Utilising LinkedIn Effectively to Source Candidates
LinkedIn should be one of the most important tools in any recruitment consultant’s armoury. With over 15 million users in the UK alone, it is vital that a consultant can fully utilize LinkedIn’s capabilities to help grow their desk effectively.
LinkedIn is a fantastic source for seeking out potential candidates, but are you using its capabilities to the full? Here we take a look at three effective ways to use LinkedIn to source candidates that many consultants probably don’t know about.
LinkedIn’s ‘Similar’ Feature
Every consultant should know how to do a simple search for candidates on LinkedIn. Simply put in the type of role you want candidates for, say ‘legal recruitment consultant’ and you will be presented with a list of potential candidates.
Out of those results, you may struggle to find more than one or two suitable candidates depending on the vacancy you have. However, most consultants don’t utilise the ‘people similar to’ feature.
If you have a very suitable candidate for a role but would like others, simply click on that person’s LinkedIn profile and then look at the right sidebar. At the top you will see the ‘people similar to’ feature. This is where LinkedIn has grouped together profiles that it thinks are similar to the person in question, so chances are they have similar skills and have a similar work history.
Utilise Groups
There’s not many recruitment consultants who don’t know the value of interacting on relevant LinkedIn groups. This has several benefits including raising their profile as a knowledgeable recruiter in that particular sector and keeping up-to-date with the latest industry news and developments. However, did you know that it’s possible to search for people within groups, and send them messages even if they are not in your network, for free?
Using the search feature within groups is a fantastic way of narrowing down candidates because if you’re searching a relevant group, using the right keywords should narrow down suitable candidates effectively.
The best feature is that now you have the candidate you want to contact, you can just click on the ‘send message’ tab underneath their name on the group’s search results and send them a message, regardless of whether you have a premium account or are connected to them.
Can Candidates Find You?
Most recruitment consultants see LinkedIn as a one-way-street, very few realise that there may be excellent candidates out there trying to find a good recruitment consultant. It is therefore vital that as an innovative and forward-thinking recruitment consultant, you make your profile as visible as possible, by optimising it so that you can be found easily by potential candidates.
Techniques include making sure that your profile is completely filled-in, using strong, positive and engaging language. This illustrates your credibility as the recruiter of choice in your chosen sector.
In addition make sure your profile contains important keywords that people in the industry may search for. In an industry where it can be very difficult to find good quality candidates, make it easy for them to find you!
‘Till Next Time,
Cheryl