Why recruiting on LinkedIn isn't working for you

With 830 million users across 200 countries, LinkedIn is the talent pool of dreams. So why isn’t recruiting on LinkedIn working for you?

First thing’s first: to hire on LinkedIn you need to do more than post a job ad and hope for the best. In today’s war for talent, job seekers are researching companies like never before – and their interests go way beyond salary and benefits.

They want to know about values, purpose and culture, as well as attitudes to big issues like climate change and diversity and inclusion. More than anything, they want to know how you invest in and nurture your people.

So to attract the best talent you need to look outside the job ad. In LinkedIn terms, that means maintaining an active and engaged company page that showcases your value proposition as an employer, not just a recruiter.

So how do you make recruiting on LinkedIn work for you?

• Post an update, not just an ad

The best things start organically. Instead of just posting the job as an ad, your hiring manager should also be advertising it as a status update on both the company page and their personal profile. And that’s just for starters. If you want to get traction you’ll also need those all important likes and comments from your existing employees. So…

• Get everyone on board, not just HR

What’s better than one post about your job vacancy? 100 posts about your job vacancy. If you really want to increase reach on LinkedIn, try appointing dedicated ‘LinkedIn ambassadors’ in your organisation. These are employees who will regularly champion your content and share it with their own network, potentially increasing reach ten-fold. And you can take it further: encourage your ambassadors to post from their own profile about what it’s like to work for your organisation day to day – examples of your purpose and values, how you develop your people and even how you interact with your customers. It all adds up to a strong employer brand.

• Build a presence, not a post

Whatever your strategy, recruiting on LinkedIn will yield limited results if you post into a vacuum. To go the extra mile you’ll need to showcase your Employee Value Proposition in advance. This means maintaining a high-quality company profile and updating it regularly – even when you’re not hiring. So don’t be afraid to post about your brand, highlight your products and services, celebrate your awards and achievements, share employee testimonials, link to blogs and social media and advertise your current career opportunities, all in a way that makes your company attractive to the best talent.

LinkedIn offers simple job posting solutions that will get your job ad out there – and I'm not knocking them. But by taking a different approach and building a presence rather than a post you can start to show potential candidates what talent really looks like in your organisation.