The Modern Recruiters Guide

The Candidate Journey on LinkedIn

Introduction
Whether youre a five-person startup or a

Millennial workforce are re-writing the

Fortune 500 organization, talent is a top

rules of employment as we know them.

priority. Your success as a business and as a

recruiter is directly linked to your ability to

These changes require a new approach

hire great people.

to talent acquisition. We need to

understand how professionals make

But increasingly, you dont pick talent.

career decisions and find opportunities

Talent picks you. Its a candidates

to engage them throughout their

marketplace, where talent has greater

candidate journey.

access to information, more paths to

explore job opportunities, and benefits

This ebook will cover how you can build

from fierce competition for skilled hires.

and nurture relationships with talent in

Employers around the world are feeling the

order to move them closer to the Holy

impact with 38% reporting talent

Grail becoming engaged hires. It will

shortages in

20151

employees2

planning to stay with their

and less than 1 in 5

current employer in the long term. On top

also outline how LinkedIn helps you find,

prioritize, and engage the right talent at
the right time.

of all this, the gig economy and rise of the

Lets get started.

ManPowerGroup 2015 Talent Shortage Survey

PwC study "Millennials at work Reshaping the workplace

The Modern Recruiters Guide // 2

Contents
The candidate journey

Discovery: Show your organization is a great place to work

Attraction: Nurture relationships with prospective candidates

18

Application: Match the right candidate with the right opportunity

25

Engagement: Motivate and retain employees

32

Accelerate: The candidate journey with LinkedIn Recruiter

38

Where to start

45

Want more? The Talent Blog has it.

46

About LinkedIn Talent Solutions

47

About the authors

48

The Modern Recruiters Guide // 3

Why LinkedIn?
LinkedIn is where 414+ million professionals from
around the world come to connect, stay informed,
and get hired. Its the largest and fastest-growing
social network for professionals.
Every day, billions of interactions take place on the
platform. Members update their professional profiles
with new skills, recommendations, education and
work experiences. They also build relationships with
companies by connecting to employees, engaging
with content, and following Company Pages.
LinkedIn Talent Solutions is a suite of tools that helps
you make sense of these interactions. It can support
you in finding the candidates you need, building and
maintaining relationships, and converting those
relationships into long-lasting hires.

The Modern Recruiters Guide // 4

The
Candidate
Journey

The Candidates Journey // 5

The stages of the candidate journey

People move through the candidate journey at their own pace. Some learn
about an organization quickly, develop an affinity after one interaction, and
apply to an open job within weeks. Others linger in the attraction stage for
months or even years before considering a career move.
But youve got jobs to fill. Fortunately, there are concrete steps you can take
to help move candidates through the stages faster. By staying top of mind,
nurturing your relationships with candidates along the way, and using
insights from LinkedIn to identify talent most likely to consider you as their
next employer, youll be set up for recruiting success.

STAGES

Discovery

Attraction

Application

Engagement

The candidate is open

The candidate is

The candidate has

Keep new hires happy

to new opportunities

forming opinions and

decided to spend the

and engaged as

and beginning to

associations with your

time and energy to

employees, fueling

discover what makes

company. In other

apply to your open

your talent brand and

your company unique.

words, building

role.

referral efforts.

a relationship with

I wonder what this

company is all about

your brand.

Theres something about this

company that stands out

I think I could like

working here

I can see growing my

career with this company.

The Candidates Journey // 6

STAGE ONE: DISCOVERY

Show your organization is a great place to work

Candidates in the discovery stage are aware of

the door for employment discussions down

your organization, but they arent thinking

the road. It has real bottom-line impact too;

about job opportunities just yet. Before they

organizations with strong employer brands

can picture you as their next employer, they

spend less on hiring and have better

need to learn more about you, your

employee retention.

organization, and start building trust and

affinity.

Make yourself and your company known.

Your personal brand matters because youre

By investing in your professional and employer

a representative of your organization, so lets

brand, you can raise awareness and open

start with you.

STAGE ONE: Discovery // 7

STAGE ONE: DISCOVERY

Step one

Make your profile more authentic

Your LinkedIn profile reflects who you are professionally. Visiting
profiles is the #1 activity on LinkedIn, which means your profile is
often the first thing candidates see. Its also usually a first stop for
prospective candidates who want to learn about your
organization.
Thats why you have to nail it.
It comes down to authenticity. By communicating your values,
experiences, goals, and personality in an authentic way, youll set
the stage for strong relationships with candidates.
If you cant, youll lose talent to recruiters who can.

