How to find staff on LinkedIn

How to find staff on LinkedIn Infographic

Forget about the old days when the only way to find the best staff was either the slog of advertising – and then trawling through a mountain of paper resumes and cover letters. Today, the job seekers and potential targets are all in the one digital pool with their accomplishments, skills and achievements easy to find at the click of a mouse button.

LinkedIn is revolutionising the way we find staff. Without waiting for people to apply, you can proactively target particular skills and see who has them … you can become your own headhunter.

More than 332,000,000 people in 200 countries use LinkedIn, which has 187,000,000 monthly unique visitors. That makes it the biggest and most active employment marketplace in the world, with two new LinkedIn members every second, and 40% of users checking it on a daily basis.

And you don’t have to restrict your search to those who are openly seeking jobs. Research shows 75% of professionals on LinkedIn are ‘passive candidates’ who are open to switching jobs, not are not actively job-seeking. But only 61% of companies are aware enough to be recruiting passive candidates.

So how do you get the most out of LinkedIn’s potential for finding employees? There are a few simple things to get in place first.

Your company page

Make sure you have a company page that can add value and credibility, ensure it stands out and clearly portrays your company business, aims, goals and values.

Check the competition

Find out what your competitors are doing, but keeping an eye on their pages, posts and news. It will give you a better grasp of where you stand in the industry. Also have a look at their staff. Are there any key ones you could bring over to your brand?

Join groups

And don’t just join the groups – join the conversations. Become an influencer in your field by leading discussions and prompting debates on important issues. And this is also a good way to judge the responses of other members who might be potential staff.

Job description

There are both free and paid formats for posting job ads on LinkedIn. Whichever you use, make sure the job description outlines precisely the objectives of what you are looking for – rather than just focusing on the duties and responsibilities of the job, or the kind of person you want.

Engage candidates

When you get a promising response, start a discussion to give you a better ability to evaluate the candidate even before you get to the interview stage.

Foster passive candidates

Got your eye on a likely future employee? Keep the conversation going, and you will be better able to interest them in coming over to your brand at some stage in the future.

Updates

Use ‘Update Me’ to be notified of changes in a passive candidate’s profile and situation. Timing could be everything if you’re trying to entice them to work for you.