LinkedIn is one of the first websites people visit to find new job openings and opportunities in their industry. So, it makes sense that many companies also choose to post their job ads and start hiring on LinkedIn.
LinkedIn is strictly a professional network. Therefore, it is uniquely positioned to bring companies, customers, and potential candidates together. This creates a unique ecosystem where all parties can find opportunities for growth, network expansion, and long-term success.
However, no matter how many opportunities are presented on this platform, there’s nothing to suggest that hiring on LinkedIn is actually easy. Your job postings are competing with thousands of others. And your recruitment process might not be optimized to attract potential candidates.
So, let’s fix that problem right now. Let’s talk about the best practices you can use to improve your LinkedIn hiring process.
Photo by LinkedIn Sales Solutions on Unsplash
Optimize Your Recruiters’ Profiles
Let’s start by going over some key things that your hiring team needs to be aware of. This includes optimizing their profiles for higher visibility and recruitment potential.
What does that mean? It means that your hiring manager needs to assign the roles to your recruiters, and then start optimizing their LinkedIn profiles. Firstly, they need their Now Hiring badges. And these, they can easily add in their profile settings.
Next, they need to optimize their profiles in the personal info section. They also need a regular posting strategy to keep them alive and active. This is important for the LinkedIn algorithm, which favors profiles that are actively posting valuable content every day.
Your hiring team is not just there to post that your company is looking for fresh talent. However, they’re there to post engaging content about your company. This content will help build your social proof, share your culture, and what it’s like working for you. It can also help educate your audience on your brand as a whole.
It should go without saying that this is important for your overarching recruitment process on the platform.
Eliminate Boring Job Postings
When it comes to job postings, always remember that regular dissemination across your LinkedIn profiles is one of the keys to success.
Your hiring team needs to share your open jobs regularly. This keeps your company in front of your followers and help spread the word beyond your network via shares and direct messages. But when it comes to the job postings, you also need to make sure that they’re well structured, engaging, and optimized.
This is where a good job description analyzer would come in handy, such as Ongig’s Text Analyzer. It automatically flags boring, irrelevant, and unengaging copy and gives you quick recommendations on how to liven up your content. This will turn your job descriptions into engaging pieces of content that tell a story about the role and your brand.
In addition, be sure to convey everything from your culture to your brand’s identity as well as technical details about the open role. The key is to do this in a way that is inclusive, engaging, and compliant.
Use Automation to Find Qualified Candidates
Outreach is one of the best ways to get your brand in front of the right people. Being proactive instead of reactive is the key to a successful recruitment process. That’s because you’re not just waiting around for people to discover your job postings.
LinkedIn outreach can also be extremely effective. But this is only true if you can efficiently find candidates and reach out to them with relevant, personalized messages that resonate with their professional goals. This is where automation comes into play when hiring on LinkedIn.
To start, leverage LinkedIn automation to discover the best job seekers and the right talent for your industry, niche, and unique company requirements. This takes a huge load off your hiring team and makes talent prospecting an automated task. Thus, allowing them to direct their efforts into creating personalized outreach messages.
Automation also makes prospect filtering easier and more time-efficient. So, this means you won’t be wasting time chasing after the wrong talent or people who are not aligned with your company’s vision. In the same way you would use LinkedIn automation to find clients for your business, you should use it to find the right job seekers.
Be Inclusive and Optimize Your Messaging When Hiring on LinkedIn
It should go without saying that every job posting you create needs to follow your DEI policies. They should also be devoid of any subconscious bias toward any group. And this is true whether or not you’re hiring on LinkedIn. Unfortunately, we often let these biases slip through the cracks. And that can create a lot of problems for our brand’s image, especially on a social platform like LinkedIn.
Again, there are tools you can use to eliminate bias and create more inclusive job descriptions and LinkedIn posts. You can run all of your copy through Ongig’s Text Analyzer to get real-time feedback on what kind of language you’re using. This tool will tell you whether it’s inclusive and whether it’s the right tone for modern job seekers.
You want your job postings to capture as many leads as possible. So, you don’t want to inadvertently deter talented individuals from any background. You must also ensure that your job descriptions invite people from all ethnic and racial backgrounds. So, be welcoming to people with disabilities into your brand’s fold.
If you want to make your posts and job descriptions stand out, you should also specify what you’re doing as a company to support these groups. This leads to the next crucial point.
