Do you have jobs, that no one applies for? You take all the usual steps but get no interest.
Keen to try a different approach that goes beyond advertising on a paid job board such as SEEK?
Here I’m going to focus on LinkedIn, the worlds largest professional networking site.
You may well be posting your job vacancies on LinkedIn but receiving little in return and even fewer candidates.
Here’s how to turn that around.
But first, know you have to play the long game, connecting and engaging with potential employees takes time.
In return you’ll find better matched candidates who are more productive and likely to stay.
Secondly you might be asking questions like,
“Can I find suitable people for my business on LinkedIn?”
See if these numbers work for you.
There are slightly more than 12.6 million working Australians, with 8 million registered users on LinkedIn and around half this number log in each month.
That’s a sizable candidate pool of passive and active job seekers your dealership can and should tap into.
“Isn’t LinkedIn just for people in management and decision making roles?”
Let’s use an example to answer this question.
Say we’re interested in finding someone for a Car Sales Consultant vacancy.
In Australia there are 11,900 profiles with automotive selling experience. Not bad.
If you’re not restricting yourself to automotive selling experience and can see the benefits of the more general ‘retail’ experience you get an additional 175,890 profiles. Even better.
Expect all these numbers to grow with time.
And the time to act is now.
Here are 7 steps your dealership can start today, to use the power of LinkedIn to grow and nurture your future talent pool,
1. Invite all your dealership employees to set up their professional profile on LinkedIn.
2. Set up your company page on LinkedIn. Focus your positioning and content around candidates.
3. Have all you’re employees “Follow” your company page and encourage they log in regularly to share your company posts
4. Post at least weekly, not just job vacancies but also information of interest to potential candidates and current employees. For example work anniversaries, dealership celebrations, staff awards, launches, sponsorships and community events.
5. Use video as a recruitment marketing tool. Video is an engaging way to share with candidates what it’s like to work at your dealership and aim to profile each department and the team members. Nothing fancy or expensive is required, just a smartphone and willing employees will fit the bill.
6. Grow your followers with people you may eventually want to employ by asking all suitable candidates you’ve interviewed, to follow your company page. A great way to keep unsuccessful but high potential candidates ‘warm’ should a suitable vacancy arise in the future.
7. Use it as a referral tool. Your current employees should be your biggest advocates. Use their networks to access talent. If you have a vacancy in a certain department, eg the service department gather the team together. Get the team to access their LinkedIn accounts and send a pre-scripted message about the job vacancy to their relevant contacts. This is a cost effective and targeted way to really amplify your reach.
A Few Examples
AP Eagers Newcastle/Hunter Valley
This group do an outstanding job using LinkedIn to attract and nurture prospective employees to their company page. Scroll their feed to see the variety of posts which includes some fantastic video’s from employees on why they love working there.
Suttons
This dealership group have posted some great video on their LinkedIn company page about the type of leaders they’re looking for and the inside scoop on what it’s like working in their Finance and Insurance team.
Frizelle Sunshine
A large dealership group who understand the power of LinkedIn as a recruitment marketing tool. In this video, not only do they convey the size and scope of a career at Frizelle Sunshine, they let prospective candidates know about their committment to diversity and inclusion.
DriveCo
This mid sized dealership group have recently developed an explainer video about working at their dealership. They use these video’s when posting job Ads on SEEK
Sunshine Toyota
And here’s another example of a recruitment video used by this dealership. Camaraderie, team work and recognition really stands out.
Yes this will cost you time but there’s no set up or ongoing financial outlay necessary to progress any of these steps.
Imagine having a vacancy and being able to turn to a ready made talent pool to select from.