How to use LinkedIn to find new employees
With the unemployment rate at a 45-year low, hiring for your new role can be an uphill struggle. How do you go about finding the right candidates when they’re already happily employed somewhere else?
According to LinkedIn, 70% of the global workforce are ‘passive talents’. With nearly 675+ million professionals on LinkedIn, finding those passive talents suddenly becomes a lot easier. But how do you find the ones who not only match your criteria but who will also take an interest in your role and apply?
This is where LinkedIn becomes a very useful tool for recruitment. LinkedIn is a platform built to connect professionals, and this also means its features can help connect people with career opportunities. Over 75% of people who have recently changed jobs used LinkedIn as part of their decision-making. Also, those who were recruited via LinkedIn were 40% less likely to leave their employer in the first 6 months.
It can be overwhelming figuring out where to start your LinkedIn search with its wide array of available features, and even more so if you have paid subscription accounts. So, we’ve put together a list of the best ways to find candidates and how you should approach them to guarantee a response.
When looking for your candidates
1)Optimise your company and individual profile pages
A well-established social branding can make a huge difference in your recruitment efforts. This not only improves brand visibility, but it tells potential candidates exactly who you are, what you do, what opportunities you offer and why you make a great employer.
Here are some suggestions on how to build your brand on LinkedIn:
*Write compelling profile descriptions – include your company’s values, products/services and contact details
*Regularly post relevant status updates – events, service updates, industry insights, etc.
*Share available roles in status updates – re-posting available roles helps them remain visible in your connections/followers’ feeds
*Highlight your employees on your company page – this gives people an idea of what your company is like as an employer and its culture. With recognition and the company’s interest in the individual high motivators for professionals, this can go a long way in attracting the talent you need.
*Post job ads on LinkedIn’s Job section – if your budget allows, advertise your role on the platform for greater visibility. Make sure the job description is detailed and true to what you’re looking for.
2) Build your network
When working with a free account, you may feel limited in how many people you can reach out to, especially if you do not have a lot of LinkedIn followers. For example, non-paying users can only send out a maximum of 5 InMail messages outside of their connections per month. The best alternative is to send a connection request to your potential candidates. Take advantage of the 140-character personalised note that you can add to your invitation.
*Connect for connecting sake – whether you reach out to strangers or buy Linkedin connections to boost your numbers, it can make your company profile look more influential and entice job applicants. Connecting with recruiting companies like this Toronto marketing recruiter can also help you get some more candidates.
*Connect with current and former colleagues – this opens your talent pool up as you can then reach out to their network
*Use alumni features to connect with others who’ve been in your previous organisations
*Reach out to relevant Groups – make sure you join the Groups that your ideal candidate will be a part of, whether that’s industry-focused or career-related
3) Search for candidates with keywords
Take advantage of LinkedIn’s Advanced Search features to find the perfect candidates. You can then save the search results for processing later if needed. Here are just some fields you can filter by:
*Job function
*Industry
*Current companies
4) Encourage colleagues to share the job post with their connections
People are more likely to trust others they already know. So, it’s no surprise that candidates are 46% more likely to respond to a recruiter on the platform if they are already connected to your employees.
When contacting your candidates
Once you’ve found the best candidates for the position, you’ll want to reach out to them and encourage them to reply. Like any other methods of communication, your message needs to be relevant to the recipient – sending a generic message risks no response and can lose you a great candidate.
1)Relate to your candidate with your message
Consider the language they use to identify themselves, e.g. job title or skills. Also, by mentioning a common previous employer, you can increase the likelihood of a response by 27%.
2) Be transparent about pay
According to the 2019 Global Talent Trends Report, one of the most important trends is about pay transparency. Displaying salary ranges early on can help manage both you and your candidate’s expectations, saving time on negotiations and speeding up the hiring process.
3) Provide another way to contact you outside of LinkedIn
Although 40% of LinkedIn’s active users are on the site daily, the average user only spends 17 minutes there per month. So, it’s crucial that you provide candidates with alternative ways to contact you to allow them to reach out in the way they prefer.
4) Make sure to reply promptly
In this competitive labour market, you need to move fast if you want the best talent for your company. Don’t leave candidates hanging by not replying on time. Not only does this make for a bad candidate experience, but it can reflect badly on your company as an employer and might put them off applying to your company again.
LinkedIn is a powerful tool to incorporate into your recruitment strategy. By combining it with online HR software that supports applicant tracking like that available at Cezanne HR, you can deliver a smooth application process for both yourself and your candidates – from start to finish.
