A comprehensive guide to leveraging LinkedIn Recruiter

A whopping 86% of recruiters in the United States agree that the recruiting landscape has dramatically changed in the last five years and is now completely candidate driven. Because candidates have the upper hand in the hiring process, it is crucial for recruiters to rejig their methods of searching, shortlisting, interviewing and selecting candidates. In today’s era of recruiting, even the smallest mistakes can lead to candidates dropping out of the hiring process.

In order to drive better and more efficient recruiting methods, several job boards and career platforms have started to offer online programs and systems to help talent acquisition teams do a better job. One such platform that has been gaining a lot of popularity among recruiters is LinkedIn’s LinkedIn Recruiter.

This guide to leveraging LinkedIn Recruiter deep dives and examines how recruiters can make the most of the platform in order to acquire high quality talent in a timely and efficient manner.

For starters, what is LinkedIn Recruiter and how is it different from LinkedIn?

LinkedIn recruiter is a tool offered by LinkedIn exclusively to organizations who have verified pages on their platform. This tool helps recruiters streamline their hiring efforts and improve hiring efficiency by using a wide range of search options, communication options, monitoring and tracking options and management options.

Features of LinkedIn Recruiter

Multiple logins in one account

A dream come true for talent acquisition teams – LinkedIn Recruiter allows multiple logins into the same business account. This allows different hiring managers to create, monitor and keep track of various job listings. Talent acquisition teams can even collaborate with each other and share data – improving their overall efforts in the hiring process.

Advanced keyword search for better candidate shortlisting

Recruiters can use 40+ search filters including Boolean search to find candidates that will be more or less perfect for the available job opportunities. Know how recruiters can use Boolean Search to help with recruiting. Check out our guide.

By using advanced search filters, hiring managers can quickly eliminate candidates who do not fit the bill and zero in on candidates that will be ideally suited to move to the next stage – I.e. Interviews. Additionally, AI based recommendations will show candidates with similar profiles and suggested profiles – this will help recruiters build a community database of eligible candidates for any hires in the pipeline.

Reach more candidates with InMails and bulk messaging

Recruiters don’t have to step out of the links on realm to contact candidates. They can simply reach shortlisted candidates by using LinkedIn InMails. LinkedIn Recruiter offers 150 InMails per login account. Recruiters can also optimize the bulk messaging feature of the tool to reach out to more candidates and rapidly spread word about available opportunities. Recruiters can send up to 25 messages to candidates in one go.

Intelligent and insightful reporting

Recruiters can use intelligent reports to streamline their recruiting efforts. From knowing which emails work best for them to understanding what kind of candidates are keen on interviewing with them, recruiters can get their hands on all kinds of actionable insights while using LinkedIn Recruiter.

Keep tabs on shortlisted candidates

Recruiters are sent automatic notifications if shortlisted candidates make any changes to their profiles. Recruiters can use this new information to make their recruitment efforts more efficient.

Although hiring managers swear by the features of LinkedIn Recruiters, it is important to study both sides of the coin to best understand how one can leverage LinkedIn Recruiter in order to benefit their organization. Let’s understand the pros and cons of using LinkedIn Recruiter.

ATS Integration

LinkedIn allows recruiters to streamline the hiring process by integrating LinkedIn Recruiter with the organization’s applicant tracking systems or ATS. This means recruiters do not have to switch between platforms to access information. Furthermore, LinkedIn doesn’t charge a fee for integrating LinkedIn Recruiter with ATS platforms.

Advantages of LinkedIn Recruiter

• Easily prioritize and shortlist candidates by using several different search filters. Recruiters do not have to waste time or effort manually going through candidate profiles and interested applications.
• Recruiters can easily set up alerts and get notified about candidates who meet their search criteria.
• Modify or even rejig recruiting strategies basis the insights shared by LinkedIn Recruiters. Recruiters will be able to know which recruitment efforts are working in favour of the organization.
• Use pre-designed templates or even customized templates while communicating with candidates to maintain authenticity.

Disadvantages of LinkedIn Recruiter

• Expensive – because it promises to streamline the recruiting process, the links on Recruiter is an expensive platform.
• No free trial – unlike LinkedIn Premium which offers a free trial for a month, LinkedIn Recruiter does not offer a free trial.
• The features on the mobile app and the desktop app lack consistency and can cause confusion among recruiters.
• Yearly contract – unlike a Premium subscription that can be caned at any time, LinkedIn Recruiter offers a year-long contract that could be cumbersome for organizations with limited hiring requirements.

How does LinkedIn Recruiter work?

Essentially, LinkedIn Recruiter is four-pronged tool that will help recruiters source candidates, connect with them, manage shortlisted candidates and plan their recruitment strategies. Let’s briefly understand how each of these pillars contribute to an organization’s hiring process.

