Recruit effectively on LinkedIn

You use LinkedIn to recruit without much success? You wonder if it's even possible to find good candidates on this platform?

You're not alone. Many recruiters find they can't manage to find ideal candidates on LinkedIn, despite many personalized messages and posts presenting their job offers. The fact is , this network is neither a job board nor a resume database.

And yet, LinkedIn can be a formidable recruitment tool when used the right way. You just have to understand the rules of the game. We'll explain!

What is LinkedIn for?

LinkedIn is a very particular network. Nearly 400 million active members use it, all differently, and that's what makes it so complicated to handle when you want to recruit.

A social network

LinkedIn is above all a social network, meaning a website that lets you post personal content and interact between users. So it serves above all to share ideas, practices, and initiatives.

Unlike other social networks, LinkedIn is a professional, formal network that limits anonymity, which makes it very particular.

A multifunction platform

You've probably noticed that LinkedIn offers a multitude of features. You can

• post information,
• consult profiles,
• promote job offers,
• exchange via private messaging, etc.

That's why its users have very different goals, which are sometimes hard to spot.

Why is LinkedIn a specific recruitment tool?

LinkedIn isn't a job board

Unlike job boards or sites listing job offers, LinkedIn's primary purpose isn't to enable hiring. Although its "Jobs" tab strongly resembles traditional job boards, the platform's goal is much broader.

So it doesn't replace job boards and other sites specifically focused on recruitment.

LinkedIn isn't a resume database

LinkedIn is sometimes considered by recruiters to be a huge resume database listing millions of candidates. Yet, as we've pointed out, the platform's members have varied goals. LinkedIn users aren't all signed up to find a job.

So the network's member profiles aren't all resumes to consider. They are also not necessarily up to date or complete, and some relevant candidates may not even be signed up.

LinkedIn therefore has many uses, and as such is neither a job board nor a resume database. That's exactly why it's hard to recruit candidates there, but it remains possible when you know how to go about it.

What you absolutely should not do on LinkedIn to recruit

Assume everyone is a candidate

As mentioned above, LinkedIn is a multifunction platform. Yet many recruiters consider it a job board and a resume database. But not all users are candidates.

Assuming everyone is a candidate leads to behaviors that can waste your time and harm your company's image, like sending private messages ill-suited to uninterested profiles.

So it's essential to take this into account when approaching users to recruit them. The "Open to Work" banner on a profile photo or the date of the most recent job are good indicators.

Start from the principle that in tech, all the best profiles are already employed. So you'll have to find a strategy to poach them and convince them to change companies.

Neglect the importance of your presence

LinkedIn is above all a social network, and works thanks to an algorithm. The algorithm proposes content to you based on your interests, but also on those of others. This algorithm rewards the quantity and regularity of posts, that is, your presence.

If you want candidates to spot you — without going through paid sponsoring — you must therefore not neglect the importance of your presence on the network. So we invite you to multiply discussion threads and make yourself accessible, through the "Hiring" banner for example.

Also don't hesitate to take time to work on your employer image by regularly posting relevant content on the network. If you want to recruit tech profiles, show that you understand the sector's stakes and share complete, relevant posts.

By working on your image on social networks, you increase your visibility and improve your chances of attracting the best profiles.

Posting the list of open jobs

If you have several job offers to promote, you may have thought of posting the list via your profile or your company's page.

A priori, this practice isn't very effective, especially since LinkedIn rather favors the visibility of sponsored job offers.

This is even more true in the tech sector. Indeed, most candidates are already employed and don't look at job offers. Keep in mind that a good candidate in tech gets headhunted almost daily by companies and recruitment firms. So it's really less interesting to post recruitment offers in this sector.

What you should do on LinkedIn to recruit

Work on your employer brand

To improve your presence on LinkedIn, it's important to build a strong employer brand.

So we strongly recommend creating a company page and filling out as much information as possible. Show that you're credible!

We advise posting regularly to make your company's values known and make it attractive to potential candidates.

In tech, it's particularly important to build an employer brand that "speaks to tech profiles."

To learn more, discover our article on how to build a tech culture within your company to recruit the best talent.

Select the right profiles

To avoid wasting time and only contact relevant candidates, we invite you to define a list of keywords framing the characteristics of the profiles you're looking for.

When you use LinkedIn's search engine, you can filter results based on these keywords so that only relevant profiles are shown to you.

You can notably filter candidates based on their current roles, their education, or their network. A good tech profile could, for example, have many other profiles in their network that could interest you. Don't hesitate to use LinkedIn for that!

If you want to learn more about a profile, also check candidates' portfolios on other networks like GitHub.

Personalize your job offers

If you choose to communicate your job offers from your company page, favor one post per offer.

Take the opportunity to precisely present the missions, the work atmosphere, and possibly a brief testimonial from an employee.

Also encourage other members of your company to interact to favor the visibility of your post.

Use the opportunity to differentiate yourself from your competitors and show your expertise in tech roles. Highlight competitive advantages such as the option of remote work, for example.

How to use LinkedIn effectively to recruit in tech?

You may have already experienced it: the world of tech is very specific. Recruiting a tech profile on LinkedIn requires adopting the practices we presented above.

Identify candidates

Even more than for other sectors, it's essential to not assume that all users with tech skills are candidates. Tech profiles are particularly in demand; they complain about being approached too regularly on LinkedIn by recruiters even though they aren't looking for a job.

To avoid annoying them, make sure they really are potential candidates.

Furthermore, your list of keywords to filter your searches must include the specific technical skills you need, like the software they master, for example. So you must know exactly the type of profile you're looking for.

Speak the same language

Techs use specific jargon, which may be obscure to you. It's nonetheless very useful to take it on board so as to approach tech candidates and make their understanding easier. The clearer your discourse and your job offers seem to them, the more chances you'll have to attract them.

So when you post or start a conversation by message, make sure to use the language of the profiles you're targeting.

To learn more about the best practices for recruiting a tech profile, we invite you to consult 5 tips to make the difference when recruiting in tech on LinkedIn.

Become an expert recruiter thanks to Bluecoders Academy

As you've seen, it can be tricky to use LinkedIn in your recruitment processes. It requires real knowledge, especially when you want to recruit a tech profile.

We invite you to save time and acquire these skills and more by joining one of our lightning training programs.

The Bluecoders Academy offer

At Bluecoders Academy, we offer various training programs to become an expert in tech recruitment. These training programs are fast, intense, and effective, and aim to make you an expert recruiter of tech profiles.

Our certifying program to become a tech recruiter in 5 days teaches you to approach, convince, and evaluate tech profiles meeting your needs.

Want to get familiar with tech vocabulary and culture so as to best approach candidates? Our other training programs are made for that! Broken into different modules, they offer you many tools to tame the tech sector.

So join our information-sharing community to train yourself and become a recruitment expert!

They put it better than we do

"This training let me revisit the fundamentals of recruitment and deepen my skills in tech. I recommend this training for people who recruit tech profiles." – Aurélie, HR Director at Shappers.