As the world’s largest professional networking site, Linkedin is naturally a reservoir of a dynamic talent pool. As such, it holds enormous potential for startups to tap into and recruit the creme-de-la-creme.
Any entrepreneur seeking to build an enterprise must be aware of the latest trends in acquiring talent from Linkedin.
Linkedin offers a unique opportunity for startups to leverage their site functionality and resources to lead a targeted campaign and acquire the most relevant professionals.
Here are the best practices to acquire talent via Linkedin as a startup:
Make your presence felt
According to Linkedin, 58% of the people who follow your Company Page on LinkedIn would want to work for you. Hence, it is wise to keep your followers engaged through blogs and announcements.
Further, 95% of your followers are more likely to accept an InMail message, and 81% more likely to respond. Investing a little time and effort towards keeping the Linkedin company page active will pay lucrative dividends when it comes to hiring.
Remember that you are not just out there hunting for the best talent but also attracting the smart and skillful professionals who would love to work for you.
Search Efficiently
As mentioned before, the hallmark of searching for the right talent on Linkedin is to target your search specifically tailored for your requirements.
Use the Linkedin Recruiter platform to search for the right candidates, connect with them easily and manage them efficiently, all in one place.
The Linkedin custom filters will facilitate you to prioritize the right candidates based on various factors such as skills, current location, current job title, etc.,
You can also sort the search results based on the latest activity on the network or based on search popularity among others.
All these features will not only aid you in an efficient talent hunt but also saves you a lot of time and effort.
Post a Job on Linkedin
The best way to source phenomenal talent is to let everyone know that you are hiring. But that is not enough. You will have to ensure that your job posting is seriously considered by the candidates.
Just as a job-applicant would need a top-notch resume to get hired through the LinkedIn job search feature, a startup seeking to hire great talent requires a clever job post.
To make an irresistible job offer on Linkedin, make sure the following things are addressed:
Keep the job post short and concise
More than 50% of job views on Linkedin are on mobile devices which makes it very obvious for startups to keep the job post short and to the point.
It is noted that job posts with 150 words or less got candidates to apply 17.8% more frequently than job posts with 450 to 600 words.
Remember that good content is always platform-dependent and on Linkedin, shorter job posts will get you more applicants.
Set the right expectations
Some companies tend to keep some information vague to discourage candidates with the wrong intent from applying. However, such an approach may not be the best one.
More prospective candidates are likely to apply for your job opening if you specify the job details, qualifications required, and compensation.
Visualize your goals
The best way to attract prospective hires is to let the candidates know what the end goal is and what is intended for them.
This key criterion can enable the potential new-hires to prioritize and apply for the open position.
Specifying measurable performance goals is a very convenient way for an employer to communicate quickly and directly with the professionals on Linkedin.
Make smart hiring decisions
With the enormous amount of data available on Linkedin, you can choose to leverage it depending on your appetite for the best talent search.
Data-driven decision-making is the best practice to follow for any organization and the Linkedin Talent Insights feature enables you to do just that.
With this feature, you can find talent effectively using workforce snapshots and benchmarks, address the skill gap your startup is facing using skills trends and competitive benchmarking among other things.
The curated data helps you to make informed hiring decisions, strategize the entire hiring process and fill the open positions quickly and effectively.
Analyze the search data
Instead of blindly shortlisting all the available candidates, the Linkedin search insights feature in Linkedin recruiter lets you analyze and interpret the data so that you can prioritize the candidates accordingly.
The search insights will reveal the talent pool’s current and past employers, years of experience, education, and location via intuitive bar charts.
This will enable you to manage effective search strategies and shortlist the candidates based on your expectations.
Create a buzz around the job
Entrepreneurs running a startup must certainly take into account the various unconventional ways of effective hiring on a social networking platform such as Linkedin.
Your network is at the core of the social networking platform which is why the more you engage with them, the better positioned your company is in hiring talented professionals.
Post regularly on your timeline, be it blog posts or short updates. This will allow you to talk about the vision and goals of your company.
An enticing blog post on Linkedin will pave the way for more professionals to notice your presence and appreciate the core values of your company.
It is one thing to hunt for the best talent but an altogether different dimension to attract smart folks who can get the work done flock to work for you.
Send an InMail
An InMail is a handy feature that you can use effectively to hire the right people for the job. An InMail is a private message that you can send to a LinkedIn member who is not your connection.
There are no pre-written templates that you can use to send InMails. However, you can draft your messages smartly to increase the conversion rate.
Getting members to read your message and respond promptly can be a bit tricky. So here are a few tips that will ensure the best possible results:
- Be brief and do not send out lengthy messages
- Expressly state why your message is relevant for the recipient. You can mention any key achievement or specific qualification that prompted you to reach out to the recipient
- Have a cheerful and enthusiastic tone that can inspire the recipient to respond promptly
- Avoid dumping the job description in private messages. Talk to them as you would normally
Conclusion
To conclude, Linkedin is certainly one of the most effective platforms for hiring the right candidate to get the job done. It is more likely for you to find startup-friendly prospects on social networks when compared to other mediums.
We hope that this guide to acquire talent via Linkedin has helped you in effectively strategizing your Linkedin Hiring campaign. Good luck!
