5 Rules for Successful Recruitment on LinkedIn
Merav Babai
Within the digital expanse there is an enormous variety of opportunities to reach out to job candidates. Focusing on LinkedIn, we see a respectable network specializing in applicants to high tech positions, along with intermediate level and senior executives.
The LinkedIn network has a large capacity to assist you in recruiting these employees, because it allows you to create filter subsets for members of the network and review the data as if it were an elaborate recruitment system.
There are two outstanding advantages to LinkedIn, the most important one being that potential candidates sign up themselves, and can be reached through the network – even the least active candidates, who would be happy to be found, but do not actively try to seek employment. The second advantage is that recruitment depends on social connections and allows you to obtain additional information about the candidates.
Five basic rules for successful recruitment on LinkedIn are:
1. Pay attention to personal branding – on LinkedIn people communicate directly to each other, so each recruitment team needs to be outstanding in its own right to attract relevant candidates. The more appealing you are, the better your chances to locate candidates.
2. Creative advertising – advertise available positions in relevant places where you are going to find the candidates you are looking for. Check if the group consists of the population sample that you require, and then get started. The more curious and creative you are, the more connections you will make, which will assist you to find high quality candidates. As an example of creativity, just today I saw a notice about a British company advertising a position called Head of Happiness.
3. Initiate searching – search the network for candidates with the help of advanced filter subsets and reach out to them. Today there is higher and higher awareness concerning personal branding on the LinkedIn network, and most senior candidates there would be happy to hear about an interesting position.
4. Be pedantic about networking – we all are very, very busy, but in spite of this we keep in touch with people. Have you ever been approached by an irrelevant candidate? Reply with a message thanking him for the application, but explain that at this time you are looking for someone in a field that is relevant to you. There are times when this will be a source for new candidates.
5. Supporting professional communities – join professional communities, which lead to cooperation with the type of candidates that you are looking for. Make contact with colleagues for professional networking – this is an excellent opportunity to learn what is happening in companies involved in the same field.
Merav Barbai is the manager of Pro-Man and a lecturer and expert on network business operations. She is a consultant and network business manager for business customers in Israel and abroad in the field of recruitment and business development. [email protected]