Discovery

Profile // 8

STAGE ONE: DISCOVERY

The anatomy of a well-branded recruiting profile

Paige Eklund
Finding great talent to fuel our team

Engaging, friendly picture

that invites people to
connect with you

Descriptive headline
that goes beyond your
title

500+

Connect

connections

www.linkedin.com/peklund/

Contact Info

Posts
Published by Paige

Show your expertise

by publishing
long-form posts
Making interviews fun for
both sides

8 Tips for writing excellent

lists of professional tips

There is only 1 recipe for

success, and its no secret

May 5, 2016

April 29, 2016

March 18, 2016

Background
Summary

Showcase your company

culture with rich media

Discovery

Profile // 9

STAGE ONE: DISCOVERY

4 tips for a more authentic LinkedIn profile

Choose your best photo. Profiles with photos are

14x more likely to be viewed. Four things you should

do:

Write a bolder headline. While your picture is your

visual hook, your headline is your written hook. Rather
than defaulting to your standard title, use your
headline to share what makes you unique. Dont be

Choose a photo that looks like you

afraid to get creative: Headlines can be great

Make your face at least 60% of the picture

conversation-starters with candidates.

Wear your normal work clothes

Smile

Paige Eklund

Paige Eklund
Finding great talent to fuel our team

3 stellar recruiter headlines:

Profile metrics to watch:

Helping lawyers make their way to the best law firm in the Bay

Whos viewed your profile

Lauren Barton, Lateral Recruiting Coordinator at Fenwick & West

Whos engaged with your updates

Whos viewed and engaged with your published posts
How you rank for profile views at your company
Follower statistics

Fairy job mother

Annie Wenzel, Director of Recruiting at Swing Talent, Inc.
Bringing the world's best Creatives to play in San Francisco
Hillary Lannen, Director of Recruiting at MUH-TAY-ZIK | HOF-FER

Want to learn more?

5 Ways to Make Your LinkedIn Headline Stand Out
6 Steps to Building Your Recruiter Brand

Discovery

Profile // 10

STAGE ONE: DISCOVERY

4 tips for a more authentic LinkedIn profile

Over-invest in your summary. Your profile summary

is the place to showcase your career story, your

Be a thought leader by sharing and publishing

content. Curating existing content can be less time-

recruiting passion, and your reasons for working at your

intensive than creating original content. Use SlideShare

company. By sharing who you are and what your

and LinkedIn Pulse to discover quality content quickly,

company offers, talent will be more likely to engage

and use status updates to share with your network.

with you about their career goals.

When youve got something to say, writing posts is a
Not sure what to write? Four questions to guide you:

great way to show your thought leadership and expertise

to candidates and other professionals. LinkedIn is one of

What do you do professionally?

the fastest-growing publishing platforms in the world.

Why do you do what you do?

Whats unique about you or your company that you
can offer candidates?
What do you want candidates to do after reading
your summary?

Posts
Published by Paige

HINT: Inviting them to connect and start a dialogue is a

great way to wrap up your summary.

Making interviews fun for

both sides

8 Tips for writing excellent

lists of professional tips

There is only 1 recipe for

success, and its no secret

May 5, 2016

April 29, 2016

March 18, 2016

Discovery

Profile // 11

STAGE ONE: DISCOVERY

Why publish on LinkedIn?

Publishing on LinkedIn is a great way to build your professional brand. The more quality and relevant posts
you publish, the more people youll reach and the stronger your brand will become. Writing about your
organizations culture and accomplishments can help you build your personal and employer brands at the
same time.

3M

230M

growing platforms for professional

on LinkedIn, right now.

posts/to date
making LinkedIn one of the fastest

members
can publish professional content

publishing in the world.

The average post reaches

150K+

professionals in

21

industries
across

posts/week
Professionals are publishing

Publishing
on
LinkedIn

content everyday on topics from

real estate to construction, to

education and law.

countries

Members are generating more

likes, comments, and shares on

500

their posts than ever before.

influencers
Talent acquisition leaders like J.T.

Traffic per post is up

ODonnell, Liz Ryan, Ed Nathanson and

150%

Lou Adler are all using LinkedIn to

share what they know.
Discovery

Profile // 12

STAGE ONE: DISCOVERY

3 steps to publishing success

Get inspired. See why other LinkedIn members publish on

LinkedIn. Download the Pulse app for Android or iOS to stay
on top of talent acquisition news while youre on the go.

Write. Everyone has their own writing process. Do what

works for you, but remember these four tips:
Write what you know about and/or are passionate about.
Write with your candidate audience in mind.
Get feedback on your draft from at least one other person.
Proofread, proofread, and proofread again.

Publish. Visit here or click "Publish a post" on your desktop

homepage to go live.

