Editor's note: Tatjana Andreano is a Recruitment Product Consultant at LinkedIn, a sourcing ninja, and our in-house expert on diversity sourcing with LinkedIn. Before joining LinkedIn, Tatjana held roles in sourcing and recruiting at Moody's Corporation, ADP and Carnegie Associates.
It's no secret that a diverse workforce can have a range of positive effects on an organization, so we’re not surprised that our clients frequently ask us for best practices in sourcing diverse hires on LinkedIn. LinkedIn Recruiter's search features and LinkedIn Groups are two products you can use to source diverse talent. Here are our top tips for getting the most out of these powerful tools:
1. Build a list of keywords relevant to your diversity targets, and use them in your Recruiter search strings. Let's say you're looking to engage women for technology opportunities at your organization. Pull together a list of women's niche associations, schools, sororities and so on (a quick internet search will be helpful here). Next, you can use an Excel Boolean "OR" string builder to create a search string with your keywords. You may also consider using Glen Cathey’s LinkedIn diversity sourcing tip and include women’s names in your search query.
Pop that search string into LinkedIn Recruiter with keywords reflecting skill requirements for the role you want to fill, and you're in business!
2.Search Alerts, Similar Profiles, and Custom Filters help you find more of the right candidates. Once you've entered your keyword-rich Boolean search string, be sure to save your search and set a Search Alert: you'll be notified every time a new or updated profile matches your query.
And once you've found that perfect candidate who matches your criteria, click on Similar Profiles, and LinkedIn matching algorithms will produce up to 100 more profiles like the one you've identified.
In addition, use search custom filters to refine your search results. For instance, the All Groups search filter allows you to select specific LinkedIn Groups (e.g., groups for women in technology) and refine your search results to show only profiles that are members of these groups. Save frequently used search filters and access them in the "Search for Candidates" box at the top of the Recruiter home page and in the "Refine by" panel on the left side of your search results page.
3. LinkedIn Groups are a fantastic way to spread the word about opportunities at your company to diverse pools of talent. Join Groups relevant to your key diversity targets (there are more than one million Groups on LinkedIn, so there's sure to be something for everyone!). You can also join Groups focused on diversity. Follow the conversation in these Groups and see who's sharing interesting and insightful content—they could be great passive candidates for your talent pipeline. In addition, when you post a new job on LinkedIn, our Share Job feature allows you to quickly share jobs with up to 10 groups that you're a member of—so in a couple of clicks, you can get the word out to very targeted groups of individuals.
4. Bonus tip: branded LinkedIn Career Pages and Targeted Diversity Campaigns are other great resources that allow you to target diverse talent.
With LinkedIn Career Pages, you can leverage custom modules (tailored to the viewer) to tell your diversity story, highlight honors you’ve been awarded by diversity organizations, or showcase diversity initiatives within your company.
With Targeted Diversity Campaigns, you can send targeted messages to LinkedIn members we’ve identified as diverse through professional and diversity data on LinkedIn. These campaigns can drive brand awareness, promote diversity events, or put relevant job opportunities in front of a diverse pool of talent.
To learn more about these solutions, visit our LinkedIn Recruiting Solutions home. If you're a LinkedIn Recruiter client, register for a Training Webinar to learn more search tactics and other best practices.
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