Communications of the ACM
Tips for Finding Top IT Talent on LinkedIn
Credit: Coburg Banks
Unlike traditional Internet job boards that only engage the IT workers who are actively looking for a job, LinkedIn also offers the ability to engage passive job seekers. This means that companies no longer have to post a job and wait — they can approach candidates who might be interested in an ideal opportunity for career advancement. When a company finds a good candidate in terms of skills, experience, and culture fit, it should use its company page to show off its culture and highlight what's good about working there. In addition, a company can use LinkedIn to tap into the networks of its employees for referral candidates or to identify industry thought leaders.
First of all, companies should focus on making a good impression with job seekers. LinkedIn, when all is said and done, is a social network. If you are going to use it to recruit, you should have a dynamic, regularly updated presence. This includes a company page and a high level of engagement with the LinkedIn community, including new ways to share content across company pages. To make your company more visible, come up with a list of keywords that encompass the role you are trying to fill. One good way to do this is to search through profiles of people who are already in this position and see what keywords show up with regularity. These can then be incorporated into your search for the right candidate.
When you find a person with an interesting profile, click on "People Similar To" in the upper right hand corner of the page to see members with similar profiles. Pay attention to keywords found on those profiles and try a new search using those keywords. Also, try clicking on "People Also Viewed" to see other profiles members have reviewed. Since many hires are the result of internal referrals, ask your current team members if they know of anyone personally or via their LinkedIn network who they think may be a good fit for the role. Groups are free resources that are talent-rich. Target groups that you think will have the talent you are looking for and get involved. In an active group, it should take a short amount of time before you start identifying who the thought leaders are and what interests them. It's important to understand that when engaging a passive employee as opposed to an active job seeker, a hard-sell technique is rarely the right approach.
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