Discovery

Profile // 13

STAGE ONE: DISCOVERY

Step two

Set up your Career Page to stand out

Just as your profile helps talent learn about you, your LinkedIn
Career Page helps candidates learn about your company as an
employer. It is where you can own your organizations authentic story
and give candidates a compelling window into life as an employee.
You likely already have a Company Page on LinkedIn (if you dont,
you can set one up for free). The next step is a premium Career Page
that lets you target your messaging and posted jobs to candidates
based on attributes like location, industry and function.

Discovery

Career Page // 14

STAGE ONE: DISCOVERY

The anatomy of a successful Career Page

Expedia, Inc.

183,902 followers

Follow

Bold, memorable visuals

with lively colors

Arresting copy
that grabs the reader

Uncover an Opportunity
Make Your Mark at Expedia

Multiple page versions

highly targeted to
visiting talent

Work at Expedia

Jobs at Expedia, Inc.

Feature jobs

Software Development Engineer II

most relevant to
your visitors

San Francisco CA US
Find Your Place Here
Hear What People Are Saying

BI Big Data Developer

See What We Have To Offer

Chicago IL US

Senior Business Analyst

What Expedia employees are saying...

Focus on employees
through videos
and quotes that
emphasize culture

Chicago IL US

Customer Service Representative

Springfield MO US

Senior Product Manager

Bellevue WA US

Recent Updates
See more jobs at Expedia
Be The Engineer of Your Career

Discovery

Career Page // 15

STAGE ONE: DISCOVERY

Both your Company Page and Career Page allow you

to build followers. Followers are people virtually
raising their hands to stay connected to your
organization.

Your followers are so important. Why?

79%
62%
40%
61%

of your followers are interested in

a job at your organization.

more likely to respond to your

InMail message.

more likely to apply to a job

with your organization.

more likely to share information

about your organization.

LinkedIn data, 2015

Discovery

Career Page // 16

STAGE ONE: DISCOVERY

4 steps to gaining quality followers

Add a free Follow button to your site. Make it easy

for people who visit your website to follow your
Company Page by embedding a free Follow button.

For more information on adding a Follow button, visit

developer.linkedin.com/plugins

Go social. Cross-promote your Company Page in

LinkedIn Groups and on other social platforms such as
Twitter and Facebook.

See follower demographics using LinkedIn Company Page analytics

Have employees spread the word. Ask your team to

include your Company Page on their LinkedIn profiles
and in all candidate communications. They can even
embed a Follow button in their email signatures.

Track your progress. Use the Analytics tab on your

Company Page to explore your follower demographics
by function, industry, seniority, and company size. You
can also see how many of your followers are current

You can analyze your follower

employees. Use this information to determine whether

demographics by function,

youre attracting the right talent and how to better

seniority, industry, company size,

engage this audience.

and even how many of your

followers are current employees.

Discovery

Career Page // 17

STAGE TWO: ATTRACTION

Nurture relationships with prospective candidates

Now that your target candidates are aware of

To do this, stay top-of-mind, be helpful, and

you as an employer, its time for you to

harness the mutual connections that already

nurture those budding relationships and

have a trusted relationship with your target

move candidates along their journey to

talent: your employees.

becoming your next hires.

STAGE TWO: Attraction // 18

STAGE TWO: ATTRACTION

Step one

Reach candidates with Status Updates and Sponsored Updates

Candidates are busy, and with so much

Make you visible and accessible. Status

happening on LinkedIn every day, its

updates are a non-invasive way to stay top

important to get your best content in front of

of mind. Be patient: it may take a while to get

the right talent to have the biggest impact.

a potential candidate on board. Win their

attention and loyalty now; hire them later.

Status Updates are the perfect tool to:

Extend your reach. The more likes,
Show youre a strategic partner. By

comments and shares your content receives,

hooking candidates with valuable content

the more broadly it reaches throughout the

that helps them in their careers, theyll be

LinkedIn network. Take advantage of your

more likely to rely on you for guidance and

employees established relationships with

job leads.

talent by making it easy for them to share

your content.

Status updates containing links can have

45%

up to 45% higher follower engagement

than updates without links.
Attraction

Status Updates and Sponsored Updates // 19

STAGE TWO: ATTRACTION

3 tips for winning Status Updates

Post often. Start with one post per weekday and work up to 2-3 times
per weekday. Posting consistently keeps your content fresh and gives

5 ideas for engaging Status Updates

your followers something to share with their networks. Quality rules over
quantity, so only increase your frequency if your quality stay strong.
Consider building an editorial calendar to plan your posts and ensure
your content mix is relevant to the talent segments you want to engage.

Be responsive. Always reply to comments and questions on your

updates. Consider connecting and/or engaging with people who

share and like your updates too. Remember, these social actions
signal interest in your organization, so dont leave anyone hanging.

