Even if the recruiting world is changing rapidly, both recruiters and candidates are spread across LinkedIn like a massive maze. The social media networking site has been the number one source of quality hires for the past decade.
There’s no denying that in comparison to average recruiters, top recruiters are 60% more engaged with LinkedIn recruiting tools.
Here are some quick data for you from Hootsuite—
- At least two professional users join LinkedIn every two seconds.
- Three million jobs are posted by American recruiters and companies every single month. That means there’s an insane number of recruiters who are using LinkedIn for recruiting.
- It is one of the most trusted social media sites in the United States.
- 59.9% of LinkedIn users are aged between 25 and 34 years old, and,
- Forty million people use LinkedIn to search for jobs every week!
Now is the time to join LinkedIn!
When given the responsibility of growing your team, it involves strategic planning, hiring, reviews, and so much more.
Let us break it down into parts for you.
3 Main Stages You Need To Consider When Hiring Candidates From LinkedIn
1. Planning, Sourcing Candidates & Engaging With Them: This stage involves kicking off the hiring process by planning your recruitment strategies, using LinkedIn for candidate sourcing, and engaging with the candidates.
2. Screening Candidates, Interviewing & Assessing: This is a crucial stage for recruiters. You’ll have to screen resumes, execute in-person or remote job interviews, take skills-based assessments, and so on.
3. Make An Offer & Onboard The Fresh Recruits: This is when you get too close to hiring— the final stage where you will need to make an offer, review background checks, follow your pre-onboarding checklist, several pieces of training etc. To ensure that all necessary steps are taken during the onboarding process, it’s important for employers to use an onboarding checklist.
7 Secret Tips Nobody Tells You About Hiring On LinkedIn
If you’re a recruiter and you’re still struggling with how to find job candidates from LinkedIn, we’ve got you covered with a few super-secret tips.
1. Utilise The Power Of InMail
Recruiters need to realise that if they’re using LinkedIn for recruiting, the first interaction happening with candidates is via an InMail. If you look at stats, 87% of professionals on LinkedIn are open for a new job.
So your chances of receiving an InMail reply is pretty high compared to generic emails, which are bound to get overlooked by most of the candidates.
Did you know that an InMail response rate is three times higher than a traditional email?
Here are some cool trivia for recruiters on using InMail:
- InMails sent on Saturdays usually receive less response than any other day of the week. This explains itself since most of the people won’t be checking their InMails until it’s Monday.
- If you know a former employee of the company you’re hiring for, make sure you include his/her name for increased chances of receiving a reply.
- LinkedIn data states that InMails sent around 9-10 am during a weekday receive better responses.
A golden thumb of rule would be to customise an InMail as much as possible. You can even automate the personalisation process and send out bulk Inmails with LinkedHelper. Also, don’t forget to work on your employer brand effectively as candidates you’re InMailing will check out your LinkedIn profile first before even thinking about responding.
2. Convert Your Followers Into Fresh Recruits
This might sound like something impossible to do but guess what? It’s absolutely doable.
A survey by LinkedIn states that 58% of people who follow your company page, in reality, want to work for you.
So why not leverage it?
If you’re InMailing a candidate who is also a follower, there’s a high probability of receiving a reply.
Converting your LinkedIn followers into new company employees will save you time, money, and other resources. Most recruiters nowadays run a race against time, and for you to win, you have to give in to much better strategic recruiting methods.
For this to work, ensure that you’re keeping up with the latest social media trends and posting updates regularly so that you don’t mess up your reach and engagement.
You can use some of the best LinkedIn analytics tools to know your audience better so that you can create more engagement.
3. Join LinkedIn Groups And Try Filtering Out Candidates
LinkedIn groups are not just a great way of finding great information but also new talent. Apart from using the advanced search feature of the site, make sure you’re joining relevant groups.
This will ensure you’re up-to-date with information around the staffing sector and have your keen eye on the group members. For instance, if you’re hiring for the role of a creative writer, you should be joining a group where creative writers share their blogs and articles.
Look out for candidates who are posting regular content— something relevant and original.
4. Use The Apply Starter Feature If You’re Using LinkedIn Recruiter
According to a study by Symphony Talent, three-quarters of candidates never complete the job application process. This can be due to innumerable reasons— uncertainty, lack of interest, lengthy
application process etc.
If you’re using LinkedIn Recruiter, make sure you have the Apply Starter option on. Using this feature, a candidate’s profile will be shared with the job poster before starting their application.
It ensures that your candidate pipeline is filled up with applicants because guess what?
When’s a time to stop looking for candidates?
Never!
LinkedIn usually sends recruiters using their tool a weekly email digest to update when new applicants start applying and insights into interested candidates.
5. Use An Applicant Tracking System To Source & Screen Candidates
Recruiters must use an Applicant Tracking System that integrates easily with LinkedIn.
Using an ATS will allow you to save bucks on posting jobs on LinkedIn and other job boards. A streamlined recruitment process is all that a recruiter wants for success, and an ATS can help.
Read more on the top 20 benefits of using an Applicant Tracking System (ATS) for your recruitment firm.
6. Take A Deep Dive Into Your Candidates’ Interests
With such a vast number of talent available, it doesn’t make hiring on LinkedIn easier.
Instead, it forces a recruiter to develop better hiring strategies. A strong relationship between you and your candidate will only happen when you realise what they can do for the company.
Depending on what they’re going to bring to the table, you can build a sense of comfort and trust.
So, get to know more about them by going through their profile and digging up what they are most interested in. Though this will give you an overt idea, it’s still worth knowing something other than nothing.
Recruiters can use this to their benefit and lead candidates to a job interview. Even if they don’t decide on taking the job, you can be in touch in the future.
7. Always Focus On Quality & Not Quantity
LinkedIn indeed has a vast talent pool but as mentioned earlier, it doesn’t mean that hiring will be easy.
If you spend all your time sending InMails that you know you won’t get a reply to, how exactly is that going to be beneficial for your clients? Filter out uninterested candidates by using LinkedIn Recruiter’s Spotlights feature.
This shall help you focus on interested candidates, candidates who are open to new opportunities, who are engaged with your talent brand and more. This way, you’re focusing more on the quality of candidates being added to your candidate pool.
Recruiting on LinkedIn means focusing your energy on both active and passive candidates. A significant giveaway from this would be to use the power of networking and communication to increase your chances of hiring.
Get going!
