5 Keys to Unlocking the Power of LinkedIn Recruiter

I spent 12 years in the Staffing industry as a recruiter, salesperson, and manager. I never had access to LinkedIn Recruiter nor did I demand it. I figured my teams could get along just as well using our internal databases, referrals, and job boards. Now that I’ve worked at LinkedIn for 2 years and had the opportunity to become a highly-proficient LinkedIn Recruiter user, I must say…. man, was I wrong!! I’m convinced there’s no other sourcing tool like it.

I’ve had conversations with business leaders at over 100 staffing firms and have noticed a stark contrast in the ROI these companies are able to produce from Recruiter. The disappointing thing is that there are some recruiters and salespeople who have access to this amazing product and fail to scratch the surface of its potential or the revenue it can unlock. I've talked with people who say it's ineffective. I've also worked with clients who've discovered they’ve generated 40x return on their initial investment!

What’s interesting is that there seems to be a direct correlation between ROI and how well companies adhere to the 5 items below. The more your teams believe in and execute these concepts, the more success they will have using Recruiter for candidate and client acquisition. Here are 5 Keys to Unlocking the Power of LinkedIn Recruiter:

1.   Mindset – Understanding what Recruiter is and what it isn’t.

I had an Executive tell me that Recruiter is analogous to other candidate sourcing platforms such as CareerBuilder, Monster, Indeed, and Dice. It isn’t. People have also said that LinkedIn is nothing more than the world’s largest resume database. Wrong again.

While Recruiter indexes profile information and allows you to search that data similar to a job board, there are two critical differences. First, information you find on Job boards is stagnant. Someone submits their resume and the information in that resume doesn’t change. LinkedIn profiles are constantly being updated (literally 100’s of thousands of times a day). LinkedIn profile data will always supply you with the most up to date and accurate information. Second, Recruiter allows you to quickly surface candidates and prospects who are most likely to respond to you based on their previous interactions with the company you work for and how closely your profile information and connections intersect with theirs. This is called affinity data and traditional job boards simply don’t have it.

So what’s the right way to think about LinkedIn Recruiter? As a digital representation of the U.S. marketplace. And it’s almost as dynamic as the real thing. Recruiters and salespeople who understand this concept and act accordingly will inevitably find significantly more success than their peers.

2.   Know your mandate

The better you understand the objectives of your job, the better you can understand the business intelligence you need to perform that job at a high-level.

 For instance, if I’m selling staffing services, I want to know: What companies will be hiring soon? What jobs are they going to be hiring for? What previous experience and skills will they be looking for? What companies are likely working with my competitors? Are there decision-makers from those companies who are familiar with me or the company I work for? What's the most efficient way to start conversations with decision-makers at those companies? The market information you need already exists in Recruiter, you just need to know what you’re looking for.

3.   Leverage your Company Followers and LinkedIn's Affinity Data

I previously mentioned that part of what makes Recruiter unique is that it uses both profile data and affinity data. People who have the most success with Recruiter know how to use both. Most of the affinity data LinkedIn collects exists in search "Spotlights." These will give you information relative to who's most likely to respond, whose already applied to one of your jobs, and who's already engaged with your brand. BUT, the most effective tactic is to start with your company followers. Followers are accessible through Recruiter and represent LinkedIn members who've already taken time to learn about your business and have decided they want to continue engaging with your brand. They're 2.5x more responsive and represent a pool of warm leads for your recruiting and sales teams.

All this information works together to help you quickly uncover the critical nexus where quality and brand affinity meet personal connection. Leveraging followers AND Spotlights allows you to ask crucial business questions and get real-time answers. It also enables you to identify people you should recruit or sell to that are likely willing to speak with you NOW (see table below, the sweet spot is in the top righthand corner with high-quality prospects who are engaged with your brand).

4.   Automation

This one’s simple, but (shockingly) too often overlooked. Once you understand your mandate and how to use Recruiter to uncover quality people who are likely to be responsive, make LinkedIn work for you. Run your searches and save them. As new results start to pour in, check them daily, save quality leads in a project folder, then get to work contacting those people via InMail. If you do this effectively, you will have succeeded in automating a portion of your recruitment sourcing or sales prospecting. Let’s be honest, no one really likes to source or prospect so let LinkedIn do some of the heavy lifting.

5.   Usage

Another one that seems obvious but is critical nonetheless. Would you buy a nice car, park it in the driveway, and then complain that it never took you where you wanted to go? Of course not. Buying the car is the first step, you still have to drive it. Recruiter is no different. If you work for an organization that’s generous enough to buy you the car, make sure you drive it and drive it every day. Trust me, it will help take you where you want to go.

Happy Hunting!

Dan