LinkedIn Talent Solutions: 10 tips for hiring your perfect match

Looking for the perfect candidate? New updates to LinkedIn Talent Solutions, announced at LinkedIn’s Talent Connect Conference, make the powerful tools and services you use to leverage real-time data and machine learning even better.

If you’re trying to fill available roles at your organization, you want to advertise your vacancy where the job-seekers are — for many companies, that means LinkedIn. With a network of approximately 645 million job seekers worldwide, LinkedIn is a great option, says Monica Lewis, group product manager, head of jobs, SMB and diversity at LinkedIn.

LinkedIn offers a number of options for companies seeking to find candidates through its platform, and has streamlined its recruiting and hiring platform and integrated its self-service data analytics platform, Talent Insights, as of October 2019. Here is a look at LinkedIn’s recruiting offerings, along with some best practices for making the most of them.

What is LinkedIn Talent Solutions?

LinkedIn’s recruiting and hiring unit, LinkedIn Talent Solutions (LTS), helps companies source, hire and develop talent through a combination of real-time data, AI and machine learning. LinkedIn announced at its Talent Connect Conference in October that it would merge Talent Insights with its Recruiter and Jobs platform so that all its talent management tools reside in a single, integrated platform. Here’s what the newly merged solution includes.

LinkedIn Talent Insights

LinkedIn Talent Insights is a self-service data and analytics tool that helps recruiters, hiring managers and other talent professionals to leverage data when planning and execute recruiting strategies. Talent Insights allows users to define specific talent populations and determine how best to compete for them against key competitors. It also enables users to view rapidly changing market conditions in real time based on LinkedIn’s data set. And because Talent Insights is designed for use by talent acquisition professionals, there’s no need for a data scientist to develop and deliver actionable interpretations of the data, according to LinkedIn.

As of October 2019, Talent Insights will be integrated with LinkedIn’s Recruiter and Jobs experience, says John Jersin, vice president of product for Talent Solutions and Careers at LinkedIn.

“Integrating Talent Insights leverages data from our more than 645 million members and 20 million jobs, standardized skills and titles and allows us to offer real-time insight into demand, available roles, help identify emerging skills and talent pools, and enable these hiring managers and recruiters,” Jersin says.

For job seekers, this integration mitigates the frustration they feel when they’re fighting for the limited pool of available jobs, Jersin says. Talent Insights helps to put the right jobs in front of the right people, he says.

According to LinkedIn’s data, organizations who use Talent Insights in their hiring process are 22 percent more likely to get a positive response from a candidate.

LinkedIn Recruiter and Jobs

LinkedIn Recruiter and LinkedIn Jobs used to be two separate platforms; as of May 2019, LinkedIn has combined these, along with LinkedIn’s Pipeline Builder talent management solution, into a single talent product that is simplified and more intelligent. Recruiter & Jobs is advanced sourcing software that allows talent professionals at larger organizations to go beyond the basics and filter results by candidates’ willingness to relocate, years of experience, geographic location and more. Other filters, like “Open to new opportunities” can identify active as well as passive candidates, which improves response rates through LinkedIn’s InMail by 50 percent, according to LinkedIn.

The product uses AI to recommend relevant candidates that could be a good fit for an available role, and it leverages analytics to make recommendations in real time as you’re crafting your job description. LinkedIn Recruiter & Jobs also allows companies to target open roles using LinkedIn Ads to reach relevant candidates. In the new Recruiter & Jobs, talent professionals no longer have to jump back and forth between the two; the update puts search leads and job applicants for an open role within the same project, viewable on a single dashboard. Candidates can then be saved to your Pipeline, where they’ll move through the later stages of the hiring process.

LinkedIn Recruiter and Jobs also can integrate with an organization’s existing applicant tracking system; as of October 2019, support for Oracle and iCIMS recruiting platforms has been added. LinkedIn has also added its own ATS, Jersin says, called LinkedIn Talent Hub, which is geared towards SMBs.

“Talent Hub brings together information from LinkedIn Recruiter, LinkedIn Jobs, Apply with LinkedIn and more into one platform for simple sourcing, candidate management and hiring,” he says.

Another new feature is Screening Questions; hiring managers can collect and review yes/no information about applicants, and measure factors like comfort level with the commute or confirming a candidate’s education level. This also helps recruiters and job seekers more quickly know if they’re a fit for an available role. LinkedIn has also added skill assessments for candidates to demonstrate their capabilities with technical, administrative, productivity tools, software languages and soft skills, increasing the likelihood that they’ll land a job by 50 percent, according to LinkedIn’s data.

“Currently there’s about 75 skills added to the assessment feature,” Jersin says. “We’ve reached about 2 million people with those.”

LinkedIn Pages

Finally, LinkedIn Pages allows organizations of any size to showcase their unique culture and employee experience by posting employee-created content, videos and photos. Candidates can visit and organization’s page to see what your organization has to offer, as well as get personalized job recommendations and connect with employees like them, according to LinkedIn. Real-time page analytics can identify who’s engaging with your organization’s page and which content is making the greatest impact.

How to make the most of LinkedIn Talent Solutions

To get the most out of LinkedIn Talent Solutions, there are some best practices to follow. These tips will ensure you’re targeting the right applicants, widening the pool of available talent and taking full advantage of recent algorithmic and AI advancements LinkedIn offers.

1. Look beyond active candidates

“One of the things that makes LinkedIn unique is that we understand that users aren’t just actively looking for jobs, they’re sharing interests, engaging with content and making networking connections,” LinkedIn’s Monica Lewis says. “Companies are able to use the social networking aspect to have a fuller view of candidates’ interests, their passion, their skills. Because they want to round out their teams and have people who are compatible with each other when you’re spending eight hours a day together.”

