LinkedIn is possibly said to be the most ‘happening’ platform for professionals to network and career development. It has been reported that about 50 million users go through LinkedIn to find a job or their next position.
Candidates looking for a new opportunity or passive candidates can view active jobs quite effortlessly, thanks to the user-friendly interface of the platform. Once candidates start looking and applying for jobs, they also start receiving relevant posts about similar opportunities.
For employers, LinkedIn has turned out to be one of the world’s leading ways to post jobs and find great candidates. This has been reported in various forms of media. Reviewing a potential candidate’s profile on LinkedIn can ease the recruitment process.
Social recruitment has also proven to be a great tool to proactively search for potential candidates, build a relationship with them and encourage them to apply for vacant job positions. This has also helped reduce recruitment costs significantly. Studies have shown that the cost of hiring has gone down to 20% from 24%.
What is the cost of posting a job on LinkedIn?
Posting job opportunities available in your organization on LinkedIn is a prudent step for recruiters since your job post will appear in the feed of all potential or aspiring candidates.
Quite conveniently, LinkedIn has the option to set a daily or total budget for promoting available jobs. The higher the budget, the higher will be the visibility for your job post.
The free posting and promoted posts have their features:
Free posting
Has visibility among your connections
Visible in search results
Can have only one free job post open at a time
Free jobs expire within 30 days from the date of the job post
Promoted posting
Has visibility among your connections
Is shown at the top of the search results
Appears in recommended jobs
Has alert system for candidates and employers
With a daily budget (under the pay-per-click model), the amount charged will depend on the number of clicks (views) from candidates. If you set a daily budget, the post will remain open until you close it.
If your posting has the possibility of attracting more clicks, the LinkedIn algorithm will automatically stretch your daily budget by 30%. However, you will not be charged more than twice your daily budget in one day, nor more than your total budget over 30 days.
You can post a job and close it as soon as you find the right candidate. However, the average cost is around $1.50 per click.
With a total budget, the job post will pause automatically once your allocated budget is spent.
It has been noticed that free job postings do get almost 60% of all the applicants as the LinkedIn paid ones. Other free features like adding the #Hiring frame to your profile photo on LinkedIn will let your network know that you are looking to fill job positions. Sharing active job posts regularly on your profile with your connections creates a solid referral network.
5 Steps to post a job on LinkedIn for free
Before looking at posting jobs on LinkedIn for free, you must have access to a LinkedIn company page to post a job. This cannot be done from a personal LinkedIn user page.
Here are the detailed steps to post a free job post:
Step 1: Log in through the LinkedIn homepage
You can also log in to LinkedIn Talent Solutions with the same credentials instead.
On the top right corner, click on Work – Post a job for free.
You may be routed to a page with contract options if you are a recruiter. Click Continue next to (Your Name)’s LinkedIn Job Posting. You will see the following screen:
Enter the Job Title. If your information is common, you will find it in an autofill list. As mentioned earlier, your company must have a LinkedIn page. Workplace type has 3 options: on-site, remote, and hybrid. Job type has a dropdown list to choose from. These criteria also make it simpler for you to connect with passive candidates.
Click on Get started for free to fill in details about the job.
Fill in the information regarding Job responsibilities, qualifications, and skills needed for the role. If you already have a clear Job description for the role, filling in this information should be easy for you.
Try to be as clear and concise as possible. List the details in four to six mobile-friendly bullet points.
Avoid overly generic descriptions like “good communication.” Be more specific.
Mention hard skills, like technical or language proficiency, as well as soft skills, like leadership or adaptability.
Add links to your company’s accomplishments or work culture to attract candidates.
Use formatting to highlight the most important parts of the job role.
Candidates apply 17.8% more often to job posts with 150 or fewer words, compared to job posts with 450 to 600 words.
You can add skills needed for the job. You will get autofill options when you start typing in skills. Click the Add skill + button to add to the list.
The next question about LinkedIn Jobs is optional for you and will not be visible to the candidates. If you are satisfied with the information you have entered, click Next.
Step 4: Provide preferences on receiving candidate applications
The next screen will ask you to fill in preferences about how you would like to receive candidate applications. You can view candidate applications by email or through an external website.
As an employer, you can also include screening questions. Candidates who pass your screening questions can be processed. If you have specific application requirements such as minimum qualification, experience, etc., you can mark any of the screening questions as a ‘Must-have’ qualification.
80% of LinkedIn job postings with screening questions get a qualified applicant within 24 hours.
You could keep the recommended questions and/or add some of your own regarding the following parameters:
An automatic rejection message will be sent to the aspirant if a candidate does not meet the criteria.
Step 5: Post the job advertisement
Click Post job for free.
Conclusion
You would have noticed that the steps to post a job on LinkedIn are extremely simple. Social recruiting not only reduces ‘cost per hire’ but also ‘time for hire,’ making your recruitment cycle efficient. Just being innovative enough to use the already existing free features on LinkedIn can help you reach out to potential candidates that suit your requirements.
Harnessing the power of social media recruiting can help you reach a pool of candidates that may be tricky to access in the traditional way of recruitment.
What is the cost of posting a free job on LinkedIn?
Quite conveniently, LinkedIn has the option to set a daily or total budget for promoting available jobs. The higher the budget, the higher will be the visibility for your job post.
With a daily budget (under the pay-per-click model), the amount charged will depend on the number of clicks (views) from candidates. If you set a daily budget, the post will remain open until you close it. You can post a job and close it as soon as you find the right candidate.
With a total budget, the job post will pause automatically once your allocated budget is spent. However, the average cost is around $1.50 per click.
How many jobs can I post for free on LinkedIn?
You can have only one free job post open at a time on LinkedIn. If you want to post more than one job at a time, then you will have to opt for paid options such as job slots and PPC (pay per click) with a daily or total budget.
What are the 5 easy steps to post a job for free on LinkedIn?
Posting a job on LinkedIn for free is fairly simple and straightforward with the below steps:
– Login to LinkedIn – Select the option to post a job for free – Enter competencies, qualifications & skills relevant to the job in a concise manner – Provide preferences on receiving candidate applications – Post the job advertisement for free
Is it worthwhile recruiting via LinkedIn job posts?
While the most effective recruitment strategy has multiple approaches and sources of talent, one needs to evaluate the criticality and best way to reach the targeted talent pools.
Some roles are more difficult to source than others and may require a hybrid approach, where posting via LinkedIn is a viable option as it allows you to reach out to a wider and varied audience.
The business value of the talent hired determines the investment in various sourcing strategies as is the case with LinkedIn job posts, where the business outcome ultimately justifies the cost of job posts via LinkedIn.
How long does a job posting stay on LinkedIn?
A free job posting lasts 30 days on LinkedIn. A paid post is live on the platform for 6 months or needs to be removed manually. The charge for the paid post is as per budget settings for the post and once the set budget is finished, these posts will drop down in search rankings.
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