Put On Your Recruiter Hat With These 3 Simple Tips

Are you trying to grow your team with the right people? It’s no secret that LinkedIn is a fantastic place to recruit job applicants. LinkedIn even has a recruiting-specific subscription, Recruiter Lite, and a number of other paid tools for hiring.

Many of my clients have a recruiting element to their roles, but wouldn’t necessarily consider themselves recruiters. For example, some are the CEOs who are only involved in executive hiring or they are part of the marketing team responsible for hiring summer interns.

If you’re not ready to pull the trigger on paid LinkedIn recruiter tools, but you want to use LinkedIn to attract the best candidates and find the best possible new hires, today’s tips are for you. There are plenty of free ways to promote your job openings and find qualified candidates on LinkedIn. Here are my top three recommendations to help you put on your “recruiter hat” and build your team through LinkedIn.

1. Use the #Hiring feature on LinkedIn. 

If you read my article on job searching, you already know that LinkedIn’s #OpenToWork feature allows job searchers to add a green frame to their profile pictures. This frame indicates to recruiters and hiring managers that they’re open to new positions. Similarly, the LinkedIn #Hiring feature allows any LinkedIn member to add a purple profile picture frame, letting their networks know that their companies are seeking candidates for an open position (or positions).

Just like the #OpenToWork frame, the #Hiring frame is an efficient way to let people know about job opportunities. You’ll quickly increase the fruit of your efforts by both actively seeking candidates and attracting candidates to you. Even if you outsource most of your recruiting, it’s not a bad idea to let your network know you’re hiring, too. You never know who in your network might know the perfect person for the job. 

2. Leverage your headline.

Your headline is another great place to alert your network that you’re hiring. Remember, in search results, both your profile picture and your complete headline will be visible. While the #Hiring profile picture frame only tells people that you’re hiring, your headline gives you the space to specify who you’re hiring. Here’s an example. 

Like activating the #Hiring feature, changing your headline is a fairly passive, but effective way to attract the right candidates to you and reinforce your active hiring efforts. Having the word “hiring” in your headline also increases the chances that your profile will come up in candidates’ searches.

3. Feature your job openings. 

Finally, be sure to capitalize on the highly visual space available in your featured work section. After your smiling face in your profile picture and your informative headline, your featured work will likely be the next element of your LinkedIn profile that visitors notice.

I recommend including either a link to your careers page or individual job descriptions—whichever best fits your current needs. If you have many positions available or your job openings change rapidly, a more dynamic option is probably your best featured work option since you won’t have to remember to go back and update it often. Here’s an example.

If you’re hiring for a single position or you have a high-priority job opening, such as an executive or leadership role, go ahead and feature the document that contains the job description as its own featured work. Make sure it’s easy to download or share so that people in your network can easily pass it along to someone they think could be a great fit. 

Assuming you have a direct hand in hiring, be sure to include your contact information in the description of your featured work; if you’re not the point of contact, include your colleague’s contact information. In addition to including your hiring site or a job description in featured work, you should also consider creating a post about the positions you’re hiring for and/or your company culture. You can then highlight this post as featured work on your profile, too. 

The Wrap Up:

Even if your primary title isn’t “recruiter,” you’re missing out if LinkedIn isn’t a part of your overall hiring strategy. Whether you’re utilizing your profile as a space to promote your culture and job openings or not, you should assume candidates will view your LinkedIn profile as part of their due diligence on your company. That’s one of many reasons why your LinkedIn profile should be up-to-date and an excellent reflection of you and your company. 

Still need some help? Updating your profile is simple with The Ultimate LinkedIn Profile Examples Guide. In it, you’ll find more than 20 pages of inspiration from top-notch LinkedIn profiles. Check it out, and go build deeper connections on LinkedIn.