Congrats on acquiring LinkedIn. This is big news and an exciting opportunity for you. I know you probably haven’t figured out exactly what you are going to do with the social media giant and a lot of questions still remain unanswered. I don’t know if you are interested in getting seriously involved in the HR Technology space or not. I don’t know if you plan to keep the vision for LinkedIn or to shake it up a little. I don’t know if you just don’t know. But I want to ask you a favor or two before it gets too late.
Staffing and Recruitment is a $400+ billion industry and it’s growing. It is filled with a lot of opportunity, a lot of challenges and a lot of people invested in a market that directly impacts organizational growth. A lot of my friends and colleagues are sourcers and recruiters and feel very passionate about the work they do. Most of these people are active LinkedIn users and now your customers. I thought you might want to know a few things:
- LinkedIn is a recruitment tool. Yea, it had a lot of issues with growth in 2015 but it is still used by over 70% of recruiters. It does some things well and some things not so well. Recruiters are not shy. They have voiced their concerns and many of them have gone unanswered. Many of them have built their connections using LinkedIn. Please pay attention. Listen to your users. Create a customer advisory board and make changes.
- Think about partners more strategically. Most of the recruitment technology providers partner with LinkedIn some way or are trying to partner with LinkedIn. ATS providers allow candidates to upload LinkedIn profiles. Other solutions allow candidates to view connections and information about a company without having to leave their platform. LinkedIn has not made integration with existing providers easy. Please try to make it better. Make it easy for candidates and recruiters to find people, engage people and provide that insight to the systems they use.
- Candidates need more tools. You have an opportunity to educate candidates. Provide them with relevant information about companies they are interested in and tools they need to be successful through the hiring process. Help them make compelling profiles that can be used outside of LinkedIn. Companies want to improve the candidate experience and you have an opportunity to help them do that.
I know you are excited. But we are still trying to make sense of the announcement and still have many questions. This could be great. I hope you think so too.
