Using LINE in Hiring: Benefits and Examples

Are you using a LINE Official Account in your hiring?
LINE Using it can raise your application rate, and
it can also prevent drop-off from interviews.
This article covers the advantages of using LINE, its features, and examples of it in use.

NowVillage was founded in 2020 and is still a young company, but
because our business is marketing consultancy, we have focused from the start on recruitment marketing, which brings marketing thinking into hiring.

Article 1 A marketing company explains its own recruitment marketing strategy in full
Article 2 [With examples] Start recruitment marketing today: what it actually involves

We hope you find the following useful.

1. Advantages of using LINE in hiring

This article is not about LINE as used for one-to-one or group chats, but about
what many companies use to broadcast information to many people at once and to communicate with them individually,
the LINE Official Account.
Using LINE in hiring has advantages both for the company and for the job seeker.
Here is each side in turn.

1.1 Advantages for the company (the account administrator)

(1) Candidate engagement rises
A normal hiring flow looks like this.
①Job ads / recruitment agencies / direct visits to the recruitment site ⇒②Application ⇒③Offer and joining
LINE goes between ① and ②.
①Job ads / recruitment agencies / direct visits to the recruitment site ⇒ LINE ⇒②Application ⇒③Offer and joining

With LINE in place, engagement up to ② increases.
The conversion rate from ②Application to ③Offer and joining also rises.

(2) More chances for candidates to see your hiring information
Looking at how job seekers used to behave, they had to use a search engine and find their way to a company’s recruitment page in order to get hiring information.

If you run a LINE Official Account and the candidate has added you as a friend, they can get that information whenever they like, straight away.

People now communicate more on LINE than by email, so the chance of being seen goes up.

(3) You can publish the information candidates want
A LINE Official Account lets you run surveys,
which makes it easier to pick up what candidates need.

There is also a chat tag feature for grouping users,
and by splitting people into before and after a briefing or a casual meeting,
you can publish what suits the stage each candidate is at.

(4) An admin screen that is easy to share internally
Several employees can log in to a LINE Official Account.
Where there are several recruiters, sharing information is straightforward.

And when the person running it changes and a handover happens, the past history is still there,
so the new person can see where things stand and avoid slip-ups in communication with candidates.

1.2 Advantages for the job seeker

(1) Easier to communicate than by email
Email calls for formal wording, and some people find getting in touch a chore.
LINE, by contrast, allows a casual exchange, which tends to lower the psychological barrier for the candidate.

(2) Hiring information is easy to come by
LINE is a tool people open many times a day.
That makes hiring information easy to get and lowers the effort of looking a company up.

2. Features of a LINE Official Account

A LINE Official Account has many features; here are the three of them that are most useful in hiring.

①Message broadcasting
②Images and video
③Rich menu

①Message broadcasting

Messaging is the main feature.
In hiring, once a candidate has added you as a friend you can send them text directly.
As with the LINE app, a LINE Official Account makes contact easy.

You can broadcast to many people at once, or exchange messages one to one.
You can also send photos and video.

②Message items

When you want to send people from LINE to another site, simply dropping the URL into the text gets few clicks.

LINE Official Accounts therefore have message items, a feature that combines an image or video with a URL to lead people to the next action.
There are three types: rich messages, rich video messages and card type messages.

The easiest of them to start with are rich messages and card type messages, which are sent with an image.
An image that appeals to candidates makes them more likely to move through to the briefing details page or your other news pages.

・Rich message
　A message that sends an image and text together.
　Information that is hard to follow in text alone
　can be conveyed with an image, which helps understanding.

・Card type message
　A feature that sends several images for the reader to swipe left and right.
　One message can carry several pieces of information.

③Rich menu

A menu shown at the bottom of the chat screen where you exchange messages with candidates.
You assign an action to each image, and the action starts when the candidate taps it.
It can post a message into the chat, or carry a URL that sends people to the linked page.

3. What to put in a LINE Official Account

We often hear that people are not sure what is appropriate to send out about hiring on a LINE Official Account.

Here is what to send on LINE, in concrete terms.
It falls broadly into five groups.

①Material that explains the company
②Material that shows what the place feels like
③Material that answers their needs
④Material about the selection process
⑤A point of contact for enquiries

①Material that explains the company

Things like what services and products you offer, and what the company is good at,
are often on a candidate’s mind.

It may be the same material that is on your website, but
being able to get it from LINE without visiting the site is an advantage.

