Linkedin has become the number one platform for recruiters wanting to find their next hire and job-seeking professionals. The platform boasts 810 million users in over 200 countries, and as of this moment, the platform holds nearly 10,000 live job adverts for roles in Dubai. However, being the number one destination doesn’t always mean it is the best place to get suitable candidates. Or, indeed, the best place to enable you to identify the right candidates from the applications you receive.

The challenge for recruiters using LinkedIn Jobs

Last month a client of ours posted a job ad on LinkedIn. Like many, they were taking advantage of LinkedIn’s free trial and the opportunity to reach the widest potential group of talent. However, the process that followed made it feel far from advantageous. “In short, it was a total nightmare,” said Mariam, a general manager for a Dubai-based company. “Within 48 hours, I had over 400 applications, and the number of applications incoming was growing at a faster rate than I could review and sort the candidates.”

Despite including a pre-qualification questionnaire on the job ad to help manage candidate applications, as well as enhance the quality and relevance of the applications on LinkedIn, Mariam still had to open each and every one of the 445 applications and rate them one by one.

In fact, the task became so overwhelming and time-consuming that by the end of day two, Mariam had closed the job ad. “Even if I spent two minutes briefly reviewing each application and rating them, it would equal over 890 minutes of my time. That’s two working days. I simply didn’t, and don’t, have that kind of time to spare”, she said.

Mariam is not alone. It would appear that LinkedIn Jobs is frustrating recruiters and candidates alike. A quick search on Google garners hundreds of articles highlighting the challenges faced by those using the platform. Common articles include ‘are LinkedIn Ads worth it?’, ‘is posting job ads on LinkedIn worth the time?’ and ‘how do I manage 200+ applications?’. On the flip side of the process, you have the applicant experience. On Reddit, popular discussion topics include ‘is it even worth applying to jobs with 200+ applicants’ and under r/recrutinggell ‘‘how disheartening is it to see an 8-hour old job posting’, suggesting that even talent avoids ads with a large number of applicants.

Where is LinkedIn going wrong?

LinkedIn’s issue is that despite its position as the number one platform for recruiters and candidates, it doesn’t set you up for success.

A number of key challenges are commonly faced when recruiting on LinkedIn.

1. Criteria. It’s a free for all. Anyone can search and apply for any job. This is why a simple post for an accountant may result in a diverse range of applications, from graphic designers to HR administrators.
2. Volume. A never-ending stream of applications is no good to any recruiter if they don’t match the job description.
3. Search. There are no search functions on LinkedIn allowing you to search for specific keywords within applications, profiles, or CVs. This means hours of manually reading through applications.
4. Suitability. LinkedIn allows you to order candidates by relevance. However, that doesn’t give you an indication of how suitable they are for the role.
5. Language skills. We live in a multinational, multilingual world. For some roles, English may be paramount as your future employees may need to deal with English-speaking customers or write necessary documents. Skillset and experience may be more important than perfect English communication skills for other positions. Either way, knowing someone’s English-language abilities is crucial before you dedicate time to setting up a video or face-to-face interview.

Why is EduPloyment different?

EduPloyment is a platform dedicated to matching candidates with jobs and companies with the candidates they need. EduPloyment utilizes artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, personality tests, and English comprehension tests for each and every candidate that registers to the platform.

This benefits recruiters in five key ways, including:

1. Better candidate matches. Only qualified candidates can access and apply for specific roles.
2. Maximum applications.Whether you want to see 50 applications or 200 applications you can choose this option on EduPloyment. Any applications above your set number will automatically move into your ‘Waiting List’ folder
3. AI-matched applications. EduPloyment gives hiring managers and recruiters an ‘AI-Matched’ score from 0 – 100%, ensuring that you focus your time and energy on the best candidates for the role.
4. Advanced search.LinkedIn offers zero search functionality. Scrolling through an indefinite number of ‘relevant’ CVs is no hiring manager’s idea of a productive day. EduPloyment allows you to search within CVs and gives you advanced search functionality and allows you to filter the candidates by location, experience, age, nationality, education, previous industry, English level, and gender.
5. Shortlisting. Rather than simply bucketing applicants into the LinkedIn categories, ‘good fit’, ‘maybe’, and ‘not a fit’, Eduployment offers a different approach. You can shortlist your candidates into ‘To Interview’ and finalise your hire(s) with ‘To Hire’.
6. Longer free trial. There’s probably a reason why Linkedin’s job posting free trial is only three days. EduPloyment gives you a 30-day trial, and following that, job posts are a fixed rate of $10 per job post, with ‘Uplift Fees’ for hired candidates from $45.

About EduPloyment

As a social impact enterprise, EduPloyment is a global online recruitment platform empowering skilled and unskilled staff with English and fair work, thereby uplifting them and their dependents into a lifetime of upskilling and employment.

We know that when an underprivileged person is educated, employed, and empowered, they will be uplifted from their current economic state. Their family members and dependents, which number seven on average, are also uplifted and have a better chance of breaking the cycle of economic struggle. EduPloyment’s purpose is to deliver this empowerment to every Candidate and perpetuate this ripple effect to their communities.

EduPloyment helps Candidates gain English language and soft skills and connects them directly with employers providing fair work, safe working environments, and fair pay.

For Employers, EduPloyment addresses recruitment challenges of time-consuming processes, Candidates not meeting job requirements, and expensive placement fees while providing a direct and tangible social impact.

Are you ready to be part of our community? Sign-up and accept the EduPloyment Pledge.