I remember a few years back being asked to give some LinkedIn training to the senior team in a large company.
When I was asked to give the training my contact stressed that I wasn’t to mention that it was a popular platform for job hunting and for putting your CV ‘out there‘. Apparently their financial department had recently been poached en masse and they were putting this down to LinkedIn so it was a delicate issue.
I carefully went through my presentation and removed any references to job hunting or it being a platform for hosting your ‘online 3D CV‘.
I duly arrived, started my presentation and just 30 seconds into the session the first question was fired at me “Isn’t LinkedIn just a great place for finding a new job?“!
It was clear I wasn’t going to get away with avoiding the ‘elephant in the room‘.
Personally I see LinkedIn as a lot more than a place for online CV’s.
It has been a fantastic way for me and Fuzion to highlight our services, to make new contacts and great connections and to really drive our visibility. We blog frequently and we push our blog posts on LinkedIn and it helps showcase out team and their expertise.
However I must admit that the ‘CV’ dimension and the increased focus on job adverts combined with the relative ease of finding and targeting possible candidates is starting to have a huge impact on employees and employers. It has had an impact on our business.
Unfortunately I feel it can be detrimental to both employees and employers and if we are not careful this will only get worse.
Temptation..
In the good old days (I started my first proper job in an accountancy office in 1982) we took a job and tended to stay with companies for quite a while. In many cases we worked our way up the ladder through a combination of experience and on the job training.
Generally the senior long serving team members would live and breathe the organisations they worked for and they tended to have a deep practical knowledge of them including the ethos and core beliefs that the places were built on.
When the job stopped interesting and challenging you, when you stopped learning or when the career progression stopped then it was a natural time to start looking for a new job.
At this moment you started flicking through the job pages in the newspaper on a Friday and you might even register yourself with an employment agency. It was a very considered process.
Now things have changed significantly ..every single day anyone with a LinkedIn profile (there are over 1.4 million people in Ireland) can receive a job enquiry, a little temptation is dangled in front of them and long before they have even considered looking for another job their head has been turned and they are unsettled.
Two of our team left in the recent past and the story was the same for both of them “You know me, I love it here. I wasn’t even looking but they contacted me and the offer was so good I couldn’t resist“.
While this is a detrimental issue for employers who now have to contend with much higher staff turnover it is even more detrimental for the individuals who are letting their heads be easily turned.
Before their full skill-sets are developed and they have a chance to grow in their roles they are off and starting again, never reaching their full potential anywhere.
Technology has clearly changed all of our lives and in the workplace these changes are very significant.
Avoiding temptation..
This new temptation is detrimental to everyone and we need to take a little control back to limit how detrimental it is.
For the individuals that are tempted have a really good think before you allow your head to be turned – is this temptation really the best thing right now for your development and your long term career?
For employers who are tempted – do you really want to take someone on who has their head turned that easy? This won’t be the last time their head will turn!
Temptation ..no thanks!
Tags: Cork, Dublin, Fuzion, Graphic Design, Greg Canty, linkedin, Marketing, PR, temptation
Greg Canty Fuzion Blog 
March 24, 2015 at 10:22 am |
Like in almost every other aspect of our lives, many more choices are available to us. Very empowering as long as we know how to get informed and make good decisions. Linkedin exists, and so do sites like Glassdoor where employers gets a rating from their current and former employees. Yes it is probably easier for anyone to be tempted by greener pastures. Are they really greener ? That’s where being able to make sound decisions becomes even more important.
March 24, 2015 at 2:47 pm |
Great response Paolo – thank you !