Sourcing the right candidates

LinkedIn Recruiter provides hiring managers with the resources to search for a suitable candidate among 900 million users across 200 countries. Recruiters can use 40+ search filters, advanced keywords and Boolean to quickly search and find users that might be suitable to work at their organizations.

Recruiters can save their search strings and use them to find new candidates instead of starting from scratch every time. The tool also offers recommendations based on users with similar profiles according to the search string and allows recruiters to prioritize among candidates by showing users who have marked their profiles as “open to work.”

Recruiters can further narrow down their search by customising their job postings – attracting candidates with specific skills and capabilities to apply for available job opportunities.

Connecting with candidates

Recruiters can easily connect with candidates over a single platform using InMails. They can also access email templates and options to customise their communication in order to make the experience authentic.

Recruiters can send upto 150 InMails each month. They can also approach several potential candidates at once by using the platforms bulk messaging services.

Managing candidates

Recruiters can easily keep track of interested applicants and shortlisted candidates and keep that information in one place where it can be easily viewed by all talent acquisition team members. Recruiters can also share these shortlisted profiles with other hiring managers or clients. They can even track the entire communication history with an applicant.

Strategizing and optimizing hiring using insights

The reporting and insights section of LinkedIn Recruiter allows users to pull reports on their hiring efforts. They can easily analyze what efforts are working and which need to be scrapped or revisited. Users can also choose to receive customized reports as per their organization’s needs.

How can recruiters leverage LinkedIn Recruiter to improve their hiring process?

A common misconception among hiring managers is that tools like LinkedIn Recruiter can only take you so far to streamline the hiring process. But if a user knows what they are doing, they can leverage the power of hiring tools and make the most of the available resources to improve hiring efficiency.

Now that we have explained how LinkedIn Recruiter works, let’s understand how recruiters can leverage the tool for better hiring.

Building strategic and targeted pipelines

Hiring managers must understand why they are looking for a candidate before understanding who the likely candidate is. By reviewing the need for the job, hiring managers will be able to build pipelines with a specific goal in mind. This will ensure a search criteria with realistic requirements, it will allow clear communication between hiring managers and potential candidates and it will allow them to find high quality talent.

Keep track of who is following the company page – they could be a potential candidate

Converting a company’s followers into employees is a great idea because if a user is following an organization’s page, it is likely that they have either already applied to a job opportunity within the organization or they relate with the organization’s values and would like to work with them some day. LinkedIn statistics say that 58% of people who follow a company page are likely to agree to work with the organization. Followers are 95% more likely to accept InMail messages from the organization’s recruiters and 81% more likely to respond to those InMails.

Aligning your search strings and talent pipeline in one place

Head hunting is not an easy task. Very often, hiring managers will get the same search results leading to nothing. To avoid the frustration of arriving upon the same results every time, recruiters can create a project using the LinkedIn Recruiter tool. This project will specify details of each role and will allow recruiters to create a talent pool. Every time a recruiter finds a suitable candidate or even an unsuitable candidate, they can simply flag the profile. The AI system will remember the selection and will filter the results during the next search exercise.

Base searches on the organization’s top performers

Organizations on the lookout for candidates with a specific skillset can actually base their search on the profiles of their existing top performers. This allows the search exercise to have precise keywords and the job postings to have clear and specific descriptions. Basing the search and job posting on the profile of the existing top performers will allow hiring managers to view user profiles with similar backgrounds, experiences and skills – thereby expediting the hiring process.

Effectiveness of InMails matter

Because InMails form the first leg of communication between hiring managers and candidates, it is important to ensure that said communication is effective, receives a response and is capable of starting a conversation with a candidate. It is important to note that candidates are very likely to ignore flashy messages that might sound too good to be true. InMails need to be direct, concise and quick. Most importantly, they must not sound like they are bulk message.

Job descriptions MUST describe the job as is and in excruciating detail

A job description is not the space to get creative and write fluff about the available job opportunity. Serious candidates are looking to know exactly what the organization expects from them in terms of job responsibilities. They also want to know if the organization is looking for someone with a specific skillset.

For instance, a candidate who can speak Japanese might be a bonus. But if an organization is looking for a candidate with professional level fluency in spoken and written Japanese, they must specify it to ensure that only interested candidates who actually fit the bill apply for the position.

