How Rivas is successfully using LinkedIn to position the healthcare sector as an attractive employer, build brand awareness, influence hires, and reduce agency fees

Giving people the opportunity to learn more about the brand

Rivas engaged LinkedIn. It worked with the LinkedIn customer support team and decided that LinkedIn Job Slots, Careers Page, and Company Page were the optimum products to meet several objectives. Rivas wished to fill a wide range of vacancies in a timely manner and save costs by reducing recruitment agency fees.

“We decided to use LinkedIn,” said Oscar Bontje, Corporate Recruiter at Rivas. “We see the platform, especially our Company Page, as an investment and use it to hire new employees in an indirect way.”

Oscar continued: “Our biggest asset is the Company Page. We can build our company brand on the page, post content, and encourage our employees to post content too. All employee content is linked to our Company Page, and we use it to strengthen our brand and increase brand awareness.”

Rivas’ five-strong recruitment team hires are responsible for hiring talented staff each year and have recently used LinkedIn to successfully fill 59 positions. Anke Stegeman, Team Manager HR and Senior HR Adviser at Rivas, said: “Our own website is important. LinkedIn provides Rivas with big exposure, giving people the opportunity to learn more about us. We do use other recruitment websites, but LinkedIn is more important to us.”

Creating content to engage skilled talent

In the last 12 months, Rivas’ follower base has increased by 18 per cent. The Company Page is constantly growing and now has more than 11,000 followers. Engaging followers is a key pillar for Rivas’ marketing activities. This demonstrates the importance of marketing and a strong employer brand when hiring candidates.

Rivas opted to use some paid for LinkedIn solutions, such as automated banner and Job Slot campaigns. The content generated was “honest” and relatable, making it more appealing to talented candidates. Plus, the content demonstrated the organisation’s size and scale. Anke continued: “Within our organisation, talented professionals will find a hospital, a nursing home, district nurses, and residential care. You won’t find many other organisations in the Netherlands that operate like this. Therefore, we are an attractive employer and can demonstrate to potential candidates that our organisation offers variety in terms of career choices. 

“Our biggest problem is finding people to work in healthcare,” Anke added. “We have had to make the sector look attractive and find more ways to engage with talented individuals.

Creative content influences hires

Rivas has measured the effectiveness of LinkedIn and how the platform’s solutions have influenced candidates on their way to a new role. More than 28 per cent of new hires have been influenced by paid for solutions and targeted content in the last 12 months. This demonstrates how important relevant content is to Rivas’ overall talent strategy. 

Oscar continued: “We strive for more employee engagement because we know the positive results it can have. Of our almost 5,000 employees, almost 1,900 use LinkedIn. When engagement increases, our brand grows more.”

Last year, Rivas saved a significant sum of money on expensive recruitment agency fees because it adopted LinkedIn’s products and solutions. This move has proved incredibly effective. It has strengthened the employer brand and interesting content has also attracted the attention of a future talent pipeline. In turn, this has enabled Rivas to source talent more effectively and identify areas of weakness, such as skills gaps, allowing the business to create more content that would appeal to talent with these skills. 

Oscar concluded: “Our investment in LinkedIn has been very positive. We have achieved incredible results because of the way we use the LinkedIn platform and work with the LinkedIn team. We work in partnership and believe in engaging our employees and collaborating. Therefore, our results keep improving. Employee engagement is paramount. Therefore, we strive to be the best and have as many Rivas ambassadors as possible shouting about the great work our organisation is doing.”