We all know that LinkedIn is the place to network and mingle with millions of professionals all over the world.
But did you know this social media network also launched one of the best talent insights databases and recruiting tools in the world?
Talent Insights contains data on more than 575 million professionals and over 20 million companies. Even if you’re a Fortune 500 company, you can’t even come close to this wealth of useful statistics.
On the other hand, LinkedIn Recruiter lets you send out targeted job listings as well as access to millions of qualified candidates.
So if you’re planning on using LinkedIn for recruitment, we recommend you check out these invaluable tools.
In this article, we’ll go over everything you need to know about this tool, what are its advantages, and how to use it, as well as a couple of things you should keep in mind when building your recruitment strategy.
Understanding Its Unique Recruitment Value
Now before we get into the nitty gritty of how you can use these tools, let’s first discuss their value.
Access to Global Professionals
Let’s start with the obvious – while there are tons of recruitment solutions out there, none of them also double as a social media network. This means LinkedIn has unfeathered access to millions of professionals around the world.
On top of that, using this tool is also way cheaper than traditional recruitment methods. Posting a job is completely free – no need to pay for recruitment services, ads, or none of that stuff.
Then there’s all the reach this platform provides.
LinkedIn has over 700 million members worldwide. Even the next best recruitment tool doesn’t have access to this many people. As we mentioned earlier, you have tons of filters you can use to further refine the type of person you’re looking for.
However, there are some downsides to this tool. The biggest one is the diversity. You won’t have much luck finding talent if you’re looking for blue-collar workers since LinkedIn is a bit more skewed toward white-collar workers – eg. managers, developers, designers, engineers, and more.
Rich, Verified Professional Profiles
The biggest value of LinkedIn recruitment tools is that you get access to detailed profiles. Since everyone is using their profile as a pseudo CV, you get to see each candidate’s work experience, skills, and education.
You can then take advantage of all the filters recruitment tool filters to sift through all the users until you get a group of candidates that best suit the position you have open.
On top of that, this also lets you send candidates more personalized messages via the InMail feature. This way, you’ll get you’ll increase the chance of the candidate actually responding to you.
LinkedIn Talent Solutions: An Overview
With the general stuff out of the way, let’s take a look at what LinkedIn Recruitment tools actually have to offer.
LinkedIn Talent Solutions is a suite of premium tools that provides recruiters with everything they need to find the best candidate for the job position.
These tools include:
- LinkedIn Recruiter – a premium tool that specifically caters to recruiters by providing advanced search features, candidate management, and personalized messaging.
- LinkedIn Company Pages – a feature that allows companies and organizations to present their brand on this social media network.
- LinkedIn Talent Insights – an exhaustive database of insights, workforce trends, and job market trends.
- LinkedIn Jobs – a feature that allows you to post targeted job ads.
- LinkedIn Learning – a learning platform offering tons of courses for professional development.
Today, we’ll only be talking about the Recruiter and Job tools since it’s they’re most useful for all you recruiters out there.
LinkedIn Recruiter: Advanced Search and Management
LinkedIn Recruiter is THE premium tool for recruiters. It comes with tons of features specifically designed to make your job as a recruiter as easy as possible. It will streamline your recruiting process and get your sourcing strategy to the next level.
Here are some of the features this tool comes with:
- Advanced Search Filters – As we mentioned a couple of times by now, Recruiter comes with tons of advanced filters you can use to refine your search for the perfect candidate. These filters include location, job title, native language, education, employment, types of companies, and much more.
- Candidate Management – This feature allows you to save candidate profiles for later use and add notes about them. You can also collaborate with your colleagues and make sure each candidate is the right part of your hiring pipeline.
- InMail – InMail is nothing more than LinkedIn’s messaging feature. But when combined with the Recruiter, you get a messaging tool you can use to send out personalized messages to hundreds of candidates. InMail is perfect for providing candidates with more info on the job position, initiating conversations, and scheduling job interviews.
- Saved Searches – Recruiter allows you to save your search parameters and even set up email campaigns based on the said parameters. This greatly helps with maintaining communication with potential candidates.
With all that said, finding good prospects can still be pretty difficult, even with a robust tool such as LinkedIn Recruiter. The tool is pretty complex, and it will take a while until you become comfortable with it.
Luckily, Aimfox has you covered. Our platform allows you to save time by automating your LinkedIn outreach efforts and later easily follow up on your leads.