Go over the material carefully, so that candidates can picture working there in concrete terms.

②Material that shows what the place feels like

One of the things candidates care about in actually working somewhere is the people around them.
Producing interview videos, audio or blog posts that show what the staff are like,
and sending them out on LINE, works well.

It gives them a reason to apply and something to weigh up when deciding whether to join.

③Material that answers their needs

What job seekers want from a move is wide-ranging.

• Whether the business will grow and they will grow with it
• Pay (whether it is higher than their last job, or will be in future)
• Whether the people will suit them
• Whether the benefits match what they want, and so on

To meet those needs, it is important to run surveys and, starting with what is most in demand,
publish concrete information on LINE on a regular basis.

④Material about the selection process

It is convenient if you publish information on LINE and also take applications there.

As well as sending out selection details by message,
we recommend pinning them in the rich menu.
Because it is always on screen, candidates can apply whenever they like.

⑤A point of contact for enquiries

When a candidate has a question about something you sent, or wants to ask about the selection process individually, writing an email puts the effort on them.

Allowing individual enquiries on LINE makes getting in touch easier.
Say regularly that you accept individual enquiries.

4. How to get a LINE Official Account started for hiring

From here, the actual steps for opening a LINE Official Account for hiring
and getting to your first broadcast.

There are broadly five steps.

<The 5 steps to broadcasting>
Step1. Open a LINE Official Account
Step2. Decide what to send
Step3. Set up what you decided to send
Step4. Get candidates to add you as a friend
Step5. Send the content

Here is each one in detail.

Step1 Open a LINE Official Account

Next, register a LINE Official Account.
You can register a LINE Official Account at the URL below, from LINE Yahoo Corporation, which provides the LINE service.
https://www.lycbiz.com/jp/service/line-official-account/

There are also pricing plans (with a free plan depending on the number of messages),
which you can check here.
https://www.lycbiz.com/jp/service/line-official-account/
We suggest staying on the free plan while you do the setup in Steps 2 and 3,
then moving to a paid plan once friend registrations build up.

Step2 Decide what to send

Of the four steps, Step 2 is the important one.

Produce it in the following order.

(1) Produce the content to send
(2) Choose the images and video
(3) Work out the rich menu content and design it
(4) Build the message scenario

(1) Produce the content to send
　Build it on the basis of 3. What to put in a LINE Official Account, above.

(2) Choose the images and video
　Working from (1), prepare the content you need.
　Text alone puts the burden of reading on the candidate.
　So prepare images and video, and build content with some appeal.

　If you have no images or video at this point, get help from colleagues and shoot some.
(3) Work out the rich menu content and design it
　Once you have reviewed the content from (1), take what you want candidates to be able to see whenever they like
　and put it in the rich menu.
　
　Design the rich menu in parallel.
　For rich menu sizes, if you are designing the whole background,
　use the following as a guide.

Template (large)	Template (small)
2,500px × 1,686px	2,500px × 843px
1,200px × 810px	1,200px × 405px
800px × 540px	800px × 270px

You can also create an image for each area.
See the source link above for details.

For design, there is canva, which is online and free to use –
a graphic design tool you can build it with.
It has plenty of templates and is easy to work with.
　
You can sign up free here.
https://www.canva.com/ja_jp/

(4) Build the message scenario
Take the content above as a step sequence, and
decide when each item goes out after a candidate registers.

Setting the send date relative to registration
cuts the company’s own sending effort considerably

Step3 Set up what you decided to send

Set up what you worked out in Step 1 from the LINE Official Account admin screen.
LINE Yahoo has a manual, so work through the setup with that.
Here are the URLs for setting up the three main features.

(1) Send a basic message
https://www.lycbiz.com/jp/manual/OfficialAccountManager/broadcast/?list=7171

(2) Set up a message scenario (step sequence)
https://www.lycbiz.com/jp/manual/OfficialAccountManager/step-message/?list=7171

(3) Set up the rich menu
https://www.lycbiz.com/jp/manual/OfficialAccountManager/rich-menus/?list=7171

Step4 Encourage candidates to add you as a friend

Once the LINE Official Account is set up, it is time to broadcast.
To build up friends – the people registered to your account on LINE –
you need to let people know that you have set up a LINE Official Account and encourage them to register.

Here are some ways to do it; put some thought in and build those registrations up.
・Mention it on your own recruitment page
・Tell people in the hiring emails you already send
・Let external platforms and partner recruitment agencies know, and ask them to pass it on to candidates
・Tell people in the process by email or in person during interviews

Step5 Send the content

Once someone actually registers as a friend, the content goes out automatically if you have set up a step sequence.