Press articles showcasing your

companys milestones
Photos that capture how your
employees have fun on the job
SlideShare that sums up your
company culture and values
Celebrations of your employees
successes
Open job opportunities

Value quality over quantity. Your Career Page helps you pipeline
prospective talent, so always post content that reflects your brand

and attracts the people youre looking to hire.

Attraction

Status Updates and Sponsored Updates // 20

STAGE TWO: ATTRACTION

Engage the candidates youre looking

for with Sponsored Updates

Add a comment

Sponsored Updates allow you to reach beyond

your followers to LinkedIns 414+ million
members and share content straight to any
members feed. Target updates by job title,

Sponsored updates
target the talent you
want to reach across
all their devices.

FixDex
Sponsored
We're so much more than just a software company.

industry, seniority, field of study, and skills,

nurturing the relationships most valuable to you.
For example, if your organization is hosting an
engineering hackathon, sponsor an update to
engineering majors at nearby universities,

Inside the FixDex culture

spreading the news beyond your followers.

Add a comment

Sponsored Updates are the best way to share

information with the people who will care.

Mark Evans
Maker of awesome tech products

Attraction

Status Updates and Sponsored Updates // 21

STAGE TWO: ATTRACTION

Know whats working

Sponsored Updates are data-rich. Each one

comes with its own dashboard showing
impressions, clicks, interactions, the number of
new followers acquired from the update, and the
engagement percentage.
Pro tip: Use these insights to understand what
content resonates with your target candidates.
Then, sponsor more content like it. Every
interaction with your brand builds the
relationship.
These analytics help you control cost and show
the overall effectiveness of a post. Below are a few

By sponsoring this update to a

key definitions.

wider audience, this organization

attracted 136 new followers.

Impressions: The number of times your

update is seen. Each time an update displays
in the newsfeed, it counts as one impression.
Engagement: The number of clicks to your
update link, as well as
likes/shares/comments/followers acquired,

(Clicks + Likes + Shares + Comments + Followers acquired)

Engagement =
Impressions

divided by impressions.

Attraction

Status Updates and Sponsored Updates // 22

STAGE TWO: ATTRACTION

Step two

Make it easy for employees to share content with LinkedIn Elevate

Your employees are already

You can easily measure Elevates

connected to a diverse, qualified

impact. You can see who your

pool of candidates. On average,

most social employees are and

a companys employees have 10

track engagement over time and

times as many connections as a

learn what content types drives

company has followers. With

job views, Company Page

LinkedIn Elevate, employees get

followers, and hires.

a steady stream of quality

content to share across LinkedIn,

On average, Elevate users:

Twitter, and Facebook helping

Share 4x more than before

to influence all of the potential

Drive 40% more followers

hires in their networks.

Drive 3x more job views

People are

3X

Companies with socially engaged employees are

more likely to believe employees over
CEOs when it comes to talking about
an organizations work environment.

58%

more likely to attract top talent and

20% more likely to retain that talent.1

Learn more about LinkedIn Elevate

1

2014 Altimeter/LinkedIn Study

Attraction

LinkedIn Elevate // 23

STAGE TWO: ATTRACTION

Step three

Target your employees connections with Recruitment Ads

The people who view your employees profiles are connected to your employees, and
therefore more likely to be familiar with your organization and more open to your
opportunities.
Capture the attention of this talent by placing ads alongside your employees profiles. Here are
four good options.
Work with us
at Company X

Picture yourself
at Company X

Grow your career by

Following Company X

Apply Now

View Jobs

Follow Company X

Work With Us

Picture Yourself

Follow Us

Display a targeted set

of job openings

Invite candidates to picture

themselves working at
your company

Encourage viewers to follow

your Company Page and
stay informed

Internal Hiring
Advertise open roles
to your own employees

Attraction

Recruitment Ads // 24

STAGE THREE: APPLICATION

Match the right candidate with the right opportunity

By now, candidates are aware of your brand

writing job descriptions that inspire the

and have developed an interest in your

right talent to apply.

organization. Youve laid the groundwork for

them to apply to your job.

Candidates are more familiar with you now,

so its easier for them to determine cultural fit

The keys to success at this stage are starting

and get motivated to apply.

InMail conversations that get responses and

STAGE THREE: Application // 25

STAGE THREE: APPLICATION

Your Career Page followers are

81%

more likely to respond

to your InMails than
non-followers.

