In my last post on How Best to Recruit on LinkedIn, I focused on how difficult it is to find great talent. As I watched the final game of the 2018 NCAA Lacrosse game between Duke and Yale, it occurred to me that recruiters may want to dig in and do some scouting within the ranks of student-athlete roster.
Whether Division I, II or III, or high-school athletes who opted out of college sports, this is a talent pool not be overlooked. Their soft skills should be pretty refined considering they have been part of a team, learned a system, dealt with adversity, managed their time, faced tough competition and had to show up early for off-season lifts and conditioning.
If you’re short on recruits for your company, check out some of the athletic rosters at nearby college and universities. Find out if any of your current employees are former athletes. Whom do they know? Don’t wait for a College Fair to meet students or alumni, simply search and send a LinkedIn connection request or InMail.
Now, that I think about it, think about the debate team, theatre majors and even those who didn’t attend college but have worked in a non-traditional field or environment and show exceptional emotional intelligence and good common sense. Give them a reason to want to talk with you, explain why they should consider your team, your company.
If you missed last week’s post, read on.
The war for talent is real. In Vistage’s latest CEO Confidence Index, 64% of CEOs forecast that they will be hiring this year. Developing their existing workforce is the number one thing CEOs are doing to respond to their hiring challenges.
These challenges are real and you need to stand out, or at least present well, to be noticed by candidates today. Although anecdotal, I ask the question about hiring all the time, and the response is the same. “We can’t find enough good people.” With traditional recruiting methods less useful, companies are more willing to try new things to attract talent.
Using LinkedIn to find potential candidates is not new, and most companies use it as a recruiting tool and many as their primary recruiting source. So, while it sounds pretty straightforward, it’s not going to work as well for you, if you don’t set yourself up for recruiting success.
Setting the groundwork for the best possible recruiting experience is critical to your recruiting success. Don’t miss an opportunity to attract the best talent because you’ve overlooked some essential elements.
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How to Best Recruit on LinkedIn? Follow these suggestions.
1. Have your leadership team, recruiter and hiring manager talk about recruiting in their LinkedIn profile Summary. Mention culture, mission, core values. Let people know you’re hiring and why they should consider your organization. Link to your website’s career page for more information.
2. Craft your employment branding message and let people know why they should consider talking with you. What’s your competitive advantage and your why? If you need help figuring out your employment brand, check out Glassdoor’s Employer Brand eBook.
3. Make sure your LinkedIn Company Page is up-to-date and also reference current job opportunities. Post open positions on your LinkedIn Company Page and ask your employees to share the posts with their network. More than 70% of people find their next job through their professional network.
4. Be sure to have a career page on your website that explains who you are and why they should consider your organization as a place to work.
5. Craft compelling and personalized outreach messages to the potential candidates you source through LinkedIn. Mention something specific and be authentic. People receive the canned recruiter InMails every day, and most InMails are not accepted.
6. Develop a talent pipeline the same way you develop a sales pipeline – connect, nurture and engage. Save the InMails for later in the process.
7. Update your job descriptions and write them to appeal to candidates. Any job description that is two or more years old, rewrite.
Start with these tips, and you will present far better to digital, socially-savvy candidates. No one wants to work for a company that is not ready to present and compete in a 21st-century economy.