Recruiters need to make money from LinkedIn - they spend enough time on it! And I am often asked by Recruitment Leaders about whether LinkedIn Recruiter (and other LinkedIn licences) are with the money. So, what kind of ROI should you expect from LinkedIn?
Do You Know How Much LinkedIn Is Worth to You?
I am a massive fan of Return of Investment (ROI) when using social media, and I’m not talking about silly and vain “like”, “follower”, ”share” metrics. I get why marketers think these are important (I know they are), but the majority of my agency recruitment clients want £$€ stats.
Now if you are a good boy / girl, you’ll know that what you find on social media in terms of leads needs to be recorded on your lovely CRM (no excuses, it’s your job!) If I came in to your business now and asked you for report on how many opportunities / leads / placements you’ve made from LinkedIn, would you be able to tell me? And would you know how many grade A candidates you’ve found on this platform? Would you know how much £$€ you’d lose if the CEO of LinkedIn pulled the plug, or worse made your free license totally chargeable?
Most of the recruiters I work with are working on that metric (phew), but many more out there are not. They see using LinkedIn as a given; they don’t measure its success apart from the “it just takes one placement…” (yawn… I’ve heard this mantra since the early 2000s when job boards were a massive expense to recruiters, and it didn’t wash with me then).
Placement Fees Are Down – Cost of Hire Is Up
I have a horrid feeling that just like placement fees have been going down in recent years, the cost of hire has gone up (or worse recruiters don’t know what their cost of hire is). This is not good when you consider that most users of social media are not even paying for the privilege. Worse, they are spreading themselves so thinly with more systems / processes / devices, and their leaders have low expectations of these things that it’s just a total mess and the risks are massive. Time wastage, data loss, brand erosion is common.
So, I think that the average recruitment director lives in the following world:
Your staff are simply “on” LinkedIn – zero strategy for what they need to be doing with it
You have little idea what activities your staff are undertaking online
You are not measuring these activities (input or output)
You have a low expectation of their online activity
Your CRM has no clue that LinkedIn exists
Your risk is massive – lots of recruiters behaving like hair dressers renting chairs, zero visibility over the data they are collecting on your watch and an assumption that your contract covers this (rumour control: the data they collect belongs to LinkedIn, not your recruiters or you!)
If this is you, how do you feel about this? Are you are happy or do you think you deserve better? What would you do if LinkedIn removed free licenses? Are you actually in a position to constructively evaluate the value of LinkedIn Recruiter license without focusing on the cost? (Rumour control: I’m totally impartial but am nagging all of my clients to review the LinkedIn Recruiter product so they are better educated and ready for the inevitable change that their business faces).
Although I don’t think that recruiters will ever be forced to pay for LinkedIn, I do feel that you get what you pay for. After all, there’s a reason why many recruiters don’t rate free job boards! There are some pretty decent functions in the Recruiter system and they are giving many a recruiter a competitive edge.
I think that the era of “free” social media is coming to an end. The time spent on using it needs quantifying (many recruiters measure phone calls, sendouts, in branches, placements). Recruitment directors need to raise their expectations and implement business-process-led activities which are visible, measureable and the output of which belongs to the business. This will not only help the progression of the business in the digital world, but will also help with business cases for the competitive use (not free use) of social tools.
What do you think? Are you a recruitment director/manager/leader? Do you have social media “nailed down” in your business? Do you know its £$€ value? What are your expectations of it? Please share your thoughts and comments below.
(See part two of this LinkedIn series here)
HIIT Us, Recruiters!
Our high intensity interval training - Recruitment HIIT - helps recruiters source, convert quicker, and develop healthy pipelines, and recruitment marketers attract, engage, and retain candidates, generate leads, and colleagues (3Cs).
TRY RECRUITMENT HIIT FOR FREE
READ ABOUT OUR LINKEDIN TRAINING
BOOK A CALL TO DISCUSS RECRUITMENT TRAINING
media centre
Read more-
Blog
Productivity Webinar Series: Tips for Job-Short Recruiters - Easier Sales!