Now, if you already have an in-house recruitment solution and just need a way to post a job ad that’ll reach quality candidates, you have LinkedIn Jobs.
LinkedIn Jobs: Targeted Job Listings for Precision Hiring
You can look at LinkedIn Jobs as a Recruiter’s little brother. This tool allows you to post a job listing that will reach ideal candidates.
The best thing about it is that you don’t have to talk to LinkedIn’s salesperson to get a quote. The monetization is set up in such a way that you pay as you go. The longer you have your job listing up and the more people you try to reach, the more you’ll have to pay.
But it’s all well worth it since you get access to the most engaged community of professionals in the world. On top of that, you’ll be saving money in the long run since posting job listings on other social media is hit or miss at best.
Posting a job is as simple as pie.
Here’s a quick rundown.
- First, visit the Jobs page on LinkedIn and click on the Post a Job button.
- You’ll be prompted by LinkedIn whether you’re hiring for a few roles or at a scale. In our case we’ll pick the former.
- Now it’s time to create our job listing. It’s pretty simple. All you have to do is add a job title and choose the workplace type, location, and job type. You also get an option to draft the job listing with AI – pretty useful if you’re in a pinch with time. In our case, we’ll choose the AI option.
- Next, you’ll be taken to the Job Description page. There you can write your own or touch up the AI-generated description. We recommend you review and enhance the description carefully. The better you communicate what you’re looking for, the faster you’ll find a qualified candidate.
- Of course, you can also add skills that will make your job listing more visible to potential candidates on LinkedIn. You can add up to 10 skills which is more than enough for precise targeting. Once you’re done adding skills, click on the Next button to proceed with the final step.
- All that’s left to do is set up how you’ll collect applications. You can choose between email and an external website if you have a listing posted on your website. If you choose the email option, you can also choose screening questions. They’re quite extensive and will weed out all the unqualified candidates.
- Once you’re done, click on the Continue button, and you’re done!
As you can see, posting a Job on LinkedIn couldn’t be simpler. If you don’t have the budget for a hiring agency, this tool is a godsend!
Best Practices for Optimizing Your LinkedIn Recruitment Strategy
Okay, so now that we’re done with all the technical stuff – let’s discuss how you can make your recruitment strategy.
Although the LinkedIn Recruitment tool is pretty complex, that doesn’t mean you won’t be able to find worthwhile candidates as you’re mastering it.
Here are two things you should keep in mind while crafting your recruitment strategy.
Crafting Compelling Job Listings
Your job listing is the first thing candidates will see. That’s why you should invest extra effort in making it as compelling as possible.
Don’t make the listing overly complicated.
Make it as engaging, skimable, and informative as possible. This means you should use bold headings and bullet points to describe the job as best as possible. Also, make sure the listing on your website (if you have it there) reflects the listing on LinkedIn.
Try to speak to the candidate in such a way that they can imagine themselves as working in that position and be as articulate with your needs as possible.
Don’t forget to put in a few words about your company’s culture. If you miss this crucial detail, you might end up with a candidate who might not gel too well with other personnel in your company.
You should also be as transparent with the salary as possible. People want to know how much you’re willing to pay, and this will also reduce the unpleasantries with salary negotiation later down the line.
Lastly, you need to list out all the potential rewards and perks, such as healthcare, dental, company trips, etc.
Nurturing Passive Candidates for Future Opportunities
Just because a candidate is not ideal for the positions you currently have open, that doesn’t mean you need to cut them off completely. Quite the contrary, you should keep in touch with candidates that didn’t quite make it.
Nurturing communication with passive candidates will greatly reduce your hiring time in the future. Once a position opens up, you won’t have to set up another recruiting funnel, instead, you can just reach out to prior candidates and see who’s still available.
On top of that, regularly reaching out to candidates who didn’t make it will keep them engaged and interested in your company.
Summing Up
We’ve probably said this a thousand times, but there isn’t a better and more comprehensive platform for hiring highly qualified workers than LinkedIn.
Although LinkedIn Talent Solutions might look a bit daunting at first, once you get the hang of it, you’ll be speeding up your hiring process immeasurably. Even if you’re not up shelling out tons of money on the Recruiter, you can always get talent using the Jobs feature.
Of course, if you want a more hands-off experience with LinkedIn, you can always check out what our service has to offer. Sign up for AimFox today, and let your outreach strategy grow!