Take advantage of the Apply Starter feature

Sometimes a good candidate might drop out of the application process because organizations might want them to proceed to a third party page to apply for a job opportunity. It is not always possible to use the Easy Apply feature on LinkedIn as it attracts candidates who are simply looking to get noticed and might not really be suitable for the job. The Apply Starter feature is a way to share the profile of interested candidates with the job poster even if they did not exit the LinkedIn platform to apply for the job opportunity. It tells the user that a potential candidate is interested in applying for the job. Recruiters can then create a seperate database of such candidates and track if they came back and applied for the job on their third party page. If they haven’t done so, recruiters will still be able to contact them through InMails and figure out if they might want to interview for the position.

How Much Does LinkedIn Recruiter Cost?

Depending on an organization’s hiring needs, LinkedIn Recruiter can cost an organization anywhere from $800 and up. Recruiters can get in touch with LinkedIn sales teams to get an exact quote depending on their hiring requirements.

These are some of the latest LinkedIn pricing indications for 2023

Recruiter Corporate: $10,800 billed annually (or $1080 per month)
Recruiter Lite: $1,680 billed annually (or $170 per month)
Business premium (not a Recruiter license): $576 billed annually (or $60 per month)

Is LinkedIn Recruiter right for your organization?

For businesses with extensive hiring needs, LinkedIn Recruiter is an excellent tool and can prove to be quite cost effective. Smaller businesses, however, might be unwilling to invest in subscription based recruitment tools. As an alternative, they can always turn to the more affordable LinkedIn Recruiter Lite.

Is there an alternative to LinkedIn Recruiter?

LinkedIn has introduced LinkedIn Recruiter Lite as an economical and affordable alternative to LinkedIn Recruiter. This platform is especially built for small businesses with limited recruiting needs. It has features similar to LinkedIn Recruiter, but these features are adapted to work best for small business hiring.

Not sure whether your organization must opt for LinkedIn Recruiter or LinkedIn Recruiter Lite?

This comparative table will quickly tell organizations what works best for their recruiting needs – LinkedIn Recruiter or LinkedIn Recruiter Lite.

Canceling your LinkedIn Recruiter Subscription.

Not happy with LinkedIn Recruiter? Follow these quick and simple steps to cancel your LinkedIn Recruiter subscription.

1. Log into your LinkedIn Recruiter account.
2. Go to More at the top of the page and click on Admin Settings.
3. Click on the Manage your account option on the left-hand side and choose Cancel subscription
4. LinkedIn Recruiter will then guide you through the step-by-step subscription cancellation procedure.

Over to you

Reports say that of their 900 million database of users, at least 40 million new people are on the hunt for jobs on LinkedIn every single week. By leveraging the power of LinkedIn Recruiter, organizations can streamline the hiring process to find the best-suited candidates in the most effective way possible, thereby ushering in an era of technology-based modern-day recruiting.

Another recruiting tool that has taken over recruitment by storm is AI recruitment tools like Arya. These tools can help at every step of the way of recruitment process, including sourcing, sorting, and selection. To see how your business can benefit from it, Request a Demo today!

FAQs

How does LinkedIn recruit work?

LinkedIn Recruiter is an advanced recruiting tool that helps companies find and contact potential job candidates on LinkedIn. With LinkedIn Recruiter, you can search for candidates based on a wide range of criteria, such as job title, location, industry, and education level.

What does LinkedIn Recruiter do?

LinkedIn Recruiter offers a variety of advanced search filters to help recruiters find and engage with top talent. These features also include Boolean searches, InMail messaging, candidate match alerts, etc.

How do I upgrade to LinkedIn Recruiter?

To upgrade to LinkedIn Recruiter, simply click on the “Upgrade” button on your LinkedIn account and choose the plan that best suits your needs.

What is the difference between LinkedIn Premium and LinkedIn recruiter Lite?

Basically, LinkedIn Premium is for job seekers, Lite is for recruiters.

With LinkedIn Premium you get a subscription that offers a range of benefits to individual LinkedIn users, such as increased visibility for your profile and the ability to see who’s viewed your profile. LinkedIn Recruiter Lite, on the other hand, is a version of LinkedIn Recruiter that’s designed specifically for smaller businesses and teams.

Is recruiting on LinkedIn free?

Yes, recruiting on LinkedIn is free, but advanced tools like LinkedIn Recruiter require a subscription. However, those recruitment tools come with free trial.

How do I switch to LinkedIn Recruiter Lite?

To switch to Recruiter Lite, simply click on the “Switch to Recruiter Lite” button on your LinkedIn account and follow the prompts to set up your account.

What recruiting tools do you use?

There are many recruiting tools available on the market, including LinkedIn Recruiter, ZipRecruiter, and Glassdoor.

How to pick the right recruiting tool?

To pick the right recruiting tool, start by defining your hiring goals, cost of hire budget, and then consider factors like user experience, customer support, and integration with other HR software tools to ensure a smooth hiring process.