LinkedIn product tips

15 LinkedIn Features That Help You Get Ahead of This Year's Biggest Hiring Trends

Diversity, data, and artificial intelligence are three of the biggest hiring trends this year, according to our recently released 2018 Global Recruiting Trends report. What’s exciting is that these three movements in recruiting are making the profession more strategic and are letting you focus on what truly matters—building relationships.

At LinkedIn, we wholeheartedly support this push and you can see that reflected throughout all the product updates we made in the past year. We focused on empowering you with data and insights, all the while making finding the right candidate (from our pool of 546+M diverse members) faster thanks to artificial intelligence and machine learning.

Here are 15 of the features we have recently released that make you a more effective recruiter and allow you to stay ahead of the latest transformational trends mentioned above:

Let’s dive into a few of the largest updates and talk about how you can apply them today to give your organization a competitive edge.  

Reach more diverse and high-demand talent with Pipeline Builder

Diversity is seen as the top recruiting trend by 78% of talent professionals and hiring managers. Yet, many organizations struggle to improve in this area. Our research indicates that the largest barrier is difficulty finding enough diverse candidates to interview.

Pipeline Builder allows you to reach the right talent automatically with a Sponsored Update or Recruitment Ad targeted to your key audience. It enables you to attract talent through a personalized landing page where you can showcase why your organization and jobs are an excellent choice. You can also use this as a space to show candidates you value diversity through the content you feature. From there, your team can engage the candidates who click “I’m Interested” by following-up and moving them through your standard hiring process.

Pipeline Builder can help you reach audiences you’ve had difficulty finding in the past and provides your team with quality, interested leads—saving you time and ultimately improving your hire conversion rates.

Source talent more effectively with the new AI-powered features

Most recruiters and hiring managers anticipate that the impact of artificial intelligence on recruiting is increasing, and 35% of them say AI is a top trend impacting how they hire. Sourcing candidates is seen as the top task where AI can be helpful, and LinkedIn is applying this today in numerous areas.

1. Find the candidates who are more likely to respond with Spotlights

LinkedIn uses AI to analyze behavioral data and surface candidates who are more likely to respond to your outreach, right within LinkedIn Recruiter. New Spotlights help you identify who you should reach out to first and how to more precisely find the talent you’re looking for, consequently improving your conversions and saving you effort.

Recruiters who leverage Spotlights see 64% higher InMail response rates:

  • The Open Candidates Spotlight gathers those who have signaled they’re open to new opportunities – who are 2X more likely to respond to your InMail.
  • The Past Applicant Spotlight surfaces talent that started to apply, but may not have completed your job application. This audience is likely still interested in your organization and are therefore 4X more likely to respond to your InMail (you’ll have access to this spotlight if you’re leveraging Recruiter System Connect or Apply with LinkedIn Plugin on your career site).  
  • The "Likely to Respond" and “Engaged with Your Talent Brand” Spotlights analyze candidate interactions and signals on the LinkedIn platform to determine who is more likely to respond to your outreach.

2. Boost engagement with your open roles on mobile thanks to new Jobs experience

Today’s consumer expects ease and relevance in the information they digest, which is often on their mobile device. To help you connect with top talent who are finding and discovering new jobs on-the-go, LinkedIn developed a new Jobs tab on mobile. This new hub is powered by machine learning, which surfaces relevant job insights to a candidate and responds to the user’s real-time feedback to improve future job recommendations.

50M+ LinkedIn members now view jobs on LinkedIn every month, up more than 2x since 2015. As a talent acquisition professional, you’ll benefit from this boost in the jobs ecosystem through additional engagements with your open roles on LinkedIn. Keep mobile-friendly strategies in mind: write concise descriptions, focus on the needs of the candidate and optimize your application process to avoid drop-off.

Get the data you need to help your organization gain a competitive edge with Performance Summary and Search Insights

69% of talent professionals believe that data could elevate their careers. The Performance Summary Report helps put rich, real-time data at your fingertips, allowing you to easily share insights with your internal stakeholders after just a few clicks. You can also access data like job slot utilization, InMail response rates, influenced hires, hiring and departure trends, and company followers.

Pairing this information with other data on LinkedIn, such as Search Insights within Recruiter, can help you make more insights-driven sourcing decisions and ultimately empower your team.

To see more exciting LinkedIn product innovations from 2017, visit our Product Updates page to learn more!

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