4 Reasons Google Plus Will Make Hiring Harder

Google Plus is the latest tool that recruiters and hiring managers are excited about. In fact, some are calling it the “recruiting-friendly Facebook.” Like the phrase implies, employers are hoping that because GooglePlus has been able to learn from oversights of the other major social and professional networking sites today, it will be easier to use to find and source job candidates. 

And while it certainly is exciting to have another tool for connecting and engaging with potential employees, there are some ways that Google Plus might actually make hiring harder

1.) It’s additional noise in the online recruiting space. Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and now…Google Plus. With so many online networking platforms, it can be difficult for employers to know where to start, where to look and who to target. By adding another platform for recruiting, it might just be making more noise instead of making recruiting candidates easier.

2.) Google Plus results in an even more fragmented audience. While some potential employees might be active on Google Plus, others could still be using LinkedIn or Twitter for professional networking purposes. Furthermore, some folks haven’t even been invited to Google Plus yet…meaning they aren’t even able to have a presence on the site.

3.) It’s another outlet to monitor. If you thought maintaining an active account on LinkedIn or Twitter was difficult, add Google Plus to your list of outlets for sharing content, engaging with candidates and monitoring your employer brand. With all of the online platforms available for recruiting today, your full-time job might entail simply keeping up with your organization’s online presence to ensure its profiles don’t go stale.

4.) Less detailed work histories and skills sections. LinkedIn is a platform specifically for professional networking, which is why most candidates on the site have detailed profiles with past work experience, skills, and awards. On Google Plus, professional work experience is not the main emphasis—which means many folks won’t have anything beyond their last position, if anything at all.

Of course, there are significant benefits to a new social network, too—for example, the fact that Google Plus allows for easy segmentation of your audience by creating different Circles of contacts. There’s also the likelihood of better search results due to Google – the largest search engine – heading up the network.

What else might Google Plus have to offer recruiters? Do you see any other ways it could make hiring harder rather than easier?