How to Become the Most Socially Engaged Staffing Firm of 2016

In recruitment generally and particularly within the Executive Search space that Charlton Morris operates, engagement with your network is essential.

Nowadays a large part of our network can be found on LinkedIn. We prioritise our ability to interact with our audience on this network and further afield, meaning that  we were named 5th in LinkedIn’s list of Most Socially Engaged Staffing Companies 2016 in the EMEA, and 1st in our specialist sectors of Medical Devices, Life Sciences and Energy.

Since Charlton Morris started three years ago, we’ve always recognised LinkedIn as an essential tool in the modern world of recruitment and have endeavoured to be as active as possible on the platform.

LinkedIn is the most-used social media channel for professionals. It is an invaluable tool when interacting with the mid-senior level candidates that we target within our sectors. Aside from the obvious benefits of LinkedIn for headhunting, it also allows us to develop networks, interact with potential candidates and increase thought leadership amongst our employees.

I believe that utilising LinkedIn for more than just sourcing candidates is what has helped us jump to our position in the list. Below I’ve tried to piece together why I think we’ve been successful.

The Who

Almost 30% of jobseekers use social media as their primary tool for job searching. We’ve never underestimated the importance of LinkedIn as a tool for our business. This belief has also been ingrained in every consultant we hire. From starting out with nine consultants in 2013 to our current line-up of more than 30 across offices in Leeds and Copenhagen, every new member of the makes the most of the opportunities LinkedIn provides from day one.

We’ve also looked to utilise Groups as much as possible. By gaining entry to and starting our own industry specific groups, we can post updates or adverts to a tailored audience that we know is relevant and often more focused that our general LinkedIn networks. Also, when you’re a member of a group you receive a notification when someone posts, so you can make sure that, at the very least, people know when you’ve had something to share with them.

The unparalleled access to industry influencers and thought leaders that LinkedIn provides is something that we ensure every member of our company takes advantage of.

The What

You can see the methodology used to work out the MSE list here, but it comes down to having everyone in the business invested in the platform from start to finish. I covered that point in the last section, but when it comes to the crunch, we ensure that everyone in the business regularly posts statuses and trending industry news within their sectors so our ‘member engagement’ stays high.

We promote each other’s adverts and articles and look to start conversations with our network as much as possible. We pride ourselves on the depth of our knowledge within specific industries and we look to tap into the thoughts of our 38,000+ followers as much as possible to develop that further.

To follow on from this, it’s clear that content is king on LinkedIn. The Pulse platform has over 30 million users and as the redesigned app continues to further expand its’ reach and audience, creating optimised content that suits our audience only grows in importance. When we’ve produced content, we also make sure, once again, that everyone engages with it. Company employees often have more than 10 x the followers that the company does, so getting everyone to share everything is key.

As we move into 2017, we’re looking to further expand our output of original content, with a view to helping the candidates and clients in our networks with the problems and issues they may face in the modern recruitment process.

The Where

One of the reasons that we’re able to work with LinkedIn so effectively is because it is a truly global platform, which suits our business perfectly. Since our inception, we’ve placed in more than 45 countries globally. LinkedIn has provided us with a gateway to access candidates in many of those places.

The expertise and experience of our consultants is obviously our preferred route into any territory or market, but when it comes to finding a particularly experienced technical candidate based on the other side of the globe, a helping hand can sometimes be appreciated.

The Why

We have invested a great deal of time, money and resources into LinkedIn because it enables us to tap into a network of more than 450 million professionals worldwide, and now, we’ve been given something back in the form of an award to put on our mantelpiece and a target for next year.

We’re more aware than ever about the importance of employer branding. In the month following the list being released, it’s given us a great opportunity to reflect on the achievements of our last year and how we can further develop our own. We certainly want to build on our successes, hopefully helping us get closer to that number one spot!

I’d like to offer my congratulations to Charlton Morris and everyone else from this year’s list, and wish the best of luck to all of the Boutique, Medium and Large companies for next year.