Step one

Write InMails that hook candidates

InMail allows you to send direct messages to anyone on
LinkedIn. But eliciting a response takes skill. The key to getting

Talent that share a former

employer with you are

27%

more likely to respond.

a response is to have a personalized message, but that can be

difficult when youre strapped for time.
70% of talent on LinkedIn are passive candidates.1 They are not
actively searching for a job but would be open to a new
opportunity if they felt it was the right fit.
Take advantage of LinkedIns insights to identify the talent
most likely to respond to you. Consider your Career Page
followers and employees connections. Look at people who

Talent that share a LinkedIn

group with you are

21%

share your LinkedIn Groups, schools and past employers.

(LinkedIn Recruiter makes it easy to find talent most likely to be
receptive to your outreach, but more on that later.)

more likely to respond.

Talent Trends 2015

Application

InMails // 26

STAGE THREE: APPLICATION

9 golden rules of InMail

Review profile. Let the recipient know what on their

profile caught your eye. Personalization is flattering.

A quick look: InMail vs. email

Grab attention. Mention mutual connections. LinkedIn

When it comes time to start a conversation with

suggests them for you.

a star candidate, take a look at how InMail and

email compare.

Show you are selective. Highlight what makes them

appealing. Compliment them sincerely.

InMail
4

Email

Be conversational and brief. Write as if you were

speaking. Dont just paste the job description.

Instant message-style
conversations that make it

Listen well. Ask about goals and interest level in new

easy to build candidate

opportunities.

relationships

Focus on goals. Think beyond the job and frame your

message around whats in it for them.
Leverage content. Consider including useful
information, such as a relevant whitepaper.
Be patient. Dont hound. Use status updates to stay

Readily-available candidate
information, including profile
details and recruiting activity,
helping you keep the
conversation personalized

visible while you wait for responses.

Templates and analytics that

Include a call to action. Ask to continue the dialogue,

save time.

help you work smarter and

not necessarily to apply right away.

Application

InMails // 27

STAGE THREE: APPLICATION

Step two

Post Jobs that excite the right candidates

A successful job posting has a tall order to fill. It must communicate job
qualifications and required skills. It also needs to convey your company
culture, delight readers, stand out from the competition, and persuade
candidates to apply. Ultimately, it should attract the right candidates
and deter the wrong ones.
On LinkedIn, your opportunities reach far beyond those looking for a
new job. We use our unique profile insights to help your opportunities
reach and engage qualified talent throughout their candidate journey.

Application

Post Jobs // 28

STAGE THREE: APPLICATION

5 steps to an apply-worthy job description

Your job description only has a few moments to make a big impression. Follow
these 5 guidelines to make it count.

Use a search-friendly job title rather than a creative one. Make sure your job
title is easily discoverable, and save your creativity for the description. People are
much more likely to search for a Sales Manager than a Revenue Ninja.

Get smart on the latest research. There is so much research on what candidates
want in a job today, so use it. For example, LinkedIn Talent Trends 2015 found that
professionals in the UK value work/life balance more than professionals in other
parts of the world.

Be personal and specific. Beyond skills and experiences, think about the type of
person youre looking to attract (personality traits, interests, values, etc).

Emphasize whats in it for the candidate. The job description is for candidates.
Rather than outline your laundry list of needs, sell them on how they will have
impact and career growth.

Get creative. Keep your job posts unique by seeking out inspiration in unexpected
places. LOreal noticed the popularity of emojis and decided to ask candidates to
describe their dream job using only emojis.

Want more job tips? Check out 7 Tips to an

Irresistible Job Description.

Application

Post Jobs // 29

STAGE THREE: APPLICATION

The power of a LinkedIn Job Post

Did you know?

1. Fuel your posts with LinkedIn insights. Based on profiles of talent similar to

Once your Job Post goes

who youre looking for, LinkedIn recommends skills and education

live, LinkedIn suggests up

requirements for you to consider including in your Job Post.

to 50 professionals who
match your search.

Job Function

Employment type

Accounting

Senority level

Full Time

Mid-Senior Level

Recommended skills

Skills
High level understating of US GAAP
Experience with revenue recognition in the biotech industry

Education
You can add certifications here too

Key responsibilities
We recommend 4-6 bullet points

How would you like people to apply?

Let candidates apply with their LinkedIn profile and notify me by email
[email protected]

Direct applicants to an external site to apply

http://yourcompany.com/job123

We suggest adding at least 5

relevant skills so we can match your
job with the right candidate.
+ Accounts payable
+ Accounts receivable
+ Payroll
+ Financial statements
+ Journal entries
+ Fixed assets
+ Bank reconciliation
+ Invoicing
+ US GAAP

Want to add a personal touch?

