LinkedIn case study

Case Notes LinkedIn How Does the World s Largest Professional Network

In 2003, LinkedIn was launched to help those who felt a bit disconnected to the business world by creating as a professional network where members are able to find jobs from the labor market, locate business opportunities and connect with other professionals. Given their differentiation approach, LinkedIn became the dominant player with over 300 million members in more than 200 countries. They have continued their growth strategy through acquisitions, such as the 2012 purchase of SlideShare for some $119 million - an application that allows users to share slide show presentations. In addition, the company has launched its Talent Pipeline offering, a new recruiter product. Mobile is another area of focus; in 2011 about 15% of member visits came from mobile, and mobile page views were up more than 300% year-over- year. LinkedIn is also ramping up its international expansion activities, having experienced growth in India, Brazil, and China. About 60% of its member base comes from outside the US, and its service is available in languages such as French, German, Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish. A reflection of its global focus, LinkedIn recently opened international offices in London, Mumbai, and Sydney. These operations add to its presence in Canada, Ireland, and the Netherlands. Through this giant network, members can find jobs from the labor market locate business opportunities and connect with other professionals. LinkedIn has become a powerful tool for the large companies to find new talents. Unlike the other job-hunting search engines like Monster or Indeed, LinkedIn provides a chance of networking between users and possible employers. Companies like Google or HP use their own resources, their own search tools for headhunting; however, for most of the hiring process LinkedIn is used to gather more information about the candidate. Its members include executives from all Fortune 500 companies. It is believed that of the Fortune companies use LinkedIn’s corporate talent solutions to recruit employees. Successful growth requires new employees. To meet the increasing demand for their services LinkedIn’s ironically needs to themselves hire new software engineers, salespeople, and corporate managers. They may have a lot to teach their corporate users about how to benefit from their services yet how does LinkedIn hire their own employees? When LinkedIn needs an immediate hire for their vacant positions they require their HR team to architect, implement and maintain the network configurations but also require them to collaborate with business leaders to recruit applicants who meet the company’s objectives. They use their own website along with a plan to recruit only the best for their company in the fastest time possible. LinkedIn allows all individuals using their site to apply to openings in their

company. LinkedIn’s website is engineered for job-hunters to easily view an opening in LinkedIn. Whenever a user checks the profile of a LinkedIn employee, it is likely that he/she will see an advertisement for a possible opening in the company. The goal is to reach the whole labor market about this vacancy and announce it to users familiar with the firm’s services. The jobseekers then realize it would be easier to ‘follow’ LinkedIn’s page to catch further openings. It is hence not a surprise that the number of followers of LinkedIn has multiplied 10 times during the past 3 years. LinkedIn’s also uses their database to generate links between local job listings and job seekers for specific industries not only to search for talent in nearby locations or where the job-turnovers are high like New York City or Silicon Valley but in places which labor supply/demand is more in balance like Washington D.C. or Dallas. Key positions in the company, in one case a data-center manager, required for more targeted recruiting given the technical nature of the job. Job specifications included 15+ years of managerial experience, spending at least 3 years in a similar job, a Ph. D. in computer science and proven leadership in the IT world. Knowing the fact that it could take more than a year and a half to persuade someone to join LinkedIn and leave their current job, LinkedIn narrowed down their search by focusing on only current job seekers. In the end, the search result provided only 7 resumes that matched their criteria Only 7 identifiable people on the earth! Questions

1. How does LinkedIn s growth strateg impact the recruitment function of HR 2. One way that LinkedIn has grown is through acquisition. From a recruitment

viewpoint why use this method of growth rather than through internal development? 3. Why would a firm use LinkedIn s services rather than those of a traditional

headhunter or their own-house recruitment specialists? 4. What are alternative methods that firms can employ to recruit new employees

besides using LinkedIn s services 5. Evaluate LinkedIn s search for a data-center manager. How might they have handled

this search differently to increase the number of potential applicants?