Brian Perry is founder and owner of The Strider Group, an IT consulting and recruiting firm specializing in permanent, temporary and consulting placements. He recently sat down with us to talk about LinkedIn Recruiter, incredible ROI, and passive talent.
You recently purchased LinkedIn Recruiter for your firm. Tell us about the first hire you made.
A client reached out with an immediate need: a tough-to-fill role that they were unsuccessful filling themselves. We used the project feature in Recruiter to create a collaborative folder for the team, conducted a search, and quickly sent out InMails.
We pride ourselves in knowing everyone in this particular discipline, but we were immediately humbled by a reply from someone we’d never heard of before. From that initial contact, we verified the candidate’s skills via a face-to-face technical interview, and we passed him on to our client that Friday evening. The client was in Puerto Rico attending a wedding, but in fear of losing this exceptional candidate, he scheduled an interview over the weekend. By Monday, the client extended an offer and the candidate accepted it. It was such an easy process.
How have you justified your investment in LinkedIn?
We’re a small firm so for us, cost is a big issue. But once we sat in on the LinkedIn Recruiter demo, I was sold. This thing has the power to transform and grow business.
LinkedIn Recruiter paid for itself with that first hire. I literally used it for one week and had a 300% return on investment. I thought it would be a couple of months before we saw ROI, but the product surpassed our expectations. I was jumping up and down! I expected the overall ROI to be about 10X – but I think I'll bet 40X ROI on LinkedIn at this point.
How important is passive talent to your business?
Sourcing passive candidates is central to our recruiting strategy. Before LinkedIn Recruiter, about 25% of our candidates were passive. Now, that number is up to about 40%. We send out InMails to people who may or may not be actively looking for a new job, and still we see a response rate above 50%. We find that a lot of people want to keep in touch even if they're not ready to change jobs, and we can manage these relationships much easier with Recruiter.
Passive candidates have also become a great referral source. There’s maybe less of a chance you’ll get someone who isn’t actively looking to switch positions, but everyone has someone they know looking for a job. For us, the passive candidates we contact become our primary referral source and lead us to interested candidates on the platform.
If you weren’t in the recruitment industry, where would you be?
I'm a technical dive master and underwater photographer on the side. So, if I weren’t in the recruiting industry, I'd be underwater, scuba diving somewhere.
Finish the sentence: Recruitment is…
Fun! I have a lot of fun. I love challenges. I got into this business because I want to help people get jobs. In this industry there’s opportunity to do some good: to help people who are laid off or unsatisfied with their careers transition into something better.
Check out a demo of Recruiter or for information on the latest recruitment firm trends and insights, read Top 4 US Recruitment Firm Trends You Need to Know.
Topics: Staffing agencies
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