Show my profile on the job post

Paige Eklund
Finding great talent to fuel our team!
Application

Preview

Continue

Post Jobs // 30

STAGE THREE: APPLICATION

The power of a LinkedIn Job Post

2. Engage the right talent, automatically. You want your

3. Highlight your culture and employees. When candidates

job to reach the right candidates, not just those actively

self-select for culture fit before applying, it saves time for

looking. Thats why we automatically advertise your

everyone. They want to know, What is it like to work there?

openings to relevant professionals based on the

Whom do I know who works there? Who might my future

qualifications youre looking for.

coworkers be?

Your target talent may see your LinkedIn Job Post at

How LinkedIn Job Posts help you answer their questions:

multiple touch pointsas they browse their newsfeeds,

view profiles or check email.

Show your culture by seamlessly integrating your Career

Page content
Encourage referrals by highlighting people the candidate
already knows at your organization
Reveal future colleagues by showing profiles of
employees already in that role
Have a lot of open jobs to fill?
Job Slots are essentially recurring Job Posts. Rather than
posting a single job post at a time, Job Slots give you the
flexibility to advertise multiple roles as you need.

The majority of LinkedIn job views come from our

recommendations module called Jobs You May Be
Interested In, not from active job searches.

73%

of professionals are waiting

for the right job to find them.

Talent Trends 2015

Application

Post Jobs // 31

64%
of in-house talent professionals
are interested in increasing
employee retention.1

STAGE FOUR: ENGAGEMENT

Motivate and retain your new hires

1 LinkedIn

data, 2015

Once you have new hires, empowering them

Your engaged employees are your best

with new skills and growth opportunities is a

recruiting resource. They embody your

great way to keep them happy and engaged.

company values and can help attract

If they are continually learning and taking on

people who are also good cultural fits. If

more responsibilities, theyre more likely to

you can make referring new talent easy

be satisfied.

for them, its a win for you both.

STAGE FOUR: Engagement // 32

STAGE FOUR: ENGAGEMENT

Step one

Empower employees with new

skills and growth opportunities
Fun perks and a great culture can lure talent through the
door, but top hires usually need more incentive to stick

50%

around for the long term. Quality employees are eager to

learn new skills, take on more responsibility, and progress
in their careers.
The key to employee loyalty is engagement. Engaged
employees have a strong sense of purpose. They believe
in their work, their supervisors, and their organizations.

Nearly 50% of active job

hunters report feeling
completely satisfied
in their current roles.3

23%
of employees voluntarily leave their jobs due to lack of
development and training1

$3,400 for every $10,000

The cost in annual salary that disengaged employees can
cost an organization2

National Research Business Institute

LinkedIn data, 2015
3 Talent Trends 2015
1
2

Engagement

Empower Employees // 33

STAGE FOUR: ENGAGEMENT

4 ways to engage and retain

employees with learning:
Make learning a priority. Learning isnt a onetime event. Companies need to focus on creating
a culture that encourages employees to make
learning a daily habit.
Invest in professional development. When
employees believe you are invested in their

What is Lynda.com?
Lynda.com strives to create economic
opportunity for the global workforce through
transformative learning. Develop skills with topquality, expert-led online training, making your
organization more productive and successful.

careers, they become more personally invested in

your organization.

For over 20 years, Lynda.com has helped

employees, students, leaders - anyone in any

Build leaders from within. Support employees

who aspire to be in leadership roles by investing

role - build software, creative, and business

skills.

in leadership and management training.

Provide guided career coaching. Use online
learning to help employees develop their goals

Want some help? Check out

Creating a Culture of Learning in 6 Steps.

and career paths, and provide supervisors with the

coaching insights needed to mentor employees.
Engagement

Empower Employees // 34

STAGE FOUR: ENGAGEMENT

Step two

Turbo-charge your
employee referral program
87% of recruiters say the best channel to recruit quality
candidates is employee referrals, yet only 20% are satisfied
with their level of employee engagement in their referral
programs.1 Why dont more employees participate?

29 / 39 / 55
It takes 29 days to hire a
referred candidate, 39 days
to hire a candidate through
a job posting, and 55 days
to hire a candidate through
a career site.

Getting employees to refer others can be hard. Employees

need to know the open roles, remember whos in their
networks, and be willing to navigate referral software.
Once theyve made a referral, theyre often left in the dark
about their referrals status.
The organizations who crack the code on employee
participation in referral programs will have a huge
advantage. Referrals are consistently a cheaper, faster, and
higher-quality source of hire.

77%
of talent leaders are
interested in learning more
about how to run an effective
employee referral program.

To learn more, check out:

7 Employee Referral Programs that Source Outstanding Hires.

LinkedIn data, 2015

Engagement

Employee Referral Program // 35

STAGE FOUR: ENGAGEMENT

Make it easy for employees

to refer great talent with
LinkedIn Referrals
Your employees are connected to talented

Contacted

Connie McGregor

3/15/2016

Marketing Specialist at Jones & Co.

