The Work Style Editorial Board Via Balbo 4, 20136 Milan, Italy T 0039 02 87 07 44

Martin Taylor works as a "professional geek" in Silicon Valley, San Francisco by day, but is a photographer, filmmaker and musicmaker by night. More of Martin's work and interests can be found at TheOtherMartinTaylor.com. Road signs are tools that help us find our way on the road. Even in the working world, we rely on certain tools: Linkedin serves as a tool to help companies find the best talent.

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© Photos by Martin Taylor

Ads are also important because they establish a company’s active presence on the network; since the quality of this presence is crucial in the war for talent, companies have quickly learned to use professional networks for establishing and communicating their employment branding.

ACTIVE BRANDING

“Employment branding,” O’Neil says, “means presenting your company in a light that attracts the best and brightest minds in the industry.” On LinkedIn, companies can design on-site official pages called Career Pages that communicate their Employer Value Proposition and give insights on their story, culture, and the job opportunities they offer. “LinkedIn is central to the deployment of our employment brand” says Paul Maxin, Global Resourcing Director, Unilever. “Our Career Page allows us to deploy our messaging and build engagement with communities of people, also thanks to contents that renders differently depending on their profile.” Branding must be kept visible, relevant, and up-to-date. This is all the more true in the high-speed environment of social networks. “It is important to always be out there and brand,” says Mike Demirjian, Director of Talent Acquisition, Takeda Pharmaceuticals. “Especially with all the technology that’s out there right now… We leveraged on LinkedIn to get the true messaging out about who we are.” Since Employer Value is linked to the satisfaction of employees, companies seldom forget to include testimonials and video content to their pages. A further step can be taken by branding employees' LinkedIn profiles with the company’s messaging, thus drawing traffic to official pages and ads.

A SOFTER SIDE OF RECRUITMENT

Professional networks are rapidly changing the dynamics of the recruitment process and the way employers and candidates interact. The relationship is shifting from the “hard sell” of the straightforward job ad to a “softer sell” that begins with building awareness within groups of potential future candidates. “We maintain contacts with candidates to keep them warm and to attract them” says Demirjian, “so that when we are hiring back up again we can reduce the time of fill and increase the quality of hire.” Owen Williams, Director of Executive Recruiting, Macy’s, says his team also sends “warm e-mails and invitation to join LinkedIn groups” to candidates in areas where they forecast future openings. These practices encourage jobs seekers to follow companies’ pages and network with them, in order to be visible when a position opens. It is fundamental to stay in the loop, because companies will turn to their “warmed-up” contacts first, and possibly fill the position without even needing to post an ad for the job.

THIS MOMENT IN RECRUITING With a new generation of avid Facebookers ready to enter the professional world, the interest in networks such as LinkedIn for purposes of job seeking is inevitably bound to rise. This means more candidates, more companies, more markets, more exclusive content (both in terms of people and job offers), new recruitment strategies, and higher-end branding. In fact, forget about future scenarios. It is happening right now.•