Introduction
Growth Hiring is an innovation in the recruitment sector. These new techniques for recruiting quickly and well are going to significantly change this environment. Growth Hiring consists in combining various outbound prospecting actions based on data. If you’re already familiar with lead generation automation, then you’ll quickly understand the value of growth in recruitment.
Job boards are no longer effective, Michael Page-type firms are exorbitantly expensive and co-optation is often inadequate. That’s why in this article you’ll see the 3 pillars of all self-respecting Growth Hiring techniques.
Growth Hiring will enable you to create a candidate pool quickly and efficiently. It works like a CRM, enabling you to plan your recruitment over the short/medium and long term.
Scrapping and enriching your candidate files
What would Growth be without data? I’ll answer you in 1000, that wouldn’t be Growth ah ah Now, to get data on potential candidates you’ll need to learn scrapping. It’s a technique that automates cut-and-paste.
Unfortunately for Viadeo, Linkedin has long held the monopoly, and 90% of scrapped candidate databases come from Recruiter Lite. Behind this hyperlink is a complete Recruiter Lite tutorial, yes it’s a gift!
Once you’ve got your nice Recruiter Lite or Sales Navigator search set up, I’m not going to ask you to go through the profiles one by one – that’s not our style.
We’re going to scrape these profiles, i.e., suck them up all at once and put them into a google sheet. We’ll even go one better: we’ll enrich them with all the information their LinkedIn account contains, so as to prime the candidate pool and, above all, rate candidates before contacting them. I’ll explain it all later.
There are several tools available for scrapping and enriching: Phantombuster and Captain Data, among others.
For our part, we use Captain Data for its API stability and, above all, for its ability to create scrap successions. A workflow that allows us to both scrape and enrich our Recruiter Lite search.
- Use this Captain: “Search Linkedin Recruiter Lite”.
- In the same workflow, add this step: “Visit Linkedin Profil”.
- Then use the “Aggregate” function
We’ve set up an N8N and a Slack command to avoid human gymnastics, but concretely you arrive at this end result: Product Marketing Profile database.
Please note that Linkedin quotas are not to be underestimated in this workflow. A Linkedin profile is limited. Between 30 and 50 daily profile visits for free Linkedin. Between 80 and 100 for a paying profile.
To avoid any risk to Linkedin accounts, we divide the 1st stage into batches of 50 Linkedin profiles. Then each batch is assigned to 1 Linkedin profile (1 cookie for the most expert). That’s why we use MirrorProfiles, a solution we’ve developed that lets you rent Linkedin accounts, so you can rent Linkedin cookies. If your needs are substantial, I invite you to book a demo with Frédéric.
As you can see, we get a lot of information from the profile visit that will allow us to do 3 things:
- Personalize copywriting, approach messages and follow-ups
- Scoring candidates before making contact
- Build up a pool of candidates. For example, on average, a sales rep spends 2 years with a company before moving on to see if the grass is greener elsewhere. So with this statistic, you know that as soon as a “Sales” in your pool reaches 2 years of seniority in the company, a little message is in order 😉
You’ve got a great candidate database that will form the basis of your candidate pool. For our part, we chose to store the data on Airtable, which enabled us to create a customized ATS. But this step is more of a choice than a must-have, so select the ATS that best suits your needs.
Once you’ve compiled your list of potential candidates and drafted your approach messages, all that’s left is to go on the attack and contact them. Here again, we automate all low value-added tasks to free up time for longer exchanges with the candidates who reply to you.
Automated contact
Here you are at the heart of the Growth Hiring machine. Linkedin URLs and emails are the fuel of your automation tools. Message content, or more generally, copywriting, will enable you to automate contact and follow-up.
In relation to candidate hunting or talent acquisition, here are my quick pros and cons on the top automation tools:
💚For :
A cross-channel tool par excellence, this robust tool makes it easy to manage several Linkedin accounts and mailboxes for your “candidate hunt”. If recruitment is a core business for you, and not just a one-off need. Make this your preferred tool. For our part, we use LGM on 70% of our assignments.
They’re the only ones to offer Linkedin voice messages. As far as I’m concerned, I haven’t seen an increase in the response rate, but that’s probably because I’m doing it wrong. Maybe you’ll do better than I did.
💔Contre :
Complex tool to learn how to use. If this is the first time you’ve set foot in an automation tool, it can easily lose you. So I wouldn’t recommend it. They make a big effort to make it easy to understand, and the support service is top-notch, so if you want to get started straight away with this tool, it’s possible. Keep in mind that workflows are nothing more or less than probability trees. “If” / “Then”. A final negative point is the lack of e-mailing functionality, unlike Lemlist.
