How to Use LinkedIn for Recruitment—A Step-by-Step Guide

In today’s competitive job market, it’s essential to be present where the talent is actively searching for work. That’s where LinkedIn comes in—as the world’s largest professional platform with more than 900 million members in 200 countries and regions, it’s an indispensable tool in the recruitment process.

Neglecting the potential of LinkedIn as a recruitment tool could severely hurt your business, as you may miss out on valuable opportunities to connect with qualified candidates. Failing to capitalize on this vast pool of talent means that competitors who have mastered how to use LinkedIn for recruitment may snatch up the best candidates before you even get a chance to engage with them. In turn, this could lead to a weaker workforce and a diminished ability of your company to succeed in the market.

In this article, we will guide you through the process of harnessing the power of LinkedIn to supercharge your hiring process. We will also show you how Workello complements LinkedIn as a highly effective skills assessment platform and an ATS. By implementing strategic tactics and understanding the platform’s features, you can unlock the full potential of LinkedIn, ensuring that your business attracts and secures the top talent it needs to stay ahead of the competition. 

1) Creating an Engaging Presence on LinkedIn

In the world of recruitment, having a strong online presence is key to attracting top talent. Your first step in learning how to use LinkedIn for recruiting is to create an engaging company profile that stands out to potential candidates. An attractive company profile acts as a digital storefront, inviting jobseekers to explore your organization’s values, culture, and opportunities.

Source: LinkedIn

Use the following strategies to craft a compelling company profile:

• Write a clear and concise company description that highlights your organization’s mission, values, and accomplishments
• Use visual branding elements, such as a professional logo and visually appealing banner image, to enhance your profile’s overall aesthetic
• Regularly update content and share company news to maintain an online presence
• Showcase your company culture by sharing photos, articles, and videos that offer a glimpse into the everyday life of your employees

Encourage your employees to connect their LinkedIn profiles with your company page—their networks can help amplify your reach. They can also serve as brand ambassadors, sharing company content within their circles. By fostering a culture of engagement on LinkedIn, you can effectively depict your organization as an attractive employer, drawing the attention of the best candidates in your industry.

2) Advertising and Promoting Job Opportunities

Once you have established your company’s presence on LinkedIn, you’re ready to start actively attracting candidates. A staggering 49 million people use LinkedIn to search for jobs each week. Professionals employed through LinkedIn are of higher quality, according to 67% of recruiters.

Source: FinancesOnline

Begin by posting a job listing and linking it to your company page. You can use the Hiring feature to share the job on your personal profile, and you should encourage your employees to do the same. This can help you reach a broader audience and capitalize on your employees’ connections. 

Posting ads on LinkedIn is free, but pay-per-click promotion lets you target specific audiences, ensuring you reach the right candidates. With this kind of promotion, you only pay for the actual clicks your job ad receives, allowing you to set budget and control costs.

Sharing job postings in relevant LinkedIn Groups is another effective way to reach potential candidates who are actively engaged in your industry. Keep in mind that many LinkedIn Group administrators may restrict page activities to only professional topics, so make sure to read their rules before posting.

Finally, you can share your job posting as a LinkedIn status update and use industry-specific hashtags and keywords to optimize its visibility. 

By incorporating these tactics, you can effectively advertise and promote job opportunities on LinkedIn, maximizing your chances of finding the perfect candidates. Below is a table breaking down the different ways to share job postings on LinkedIn, with their pros and cons.

3) Finding the Right Talent

One of the biggest advantages of using LinkedIn for recruitment is the platform’s vast user base, which offers a wealth of potential candidates to fill your vacancies. To effectively navigate this sea of talent, refine your search results by using:

1. Keywords—job title, company, or school
2. Skills—the most important technical and soft skills required for the role
3. Experiences—the level of experience and specific industry background you want in a candidate
4. Locations—you can search for candidates in specific cities, regions, or countries

This precision targeting will enable you to zero in on candidates who best match your requirements, ensuring that you’re focusing your efforts on the most suitable prospects.

For an even more enhanced search experience, consider using LinkedIn Recruiter. This premium feature offers additional capabilities, such as advanced filters, to help you find the perfect candidates in a more efficient manner. It comes in 3 price tiers:

1. Recruiter Lite—$170 per month or $1,680 per year
2. Recruiter Professional Services (for staffing firms)—price upon contact
3. Recruiter Corporate—price upon contact

Source: LinkedIn

Monitor competitor pages and alumni groups to discover hidden talent that might not appear in your standard search results. These resources can be a goldmine for finding candidates with relevant industry experience and skills.

Finally, joining LinkedIn Groups related to your industry can allow access to talent pools that are specifically tailored to your organization’s needs. By actively participating in these groups, you can establish your company’s presence, network with professionals in your field, and identify potential candidates who may be a great fit for your team.

4) Screening and Engaging with Candidates

Source: Andertoons

The previous two strategies—advertising your job opening to active jobseekers and sourcing passive candidates—should have generated a sizable applicant pool to engage and evaluate. Next, you should take the following steps:

1. Carefully assess a candidate’s LinkedIn profile. Explore their employment history, education, and skills, and check recommendations from other professionals. This can help you gain a better understanding of the candidate’s background and qualifications
2. Evaluate a candidate’s online presence and content, such as articles and posts they have shared, to gauge their industry knowledge and engagement. This can offer insights into their expertise and potential cultural fit within your organization.
3. When initiating contact with candidates, personalize your InMail messages to increase the likelihood of a response. Comply with LinkedIn recruiter policy to ensure your outreach remains professional and respectful. 
4. Consider using LinkedIn voice messaging as a follow-up, since it provides a more personal touch and can help establish rapport with candidates.

LinkedIn provides valuable tools and features to screen and engage with potential candidates throughout the hiring process. However, using them in a careless manner could backfire. For instance, if you send 100 or more InMail messages in two weeks, you must have at least a 13% response rate to avoid being penalized. Pay attention to the quality of your messages, rather than focusing on sending out as many as possible.

5) Measuring and Optimizing Your LinkedIn Recruitment Efforts

Monitoring various aspects of your recruitment process can help you identify areas for improvement and maximize your chances of finding the right candidates. Begin by tracking key recruitment metrics:

• Number of applications received
• InMails response rate 
• Conversion rates (applications to interviews, interviews to hires)
• Time to hire
• Quality of hire

These metrics provide valuable information about your recruitment process and its success.

Use LinkedIn Analytics to monitor your company page and job posting analytics. Evaluate the performance of sponsored job ads and identify trends and patterns in candidate behavior. By analyzing this data, you can make informed decisions to adjust your recruitment strategies for better results.

Here’s a table presenting what poor results look like, and steps you can take to improve them:

Incorporating Workello into the LinkedIn Recruiting Process

Leveraging LinkedIn’s vast user base and tools is essential for staying competitive in today’s tight job market. By creating an engaging company presence, advertising job opportunities, finding the right talent, screening and engaging with candidates, and measuring and optimizing recruitment efforts, businesses can harness the full potential of LinkedIn. 

Workello can be used together with LinkedIn to streamline and enhance the recruitment process. You can create job listings to post on LinkedIn using Workello’s expert-written, SEO-friendly job description templates. Once applications start pouring in, easily filter and track candidates in Workello’s unified dashboard. Developed by industry experts, Workello’s pre-employment tests accurately evaluate job-related skills and abilities. Candidates will experience a seamless journey through your fully automated recruitment funnel. 

Consider making Workello a part of a powerful recruitment ecosystem that helps you attract, assess, and hire the best talent without breaking the bank. Ready to test it out? Click here for your free trial.