Is LinkedIn fundamentally changing the required skillset of recruiters?

At #LinkedinDayDubai earlier today, LinkedIn’s @Manal Siddiqui said that “the best recruiters must act like marketers”, unwittingly perhaps opening a massive debate with repercussions across two corporate cost centres, HR and Corporate Communications.

The agreement goes like this:

Fact 1: Social recruiting is here to stay as more and more candidates find employment through social media (@JohnVickerman, SVP, HR at OSN)

Fact 2: Of the total global workforce of 3.3bn, there are 640mn professionals (white collar) of which roughly half (332mn as of yesterday to be exact) are LinkedIn members.

Fact 3: 75% of LinkedIn’s professional members are passive and not looking for a new job.

So, according to #LinkedIn’s regional top brass corporations must follow three steps to successfully engage with the potential pool of senior talent maintaining a LinkedIn profile:

1.Build your followers and your brand

2.Engage and nurture your target audience

3.Recruit

To a marketer, or more specifically, to a PR professional , the first two steps are inherent to DNA and skillset, however recruiters don’t necessarily possess the ability to deliver on any other than step 3 in the above list.

Now you decide whether the answer to the question posed in the headline of this post is a YES or a NO.