The Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) took the world by storm and replaced certain jobs like postman, journalist or even teacher. The digital revolution has taken over in both the finance and marketing area. The American website Linkedln, created in 2003 and used for professional networking, has changed the relationships between candidates and recruiters.
Abdou Aziz Diagne works as an Intelligence Analyst at an international travel consulting firm. He recently created an account on Linkedln and is dying to expand his network by adding new contacts. However he spends a lot of time looking at profiles that match his own before he befriends them. “It has been 3 years since I have been using this professional network and I have noticed that more than twenty of my friends have looked over my profile, some even did it privately. I have also seen in there some job offers in my area of expertise which is Travel Risk Management”, he confessed to Talent2Africa.
Professional networks are not relying on Due diligence anymore
According to the New Professions in the Internet Professor from Cheikh Anta Diop UFR Cracs’ Gaston Berger University: Linkedin is part of the hiring process, it allows Human Resources Director to select candidates and find out about their activities. However it can’t do the job for them when we know that in Africa, only 3% of internet users go on that website, even though it has more than 500 millions users since its creation in 2003.
“it gives like a hint to the company or recruiter but is not a guarantee of the expected values and skills”, he said.
A Recruiting assistant in a West African temporary employment firm present in Ivory Coast, Senegal, Mali and Burkina Faso shares the same view and idea. According to Mr Sankaré thanks to that network we can get rid of the due diligence and build new relationships from all over the place. He believes that the E-reputation is an important factor when you are in the process of hiring a candidate. “Not only do we go over your LinkedIn profile but we also check you Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Instagram, so we know what the candidate is doing on his social networks.
LinkedIn reached number 1 in 15 years
It is a new way different from the old way when you had to hand out a resume. What we mean by that is that the hiring process, in Africa, has changed and now the digital era plays an important role.
However LinkedIn is not the first professional network to ever exist, Viadeo for example was one of the first to start in that business. in 15 years LinkedIn reached number one by building a network of thousands of companies and millions of users everywhere in the world.
Rushing into the digital is a major challenge when managing people in a workplace . In Africa recruiting firms like Talent2Africa are the first to take advantage of those new changes. it is due to the fact the relationships between employers and employees has changed tremendously and the hiring process has integrated new complex elements.
Amadou Camara Gueye