An introduction to LinkedIn

Transcription

1 OCTOBER GETTING STARTED This guide has been developed to help HR and communications teams in the NHS take the first steps towards using the basics of LinkedIn for recruitment. The guide offers some practical steps and tips on: 1. Setting up a company page 2. Setting up a personal profile and building a network 3. Leveraging your employees networks and posting job adverts For many NHS organisations, this work will be done most successfully when HR and communications teams work together. An introduction to LinkedIn Social media has changed the way we represent ourselves, the way in which we stay connected with family, friends and colleagues and the way in which we now share information, knowledge and ideas. LinkedIn is the social network that is focussed solely on our professional lives and it is changing the way we work. With over 380 million members worldwide, 7 million employers, and 27 thousand universities (August 2015), LinkedIn has evolved into a digital representation of the global economy. In the UK, there are almost 20 million members who use the platform to represent themselves, connect with other people, share knowledge and find work. The private sector has been using LinkedIn to communicate to potential talent for several years as the competition for candidates has increased. For the NHS, the ability to communicate to candidates before they apply for a job has created an opportunity to drastically widen the pool of talent they can recruit from and find better matched candidates quicker. However, the shift from traditional recruitment to modern resourcing requires a new approach that is very similar to marketing strategy. This new approach is focussed on employer branding and requires a different set of communication skills from NHS teams. 1...getting started

2 1. Setting up a company page Follow these steps to check what presence your organisation already has, how to take ownership of a page, improve your current page or create a new page from scratch. You ll need a LinkedIn profile to be able to set up and manage a company page. You can sign up at or see section two, setting up a personal profile and building a network. Step one: Checking what is already there Search companies... Figure 1: The LinkedIn search bar set to look for companies. Log in to your LinkedIn profile, select Companies on the search function and type in your organisation s name to see if any company pages already exist. Remember to search for previous NHS organisations in your area too, to check if there are any out-of-date legacy pages left on LinkedIn, for example, PCTs. Existing LinkedIn company pages If your organisation already has a LinkedIn page, the communications team is likely to be the administrator of the page. HR teams should contact the communications team to gain access to existing pages. Recovering access to existing pages If a page or legacy page from a previous organisation already exists and you do not have ownership, you can visit help.linkedin.com/app/home and the LinkedIn team will help you reset the administrators of the page(s). You can have multiple people set as the company page administrator to help cover holidays and any sick leave. 2...getting started

3 Step two: Setting up a company page Approximately 100 million professionals visit LinkedIn every month, so having an official presence on LinkedIn is very valuable to your brand. It gives you the chance to show your organisation s personality and to promote the values and culture that your organisation considers to be important. You should use the following settings for your company page. Name Company type Company industry The full name of Government agency Hospital & Health Care your organisation North Bristol NHS Trust North Bristol NHS Trust Hospital & Health Care ,000 employees Figure 2: North Bristol NHS Trust s LinkedIn company page header. Logos and images The LinkedIn profile picture space only allows square images, making it difficult to fit in many NHS logos. Organisations with longer names may consider rearranging the text in the logo to help make it a squarer shape for use on LinkedIn. See Figure 2. Company description This section offers you the chance to add a short description of what your NHS organisation does. The communications team may be able to help you with this. It is a good idea to include in this section the reason why your organisation is using LinkedIn so people know what to expect from updates. Using LinkedIn for a specific instead of a general reason will help you build a targeted audience and provide them with valuable content. Step three: Creating and improving content Once you have your company page up and running, you ll need some content to put on it. What content goes on the page should be defined by your organisation s aim of using LinkedIn. The aim may be to highlight employees skills and successes, or to help build an online brand that attracts quality applicants to positions. Use specific, measureable, achievable, realistic and time-bound (SMART) objectives to ensure you can measure your work against your aims....getting started 3

4 2. Setting up a personal profile and building a network In order for HR teams to take advantage of LinkedIn s network of professionals, it is good practice for one or more HR team members to have a personal profile on LinkedIn. A personal profile is a representation of the person and the employer so it forms part of the overall employer brand. Firstly, this enables them to administrate the company page and secondly it helps to use their network to promote the company page s updates. Engaging friendly and professional photo Paul Taylor Assistant Director (Organisational Development) at NHS Employers London, United Kingdom Hospital & Health Care Current NHS Employers Previous NHS Employers, NHS Midlands and East, NHS North Essex PCT Cluster Education Middlesex University 2nd Professional headline Connect Send Paul InMail 500+ connections Contact Info Summary My career is full of interesting and meaningful roles in Organisational and People Development across the NHS, Local Government and Private Sectors. I like to create things, whether it s a strategy, a campaign, a cultural shift or a change in mindset. It s important for me to leave things in a better state than they were when I came along. I have a particular interest in, and aptitude for employee engagement, change management and performance improvement. Great summary written in the first person I believe in networking, challenging the status quo and never quite accepting that something is good enough as it is. LinkedIn offers many ways to customise your personal profile and showcase your experience. To create a well-branded recruiting profile, you should: upload a professional and friendly profile picture, as profiles with pictures get far more engagement than those without use a professional headline that goes beyond your job title, and include your core skills or area of expertise include links to your organisation s website include your contact details have a strong, personal and engaging summary include just enough detail on prior employment positions to enhance your expertise. Choose a picture with the trust logo in the background. This helps to build your organisation s brand. 4...getting started

