Reesmarx Europe, a recruitment firm for technology companies, has today published the results of a survey into current recruitment measures taken by technology companies, as well as industry thoughts on Europe's IT sector.
It found 57% of employers search for potential candidates on LinkedIn, prior to interviewing or hiring them.
The research revealed that 5% of those surveyed will hire new personnel via social networking sites such as LinkedIn. In comparison, 19% of respondents stated that they primarily hire personnel via recruitment firms, with 76% preferring to use specialist agencies.
Glyn Rees, managing partner at Reesmarx Europe, said: "Although it's not surprising that firms are looking up candidates on LinkedIn, they need to be very careful about how much trust they put in these sources.
"The reliability of social media is flawed because it is difficult to verify, and users are essentially free to write whatever they like on their profiles. Of course these sites have value for networking and building contacts, but shouldn't be overly relied upon while evaluating potential job candidates."
"Finding a top quality candidate for any role is always a challenge, and there are currently many ways to promote vacancies and identify new talent. Although it's perhaps surprising that significantly fewer companies are looking up candidates on websites such as LinkedIn, such research is still only partially useful. It's only by utilising all of the job hunting tools at your disposal and making sure that candidates are fully reference-checked that employers will be able to determine which candidates they should consider - and this is where specialist recruitment agencies come in."
"The fact that such a large number of those in the tech industry do not see Europe as a technology leader is disheartening. This is a really exciting time for tech companies in Europe. Tech City is continuing to thrive and with new initiatives being made all the time, there are no signs that this is going to peak any time soon. Growing trends such as cloud computing, virtualisation and SaaS are playing a key role in this technology growth, which is only going to continue to flourish if technology companies carry on taking advantage of specialist recruitment agencies' expertise in hiring first-class candidates."
The findings are based on an online survey of 121 HR employees at technology companies across Europe conducted via SurveyMonkey in February 2012.
The research follows the company's recent survey into candidates' recruitment practices, conducted in September 2011.