Be Honest, Transparent, and Provide Value Upfront When Hiring on LinkedIn
Honesty and transparency go a long way on a platform such as LinkedIn. People are constantly coming across disingenuous companies just trying to grab their attention and fill their open roles quickly. Do you want to find people who are going to be the right fit for the long term? Then, you need to be open and transparent upfront.
You also need to deliver a lot of upfront value in your outreach to incentivize potential candidates to reply to your DMs and InMails. So, what does it mean to be honest and transparent?
For one, it means openly talking about your initiatives and the values you uphold. Also, include your company culture and how you bring inclusivity into the mix. Yes, emphasize all the perks and benefits of the job, and talk openly about your salary ranges – the top talent in the industry will appreciate it.
But don’t forget to talk about the concrete ways you’re supporting minorities in the workplace and what you’re doing to empower different genders, ethnicities, and people with disabilities. This will encourage the best candidates from those backgrounds and identities to come forward and apply for the open role.
Hiring on LinkedIn: How to Engage Passive Candidates
Strategies for Reaching Out to Passive Candidates When Hiring on LinkedIn
Finding the right candidates for your open positions often means looking beyond those who are actively seeking a job. Passive candidates are those who are not currently searching for new opportunities but may be interested if the right one comes along. They can be a goldmine for recruiters. So, engaging passive candidates on LinkedIn is a great way to tap into this talent pool.
First, use LinkedIn Recruiter or Recruiter Lite. These recruiting tools come with advanced search filters that help you pinpoint ideal candidates based on specific criteria like job title, skills, and experience.
How to Craft Personalized Messages that Get Responses
Once you’ve identified potential candidates, the next step is reaching out. A personalized message is an effective way to catch their attention. Start by visiting their member profile. Look for details such as their current company, job title, and profile picture. Mentioning these details in your message shows that you have taken the time to review their profile. This way they can know you are genuinely interested in their background.
For example, you might start with: “Hi [Name], I came across your LinkedIn profile while searching for candidates with experience in [specific field]. Your work at [current company] caught my eye, especially your project on [specific project].”
This approach not only makes the message feel personal but also demonstrates that you value their expertise.
Also, be sure to highlight why your opportunity might be a good fit for them. Mention the benefits of the new role, such as career growth, company culture, or new challenges that align with their skills. Adding a link to your LinkedIn company page or career page can provide them with more information about your organization and its values.
Using LinkedIn’s New Features to Enhance Engagement
LinkedIn constantly updates its platform with new features designed to make recruiting easier. For instance, the #hiring feature allows you to add a hiring badge to your LinkedIn profile photo. This is a great way to signal to your network connections and potential candidates that you are actively looking to fill positions.
Another useful tool is the #hiring photo frame, which can be added to team members’ LinkedIn photos, making your hiring posts more visible across the world’s largest professional network. Encourage current employees to use the #hiring frame and share job listings to extend your reach.
Additionally, LinkedIn Talent Insights and analytics tools offer real-time data to help you understand the talent landscape better. This data can guide your approach and help you target the right candidates more effectively.
Why You Should Build a Talent Pipeline with LinkedIn Groups and Company Pages
Engaging with LinkedIn groups related to your industry is another creative way to connect with passive candidates. By participating in these groups, you can build relationships and showcase your employer brand. This is also an effective way to identify top candidates who are active in discussions and share relevant articles.
Maintaining an active LinkedIn company page is crucial as well. Regularly post jobs, share company updates, and highlight team achievements to attract interested candidates. A well-managed company page can draw in passive candidates who may be keeping an eye on your company for future job opportunities.
Why I Wrote This:
Hiring on LinkedIn can be one of the best ways to attract talented job seekers to your business and find people who are a good long-term fit for your company.
However, to achieve this, you need to optimize the recruitment process, automate key aspects of your strategy, and use the right tools to eliminate biased and boring language. This, coupled with value-driven messaging and corporate transparency, will ensure your hiring team can find the best people for your open roles.
If you need support in creating effective and inclusive job postings, request a demo from Ongig to learn more.
This is a guest post by Daria Erina.
Daria Erina is a Managing Director of Linked Helper. She joined Linked Helper soon after the project was born, and became the first customer support agent. She’s on a mission to make the Linked Helper’s solution feel like a piece of cake to new and existing customers, specifically by creating high-quality content.
