Is LinkedIn Suitable for Recruitment in Higher Education in the Czech Republic?

Abstract

Internet marketing is used in all walks of life nowadays. It found its way also into recruitment. The article aims to investigate whether recruitment through LinkedIn and Academia is a viable option of recruitment for higher education positions in the Czech Republic. LinkedIn is a general portal for openings, and Academia is specific for higher education professionals, i.e. two different types of sites are covered. It was an associate/full professor opening. The fields were business administration and management because they are fairly broad. The location was Prague, the number of relevant academics should be the largest within the Czech Republic. The experiment yielded zero applicants enrolled because of LinkedIn or Academia. Overall, there were two applicants, they both learned about the opening from members of the department which announced the opening. It seems that for now, such portals are not suitable for attracting higher education professionals in the Czech Republic, while word-of-mouth information may be more efficient.