Events Marketing Manager, Global Brand

3/2

3/11

Applied

Interviewing

Offer Made

Hired

people, but asking them to spend their time and

energy helping you recruit wont always work. For

Follow Up

a referral program to be successful, it has to be

simple and rewarding for participants.
LinkedIn Referrals does just that: It makes

LinkedIn Referrals syncs with your existing recruiting tools so

automatic referral recommendations to your

you can get your referred candidates into your applicant tracking

employees. It searches their networks and finds

system without learning new processes.

quality leads for your open roles.

Here are a few of our ATS partners, and we are always adding
Employees like it because they can see where

more.

their referrals are in the recruiting process.

Engagement

Employee Referral Program // 36

STAGE FOUR: ENGAGEMENT

The exponential factor

of your employees
The collective network size of your
employees is around 300x bigger
than your personal network.

615k

The average number of connections

a company on LinkedIn has through
its employees*

1.9k

The average number of

connections that our very best
recruiters have on LinkedIn.
Explore how to get started with LinkedIn Referrals

*Based on 3k+ talent professional leaders who attended Talent Connect 2015 in Anaheim, CA.
Engagement

Employee Referral Program // 37

LINKEDIN RECRUITER

Accelerate the candidate journey

with LinkedIn Recruiter
Today, the best recruiters source directly

around the world, giving you actionable

from a qualified pool of candidates with

insights from the relationships you, your

whom they already have a relationship.

employees, and your organization have

Why? Because those candidates tend to

with talent.

be easier and faster to recruit.

The result? Youre able to quickly find
LinkedIn Recruiter is a powerful tool that

and engage the candidates most likely to

helps you search 414+ million

be interested in your job opportunities.

professionals
STAGE FOUR: Engagement // 38

LINKEDIN RECRUITER

Find great talent faster with our

recommendation engine
Whether you know every skill required or just a few, Recruiter helps you
build the best search to uncover the right candidates. As you type a job
title and location into the search bar, Recruiter recommends skills you
may want to add based on the role youre trying to fill.

Who are you looking to hire?

Architect

Seattle

Architectural Design

GO

TRENDING SKILLS FOR THIS TITLE

SketchUp
Architectural Design
Revit
ArchiCAD

Choose from the top trending skills for your job title within LinkedIn Recruiter.

LinkedIn Recruiter // 39

LINKEDIN RECRUITER

Use your top performers to guide your search

Have you ever been asked to hire someone "just like Sarah from sales?" What about find
someone who is 50% Devon from design and 50% Mario from marketing? Sometimes,
its easier to describe who were looking for.
Simply enter the name of your ideal candidate into the search bar, and LinkedIn
Recruiter will build a search based on his or her profile data and identify similar talent.

LinkedIn Recruiter // 40

LINKEDIN RECRUITER

Use smart suggestions to expand and refine

your search results
Whether youre a rookie recruiter or a seasoned sourcer, remembering every possible
educational institution, past company, and skill is hard. Recruiter saves you time by
surfacing terms you may not have thought of, helping to further refine your search.

Showing results for

9K total
candidates

company
694 have
connections

Job title
9,650 total candidates

Architect

Locations

John Candidate

Greater Chicago Area

Project Manager, Business Analytics at Your Company

Skills
Design research

AutoCAD

Sustainable design

Revit

Current
Past

Companies
Add companies

FixDex

Susan Potential

Education

Project Manager, Business Analytics at Your Company

Northwestern University
DePaul University

UC Berkeley
Current

Keywords
Add keywords

LEED certified

View more

Past

LinkedIn Recruiter // 41

LINKEDIN RECRUITER

Identify and prioritize the candidates

most likely to become your next hire
To help prioritize your outreach, LinkedIn Recruiter shines Spotlights on qualified talent.
These candidates are not only good fits for your job, they are also more likely to respond
to your InMails, apply, and accept your offer.
The Spotlights feature shows you talent connected to your organization through your
employees, talent brand, or even applying to past roles. Remember all the work you did to gain
Career Page followers? They will appear within the Engaged with your talent brand Spotlight

Candidates who appear

in Spotlights are

2x to 3x
more likely to respond to
your InMails than
candidates who do not.

along with people who have engaged with your Company Page updates or Job Posts.

