How to Use LinkedIn for Recruitment: A Simple Guide to Finding Employees

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<h2>Key Takeaways</h2>
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<li>You can search for new staff on LinkedIn, but it’s important to approach potential applicants with care.</li>
<li>Like any database, LinkedIn contains unsuitable, out-of-date and even fake CVs.</li>
<li>You can post job adverts to LinkedIn and pay to promote them.</li>
<li>You can use LinkedIn to attract jobseekers by building your personal and company profiles, though this takes a lot of time and effort.</li>
<li>There are various subscription types available for both inbound and outbound recruiting.</li>
<li>LinkedIn has quite a few disadvantages so don’t rely on it for your recruitment. Combine it with other recruitment tools for a comprehensive approach.</li>
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LinkedIn is a social media platform but it’s actually a lot less “social” than Facebook or X (aka Twitter) and works quite differently. (For more on how to use other social media platforms for recruitment, see our guide From Likes to Hires: Tips & Tricks for Social Media Recruitment.) 

LinkedIn can be used to find new staff and is particularly useful for:

• Senior-level jobs
• White-collar roles
• Specialised / niche jobs
• Roles requiring advanced degrees or qualifications
• International roles
• Tech and IT jobs
• Sales and marketing positions

You can find new staff by searching LinkedIn’s CVs, posting job adverts and promoting yourself and your company on the site. I’ll go into more detail about each of these.

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1. Searching LinkedIn’s CVs

LinkedIn is like a CV database, though most people on it are there to network and sell, rather than to find a job.

• When browsing LinkedIn, if you see a connection who mentions they are looking for work, you can easily message them for free.
• You can find applicants through paid search functions (listed later in the guide), searching by skill, experience and location, then sending messages to possible applicants. When looking for people it can be useful to enter Boolean queries to search more precisely (for more on this, see our guide, Efficient Strategies for Using CV Databases to Find Applicants and chapter 5).
• When looking at users’ profiles consider the following:
  • Have they received strong endorsements from people in their industry?
  • Do they actively post and comment? (If they’re doing so to champion their employer they may be hard to poach.)
  • Do they have a strong network of connections which could be a source of other jobseekers or customers?
  • Do they have relevant experience in your industry?
  • Do the groups they’ve joined suggest that they are well connected and contributing to the industry?

Once you’ve found some potential candidates, it’s important to contact them in the right way. Passive applicants might not be very interested in hearing from you. They’re probably used to approaches from pushy salespeople, and may be suspicious of out-of-the-blue messages. They may well be perfectly happy in their current job and will need a compelling reason to move, such as better pay and career prospects. When contacting them, do the following: 

• Personalise your message. Use their name and mention their previous jobs or accomplishments. Be brief (under 100 words).
• Don’t immediately rush in and tell them all about your job. Instead, try to open up a conversation about how they feel about their current job, where they see their career going in the future and whether they might be a good fit for your organisation.

But a word of warning:

• LinkedIn contains outdated profiles, undesirable ones and even a few fake ones (there are three profiles impersonating me!).
• LinkedIn is heavily trawled by recruitment consultants.

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2. Publish Job Adverts

• You can publish job adverts on LinkedIn targeted to specific users such as those with certain skills and experience.
• You can post them for free on your company’s LinkedIn page. To increase views, encourage your employees to share adverts on their individual profiles.
• You can pay to promote your job advert (“sponsored jobs”) on a pay-per-click basis and set a budget to stop costs from rising too high.
• There’s the option to allow jobseekers to “Easy apply” through the site with just a few clicks. Always make use of this facility. Don’t redirect them to your employer career page, which will only make you lose a lot of potential applicants. (For more on this, see our guide Why Most Employer Career Pages Fail (& How to Make Sure Yours Doesn’t).)
• LinkedIn may also email potential applicants to inform them of your job openings.

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3. Optimise Personal/Professional Profiles for Recruitment

First impressions are important, so your profile picture you should look professional, with your face clearly visible. If you have a recent headshot for work, this is ideal to use. Your background should reflect your professional identity, corporate brand, or the industry you’re recruiting in. 

In addition: 

• Use a “Hiring” badge on your profile picture.
• Explain the types of jobs you recruit for and your company culture.
• Provide your telephone number and email address in the “Intro” section for easy contact.

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4. Contact People Who Have Viewed Your Profile

• When paying for any LinkedIn subscription, you can see who has looked at your LinkedIn profile. 
• Monitor who has viewed your profile and send them a message to start a conversation. This can be an effective way to engage with potential candidates.

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5. Promote Your Company Profile

There’s been quite a bit of hype about using LinkedIn to enhance your company brand using a dedicated company page which will then attract jobseekers. 

You’ll need to regularly update your page with fresh, quality content to attract applicants. Topics for these posts include:

• New hires.
• Employee accomplishments / testimonials / spotlights.
• Behind the scenes content.
• Community involvement and CSR initiatives.
• Business accomplishments, industry awards or other recognition.
• Thought-leadership pieces on your industry.
• Customer success stories.
• Educational content and webinars.
• Interactive posts; polls, quizzes, Q&A sessions.

