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  1. #1
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    Aug 2007
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    Default LinkedIn etiquette dilemma

    A freind recently changes jobs. She's a very senior manager/exec in the banking sector.

    Like many people in her industry she's on LinkedIn, but she tends to "connect" only to people at or close to her level in other companies and people who have reported directly to her in the past.

    While on gardening leave before she started the new job she started getting LinkedIn invites from employees at the new company she is going to work for (obviously her appointment had been annouced publicly). This made her feel very uneasy and she ignored the invitations for the time being.

    Bascially she was concerned about showing any favour to specific individuals, whom she hadn't even met yet!

    I can see her point, because it sets a precedent, whereas another freind who is also a senior manager in the same industry felt there was no harm in accepting the invitations and felt that people would be offended that their invitation was being ignored.

    For me the term "can of worms" comes to mind!

    What do others think?
    Do any of you have policies regarding LinkedIn?
    If not should you have policies?

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Jun 2013
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    Sydney
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    Default

    Moz,

    Great story and here are my thoughts.

    1. Don't connect with anyone in new company. In fact, hide profile until she gets into the role
    2 & 3. The topic of policies around LinkedIn are popping up a fair bit now. In my travels I have had this discussion many times. The outcome in most cases is a linkedin profile is a personal profile and not owned by the organisation. Therefore building policies is very difficult and hence why most orgs go with guidelines. However, what do you say in the guidelines? Here are some of the discussions

    I had a client that didn't want their employees on linked in as they will get poached, as if that was Linked-In's fault. Even though I tried to educate these people that if someone leaves to go to another company, there was a reason that left you and you should explore that, they still tried to build a policy around it.

    A client we provide RPO solution to wanted to make sure the recruiters on site didn't spend time on Linked-In and tried to implement a policy. Why? I still don't know.

    This is a true story - A person I met recently (a not very IT literate CEO of a company) wanted her IT team to put a block on employees being able to connect with anyone from a competitor on Linked-In. When they said they can't, she built a policy saying it was against the "law" to connect with anyone from the competition on Linked-In. My question to her, how do you police it and more to the point, how is moral?

    A more realistic story, a client has built communication policies stating that if you are not an approved spokesperson of the organisation, then you will not speak on behalf of the organisation to any any media, analyst or interviewer/commentator, you will also not use any form of social media to commentate on behalf of the organisation or mention the organisation in any comments/posts/blog etc. They do go on to outline the formate of how your Linked-In profile as it is considered part of their branding message.

    Not sure what the answer is around trying to control the use of linked-in via policies, but am of the belief that I personally own my profile, therefore I can and will connect with who ever I want and ignore whoever I want. as per that last scenario above, if I am an approved spokesperson for the organisation, I may used Linked-In to promote the organisation. If I am not approved, then I may not.

    Hope this helps

    Steve

  3. #3
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    Aug 2007
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    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by Steve Begg View Post

    Not sure what the answer is around trying to control the use of linked-in via policies, but am of the belief that I personally own my profile,
    You may own your profile, but as an employee you might not necessarily own all the contacts. This was discussed recently in another thread here http://www.hrbuzz.com.au/forum/indus...-contacts.html

    As for some of the cases you mentioned Steve, my personal view is that employers have good reason to fear LinkedIn!

  4. #4
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    Default

    Spot on Moz, a company employs (and pays) a person to build relationships (especially in any sales team or the recruitment industry) therefore they technically own the contacts. As I am new here wasn't a part of the last discussion, but I am sure that is what came up.

    Yes, LinkedIn has definitely made it easier for people to be found and head-hunted. However, if someone is prepared to have a coffee with a stranger that connected with them on LinkedIn, then I would be saying there is a deeper issue that needs to be addressed rather than just cutting out LinkedIn use.

  5. #5
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    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by Steve Begg View Post
    Yes, LinkedIn has definitely made it easier for people to be found and head-hunted. However, if someone is prepared to have a coffee with a stranger that connected with them on LinkedIn, then I would be saying there is a deeper issue that needs to be addressed rather than just cutting out LinkedIn use.
    With respect Steve, to suggest an employer has "issues" they need to address because employees agrees to have a chat with (an often persuasive) recruiter is a bit judgemental in my view.

    In my experience as a recruiter, well over half the professional candidates I have tapped were willing to have a chat, possible as many as 70%. But this doesn't mean there are "deeper issues" for all these people. Sure, some are in the market, but most are not actively seeking a new position, they are simply prepared to have a chat just out of curiosity and probably a sensible degree of self interest.

    This is supported by the fact that nowhere near that percentage are actually willing to take the next step, at least not at that point in time.

    Before LinkedIn it took ingenuity and often a bit of subterfuge to identify the target candidates, but now it's so easy. You just do a LinkedIn search on the target companies and there's your long list of target candidates.

  6. #6
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    Default

    Agree Moz. All I am saying is don't blame LinkedIn.

    As you rightly said, now it is easy to build a target list of potentials. However, as someone with experience in recruitment, you would have to agree for a person to dislodged from their current position, there has to be some sort of leverage, be it they are unhappy, a step up, more money, something.

    Now that LinkedIn is out there and people like you can build that long list in a heart beat, employers need to be ramping up their retention strategies and paying attention. No longer can they sit on their backsides and throw their hands in their air when someone leaves. Its time to be proactive around retention as the recruitment industry (agency and in-house) is out there targeting their organisation right now.

  7. #7
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    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by Steve Begg View Post
    ... as someone with experience in recruitment, you would have to agree for a person to dislodged from their current position, there has to be some sort of leverage, be it they are unhappy, a step up, more money, something.
    Absolutely, there's always a reason people change jobs. It's just not always something that the employer can realistically do anything about.

    Now that LinkedIn is out there and people like you can build that long list in a heart beat,
    I'd just like to point out that I am no longer in recruitment. Also, it's worth remembering that not everyone is on LinkedIn. They say "1 in every 3 professionals on the planet" are on LinkedIn, that's impressive, but it also means 2 of every 3 (66%) are NOT on LinkedIn. I know of some organisations and professions as a whole that have very little representation on LinkedIn, so it's not necessarily the silver bullet for recruitment that some would have us believe.

    It's probably a good idea for employers to periodically check which of their employees are on LinkedIn. If you intend to start looking at their individual profiles you might want to think about adjusting your privacy settings before doing so!

  8. #8

    Default

    To be honest I don't see LinkedIn as a threat to an employer (in terms of employees using it to network for a better job) nor do I agree with the employer owning the contacts. I do agree that if the employee is using work time and work resources to network themselves on LinkedIn then that should be addressed, but in cases where the employee leaves to pursue another role that they got through their involvement in LinkedIn then my advice would be let them go. There was obvious issues with the employment relationship, or indeed the employee themselves, that caused them to jump ship.

    The recent case (and excuse me but I didn't follow it closely at all) where the employer actively pursued the employee to retain the contacts, sounded more like a vendetta to punish the employee for leaving as opposed to trying to protect intellectual property etc.

    A word of advice for employers, if the employee is thinking of leaving and enters into a process of trying to network to leave, chances are you've already lost the intellectual property anyway.......So can you really be bothered stalking them on LinkedIn?!

  9. #9
    Join Date
    Apr 2012
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    Default

    Well stated Qld IR Consultant - totally agree. Plus, if it wasn't LinkedIn they're using to try and find another job, it'll be other means. Poaching goes on all the time but it's not the happy, contented employees who necessarily succumb.
    Tiger

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