LinkedIn Recruiter is LinkedIn’s recruitment software that allows companies and recruiters to post jobs, search LinkedIn profiles, manage applicants, and connect with potential candidates. While LinkedIn offers a basic free account, LinkedIn Recruiter requires a paid subscription.
LinkedIn Basic vs. LinkedIn Recruiter
With a free basic LinkedIn account, you can create a company page, post jobs, search profiles, and connect with people. However, you only have access to limited analytics on who is viewing your jobs and profiles. Applicant tracking is also limited to excel spreadsheets or other manual systems.
LinkedIn Recruiter offers advanced recruitment features and integrates directly with your ATS. Key features include:
- Post jobs to reach LinkedIn’s 740+ million members
- Access to candidate demographics and feedback data
- Search LinkedIn profiles with advanced filters and Boolean search
- Contact candidates through InMail messages
- Manage candidates and collaborate with recruiters in a unified ATS
- Integration with your ATS like Jobvite, Greenhouse, Lever, Workday, SAP, etc.
LinkedIn Recruiter provides the data and tools needed for proactive sourcing, candidate relationship management, and pipeline tracking. It is not available for free.
LinkedIn Recruiter Pricing
LinkedIn Recruiter is sold as annual software-as-a-service (SaaS) subscriptions. There are two main packages:
Recruiter Lite
- Starts at $899/year per seat
- Best for individual recruiters or small teams
- Post jobs, search LinkedIn profiles, manage candidates
- Send InMail messages to candidates
- Analytics on job views, candidate sources, etc.
Recruiter Corporate
- Starts at $4,999/year per seat
- Advanced features for larger HR/recruiting teams
- Boolean search with tags and saved searches
- Integrate with your ATS or HCM
- Talent pool management and analytics
- More InMail messages and candidate data
Volume discounts are available for large enterprises with 50+ Recruiter seats. Contracts are also available if you do not want to commit to a full year.
Free LinkedIn Recruiting Tools
While a full Recruiter account requires a paid subscription, LinkedIn does offer some free recruitment tools:
LinkedIn Jobs
- Post one job for free to LinkedIn feed
- Appears in search results and on LinkedIn Jobs pages
- Lower visibility than sponsored job ads
LinkedIn Pages
- Create a Company Page to share information about your organization
- Engage followers with content posts and updates
- Establish your brand and industry authority
LinkedIn Groups
- Join or create Groups in your industry
- Participate in discussions and ask questions
- Get tips from other professionals and share advice
While these free tools allow you to establish a basic LinkedIn presence and potentially reach some candidates, they lack the advanced capabilities of LinkedIn Recruiter.
Is LinkedIn Recruiter Worth It?
For most recruiters and talent acquisition teams, the advanced features and integrations included with LinkedIn Recruiter make it well worth the investment. Some key benefits include:
- Higher visibility of job postings and employer brand
- Ability to segment and target passive candidates
- Advanced Boolean searches and candidate management
- Real-time profile alerts for qualified candidates
- Candidate pipeline and hiring metrics reporting
- Efficiency gains from integrations with your career site and ATS
According to LinkedIn’s 2021 Global Recruiting Trends report, 77% of recruiters say LinkedIn is their top channel for quality hires. LinkedIn Recruiter provides tools to source, engage, and acquire that talent more effectively.
| LinkedIn Recruiter | Free LinkedIn Account |
|---|---|
| Post sponsored jobs | Post 1 free job |
| Advanced Boolean search | Basic profile search |
| InMail messages | Limited messages |
| ATS integration | No integration |
| Analytics & reports | Limited insights |
This comparison shows why Recruiter provides more robust tools and data for recruiters compared to a free LinkedIn account.
Cost-Per-Hire
What is the ROI of investing in LinkedIn Recruiter? LinkedIn estimates that Recruiter can reduce cost-per-hire by up to 50% and reduce time-to-hire by 20-30%.
For a company with $1,000 CPH spent recruiting for 100 roles per year, LinkedIn Recruiter could potentially save $50,000 annually. The platform pays for itself by driving efficiency gains in sourcing, screening, and candidate management.
Satisfaction Rates
76% of customers renew their LinkedIn Recruiter subscription each year. The platform maintains an over 90% customer satisfaction rate according to LinkedIn.
This indicates most companies find ongoing value in using Recruiter to augment their recruiting efforts after an initial pilot or free trial.
Conclusion
In summary, LinkedIn Recruiter is a paid subscription platform for recruiters and hiring teams. A basic free LinkedIn account has limited recruiting capabilities.
The advanced features and integrations in Recruiter are worth the investment for most recruiters to source, engage, and manage candidates more effectively. While not free, the capabilities LinkedIn Recruiter provides can ultimately reduce cost-per-hire and time-to-fill for many organizations.
