Implementing a LinkedIn strategy now can pay huge long-term dividends in your driver recruiting efforts—particularly if your driver force is aging quickly.
It’s been over 18 months since I originally published this post. Since then, the results you could get from a LinkedIn search for “Truck Driver” more than tripled—from under 20,000 to nearly 62,000. Granted, that number is a drop in the bucket compared to LinkedIn’s reported worldwide membership (175 million as of June 30)—but it’s clear that divers are catching on. Particularly younger drivers—who are, obviously, much more savvy Social Media users than their elders. All of which is why I figured it was time to update this post.
In an early-2011 article, recruiting industry veteran Tim Giehll offered four tips for establishing an effective LinkedIn strategy for your recruiting. In retrospect, I’m adding three more.
- Create a strong company and career page on LinkedIn. Make sure your company profile is up to date, informative and compelling. Make your job postings rich with keywords. This will help job seekers find you more easily.
- Converse with other HR professionals. You can start with LinkedIn’s Hiring and Human Resources Questions page to see what other HR people are talking about. And there are many links to questions and answers about personnel, staffing and recruiting.
- Search for candidates via keywords and employers. Smart LinkedIn candidates will have keyword-rich profiles and detailed employment histories—so that they will be found by recruiters like you.
- Consider one of LinkedIn’s paid services. These include: LinkedIn ads. The LinkedIn Referral Engine. LinkedIn Recruitment Insights. And LinkedIn Recruiter, a powerful search engine specifically designed to help recruiters locate and communicate with candidates.
- Join as many LinkedIn groups as you can. Then plan a strategy for posting relevant content to those groups. I underlined relevant, because the same message may not be appropriate to every group. Some groups (like Logistics Manager Jobs) are pretty close to online job boards—where lots of members post job openings. Others (like Driver Retention Network) are forums for sharing ideas and content, not sales pitches. Groups like that might not yield direct results in hiring, but can certainly contribute to your overall strength as a recruiter.
- Build your network of contacts. There are any number of theories about who should be in your LinkedIn connections. I tend to avoid connecting with direct competitors—whereas my good friend Scott Simon (who had 27,580 connections on the day I re-published this post) credits much of his considerable success in recent years to his policy of connecting with anyone and everyone.
- Send personal messages with your invitations. One of my pet peeves is the LinkedIn (or Facebook) invitation from a total stranger who didn’t even bother to explain why they chose to send an invitation. To me, it’s borderline Spam—and it tells me they bring nothing of benefit to a potential connection. So take the time to write something—and use invitees’ names in your message. You’ll get a much higher rate of acceptance.
All that said, don’t expect instant results. Like all Social Media, LinkedIn isn’t a panacea solution for recruiting. It’s just one part of the puzzle—but clearly, it’s becoming a bigger part every day.
CEO of Global Recruiting Software manufacturer Bond Talent, Tim Giehll has 25 years of financial, operational, and technology management experience in large companies such as Manpower.
Click on the following links to read Tim’s articles, “LinkedIn to Replace Monster & Careerbuilder” or “The Use of Social Networks in Recruiting Continues to Grow”
