A Peak Into the Fascinating Recruiting Features Of LinkedIn
LinkedIn may not be the largest social network in the world or even among the top ten but it is one of the most powerful tools for recruiting top skilled professional talent along with a growing number of students and recent graduates.
With over 380 million people, 11 million of whom live in Canada, LinkedIn can provide first a peek at and then a way find, track, connect and recruit some of the best talent in the world.
The demographics of LinkedIn users include professionals of all ages; just over half, 52% of LI users are between the ages of 30-64, 15% are between the ages of 18-29 and 13% are 65+. More than 60% LI members make $75,000 per year, over 50% have college/university degrees and most say they are open to being contacted by a recruiter.
Benefits Of LinkedIn Recruiting
Even with an unemployment rate of 6.8% there can be a shortage of talent to fill roles in organizations. Even with access to more, faster and better technology contacting, tracking and getting the attention of potential candidates can be time consuming and challenging. LinkedIn as a tool for recruiting can provide access to a treasure trove of information about candidates that helps you determine who might be the right fit, if they may be interested or ready to make a move and if not today, then enable the building of long term candidate pools for future recruiting.
As a recruiting tool LinkedIn provides a recruiter with the option to look for and connect to talent in a variety of ways using both a paid and a free account. Some of the key differences between the paid and free accounts might not make a lot of difference to most users but for organizations looking to recruit the increased options and functionality may make recruiting a much less odious task
Free LinkedIn Account
The free basic LinkedIn account is a good tool for most casual and non-recruiter users. This account allows you to see the full profiles of your 1st and 2nd degree connections, see summaries of other members, see 100 profile in a search, offers a few limited search features, save 3 searches and set up 3 alerts. For most users this is probably more then they would ever need. A very active user with a free account might be able to find and build relationships with relevant potential candidates. As a tool for recruitment having employees ‘non-recruiters’ such as managers or supervisors or even employees use LinkedIn to find and engage people to expose potential candidates to the organization can be a useful tool, but for a recruiter it would take a significant amount of work outside LinkedIn, tracking and managing data about potential candidates, to gain any benefit.
Paid Accounts
There are a range of accounts for different purposes at different price points, from job seeker, sales, business and recruiter accounts. One of those accounts, Recruiter Lite, could be a solution for small and medium sized business.
Advanced Boolean Search String
LinkedIn recruiter allows you to use a modified Boolean search (OR, NOT, AND, plus brackets but no ‘*’) that allows you to expand or narrow your search parameters as needed and then save the search string and results for future use.
Targeting Refinement
Several fields can be used to refine your search results; Current company (plus type, and size), function, years in position, if the person is following your company, the groups they are in, what the candidate is interested in and when they joined. Some of this information can be very interesting as knowing a person has very recently changed jobs or has been in a position for 3 years can help you decide if they are worth spending a lot of time on now or in the future.
Candidate Identification and Tracking
There are 5 features you use to manage your recruiting relationship with and/or interest in a candidate; Source, Status, Tags, Activity and Contact. These features allow you to apply notes, set reminders, tag the candidate based on skills, job roles and duties and gain access to direct contact information.
Recruiter Lite
Features include 30 inmail messages (contact people you don’t have a relationship with yet), advanced search with filters and the ability to save search results, candidate tracking, unlimited profile searches, plus all the features of a premium account.
Cost – $1,199.40 per year or 119.95month
The additional LinkedIn recruiter and business solutions with more features at additional costs that large organizations may find useful thought it is important to really examine the cost per hire as the features you can access goes up. Some of the interesting features of the LinkedIn recruiting tools include being able to see the level of activity of a potential candidate. Did you know that LinkedIn populates active members higher in the search results you seek, the idea is that the more active a candidate the more they may be looking to build connections and open to new opportunities.
LinkedIn Corporate Recruiting Solutions
Finding Contractors
LinkedIn recruiter tools are not only valuable for finding candidates for permanent positions but for any type of position including short term and contacts roles. Searching using the words contractor or finding candidates who might be
If you are unsure if a LinkedIn recruiter account is a viable option for your organization you can start your research by attending a free LinkedIn demo or webinar demonstrating the features and uses of LinkedIn. You might find a solution to your recruiting needs or spend an hour just learning how someone else might be trying to find your talent.