Recruiters: Don’t Expect a Return on Investment from LinkedIn (part 4)

LinkedIn has changed… recruiters are going mad! And at a time when Trump and Brexit are causing a storm online… Well, these things happen in threes!

Or do we need some perspective?

So, the web (and every meeting I am in with recruiters) is full of “how very dare LinkedIn make these changes?” “What a disaster… I want to boycott LinkedIn!”. Now, I’m not deriding the fact that LinkedIn’s changes have caused disruption in the recruitment market, but to be fair, this has consistently been the case and has also been a while in coming.

Some perspective about LinkedIn

How about we stop and think about something…?

Both you as a recruiter and your lovely clients have access to LinkedIn – and your clients often have more budget to spend on a LinkedIn Recruiter Licence. So why are you stressing about the playing field being levelled out, and not being resourceful and looking for opportunities to be competitive? As a recruiter you’re a problem-solving-resourcer-negotiator-clever-being… Oh! And the technology exists for you to create talent pools, warm candidates lists, market your niche… the thing

Your recruitment CRM is a pretty critical (and often undervalued) bit of kit.

3 really good differences between your recruitment software and LinkedIn

1. Only you have access to your recruitment CRM data. Why are you not seeing this as an opportunity to get your clients queuing up and pay through the nose for your warm talent?
2. When you come (or your recruitment boss wants) to sell the business, your recruitment CRM will be valued (or laughed at by the auditors)… No-one will be looking at your LinkedIn network and valuing it… If anything they will look at your empty/out of date database and frowning as to why you have spent so much time not creating a talent pool that you can sell.
3. Creating a warm list of candidates and clients, that hear regularly from you, that value you, that look at your jobs, that respond to your emails and calls – the fact is most recruitment CRM do this for breakfast (and if yours doesn’t… time to change?) and the same for clients and leads/opportunities – this is what clients and candidates want – a speedy recruiter who doesn’t need to advertise/source… perhaps (for those that can remember) like recruitment used to be?

Not burning your LinkedIn bridges

Now, I am a massive fan of LinkedIn. Anything that helps me improve my brand, attracts talent and clients for my recruitment clients, and speeds up sales conversions – I’m in… and paying for it… well, nothing in life is free. I don’t fill up with petrol and drive off… I totally see the value of Tesco and don’t expect a free trolley of shopping either. Plus, spending lots of precious time using free stuff is crazy… especially when the average recruiter screams that they have no time to talk to clients and talent.

Don’t expect ROI from LinkedIn

I have talked before about how recruiters don’t expect ROI from LinkedIn:

1. Recruiters: Don’t Expect a Return on Investment from LinkedIn (part 1) – aka – do you know its value?
2. Recruiters: Don’t Expect a Return on Investment from LinkedIn (part 2) – aka – do you know its cost?
3. Recruiters: Don’t expect a Return on Investment from LinkedIn (part 3) – aka – Is LinkedIn Recruiter Really that Expensive?

Are recruiters finally expecting a return on investment from LinkedIn and that’s why they’re edgy?