Unit code: BUS133

Student number: 12712639

THE RELEVANCE OF A DIGITAL PROFILE AS AN

EMPLOYABILITY TOOL
BACKGROUND
Digital profile is an online portfolio that contains the details of an individual or is a form of
digital curriculum vitae but in a more advanced way. Digital profile can be further defined
more as a platform that allows individuals to place themselves in the perfect job and
companies to discover the perfect candidate without the middleman. (Lewis 2015).
Digital profile has recently become an essential and advantageous tool in our modern era in
terms of solicitation. Employers use the digital profile to screen candidates for a specific job
and to identify the skills, experiences that applicants have acquired. The most popular and
effective digital profile is LinkedIn. This social media is mainly for job hunting and employers
can also connect with their targeted candidates. Others include twitter, cv-library and many
more.
This briefing paper analyses the relevance of digital profile; and how vital it is for
employment.
In general, as there are advantage and disadvantage to a thing, so has digital profile. This
piece of work will also show how it affects a persons chances of employability,
demonstration of current issues and implication. Lastly, ending with conclusion and
recommendation.

CURRENT RESEARCH
Figure 1 shows where managers and
recruiter hire their candidates from, and it
is through a social network such as
LinkedIn with 79 %, Facebook by 26 %
and 14% of recruiters are active on Twitter
and Candidate blog.
Figure 2 shows the number of gender of
job seekers which is through a social
network in combination with their

Unit code: BUS133

Student number: 12712639
education (Postgraduate 67 %, 4year

It is evident in this diagram that LinkedIn is

college degree 51 % and High school or

the highest of all the social media with

less 20 %). Facebook showing the highest

63 %, followed by Twitter by 55 % and

by 67%, followed by twitter with 45 % and

thirdly YouTube per 48 %.

40% with LinkedIn respectively. In a

further notice, there is a great difference
by gender in all the three social Medias. It
is obvious that males have got the highest
than female with 71 % in Facebook,
followed by the 51 % in Twitter and 41 %
in Linked. From this statistics, it is obvious
that social network has become very
popular and useful to both recruiters and
job applicants.

Lastly, diagram 4 shows how the future of

social recruiting looks like. (JOBCAST
2015) survey shows that there is an
increase of expectations in 2015 of 69 %
for recruiters, whilst 70 % of recruiters
plan to increase their investment in social
Figures 3 displays the rise of the social

recruitment and 83 % of job seekers are

network in business to business

on Facebook, LinkedIn remains recruiters

(FRESH PRESPECTIVE 2014) shows the

as the of top social network.

effectiveness rating for B2B in diagram 3.

Digital and social media blurs the lines between private and professional lives. As a result,
organisations are at risk from financial, reputational and criminal damage caused by illtrained employees in what is and isn't acceptable to put into the public domain via digital
communications.
Successful organisations have been mitigating risk in data, IT security, health and safety,
personal safety and bribery for many years, but are still behind technology advances when it
comes to digital and social risk management. (VIRTUAL COLLEGE 2014)

CURRENT RESEARCH
Acclimatisation of most businesses and recruiters in this digital world is making employment
more and more globalised. And it has turned out to be very beneficial that job seekers ought
to pay a good attention to their social media. Having inappropriate digital profile may cost
individuals and limit their employability.
It is, therefore, advisable to have a personal digital profile for social activities and a private
one for professional usage to prevent any second judgements by employers and not giving
the wrong impression to potential employers.

IMPLICATIONS
At present, most employers utilise digital profile in search of their potential candidates for
specific job roles. By means of this makes it much easier and cost effective for
organisations, it is also to acquire people from anywhere, from any other part of the world,
which makes it much easier in terms of communication.
In doing so, it is also easier for recruiters to acquire the most prominent candidates for
scheduled interviews. At the same time as previously, employers invited more or less each
and everyone who had applied for a particular job.

CONCLUSIONS
In conclusion, the digital profile has taken the lead in our modern world and is of high
relevance to employment as the evident in the above research. Therefore, graduates, job
hunters and recruiters who are still sticking to old-fashioned ways need to adapt to this new
technology of recruitment and personal branding. (Reynolds 2011) described your personal
brand as how others perceive you, it is influenced by how you communicate, what type of
work you do and who you associate with.

RECOMMENDATIONS

Since we are now in a computer age, educational bodies are taking the opportunity to get
students acquainted with the digital profile, this is in order to inspire students to build and
progress their digital profile for an easy access for job applications and also this serve as an
impression of personalities for future employers.
Employers adapting to the digital profile will aid them to get easy access of information from
candidates, not expensive and quickly. For instance recruiting from an agency will cost a
fortune but creating a digital profile in order to get candidates located through LinkedIn is
free and less time consuming.
The building of a career is vital in terms of employability for any graduate, therefore,
graduates are advised of self-branding through digital profile so that they will superiorly
present themselves.
To sum up, it is for the benefit of graduates to join a the social network such as LinkedIn as it
is a great tool to get the chance of employability high in terms if locally, national and
international reach.

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