Streamline the hiring process with these recruitment tips.

Remove gender-coded language from job descriptions.

Your job posts may need a makeover. For example, remove gender-coded words like “aggressive,” “dominate,” or “rock star,” and include salary range and benefits. Find out the ratio of women to men applying for a job with LinkedIn Jobs. Also consider how your company’s gender diversity comes through on your Career Page and social posts. Learn more ways to adjust your gender-parity tactics.

Search underrepresented schools with one Boolean string.

A time-tested but often overlooked hack for finding underrepresented groups is a Boolean search. Boolean modifiers help refine and speed your search to find those candidates that fit your exact criteria. For instance, you can home in on keywords such as “and,” and “or,” or phrases like “women only colleges” or “historically Black colleges” (HBCUs) to precisely focus your search and find candidates from often -underrepresented groups.

Incorporate employer branding in your hiring process.

Put your brand top of mind for potential candidates. One way is through consistent social media content. Employees are your secret weapons, often having social networks 10x larger than your employer brand. Make it easy for them to find unique hashtags and encourage sharing of team events, work anniversaries, and other behind-the-scenes moments. Building out your Career Page can also showcase your culture and job opportunities.

Build on the power of referrals.

Employees are often the best source to attract qualified candidates. Even better, referred candidates tend to stay longer in their new job. Encourage employees to share the right opportunities with their colleagues and friends.

Here are four steps that will increase success: 

    1. Adopt a formalized but easy referral program
    2. Regularly promote open jobs for referrals, along with incentives 
    3. Integrate the referral program into onboarding and manager training
    4. Advocate for employees to look at their wider network for referral diversity

Craft a well-written InMail to get a candidate's attention.

Potential employees are like all of us — a generic or pushy subject line, unclear information, or other turnoffs will get the delete button. 

Instead, follow these guidelines:

    •     Craft a catchy, short-but-specific subject line
    •     Keep the email short, to the point, and friendly
    •     Personalize with the candidate’s unique qualifications or an anecdote
    •     Engage your LinkedIn network to source candidates

Explore more tips to streamline and save time on your outreach strategy.

Engage the hiring manager to contact candidates.

If there’s talent you consider a must-have, save time and effort and go straight to the potential future boss. Candidates are 56% more likely to respond to the hiring manager than a recruiter. People also tend to answer those in authority-figure roles faster.

Put candidate-meeting planning on auto pilot with InMail.

Ditch the headache of syncing schedules. Instead, streamline scheduling calls with the Scheduler tool in InMail. Let automation do the work. All a candidate needs to do is click the InMail link and select a time slot that works for both of you. The screening will automatically appear on your calendar, saving both of you time and keeping you on schedule. Done and done.

Narrow your candidate pool with predictive assessment tools.

Screening many candidates at a rapid clip isn’t ideal or realistic. An easier way to spot potential hires faster is a LinkedIn Skill Assessment, available for a range of technical, business, and design skills. This brief but comprehensive tool allows recruiters to test a candidate’s skills knowledge listed on their profile. It’s also a win for potential hires: More than 75% of candidates want a way for hiring managers to verify their skills, to stand out from other candidates.

Prep candidate interview expectations on your website.

Knowing what to expect during an interview helps the interview process go smoother for the candidate and the recruiter. In fact, 65% of candidates turn to a company’s website to plan for an interview, for answers on what to bring, where to check in, questions they’ll be asked, and more. Posting this information helps candidates feel more prepared, confident, and empowered. It’s also better for you —fewer phone calls, questions, and concerns.

Get instant access to top-rated interview questions.

Every recruiter has their go-to questions, but each role should ideally have a unique set customized to the talents and skills needed.  Our Interview Question Generator has 58 questions you can generate to identify soft skills — from leadership to adaptability and creativity. It takes just a minute to fill out and print, and includes a guide, scoring system, and notes space.

Align interviewers on candidate skill sets before interviews.

A predefined, standard set of measurement criteria for candidate interviews is key to a smooth-running hiring process, from the initial phone screening to interviews with the hiring manager. For instance, our interview candidate evaluation form for screening calls helps candidates get an equal shot at the job early on. For interviews, a shared understanding of what soft skills look like in action with pre-defined meanings and examples keeps everyone on track and moving along the same path. 

Put your best interviewers first and last, and conduct fewer interviews overall.

Fact: Our brains remember the first and last events in a series better than those in- between. This helps on two fronts during the interview process: candidates leave with the best possible impression of your company, and your pro interviewers evaluate for soft skills, which are sometimes difficult to analyze. Research shows that typically after the fourth interview, no new insights about the candidate are made. Instead, consider streamlining interviews and questions and focus on closing with the right candidate.

Pre-block interviewers’ calendars for feedback while it’s fresh.

Close the loop on a candidate interview by setting up time in advance on the interviewer’s schedule. This simple-but-effective tactic helps with foggy memories when too much time goes between the interview and follow-up, and they may rely too heavily on other interviewers’ opinions.

Schedule a day to follow up with all candidate status updates.

If you have a lot of candidates to update, do it all at one time, typically at the end of the week. This method, advocated by The Talent Agency founder Stacy Zapar, ensures no candidate will go into the weekend without hearing from her. Setting this expectation, you won’t need to field as many messages during the week.

For candidates you want to keep warm, it’s especially important to stay in touch so they don’t accept an offer elsewhere. Reach out to these prospects by email, highlighting interview moments that impressed you. Let them know where in the hiring process you are, when you expect to conclude interviews, and any next steps to complete.

Prepare a thoughtful offer letter that doesn't pressure the candidate.

Keep the momentum going with the right candidate by sharing the good news right away. A thoughtful offer letter is proven to be more effective than a narrow 48-hour acceptance window, also known as the “exploding offer.” Putting unnecessary pressure on a candidate before they’ve joined does long-term damage before they even accept. Instead, make offer dates reasonable and have candidate discussions when deadlines aren’t met.

Set up new hires on your company systems before their first day.

The first day can be overwhelming for a new employee. Taking care of new-hire setup on internal systems prior to their start date avoids delays and stress for everyone involved. Coordinating their company email account and other important tools and systems will help day one be more productive and efficient. Even better, if the new hire has access to their team’s collaboration platforms, they’ll be able to get to know their coworkers before their first day. 

Stay organized with our 45-day onboarding checklist.

Onboarding involves a lot of moving pieces. Take your new hires through all of the key onboarding steps with this handy checklist. It covers important actions in the onboarding process from before the start date, to the first day, week, and month on the job. The checklist will keep you on task and on schedule for each step as you go.

Implement a new-hire buddy system.

Help new hires start their job more easily by assigning a work buddy before their first day. It can make new employees feel more comfortable in their new role and speed up the orientation process. New hires can learn about their job from someone they’ll be working with on a daily basis, explore company culture firsthand, and build connections early on.