The Best Platforms for Hiring Instructional Designers and L&D Professionals

Hiring the right talent for specialized roles like Learning & Development (L&D) and Instructional Design (ID) can be both challenging and time-consuming. Whether your organization has a dedicated talent acquisition team or not, choosing the right platform can optimize your hiring process, save time, and ensure you’re reaching the most qualified candidates.

Let’s compare four of the most popular platforms for hiring L&D and ID professionals—LinkedIn, Indeed, Upwork, and Teamed for Learning—to help you find the best fit for your hiring needs.

Factors That Affect Hiring Difficulty

Before we jump into the comparison, there are two key factors that can determine how difficult or easy your hiring process is:

Recruitment Expertise: Skilled recruiters know how to craft effective job descriptions, source candidates, and manage the entire hiring process. Without these skills, hiring can be slower and less effective.
ID and L&D Knowledge: If you have a solid understanding of Instructional Design and L&D, you’ll find it easier to assess candidates. Without this knowledge, the process may involve more time spent defining job criteria and evaluating qualifications.

The right hiring platform can either ease or add to these challenges, depending on your resources and expertise.

Platform Comparison

Below is an overview of the most popular hiring platforms and their main features.

LinkedIn

Type: Job Board + Social Network
Features: Promotes jobs and enables strategic outreach using advanced filtering tools.
Hiring Type: Primarily employee roles, with some professionals open to contracting. It does not offer contractor hiring and payroll services.

Indeed

Type: Job Board
Features: Includes matching tools, though they’re still evolving for specialized roles.
Hiring Type: Supports both full-time and contract roles but doesn’t offer contractor onboarding or payroll services.

Upwork

Type: Talent Marketplace
Features: Enterprise clients can access talent sourcing, compliance, and workforce management tools.
Hiring Type: Freelancers, offering flexible hiring options for 1099 and W2 contractors.

Teamed for Learning

Type: Job Board + Talent Pool + Full-Service Recruitment
Features: Easy to use to platform where you can post jobs, see and connect with vetted L&D and ID professionals, and/or work with an industry-expert recruiter.
Hiring Type: Supports both employee and contract hires. Additionally, Teamed provides contractor hiring services with legal onboarding and payroll management.

Takeaway: Teamed offers the most comprehensive and specialized hiring services, combining job postings, a talent pool, full-service recruitment, and contractor hiring. Teamed is the only option with full-service recruitment.

Candidate Quality

Finding the right candidates means sourcing from the right platform:

LinkedIn: Broad candidate pool and fewer entry-level professionals. Reaches some qualified candidates but requires strategic outreach.
Indeed: Large pool, but more time is spent sorting through applicants who may not meet your specific needs.
Upwork: Lacks specialization in L&D and ID roles, making it less effective for these hires.
Teamed for Learning: Specialized network of over 40,000 L&D and ID professionals, ranging from new graduates to industry experts. You can more easily find industry professionals with highly specific and specialized skills. For example, you can find an eLearning developer with expertise in graphic design or an assessment writer who specializes in college test prep writing.

Takeaways: Teamed is the clear winner in terms of candidate focus and quality, offering a highly targeted network of industry professionals.

Time & Efficiency

How long does it take to hire the right candidates through different platforms:

LinkedIn: Posting jobs on LinkedIn is quick and straightforward, but the challenge often lies in sorting through a large pool of applicants. Additionally, LinkedIn relies heavily on your ability to conduct proactive outreach to find top talent and you must either have a large, relevant network or a recruiter subscription.
Indeed: Indeed’s wide reach can generate a large number of applications quickly. However, its broad audience means you’ll likely spend significant time screening applicants, particularly for specialized roles that require unique skills.
Upwork: Upwork is optimized for freelancers and short-term projects, allowing for a relatively fast hiring process for temporary roles. It may take longer to find someone with the depth of expertise you need for complex, specialized hires.
Teamed for Learning: Highly time-efficient due to its pre-vetted talent pool, specialized focus, and full-service recruitment.

Takeaway: Teamed significantly reduces hiring time by providing access to a highly specialized, pre-vetted talent pool and offering full-service recruitment. For organizations seeking to hire top-tier ID and L&D professionals, Teamed delivers. In addition, they can handle every detail of the recruitment process, delivering customized candidate matches quickly and efficiently. This level of support and specialization makes Teamed the most time-efficient option compared to broader platforms like LinkedIn, Indeed, or Upwork, where time must often be spent on manual sourcing and sorting through less relevant candidates.

Cost Comparison

Here’s a breakdown of costs for each platform:

LinkedIn
- Free Option: Free job posts allow for limited reach but may not drive the best results without promotion
- Paid Ads: Costs are based on job clicks and vary by competition in your target audience. LinkedIn Recruiter—a powerful tool for more proactive candidate sourcing—costs $900/month or $10,800/year.
- Example: A promoted job post costs $91/day with an estimated monthly applicant count of 12, leading to a potential monthly cost of $2,730 (as of 9/18/24).
Indeed
- Free Posts: Posts show up in general search results, but visibility may be limited without promotion.
- Paid Listings: Employers can pay $15-$50 per qualified application, depending on role complexity and demand.
- Example: An Instructional Designer job post costs $27/day for a standard budget or $45/day for premium exposure (as of 9/23/24). Running these for a full month could total $810 – $1,350.
Upwork
- Employer Fees: Employers pay 3% of all payments to freelancers, and freelancers are charged a tiered service fee (ranging from 5%-20%) based on earnings.
- Markup: These fees, combined, increase total costs, making Upwork more suitable for short-term or project-based work rather than full-time hires, particularly for highly specialized roles like Instructional Design and L&D.
Teamed for Learning
- Free Job Posting: Employers can post jobs for free for E30 days.
- Subscription: For ongoing hiring needs, a subscription costs $299/month for up to 2 job posts with unlimited access to the Talent Pool.
- Full-Service Recruitment: Teamed offers 20% of the employee’s annual salary or 20% of a contractor’s total project or hourly rate for its full-service recruitment and onboarding support, including payroll and legal management for contractors.

Takeaways: Teamed offers the most cost-effective and specialized hiring solution for Instructional Design and L&D professionals. With its combination of free job posting, affordable subscription options, and full-service recruitment, Teamed provides flexible pricing that scales with your needs. Unlike platforms like LinkedIn or Indeed, which require continuous ad spend for visibility or Upwork’s fee-heavy freelance model. This means that while other platforms might require more investment for broader reach or specialized roles, Teamed can be more efficient and economical for your niche, industry hires.

Why Teamed for Learning is the Best Choice

Teamed for Learning offers the most specialized and efficient solution for hiring Instructional Design and L&D professionals. Unlike LinkedIn and Indeed, which require more recruitment expertise and time to find niche candidates, Teamed provides a pre-vetted talent pool and full-service recruitment that eases the process. If your team lacks ID/L&D knowledge or recruitment expertise, Teamed helps bridge those gaps, offering faster, higher-quality results.

By combining targeted hiring with contractor onboarding and payroll services, Teamed is the most effective platform for streamlining your hiring process and delivering specialized talent.

If you’re ready to streamline your hiring process and connect with the best L&D and ID talent, Teamed for Learning is the platform and service that saves time, delivers results, and simplifies the hiring process for specialized professionals. Reach out today!