactions.
Using LinkedIn Effectively But Ethically
While LinkedIn is invaluable for candidate screening, recruiters should use it ethically. Some key ethical practices include:
- Avoid using LinkedIn to discriminate against candidates illegally due to protected characteristics.
- Don’t violate candidate privacy by seeking access to non-public profile areas without consent.
- Be transparent in informing candidates you have reviewed their profile.
- Correct any mistaken assumptions made that profile facts don’t support.
- Allow candidates to address apparent resume embellishments versus automatic rejection.
Unethical use of LinkedIn profiling can open legal liabilities.
The Bottom Line
Reviewing LinkedIn profiles has clearly become a standard part of the recruitment and hiring process for most organizations and recruiters. Used ethically and effectively, LinkedIn provides invaluable candidate vetting and screening at both the initial review phase and throughout the interview process. However, LinkedIn should not be the only evaluation tool – resumes, interviews, skills testing, and references remain critical. Looking ahead, recruiters can expect LinkedIn screening to only intensify, making a professional and compelling profile more important than ever for job seekers.