To ensure your recruiting efforts reach the right candidates, LinkedIn’s Lewis recommends broadening your search pool to include passive candidates who might be a good fit. This principle can help guide your use of LinkedIn Recruiter and LinkedIn Jobs, both of which help your organization reach relevant candidates.

2. Embrace remote work

Another new feature in the May 2019 update is the ability for hiring managers to post jobs that feature remote work options. Posting a position that embraces remote work will open up your applicant pool to more qualified candidates by reducing geographic constraints, especially if those roles are hard to fill or are bleeding-edge. With just a few clicks, you can greatly expand your talent pool and your chances of a successful hire.

3. Know what you’re looking for

For larger enterprises using LinkedIn Recruiter, the process starts with a conversation between the LinkedIn contact, the recruiter, the hiring manager and anyone else at the organization with input into hiring to identify the key skills, requirements and experience needed for the job, Lewis says.

“From there, we can hone that to understand what candidate pools are available — and how long it might take to fill a role,” Lewis says. “We researched what the most-recruited jobs were and saw that the three most recruited jobs on LinkedIn are DevOps Engineer, Enterprise Account Executive and Front-End Engineer, so if companies are looking for any of those, it can take longer.”

LinkedIn’s Talent Insights feature can be helpful here, Lewis adds, as it pulls together data to help customers understand how difficult it is to hire for certain roles based on supply and demand, geography and skill set. “That data helps the customer understand if they need to look in other talent pools, broaden their search, offer things like remote work or different benefits and perks,” she says.

The new Screening Questions feature can also be helpful, as it allows hiring managers to home in on factors such as whether a candidate is comfortable with commute times, confirming education levels and skill sets. The added functionality of Skills Assessments can help benchmark applicants’ skills against those needed for success in the job role, making it easier to match roles with available candidates.

4. Leverage technology to the fullest

Jersin advises enterprises to make full use of LinkedIn’s technologies — easier now that they’re in one integrated platform — to save time and focus on determining which applicants to engage with further.

“Now is the time to shift towards a more people-centric approach to managing talent – rather than thinking of talent as a commodity, or ‘human capital.’ You have to pay attention to individuals, to culture, to skills that will be more pertinent over time. That’s what this new, integrated platform does,” he says.               

5. Emphasize what candidates want to know

Lewis advises not wasting the limited space you have in a job posting on information that’s not going to hook candidates. Earlier in 2018, a LinkedIn study asked around 700 job seekers and LinkedIn users what grabbed their attention in companies’ job postings and what would entice them to apply, she says.

“It really comes down to three things candidates want to know: What will they do? How much will they make? And will they match the qualifications?” Lewis says. “That means focusing your post on what tasks they’ll do, where the role is based, do they have direct reports. The more specific you can be in those areas the better. They want to know about the company, the culture and the mission, yes, but what we also found is they look for those things on a company’s LinkedIn page. On the job page, they want to look at the specifics of the job.”

To that end, Salary Insights have been “unlocked,” and are no longer a Premium feature, according to LinkedIn. Now, salaries appear on LinkedIn Jobs postings and are available to all members. In addition, LinkedIn plans to roll out Skill assessments to give members the ability to assess, validate and showcase their career skills so they stand out in a crowded field, and to give recruiters and hiring managers another way to vet candidates, LinkedIn says.

6. Use concise, clear language

To draw candidates’ interest, it may be tempting to add flair to your posting, but Lewis recommends avoiding jargon like ‘Code Ninja’ or ‘Rockstar developer.’ “Again, job seekers are looking for clarity — they aren’t describing themselves that way, and so they’re not going to be engaged by that kind of language,” she says.

7. Know when to post

LinkedIn’s data shows that Mondays are when most people are looking for new roles; more than 60 percent of job views for the week come on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, Lewis says. “If posting on those days works for employers, they can see a slight uptick in responses, but we do make sure that we’re getting those jobs in front of the right people, so you’re not doomed if you post on Friday,” she says.

Lewis adds that January is also a high activity month, as people try to make a new career start in the new year.

8. Remember mobile device users

Most users today are accessing LinkedIn on their mobile devices, Lewis says, so remember to keep that in mind when you’re working on your job descriptions. “You need to make sure everything’s as concise and punchy as possible — it’s harder to take in on that smaller device screen,” she says.

New updates in May 2019 took into account that more than half of job seekers are using mobile in their search, according to LinkedIn. A redesigned Jobs homepage streamlines LinkedIn Jobs into a single search-and-scroll model, making it easier for job-seekers to find and apply for roles. In the latest update, mobile Recruiter has been revamped to include these improvements, as well as allowing for a real-time messaging capability, better candidate management and improved collaboration, says Jersin.

9. Get staff engaged

Recruiting and hiring, even with the advantage technology can provide, is a team sport, Lewis says. The more companies can encourage their current workforce to engage on LinkedIn and signal to others that the company is a great place to work, the better, Lewis says. Doing so can also help stir interest from potential candidates in your employees’ networks.

LinkedIn’s acquisition of employee engagement and feedback platform Glint in 2018 aims to integrate these features into LinkedIn’s existing set of talent management tools, says Jersin.

“Glint allows for seamless execution of employee engagement surveys and generates rich and deep analysis of teams; that helps managers create action plans to improve the health and happiness of the organization and focuses on employee engagement and morale,” Jersin says.

10. Consider career paths

Of course you should be listing the skills, requirements and knowledge needed to thrive in an open role at your company, but remember that it’s a two-way street, says Lewis. “You also need to include what’s in it for the candidate — how can they develop, grow and thrive with your company, too,” she says.