But there are some downsides to using company pages for recruitment:

• Often marketing and sales as well as HR will want to control the page. There’s a conflict between using LinkedIn to attract customers and to bring in job applicants. Each of these requires different kinds of material to be included on the company profile.
• You need to put in a lot of time and effort to create the compelling material that you’ll need to attract the right people. Sales and marketing usually have lots of fresh content to use, which is why they often end up controlling company LinkedIn pages

Even if your company profile isn’t focused on recruitment, job applicants may use it to find out about your organisation so it’s important that it contains good content and is regularly updated. 

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6. Promote Your Personal/Professional Profile

• To promote yourself, share short messages under your “Status Update” or create longer articles, documents, and polls.
• Use LinkedIn’s “Creator Mode” to highlight your content over your career history, allowing users to “follow” rather than just “connect” with you.
• Join LinkedIn Groups; private networks where like-minded professionals can discuss specific topics. Participating allows you to learn, network, and position yourself as an authority/thought leader. 

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LinkedIn Subscription Types for Recruitment

There are five main subscription options for using LinkedIn for recruitment:‍

• Free job adverts: This gets you started but has very basic functionality.
• ‍Sponsored job adverts: A cost-per-click charge to promote your job advert. This allows you to pay only when a user views your advert. Set budgets to control costs.
• Recruiter Lite: For contacting passive applicants, allowing up to 30 InMail messages per month to users with links to your current pool of connections (approximately £130 per month).
• Recruiter: Enhanced filters and up to 150 InMail messages per month to anyone (approximately £600 per month).
• Talent Hub: This is an applicant tracking system for larger organisations, helpful for inbound recruiting where jobseekers are replying to your adverts. Contact LinkedIn for pricing details. 

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Advantages of Using LinkedIn for Recruitment

• Access to an extensive professional network: LinkedIn boasts a reasonable user base of professionals from various industries. 
• Targeted recruitment: The platform offers advanced search tools (albeit you have to pay for them) that enable employers to target jobseekers based on specific criteria such as industry, job title, skills, location, and education. 
• Passive candidate reach: LinkedIn is particularly effective for reaching passive candidates who may be interested if approached with the right job offer.
• Employer branding: A strong employer brand on LinkedIn can enhance the organisation’s overall reputation.
• Content sharing and thought leadership: Companies can post content related to their industry, share insights, and establish thought leadership. This can attract professionals interested in the company’s field and engage potential candidates.
• Networking and referrals: LinkedIn’s networking features facilitate connections and referrals. Employees can share job postings with their networks to expand reach and allow personal endorsements.
• Global reach: For companies looking to recruit internationally, LinkedIn’s worldwide presence allows employers to source candidates from different countries.
• Cost-effective solutions: LinkedIn provides free options such as posting jobs on the company page or searching for potential candidates using basic filters. These free options can benefit small businesses or startups with limited recruitment budgets.

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Disadvantages of Using LinkedIn for Recruitment

• Limited effectiveness for non-professional roles: LinkedIn is less effective for recruiting blue-collar workers, entry-level positions, or roles in retail, hospitality, and manual labour.
• Risk of information inaccuracy: Not all LinkedIn profiles are regularly updated, or may be embellished so don’t accurately reflect a person’s current skills and experience. 
• Fake profiles: LinkedIn has issues with fake profiles, which waste your time.
• Costs of premium features: While basic LinkedIn services are free, more advanced features like Recruiter and sponsored job postings can be expensive.
• High competition: With many companies and recruiters using LinkedIn, there can be intense competition for top candidates, making it challenging to stand out and attract the best talent.
• InMail limitations: LinkedIn’s InMail feature, used for directly messaging non-connections, is restricted unless you use their paid solutions. Even then, response rates can vary.
• Message fatigue: Due to unwanted sales enquiries, users may experience message fatigue, reducing the effectiveness of direct messages. Personalised, well-crafted messages are required to capture attention, which demand more time and effort.
• Potential for unwanted solicitations: Employers may receive unsolicited messages from jobseekers or salespeople. These can be time-consuming to manage.
• User privacy settings: Some users have strict privacy settings that limit their visibility on LinkedIn, making it challenging for recruiters to find or contact them.
• Dependence on digital presence: LinkedIn recruitment heavily relies on a candidate’s digital presence and networking skills, which might not accurately represent their true professional abilities or potential.
• Risk of bias: There’s a risk of unconscious bias in recruitment when using LinkedIn, as recruiters may form opinions based on a candidate’s profile picture, connections, or other non-professional factors.‍
• Time investment for employer branding: Maintaining an active, engaging company profile for employer branding purposes requires a significant time investment and consistent effort.

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Additional Resources

• Talent Acquisition Book; The Secrets of Great Recruitment: How to Recruit Great Employees.
• Downloadable PDF guide; LinkedIn Hiring Secrets: Proven Methods to Recruit the Best Talent.
• Article; LinkedIn Recruitment Secrets: What Every Employer Must Know!‍
• Article; Advantages & Disadvantages of Using LinkedIn for Recruitment.
• Because LinkedIn changes so frequently, I recommend checking the our latest LinkedIn Recruitment and Social Recruiting articles.