Few new features LinkedIn should consider implementing

Recruitment continues to be a paradox from one angle, where thousands of recruiters are struggling to hire enough talent, on the other side most suitable candidates left out from the radar of recruiters who are desiring this talent. The simple reason behind this is, as a recruiter you just can’t spot all the possible job seekers for any given job with the tools and mechanism you have, in the same way job seekers cannot manage to come under spotlight at the right time. Social recruiting tools like LinkedIn is supposed to reduce the gravity of this paradox,as of today it is far from what can possibly be done. Throughout the transformation, from print media driven recruiting to digital, social recruiting the only key metric changed is "time to hire" rest of the problems almost remains the same. There is huge business opportunity for LinkedIn in trying to solve this problem.

As someone who deal with and live in this paradox every day, I think  features discussed in this post might work well.

 

Let candidate choose to show contact details to his “preferred employer” (Only)

Recruiting through LinkedIn is exciting, there is an element of hide and seek all the time. As a recruiter when you stumble upon to some profile, you know the candidate great but you cannot do anything but send an Inmail and wait for his response. It consumes enormous amount of time and Inmail response rates are not more than 40%, in case someone is using LinkedIn significantly. Most candidates do not respond for different reasons which is fine but I am worried about candidates who are interested in the job and could not respond in time, by the time he/she responds the job is filled. Being able to talk is much more effective than sending an email/Inmail. Why not simplify it, LinkedIn is not a regular jobsite so you may not want to build a feature that blatantly shows contact numbers, fair enough but at least let candidates chose to show his mobile number only few selected employers of his choice.

Take an example, you are candidate and would not want to miss an opportunity to work for SpaceX labs and you will be willing change job at any point of time in career to just to work for this company. We all have dream companies like that. LinkedIn should make your life easier by showing your contact details to only this company where recruiter can easily find your mobile number and call you. On face of it, it may sound like feature which will eventually kill Inmail but it won’t. Inmail consumption may reduce initially but the overall adoption of LinkedIn will grow faster and significantly. Today a lot of employers does not prefer a paid recruiter account on LinkedIn primarily because it is a slow process and does not give contact details as compared to the regular jobsites. Another most important differentiator is the cost, In India LInkedIn license costs at least 3 times to Naukri subscription, when it is not providing the basic feature that is available on jobsites it does not make any business sense. You cannot run a long standing business only with rich customers LinkedIn needs small, medium players to become its consumers win the war and stand strong. See the illustration below.

Enable job seekers with intricate information and analytics

LinkedIn has potential become the one stop solution for candidates, as on today it is just another medium between recruiters and candidates, the moment this connection is established job of LinkedIn ends. Candidates have to further depend on other sites like Glassdoor to check and gather information about a particular employer and that too candidates will only come to know the opinions of others not really facts.

Before attending any interview candidates tend to do a lot of homework in knowing what they are getting in to starting from what would be the nature of interviews to how would  my future look like if joins this company, where does this job change may potentially take me in few years, what would be my future prospects. It will be an amazing help for candidates to get data from LinkedIn related to all those, it helps them make the decision faster and very well informed decision.

Say you applied for role , will be good to get information as below.

LinkedIn got more information about any employer in the world than any other site, probably it knows more about a certain employee than their employers do like academics, previous employment history, roles played before, where did someone join after working for an X company, is there any trend in employee migration from one company to another. It will be really useful if candidates get to know this information once he/she applies for a role/accepts an Inmail from a given employer.

Au revoir - Last Working day at Ivy Comptech - few last thoughts

Leaving Ivy Comptech after working for close to 3 years, Ivy Comptech, by all parameters it is my most successful assignment so far; I worked with amazing people. I would cherish the interactions I had with few wonderful people forever. The sad part is there is a possibility of not being able to meet few people who I idealized here, respected and looked up to in my whole life time. Social media is the only consolation in this regard; we can still stay in touch virtually. It might take some time for me come in terms with the fact that I can no more say “Hi, this is Ramesh, I lead recruitment for Ivy Comptech India office”.

While I say good bye – wanted record my last thoughts about few great minds and wonderful human beings.

My Wonderful Team

Together we made the best team and we had the courage to aim for stars.

As a manager one might have thousand thoughts and 100 killing ideas but they all waste if the team is not prepared to embrace and implement them. I am really thankful to Pushpa, Prashanth,Sonia, Ram, Swetha and Aleem and  for trusting me and standing by me even in extremely stressful situations. I remember every battle we won and I cherish all the weekend recruitment drive adrenalin, Guys - you made it look like a fest. You helped me accumulate lot of patience too J I thank all of you. I know I was a demanding manager for you –sorry if it was too much at times, most important thing is we pulled it together and achieved what is required to be with flying colors.

I am proud that:

·         None of my team member failed in their job

·         They had never been a trouble to the other  team members

·         They progressed well in their careers

Kathy Swindley

It is Kathy’s vision and unflinching determination that makes the organization stand strong from the people side. I am really thankful to Kathy for continuously trusting me, and making me a part of wider HR projects. She always made me feel important in the team; I am delighted that I have worked with a great person with lot of knowledge, strong willed and a great amount of warmth, care for her team. She always had a solution even if it was the most difficult situation, managing  team members   with different aspirations across the globe and striking a balance is quite a task, We always looked up to her. I don’t think any other person would have been able to do this as effectively as Kathy.

Sudhakar Prasad 

                                                                     

I am quite sure that I won’t be able to work with such great Technology Head in my whole career. A man with utmost respect for every individual he works with and very rare mix of great technology brain and a heart for his employees. There are so many situations where I walked into office and five minutes of time with him would change the whole scenario – I come back with my answer. He had been a great source of inspiration when we were chasing the humongous target.

Nicola

She is the first person who believed I can do this job, my best boss so far, always there for me when required. Courageous and really hardworking – she always set a great example for me. Lead the team across the globe beautifully; we all felt as “team” while we are scattered thousands of miles away from each other. Always had a great sense of judgment for ideas. If not you are my boss, we would not have done most of the work we’ve done here.  Best regards to Tim, little Katherine.

Rajagopal

Raj, a big hearted, ever smiling person with great amount of sense of humor, Always stood by me and my team, even when he is not convinced with something, it is amazing that he gives freedom to disagree and execute things the way we want to and always there to warn when we are crossing the line and correct us  . A person I can always depend for an advice on the personal front.

Kerry

We respected each other well, a good friend. Learned from each other, last six months of working together has been really wonderful. I really like the way she has been managing the bigger role so effectively. All the very best.

Thanks to Ravi Maithani, who helped me learn some new stuff.

Symon, Pandian, Madhavi, Gayathri, Parveen, Ahlad and Satyaki – you have been extremely wonderful and the wider recruitment and HR team, Special Thanks to Bharath for helping my team all through.

                                                               Alvida for now Ivy.