Back in 2014, I was between opportunities and interviewing with diverse companies. The two companies that held my interest the most were my beloved employer – Randstad Sourceright (Yay!) and LinkedIn. During my interviews with LinkedIn (I had several), I shared a plethora of ideas that I thought would take their platform to the next level. It was not until recently that I stumbled across my notes and revisited the suggestions I made to LinkedIn, three years ago.
As I reviewed my writings, I wondered what would have happened if LinkedIn did all I suggested back then? Would they have had more product offerings today? Would they have resisted a buyout from Microsoft because they were too big to fail? And then I thought, what if I had shared these ideas with some of their competitors? Would LinkedIn had been forced to do similar innovations to keep up or to remain dominant? Hmm… I guess I will never know and that kind of bugs me.
So, just for giggles, I thought I would share the ideas I had for LinkedIn back in 2014. I invite any and all thoughtful comments so long as you remember that these notions are circa February/March 2014. (Oh! Forgive me in advance if this seems a bit rambly; because it is.)
IDEA #1: PREDICTIVE ANALYTICS
LinkedIn already detects when someone is sprucing up their profile. What if a significant percentage of a company’s employees are updating their profile over the course of a few days or week? LinkedIn says to itself, “Hmm… looks like your company is about to layoff a bunch of people.”
So, as a service to job seekers…
A) LinkedIn looks at your work history, present employer and previous job searches then, starts suggesting jobs of interest to you.
B) LinkedIn goes further and analyzes your skills, professional interests and your LinkedIn groups; surmises that you have a lot in common with these companies and shares jobs that may be of interest to you.
C) LinkedIn looks at the companies it is pitching to you and where they recruit from and suggests that you explore opportunities there because a lot of people from your present company tend to migrate there.
Doing this helps a job seeker increase their chance of being hired quicker and gives employer leads in line with their preference. If this algorithm does not work for some (for whatever reason, maybe they do not have enough of a career to analyze?), LinkedIn suggests that they pattern their search according to trends.
IDEA #2: SUGGESTIONS BASED ON TRENDS RESEARCH
Umm… Say, for example, jobs in the healthcare industry is trending high for left-handed nurses. Your skills suggest that you might be a match for left-handed nursing jobs. However, you are not very responsive. Before you know it, LinkedIn is showing you adverts for online classes that would put you on the pathway of being a left-handed nurse or some other job that is trending hot.
To take these classes, that will make you an even more attractive candidate, you login to the online classroom with your LinkedIn profile. Once the class is completed, your scores are on a LinkedIn page. You can then link to your academic grades and have them display prominently on your LinkedIn profile. Unless you decide to opt out, LinkedIn sends a list of top scorers to companies who have paid to receive news on top students as soon as their grades post. (wink)
New Book: Musings of Man and Machine: How Robots
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IDEA #3: LINKEDIN SHOULD BUY LYNDA
LinkedIn should buy Lynda or consider buying something like it. Why? Imagine this scenario! LinkedIn partners with high schools to give students free online classes that will prepare them for future roles. High scorers are matched with a mentor for a day, to ask what it’s like to do the work they do. LinkedIn gets members now and for the future. LinkedIn trains for the future. LinkedIn sets the standard for credentials in certain markets. LinkedIn takes the professional community to a new level. And each year, LinkedIn produces a trends report based on government stats, annual articles and LinkedIn data. It becomes the most quoted HR related report in history and cited on most (if not all) leading publications. Just a thought…
IDEA #4: SENTIMENT ANALYSIS AND TARGETING
If I knew who was most likely to respond to my emails, I would reach out to them first. That being said, what if LinkedIn sent an email to passive candidates on a monthly basis and asked them if they were happy working for Company X? If a significant percentage of employees at a certain company are unhappy, Company X would get notified that they may want to boost their retention strategies. (I, then, suggested they check out Morale.me for inspiration or possible acquisition. At least, I think I did. I should have if I did not.)
IDEA #5: HIGH VALUE TARGETING
Candidates who graduate from a certain school, location, relevant job titles and are following your company fit the profile of your typical hire. As such, they get a high “recruitment probability” score and as such, appear higher in the search results based on your company when logged into LinkedIn recruiter. This will make LinkedIn Recruiter a more desirable purchase.
IDEA #6: LINKEDIN BECOMES YOUR BUSINESS ID
LinkedIn should buy DocuSign! When someone virtually signs a document online, their signature links to their LinkedIn profile. In this way, LinkedIn becomes your online ID for your business and inseparably linked to your professional brand. Also for the sake of reputation management, let companies add comments to their blogs that are ratified by logging into LinkedIn.
IDEA #7: LINKEDIN SHOULD COMPETE WITH GARTNER
LinkedIn should produce more business intelligence reports. Like the kind of reports “Business Insider” and Gartner produces. This would cause the business world to see LinkedIn as more than a recruitment tool and expand their customer base beyond HR.
Okay, so, those were all the notes I had on the topic. What do you think? Would these ideas still work in 2017? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below and don’t forget to subscribe to my blog, if you have not already.
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