5 Building personal networks for work You can build your personal network by asking to connect with people s profiles. This can be done as and when you meet individuals at work, or you can use the LinkedIn advanced search function to actively find and contact people who match a candidate profile. Having a clear and engaging profile will help increase the likelihood of people accepting your connect request. People Jobs Advanced People Search Reset Close Keywords Relationship Upgrade to access multiple 1st Connections Groups First Name 2nd Connections Group Members 3rd + Everyone Else NHS Employers Social Media Training Group EPC (formerly Emergency Planning College) Just Digital Last Name Location Social Media South West NHS Communications Network Title Current Company Years of Experience Industry Function Company Past Company Seniority Level School School Interested In Profile Language Company Size Location Anywhere Nonprofit Interests When Joined Search Reset LinkedIn allows users to save up to ten job searches and three people searches. After conducting a search, clicking the Save search option on the top right allows you to save a search and easily run it again later. Search Advanced All R L 1,278,993 results for communications Some search results have been filtered to improve relevance. Show all results Save search...getting started 5

6 3. Leveraging your employees networks and posting job adverts With the company page set up and your profile ready, it s time to share updates on the company page and get them seen by as many relevant people as possible. Utilising employee s LinkedIn networks to share the update widely via liking, commenting on, or sharing the update will help widen your audience and take advantage of peer-to-peer referrals and recommendations, for example, radiologists will share job opportunities with other radiologists. Step one: Asking employees to link to and follow your company page Company pages can be followed by personal profiles. Following the page will mean your company page updates will be shown in the person s home feed. Employees can also link their profile to your organisation by typing in the organisation name into the current job section of their profile. This helps to build the organisation s brand on LinkedIn by exhibiting the range of staff and skills it employs. Step two: Posting content Posting the latest jobs onto your company page via updates is also a way of advertising the openings. You can add text and a link to the website so candidates can read the full vacancy. Admin Center Drive engagement Posting daily company updates is the most effective way to start a conversation, and create word of mouth for your business. View tips Share an update Today s social actions Sorry, no activity on your content today. Post an update to start a conversation with your community. Share with: All followers Share See all notifications You ll find the Admin Center at the top of the company page. When you are a page admin, you can share updates from here. 6...getting started

7 To get the best results from posting statuses: ensure the right people are following your company page, for example, surgeons for surgeon jobs you can check the types of people who are following your company page under the Analytics tab of your company page, and you ll find this just under the company page s logo include a link in your update include a photo, image or video in your update. Posting job opportunities on LinkedIn groups, for example, NHS or a healthcare profession specific group, is also an option. Step three: Call to action for staff to share updates To increase the reach of company page updates, you could encourage your staff to share updates via their profiles. You could ask them to do this via your internal communications newsletter or in a team meeting. Encouraging staff to share your messages will help you to reach new audiences and get your message in front of the right people. Your staff are likely to have connections with other professionals from previous employment and training courses within their own personal networks, for example, healthcare scientists will be connected to other healthcare scientists. Job adverts on LinkedIn Once the company page is set up and you are comfortable with the tool, you could contact LinkedIn to find out about its corporate talent acquisition subscription services. Alternatively, you might want to try posting LinkedIn job adverts on your personal profile, which, if used properly, can be matched to relevant member profiles....getting started 7

8 Your LinkedIn checklist 1. Strategic objectives are set from the start of the work so you can measure your success. 2. You have taken control of your company page and removed any out-of-date legacy pages. 3. The company page is listed under Government agency and Hospital & Health Care. 4. Your company page has a profile picture and banner image. 5. Your company page description explains what the page is being used for, for example, to share jobs. 6. The company page offers a different style of information than is already available on NHS Jobs. 7. Staff and specific staff groups have been asked to follow the page and share the updates. 8. Your personal profile page has an image, headline and summary section. Contact us NHS Employers 2 Brewery Wharf Kendell Street Leeds LS10 1JR enquiries@nhsemployers.org Published October NHS Employers NHS Employers