How companies recruit on LinkedIn…depends on their strategy. Are they proactive or reactive corporate recruiters? What fits their corporate culture? Christian Valdez from LinkedIn posed these question as we discussed using LinkedIn for recruiting last week. All really great questions and they got me thinking.
My guess is that most companies think they are very proactive in their recruiting efforts, good at doing all the right searches and finding the right people, but it’s relative, right? Relative to the information and sources you have available to you, to the brand you represent and the competitive nature of the position you are recruiting for.
So I wonder how hiring managers and corporate recruiters use LinkedIn to tap into the richest pool of active and passive candidates that exist in one place. I wonder if they have a strategy beyond job posts, number of calls made, number of emails sent? Beyond InMails and shared connections?
Is there a more personalized and focused strategy to engage candidates, especially those who are passive? Are you considering your employment brand? When I Google the term ’employment brand’ more than 13.7 million search results come up so it’s clearly a relavent topic. Wikipedia states that employment brand refers to your organization’s reputation as an employer. It’s crucial today to understand how your organization is viewed from a candidate and employee perspective. Social has changed how candidates learn and understand your organization. Sites like LinkedIn, Facebook, Glassdoor and many others have provided key intelligence that affects whether people want to work for you.
Whether your recruiting strategy is proactive or reactive, you need to understand and explain what it’s like to work for your company. LinkedIn provides more comprehensive ways to build and engage your employment brand than anything else I can think of. Are you taking advantage of LinkedIn around your employment brand?
How?
- Build out your LinkedIn Company Page (it’s free with the exception of the Careers Page)
- Make sure your employees are linked to your LinkedIn Company Page
- Provide LinkedIn best practices to your employees so they understand how best to leverage it for themselves and the organization
- Turn your employees into brand ambassadors
- Use your LinkedIn Company Page to post content
- Build followers (employees, clients, associates, prospects etc.)
- Post jobs
That’s just the beginning. Consider LinkedIn’s suite of Talent Solutions which includes an upgrade on your individual Profile, a Recruiter Seat, Work with Us ads, a branded Careers page. This is where you really begin to tap into the power of LinkedIn.
In the next couple of posts we are going to look at the proactive and reactive ways to recruit in LinkedIn. What are you doing today? I would love to hear what works for you. Care to share?
Want to learn more about employment branding? Check out our upcoming workshop focused on recruiting.
