What does recruiting mean to you?
For some business owners and managers in technology, recruiting conjures up images of sifting through endless piles of applications, uncomfortable interviews, and lost productivity from open positions.
But it doesn’t have to be that way.
Companies that understand how to use modern techniques for recruiting will find that there is a much easier way to connect with talented IT professionals interested in career advancement.
One of those methods is LinkedIn. The rise of social media means that companies can instantly connect with candidates with the right skills and experience. According to LinkedIn’s 2015 Global Recruiting Trends Report, in the past four years the amount of quality hires from social professional networks has increased 73%.
At ProResource, we make it easy for companies to use LinkedIn to build relationships with potential new hires.
How do we do it? Our process involves four key steps:
1. Understand our clients’ needs
We take time to gain a deep understanding of the kind of candidate that our clients are looking for. From certifications to employment history, we analyze every part of a person’s profile to see if they would be a good fit.
2. Perform a search based on skills and area
With a good sense of what our clients are looking for, we use our years of experience searching LinkedIn to perform targeted keyword searches that identify the right people in the client’s geographic area.
3. Send a connect request directly from the CEO’s account
After identifying fitting prospects, ProResource sends carefully crafted introductions through LinkedIn directly from the account of your CEO or hiring manager. These inquiries are sent as connect requests. They clearly state the sender’s interest in having the candidate apply for an open position with the company.
4. Follow up with specific job information
Once the candidate has accepted the connect request, we follow up with a message that offers information about the company and a link to a full description of the available role. This message also includes a referral request, in case the person isn’t interested but knows someone who might be.
Why does it work?
ProResource has found tremendous success matching qualified candidates to open positions at small technology companies using this approach, for several reasons:
- Candidates and employers can build a more personal relationship. Prospective hires are contacted directly by the interested company, which makes them more inclined to respond to the request. Even if they aren’t interested in a current opening, these connections become a part of your network, which makes it easy to reach out to them for future opportunities.
- The best hires are often those who aren’t actively looking for a job. In fact, research shows that 85% of employees in the workforce are either open to talking to a recruiter, looking for a job, or reaching out to their personal network for opportunities. By engaging these passive candidates on LinkedIn, employers broaden their access to the talent pool.
- New hires get to learn more about prospective employers. To perform at the highest possible level, new hires must feel comfortable with their employer. ProResource’s approach to recruiting allows this to happen much earlier in the hiring process, since candidates who are contacted will almost instantly begin familiarizing themselves with your company.
Unlike recruiting agencies, we don’t take a percentage of the new hire’s salary. Our LinkedIn recruiting services are billed at a flat rate of $1700 per month. In our experience, one month of reaching out to qualified candidates is all that is required for small technology companies to fill their vacant positions.
For more information, contact us directly.