LinkedIn is one of the most active hubs for professional networking and sourcing qualified candidates. Posting an open role on LinkedIn Jobs can help widen the applicant pool and accelerate the hiring process. In this guide, we’ll walk through the process for posting a job on LinkedIn and discuss the best practices that can help you fill a position faster.
How to start your LinkedIn job post
To post a free job, log in to LinkedIn and navigate to the Admin tools in the upper right corner of your business LinkedIn Admin page. Note that this cannot be done from a personal LinkedIn user page; you must have access to a LinkedIn company page in order to post a job.
From the menu on the company page, choose Post A Free Job. This will take you to the LinkedIn Talent Solutions page, where you can fill in the form to start your free job posting. It’s worth noting that you are only allowed one free job posting at a time. If you need to post more than one job at a time, then you will need to pay.
Depending on the type of role you’re hiring, you may want to choose from one of the job description templates LinkedIn provides. The templates are tailored to specific industries and roles, so they can be a great place to start thinking about the qualities you’re looking for in the ideal candidate. These templates are completely customizable — you can add or remove information as needed to fit the unique parameters of your role.
Job description templates are based on the job title you choose. All information can be adjusted as needed.
The last step is to select options for how you would like to receive applications and the screening questions that will narrow down the list of qualified candidates. You can then preview the job listing before publishing it.
Previewing the job post can help visualize what the information will look like before it’s published.
What to include in a LinkedIn job post
At a minimum, the job posting should include the following components:
- Job title
- Brief description of duties and responsibilities
- Required and preferred qualifications
Many job applicants also find it helpful if the post includes optional details such as compensation, benefits, and skills assessment information. Information like this can give your job opening a boost in the LinkedIn Jobs algorithm, increasing the number of people who will see it.
Tips for crafting your LinkedIn job post
LinkedIn has done its own research on how job seekers interact with job posts on its platform. Here are the key takeaways from that research:
LinkedIn has done its own research on how job seekers interact with job posts on its platform and distilled the findings into best practices for crafting job postings that will attract qualified applicants. Here are the key takeaways from that research:
Length
Concise job descriptions tend to get more applicants. LinkedIn theorizes that this is because many people are now job searching and applying from their phones, and more text will overwhelm the smaller screen.
Tone
Striking the right tone is important; you don’t want it to be too formal or too casual. The language in the job description should be friendly and approachable but not too informal. LinkedIn says that potential candidates are 2–4x less likely to apply to a job when the description is too casual.
Language
Avoid using words that are perceived as masculine traits, such as “strong” or “assertive,” to describe the desired culture in which the ad is posted. This kind of language may turn off well-qualified female applicants and reduce your candidate pool.
Relevance
Job seekers are most interested in what the day-to-day responsibilities will look like, what the qualifications are, and how much they’ll be paid for their work. So, prioritize these three components and save information about the company for its website. If candidates want to learn more before they apply, that’s the first place they will look.
Expectations
A potential applicant wants to know what exactly is expected of them if they are chosen, so describe what success looks like for the role with as many specifics as possible. If there’s room in your job ad, consider adding a description of measurable performance metrics that the successful candidate should expect to target within a set timeframe.
Paying to Promote a Job on LinkedIn
After posting your job ad, LinkedIn will start notifying potentially qualified applicants about the job via email and in-app notifications. To ensure more applicants see your job ad, the first tip is to post early in the week, ideally on Monday. Most job seekers are browsing job sites earlier in the week rather than later.
To expand your reach, you may opt to pay an extra fee to promote your posting on the platform. LinkedIn puts paid job ads in front of the most qualified LinkedIn members via push notification. These ads also appear at or near the top of candidates’ search results.
If you choose to promote the post, LinkedIn allows you to set a daily or overall budget in its pay-per-click model, which offers more control over the cost and duration of the job post promotion. This works well if your company knows how much it is willing to spend each day and how long it wants the ad to run.
Alternatively, if your company knows how much it wants to spend but doesn’t necessarily care how long the LinkedIn ad is posted, setting a total budget may be the better option. LinkedIn will pause the post when it has reached your budgeted amount, whether it takes 10 days or 30 days. A good rule of thumb to follow, however, is to keep the post live for at least five days. This will ensure you receive applications from enough qualified applicants.
Regardless of which approach you take with paid LinkedIn job ads, paying to promote a job listing will usually help you find high-quality candidates faster than without the extra visibility. Know that paying for promoted job posting is separate from other paid hiring services LinkedIn offers, including:
- LinkedIn Recruiter
- LinkedIn Recruiter Lite
- LinkedIn Sales Navigator
- LinkedIn Premium
- Sponsored InMail
Other Ways to Promote a Job on LinkedIn
Beyond paying to promote a job posting on LinkedIn, there are many steps you can take to market it even more. You’ll get the most mileage out of a job listing if you pay to promote it and also follow these free marketing strategies.
Employee referrals
First, ask current employees to share on their personal LinkedIn pages to promote the posting among their connections. You should also share the job posting on other company social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
Company communications
If you have an email newsletter on a weekly or monthly, it’s worth including a job opening in it in case any of your subscribers are passive candidates. You should also link to the LinkedIn job posting from your company’s website. Some people might not be logging into LinkedIn regularly, but they may be checking your company website for new openings.
Also Read: The Right Way to Use Video Recruiting
Managing Candidate Applications on LinkedIn
Whether your job post is free or promoted, the post will be searchable and will appear in job alerts. As described above, you’ll get a more targeted pool of applicants if you upgrade the job ad to a promoted post, which can make the recruiting process more efficient.
When job seekers start submitting applications, LinkedIn will collect them all in one place to help you stay organized in the hiring process. You can sort and filter the applications and even rate applicants as a “good fit.” The rating feature will help LinkedIn learn more about what kind of candidates you’re looking for and will start recommending your job to similar job seekers.
LinkedIn also integrates with most applicant tracking or recruiting software applications, so you can continue to track the hiring process directly from the software your talent team uses every day.
If you are adding the job to other job boards besides LinkedIn, which is recommended for the greatest visibility, applicant tracking systems (ATS) are a must for consolidating your applications in one place. ATS applications streamline the recruiting process, from posting a job to giving an offer, and help recruiters act quickly on qualified candidates before another company can snatch them up.
Using LinkedIn for Recruiting
With 740 million members, LinkedIn is an essential resource for finding talent in your industry. While you are ultimately in control of the job posting from start to finish, LinkedIn’s templates, resources, and paid options can make the hiring process even more effective and efficient. To take your hiring process to the next level, consider implementing an ATS to stay organized, promote your open roles on the best job sites, and streamline your recruitment pipeline. Check out our ATS Product Selection Tool to get personalized recommendations for your HR software needs.
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