Everyone involved in recruitment must respond to the phenomenon of social networking or face a bleak future, according to Unilever’s global resourcing director.

“The sourcing landscape has altered significantly and continues to alter significantly with the advent of social networking”, and those that don’t adapt will be “will be fried”, Paul Maxin told Recruiter.

“Organisations that don’t recognise that change will not have access to as wide a pool of the best talent to bring into their organisations. And an organisation that doesn’t have the right people in the right roles at the right time will not be able to fulfil its business function.”

Maxin warned recruitment agencies that they must adapt too. He said that with companies able to buy licences from LinkedIn, allowing them “pretty good searchable access” to around 43m white-collar workers worldwide, the dynamics of sourcing are fundamentally changing.

“The days when recruitment consultancies could sell themselves [to clients] on the basis of proprietary databases are over,” he added.

“I think that recruitment agencies will have to be even more ‘valued-added’ focused,” said Maxin. “Be that by saving their clients time, screening and assessment services, or indeed investing in how to most effectively utilise social networking. If agencies can do that, they will survive.”