9K

total
candidates

694

have company
connections

442

9,650 total candidates

John Candidate
Project Manager, Business Analytics at Your Company

engaged with
your talent brand

27

past
applicants

Show me...
Total candidates (9K)
All of the candidates found

Spotlights
allow you to easily filter
results for candidates who
are likely to engage

Who has company connections (694)

Current

Whos engaged with your

talent brand (694)

Past

Who your competitors target (694)

Susan Potential
Project Manager, Business Analytics at Your Company

Current
Past

Whos maybe ready for a move (694)

Spotlights vary
based on different types
of relationships and
interactions on LinkedIn

Past applicants (694)

LinkedIn Recruiter // 42

LINKEDIN RECRUITER

Spotlights with LinkedIn Recruiter

Recruiter gives you actionable insights in the form of Spotlights,
which streamline your sourcing experience by identifying quality
candidates, faster.
Company connections: People who are connected with people
Company connections are

1.5x more likely

to accept your InMail

at your company
Past applicants: People who have applied to your company before
Engaged with your talent brand: People who have engaged

People who are engaged with your

talent brand are

2x more likely
to accept your InMail

with your Company Page, status updates, or Job Posts

Competitors talent pools: People your competitors target,
including those affiliated with the schools or companies from
which they tend to recruit
Potentially ready for a move: People who have been in their

More tenured people are less likely to

accept your InMail, but those who do

are more likely

to consider the open position

current role for 1-5 years

Have recruiting activity: People who have been contacted or
engaged by recruiters at your company

LinkedIn Recruiter // 43

Appendix

Where to start
Weve covered a lot in this book, but you dont have to tackle everything at once.
This chart will help you identify your most pressing talent needs and where to
start.

If this sounds like you,

then you should focus on:

Check out:

Youre a sophisticated recruiting team

competing for the highest-quality talent.

Strengthening your employer brand to

nurture your reputation and leveraging
your employees networks to reach hardto-find passive talent.

Career Page
Recruitment ads
Elevate
Jobs
Referrals

You already have a strong reputation as

an employer.

Recruiter
You need to hire a high volume of
people quickly.
You tend to use job boards or agencies
to meet your recruiting needs.

Posting your job openings on LinkedIn to

target the right talent with the right skills
and experiences. Also, focus on activating
your employees to share your
opportunities and make referrals.

Jobs
Referrals
Career Page
Recruiter

You have a small team and a tight

budget. You need a cost-effective way to
recruit a low but steady volume of talent.

Using your Career Page to advertise your

open roles and build your employer
brand.

Career Page
Jobs
Recruiter

You rely on staffing agencies to fill many

of your open positions.

Also, explore creative, authentic ways to

share with candidates what makes your
culture so unique.

Most people you recruit arent aware of

you as an employer.

The Modern Recruiters Guide // 45

Want more? The LinkedIn Talent Blog has it.

The LinkedIn Talent Blog is one of the industrys hottest publications for a reason
it covers everything you need to know to be great at your job.
Heres a peek at what youll find on the blog:

The latest research and trends

Data Reveals How Candidates Want to be Recruited [INFOGRAPHIC]
Why Women Are Leaving Their Jobs (Your First Guess Is Wrong)

Quick tips and tricks

How to Assess a Resume (in Less Than 6 Seconds)
4 of the Biggest Problems Recruiters Face (And How to Overcome Them)

Fascinating stories from your peers

How GoDaddy Changed Its Image and 3xed the Amount of Women Engineers
Exclusive: How Airbnb Gave Its Candidate Experience a Makeover

Subscribe to
our newsletter

A reason to laugh

to get the latest posts

12 Songs That Speak to Recruiters

delivered straight to

9 Things Recruiters Are Sick of Hearing

your inbox.

The Modern Recruiters Guide // 46

Subscribe to our blog

talent.linkedin.com/blog

Check out our SlideShare

slideshare.net/linkedin-talent-solutions

About LinkedIn Talent Solutions

LinkedIn Talent Solutions offers a full range of recruiting
solutions to help organizations of all sizes find, attract, and

Follow us on Twitter
@hireonlinkedin

engage the best talent.

Founded in 2003, LinkedIn connects the worlds
professionals to make them more productive and

See our videos on YouTube

youtube.com/user/LITalentSolutions

successful. With over 414 million members worldwide,

LinkedIn is the worlds largest professional network.

Products and insights

Give us a call at 1-855-655-5653

talent.linkedin.com

Connect with us on LinkedIn

www.linkedin.com/company/1337

The Modern Recruiters Guide // 47

About the authors

Alyssa Sittig

Emi Hofmeister

Content Marketing Manager, LinkedIn

Senior Product Marketing Manager, LinkedIn

Kate Reilly

Ryan Batty

Marketing Consultant

Director of Marketing, LinkedIn

Mark Menke

Andrew Freed

Global Content Marketing Team Lead, LinkedIn

Senior Director of Global Marketing, LinkedIn

The Modern Recruiters Guide // 48