💚For :
Basic mailing tool that is increasingly cross-channel. Lemlist releases new, highly competitive features. We’re reluctant to switch to Lemlist because they’re putting a lot of effort into Linkedin functionalities. The interface is ergonomic and intuitive. If your “candidate hunt” relies essentially on mailing, this is the tool you need. A very good tool that I’d put a little below LGM, more out of habit than out of any real objective analysis.
💔Contre :
English-language support and a tool that’s tending to be increasingly internationalized towards the US, so be careful about your ability to understand support and FAQs. It may sound silly, but when we encounter a big problem and there’s an emergency, it can be very disabling. A very marketing-centric tool, this may have its advantages, but it can quickly make you lose sight of your objective: the human element. Don’t try to use every feature, no matter how cool it may seem. Often the simplest is the most effective.
💚For :
A basic Linkedin automation tool, it also tries to do some mailing, but it doesn’t work. It’s the perfect tool for those new to automation tools. Simple and intuitive, workflows are template-driven. Support is very responsive and competent.
💔Contre :
Weaknesses in emailing. In my opinion, Waalaxy should only be used if you only have Linkedin loops in your candidate prospecting. Its main weakness lies in the reliability of its technology: you need to check regularly whether your campaigns are still running. Chrome extension, they’ve released a Cloud version that works, but requires you to reconnect to Waalaxy at least once a month.
Heyreach:
💚For :
Linkedin automation tool par excellence. They have one “unfair advantage” over the others: automatic Linkedin account rotation. Coupled with MirrorProfiles, it’s literally impressive. If you select a database of 300 candidates, you can launch 5 Linkedin accounts in just a few clicks, whereas other tools will require you to split your database into 5 smaller ones. Another feature I use is “Like a post”: your Linkedin profile will like the latest post published by your candidate, which is very interesting before you contact them, as it shows your interest (more than a profile visit).
Another advantage of MirrorProfile is its very competitive price: 140 euros for MirrorProfile + Heyreach.
💔Contre :
A recent tool that occasionally falls victim to its own success, with slow campaigns. Quickly corrected by their responsive English support team, experts in Linkedin prospecting. Key control functions are missing, but are included in the roadmap. It’s clearly a tool to keep an eye on for 2023/2024.
In conclusion, our two darlings are LGM and Heyreach. Nevertheless, we mustn’t underestimate Linkedin quotas when we use automation. In fact, the basis of our campaigns is the connection request, which is limited to 100 requests per week per Linkedin profile used. Today, there are no automation tools that allow you to bypass quotas, so the only solution is to have several Linkedin accounts.
So if you have 1 license of a tool attached to 1 Linkedin profile, you’ll be able to contact 100 candidates a week.
On average, to get 3 candidates who have completed all the recruitment stages and you need to make a choice, you need to contact an average of 600 people. That’s 6 weeks to contact all the people, not counting all the rest of your processes.
That’s why an automation tool coupled with MirrorProfiles can be invaluable in speeding up your recruitment. It’s a service for renting Linkedin avatar accounts. If you want to go fast, you can rent 2 MirrorProfiles accounts. With yours, you’ll have a quota of 300 connection requests per week. You’ll cut your recruitment time in half.
Here’s a small example with Heyreach, for a “Sales” position in an SME in the “Energy” sector. The particularity was that there weren’t many “Hardskills” expected, but more of a feeling with the Sales Director. Here, the complexity lies in classifying the volume.
Creation of databases of around 2,000 potential candidates
Setting up 10 MirrorProfiles accounts with Heyreach. These 2,000 candidates were contacted within 2 weeks.
In the copywriting sequence we have integrated a Videoask to asynchronously qualify interested candidates.
MirrorChat, recorded response templates for faster response management. On average, 80 messages processed per day.
Out of 2,000 applicants, we received 600 replies, 58 of which took the VideoAsk test.
The recruiter shortlisted 10 candidates out of these 58.
The Director liked 8 of them and ultimately recruited 2.
Time between launch of assignment and offer of employment: 4 weeks.
In short, it was fast and efficient. Unless we’d had a pool of candidates, we wouldn’t have been able to move as quickly without Heyreach.
One of the great advantages of using automation tools (rather than doing it by hand) is that most of them are equipped with APIs. You can use webhooks to automatically synchronize your ATS. This is where the word “fish tank” comes into its own. Before your first contact actions, your sales pipeline was no more and no less than a database. There, you’ll get qualitative information such as “Answered”, “Interested”, “Contact me again later”, and so on.