Send news and additions as and when you have them.

5. [Case study] How NowVillage uses LINE in its own hiring

We at NowVillage hire for ourselves too, and we have set up a LINE Official Account.

Here is what we put in it, and what our rich menu looks like.
NowVillage’s LINE also combines the LINE Official Account with
a service called L Step, which has a fuller set of broadcast settings.
The explanation below covers L Step as well.

<How NowVillage uses LINE in hiring>
①Using the LINE Official Account and L Step
②[Case study] What we actually send
(0) Take stock of the content you already have
(1) Decide the message content
(2) Choose the images and video
(3) Build the rich menu
(4) Let people know about the LINE Official Account

①Using the LINE Official Account and L Step

At NowVillage,
we want two rich menus shown as tabs
we want the step sequence to change depending on the survey answers
were the needs we had.

Neither of these can be set up with a LINE Official Account alone (as at the end of November 2023).
So we connected the L Step service to the LINE Official Account we had registered
and set it up there.
L Step is a service provided by Maneql Inc.
The service site is here.

There are many other features.
If you want to do the sort of thing above in your hiring, it is worth considering.

②[Case study] What we actually send

Now, on how NowVillage chose its content and what it sends,
here is the detail.

(0) Take stock of the content you already have
We went through what hiring content we already had in-house.
The table below is part of what came out of that.

We also split candidates’ intent to join into three levels, low, medium and high,
and worked out, for each level, which content was needed and which would be of interest,
then grouped it by level.

We also added the things we wanted in LINE, such as the application form and the enquiry contact.

(1) Decide the message content
Next, taking into account when each item from (0) should go out,
we decided the message content.

L Step has a feature that customises what goes out
according to the survey results.
So we started with a flow chart, and then organised it in a sheet.

▽An example flow chart

▽A sheet designed around send dates and times

(2) Choose the images and video
Once the messages are decided, choose the images and video to go with them.
Below is the image that points people to individual enquiries.
With this image in place, people know where to ask.

And when we put a video link in a message,
we prepared an image like the one below to go out with it.

(3) Build the rich menu
With a LINE Official Account alone you can only build one page, but
because we had L Step connected, we built two.
　　
This is our rich menu.
▼Page 1

On page 1 we put information for getting to know NowVillage.
・A website
・Company introduction deck
・The videos
　└What the work involves
　└The people
　└Training and development

▼Page 2

On page 2 we gathered the information about the selection process.
・Job details
・Application form

With that preparation done, we then set up the broadcasts in the L Step admin screen.

(4) Let people know about the LINE Official Account
Once each piece of content is set up, run a test send and, if there are no problems,
announce that your LINE Official Account is live.

One of the things NowVillage does is
show a pop-up on our own site.

▼Placed on the hiring page of our website

NowVillage ran recruitment marketing that included a LINE Official Account,
and as a result monthly applications rose 2.14 times, the share matching our hiring persona went from 28%⇒46%,
and four people were hired.

The article below explains how NowVillage thinks about its own hiring and the work it has done.

A marketing company explains its own recruitment marketing strategy in full

6. Points to watch when using LINE in hiring

When setting up a LINE Official Account it is easy to focus on what you will send, but
there are things to watch as you put it to use.

Set internal rules

Without the right rules, you can end up setting it up and then leaving it alone.
Who handles enquiries, and who edits what goes out –
settle both firmly in advance.

Deciding in advance what to do when something goes wrong
will mean it takes less time to resolve.

Set KPIs

Deciding what to send and prompting people to add you as a friend is not the end of it:
you need to put the LINE official account to proper use in your recruitment.

• Whether to track new applications from the LINE official account
• Whether to track friend registrations on a monthly basis

The reason for setting up LINE differs from company to company,
but set a clear target and keep improving towards it.

7. In closing

We hope that was useful.
Here is a summary of this article.

・Using a LINE official account in recruitment
　has advantages for both the employer and the job seeker, and it works
・A LINE official account has features; use them and plan what you send
・Send content that job seekers will find useful
・You need to prepare messages, images, video and a rich menu
・To run it, set internal rules and targets in advance

For recruitment marketing in general, or for the LINE official account alone,
we are happy to help.
If you are interested, do get in touch from the link below.

Talk to us about recruitment marketing

We hope this article is useful for your recruitment.
Thank you for reading to the end.