Have you heard of the Open Candidates feature yet? If not, it’s okay! Last week LinkedIn launched an incredibly useful new tool that is open to all users, which allows recruiters to see if a candidate is “looking.” For candidates, LinkedIn positions it as such, “imagine if you could signal to recruiters everywhere that you’d like to hear from them, and by doing so increase your chances of having one of those magic moments when a recruiter reaches out with an amazing opportunity.”
For candidates, using the new feature is as simple as accessing their Preferences area located on the LinkedIn Jobs page and clicking the On button. It will then prompt them to enter some basic information about what they are seeking and what they might be open to.
The best part of this feature though has to be that candidates can activate this secretly from their current employer. This means that recruiters will have access to those who may be looking casually, but were previously fearful of some form of punishment for listing their availability. This Open Candidate status will automatically hide itself from known company recruiters and affiliates, taking the stress out of looking casually and therefore opening up a whole new world of possibility for recruiters using Linkedin for sourcing talent.
The initial candidate questions for the set up of the Open Candidates feature include:
- Locations of Interest
- Experience Levels
- Industries
- Company Size
- The Option to Let Recruiters See a Full Candidates’ Profile When They Hit Apply
In fact, here’s a backend screen of exactly what the new feature looks like:
With the introduction of this new tool, recruiters will be able to save time simply by knowing when a candidate is open to a new possibility and they will have a much better idea of exactly what they are looking for. Linkedin is making it so it’s much less of a shot in the dark when it comes to recruiters reaching out. Of course, some more passive candidates will keep their profiles on the Off setting so there will always be an element of uncertainty, but the majority of active and casual job seekers will become much more visible when it comes to using LinkedIn for recruiting.
--
With this new feature, it is more important than ever that both candidates and recruiters keep their LinkedIn profiles in tip-top shape, which is why we’ve created a LinkedIn Star Quality Worksheet.