With these first 2 parts, you already have a Growth Hiring process that makes sense. However, the hack lies in the verticalization of Linkedin accounts. This is where you’ll see your results soar. This is what enabled me to carry out around a hundred recruitments on my own in less than a year and a half.
Verticalizing Linkedin accounts
Let’s get back to our candidate story! One way of recruiting quickly and effectively is to maintain a real recruitment pool. The heart of a good job pool is to continually talk to and inform candidates about the company’s activities. The aim is twofold: either he thinks of us when he wants to change company, or when we contact him again for another job, he accepts the exchange.
Here, the time saved by your recruiter thanks to Growth Recruitment will be the “unfair advantage” over your competitors who don’t use these techniques. In fact, the vast majority of companies don’t have the human resources (simply not enough recruiters) to manage a talent pool efficiently. If you divide the time spent by your recruiter on talent acquisition by a factor of 4 to 5, the more time he or she will spend managing your candidate pool. And that’s not counting the growth techniques we’ll be looking at to manage a breeding ground.
The perfect way to maintain a candidate pool after your contact campaigns is to verticalize your MirrorProfiles accounts.
Verticalization means dedicating 1 Linkedin profile to 1 type of candidate. For example, your recruitment schedule and experience will tell you that you have a recurring need for 3 types of profile: Sales, Marketing and Technical.
- Profile 1, let’s call him Michel: Michel will be in charge of recruiting the Sales profiles.
- Profile 2, Marketing Profiles
- Profile 3, Technical Profiles
What’s in it for me? As you can imagine, there are a lot of them!
a) Commitment rate :
One of the advantages of verticalizing your account is that your profiles X can make LinkedIn posts focusing more on Sales, for example for Michel, more on Marketing for profile 2, etc. You get the idea. But why? LinkedIn’s algorithm calculates an engagement rate for each of your LinkedIn posts. If this is above 30%, LinkedIn will push your content to your network, but also to people who are similar to your network. The equation is simple: engagement rate = No. of likes + comments + shares / per number of relationships. It’s this famous division (sorry for those who don’t like maths) that helps to explain this verticalisation. In short, the more specific and therefore less voluminous your network, the higher your engagement rate.
b) Newsletter :
Yes, you read that right, your LinkedIn network will function as a newsletter in your Growth Recruitment system. You’ll be connected (1st network) to your potential candidates, so it’ll be easy to send them a LinkedIn message, without having to go through the “Request connection” stage. It’s important to keep your candidates’ memories alive, even those who weren’t interested. As long as you share useful information with them, of course! For example, a monthly message to keep them up to date with news in their sector, or with the new Sales/Marketing tools that are in vogue at the moment, will be greatly appreciated and will lend credibility to your expertise.
c) Travel, trade shows, events :
The advantage of your super pre-ATS on Airtable is that it’s packed with information, including your candidate’s location. If you’re traveling to a trade show or other event, don’t hesitate to check your ATS to see which candidates you might meet. Between a coffee, a meal or even inviting him to an event, this will strengthen the human bond and sooner or later it will pay off.
A final important point that is too often underestimated: securing the breeding pool.
Indeed, when you decide to set up a Growth Recruitment system, the 1st cornerstone of this system is to have a LinkedIn profile. If you don’t use MirrorProfiles, you’re capitalizing on and concentrating your pool on a profile that doesn’t belong to the company, but to the recruiters. Although I wouldn’t wish it on you, one day your recruiter will leave your company and you’ll lose all the work you’ve done. Not all of it, fortunately, as you have your own pre-ATS, but the entire verticalization strategy. That’s why all our customers without exception (except for founder profiles) have MirrorProfiles as part of their Growth Recruitment strategy.
If you’re not comfortable using fake LinkedIn profiles, you can easily personalize them with your recruiter’s first and last name. These are known as avatar accounts.
Conclusion
Growth Hiring will enable you to create, nurture and secure your candidate pool. Before these techniques, a good candidate pool took up an enormous amount of human time and therefore required a lot of recruiters. From now on, it’s no longer just for large companies.
The only thing that can’t be automated is updating these pools, as they are qualitative, human data that only you or your recruiters can enter. To make reporting easier, we’ve created MirrorChat which, thanks to its tag and webhook system, will enable you to automate part of this reporting. As you can see, our mission is to do away with cut-and-paste and refocus recruiters on what they do best: taking an interest in people!
