British recruiters don't care about your LinkedIn profile as much as you think

LinkedIn is the largest professional social media platform in the world with more than 347 million members in over 200 countries.

The platform's popularity has grown to such a size that there are now 3 million active job listings, an almost a 10-fold increase on the previous year.

But according to a new independent study, "An Executive Recruitment Game Changer?," by Norrie Johnston Recruitment in the UK, HR managers don't seem to care or use your LinkedIn profile as much or in the way that you may think.

In a survey of 100 HR senior decision makers who represent British companies with a minimum of 250 employees.

The survey included 100 HR senior decision makers from private and public sector organisations who were telephone interviewed in December 2014. They represent British companies with a minimum of 250 employees. Around 64% of the companies surveyed have at least 1,000 employees while nearly a third of the firms interviewed have over 5,000 in its workforce.

Less than 50% of companies use LinkedIn to check out candidates

Around 46% of organisations surveyed said they used LinkedIn to check out senior candidates while this percentage rises to 59% for companies with over 5,000 employees.

Job references or "recommendations" aren't the most important factor in assessing potential candidates

You may think getting recommendations from colleagues or your former boss will help you get that dream job but the study showed that recruiters and HR are more interested in how you describe yourself.

The survey showed that the description scored 6.6 out of 10 for importance. Skills and expertise endorsements were also deemed markedly more important than recommendations.

"When it comes to recommendations quantity doesn't necessarily count. What the recommendations say is for the most part more important than the number of recommendations secured," said the report.

Companies recruiting from LinkedIn are more prolific in certain sectors

The report showed that there is a sweet spot for recruiters and HR personnel that are looking to snap up new talent.

If you're in finance, HR, marketing or sales, it's more likely you'll be sought out for a job via LinkedIn. It's also more likely you'll be earning between £50,000-£70,000.

If you're already a senior executive, it's unlikely you'll see a job you'd want to move to on LinkedIn

The survey said that only 31% of companies place senior positions on LinkedIn.

"Indeed, as many use it simply to headhunt for talent," said Norris Recruitment in the report. "This is because the majority argue that senior candidates aren't logging into LinkedIn regularly enough to be reached. There are also issues of validity and privacy to consider - both the privacy of the candidate and the employer."

British companies based in the South are less likely to believe what you write on your LinkedIn profile anyway

The study showed that companies in the South are the most sceptical of the truth behind LinkedIn profiles. Around 29% only "believe about half of what they read in a LinkedIn profile." However, this is compared to 10% of those in the Midlands and 14% of those in the North.

Overall, many companies are still cautious over what people put on their profiles

Less than one in 10 companies believe your profile at all. However, over half believe most or all of what they read.