As a recruiter, you know that finding more jobs to work on is the key to consistent billings, stronger client relationships, and faster placements. But are you fully leveraging your Bullhorn database to uncover new opportunities and make selling easier?Watch our Recruiter Productivity webinar, where we’ll show you how to master Bullhorn and unlock more jobs to work. If you're tired of relying solely on job boards or struggling to find quality job leads, this session is a must-attend!Unlock More Jobs on Bullhorn and Place and Sell Faster😵We know that you either are job-poor or perhaps sometimes work the wrong jobs.🙈You may be too busy to see what's right there in front of you.📉On average if you have 5 jobs you only place 2! (One client recently told me it was 0.8 out of 5 - oh my!)🤑Your business is likely either over-investing in LinkedIn and job boards, or wasting precious time on the free versions, or both!😱Many jobs are being worked by more than 1 recruitment business. First past the post isn't a sustainable process!Who Should Watch this Bullhorn Tips Video?Recruiters and Resourcers looking to work on more jobs with less effort.Business Development and Sales Teams who want to win new clients faster, whilst also protecting their existing accounts.Recruitment Leaders aiming to maximise their team’s productivity and efficiency with Bullhorn.Why this Webinar MattersToo many recruiters spend hours searching for jobs, perhaps losing deals, and competing with hundreds of others for the same roles. Meanwhile, the smartest recruiters are using Bullhorn to uncover exclusive, high-value opportunities before they’re widely available.If you want to spend less time searching and more time placing, this session is for you. We’ll equip you with practical tips, real-life case studies, and a step-by-step guide to turn your Bullhorn data into your most powerful sales tool.Watch Our Bullhorn Tips for Job Short Recruiters - Easier Sales!Recruitment and Bullhorn TrainingWe deliver the best live Bullhorn ROI webinar training, and you'll find other tips and tricks in Recruitment HIIT, our online recruitment training platform.Plus, through our Bullhorn Vision service we help generate serious ROI from your Bullhorn, data, and people.TRY HIIT FREE HERECONTACT US ABOUT BULLHORN ROI
-
Blog
Protect Your Pipeline with this Antidote to Backdoor Placements
Backdoor placements are often an "invisible" pipeline killer. Yet they are also a great opportunity to recover lost revenue. Silver linings! Are you missing out on smashing target by not actively managing backdoor placements? 20 Years Ago, in a Land Far Away...In Lisa and my younger days (20 years ago), we created a report to track theoretical backdoors, and had a team calling candidates at the employer they'd recently had an interview with. If they answered, they were put through to the recruiter to begin recouping the lost fee.Surely time has moved on and there are more effective and tech-driven ways of doing this? Plus, surely recruiters are better at sales admin and relationship management now, so back doors are less common? I'm not so sure... If anything more data and tech has actually created a less robust process in many firms.Let’s explore why tracking backdoor placements is critical and how to implement best practices and technology for spotting and reducing them.The Financial Impact of Backdoor PlacementsWhen a candidate you’ve introduced to a client is hired without your knowledge or agreement on fees, you lose the fee. This often happens when terms of business aren’t adhered to, or when a client chooses to go behind your back. Consider this: one recruiter we’ve worked with reported uncovering at least one lost fee per consultant annually. For a team of 30 recruiters, that’s a staggering £150,000 in potential net revenue. In one instance, a single backdoor placement resulted in a recovered fee of £32,000. These numbers are too significant to ignore.Additionally, recruiters often spend resources sourcing candidates from external platforms instead of leveraging their databases. Tracking and addressing backdoor placements encourages better use of internal resources while ensuring you recapture fees rightfully owed to your business.Building Trust and Strengthening Your Recruitment ProcessClients: Actively managing backdoor placements helps you optimise your client relationships. Clients who circumvent your terms of business do not value your partnership. Using Bullhorn to flag these incidents creates transparency and helps you spend time on clients who value you.Candidates: Additionally, having a proactive backdoor placement management process complements your silver medalist strategy. Silver medalists are candidates who reached advanced stages of the recruitment process but were not placed. By regularly engaging these high-potential candidates through your tracking systems, you keep them warm for future opportunities while minimising your reliance on external sourcing.Best Practices for Managing Backdoor PlacementsTrack Every Interaction: Ensure your CRM system captures interview stages and outcomes, even for candidates rejected at early stages. Use detailed note types like “Rejected at Interview” or “Rejected at CV Send” to maintain a clear record.Standardise Your Terms: Attach your terms and conditions to every client communication. This ensures clients can’t dispute fees later and provides you with a reliable audit trail.Monitor Data Ownership: Many lost placements are tied to inactive users or former consultants. Assign ownership of these candidates to managers to maintain visibility and accountability.Automate to Remove Human Error: Implement automation to consistently track candidate progress and flag potential backdoor placements. This minimises manual errors and improves data integrity.Automation - The Antidote to Backdoor PlacementsDuring a recent Bullhorn Automation User Group, I was asked about my top 3 ways to use automation. Backdoor placement management is one of those 3 ways. These 2 automations are a must of you are set on prevention and pipeline maximisation:Interview Confirmation automation: If you already use these automations, add a notification step, x months after the interview date. Choose a timeframe which suits your sector the best.Check Past Interviews (Backdoor): If you don't use Interview Confirmation automation, create a stand alone automation that tracks the interview date and does not have placement. Add a wait step x months later to send a notification to your recruiter to check-in with the candidate and check they don't have a new job. You could even do what Lisa and I set up in a previous life and call the employer and ask to speak to the candidate. If they answer... bingo!Process and Tech Is KeyUse tech to prevent them.Use tech to spot them.The bottom line is that backdoor placements aren’t just about recovering lost revenue; they’re an opportunity to refine your recruitment strategy, strengthen client and candidate relationships, and ensure your systems are robust enough to thrive in a competitive market. Take control, and turn these challenges into wins for your recruitment / staffing agency.And if you need help on your processes, your data, and your Bullhorn adoption / ROI - call us - we can help.Automation and Bullhorn1stWe are Automation Buddies and Bullhorn Experts set on helping ambitious recruitment businesses who want to increase speed and sales.Automation: We coach to inspire, and build your automations so you can recruit and sell!Bullhorn: We optimise, train, and improve RoI from your key recruitment system.READ ABOUT OUR AUTOMATION BUDDY SERVICERead about our Bullhorn 1st Service
-
Downloads
Your Recruitment Training Playbook