LinkedIn has become a major staple of our daily professional life. As recruiters and HR professionals, it’s essentially where we hang out. It has become the place for us to connect with other professionals, as well as a place to help candidates find their dream job.
A year on from Microsoft’s $26.2 billion purchase of the company, we have to ask – where is the platform now heading? Let’s ask our panel of experts!
Jonathan Kestenbaum
With Microsoft’s acquisition of LinkedIn, I think Microsoft is well positioned to create proprietary access in their Dynamics ATS. Separately, the other things we see in the market is that candidates are moving away from LinkedIn to niche Social Networks, like TrueUp, Github and Dribbble.
Jonathan Kestenbaum, Executive Director, Talent Tech Labs
Cheryl Cran
LinkedIn will continue to be relevant in regards to recruitment and will focus on algorithms and AI to increase value for potential employers looking for talent.
Cheryl Cran, CEO & Future of Work Expert, Synthesis at Work Inc
Nathan Perrott
With Microsoft now owning LinkedIn, it’s integration into Office 365 (specifically as an Outlook plugin) could be a really useful tool, helping you instantly learn more about the person you’re talking with, be it a colleague, client or prospect. But I personally think it’s usage in learning and development is its greatest ace card (Lynda.com content plus using LinkedIn’s big data to understand and map what makes people successful in their careers). And with retention and internal mobility higher on employers’ radars with the skills shortage challenges, this could be a huge focus.
Nathan Perrott, Director of Digital Marketing Strategy, AIA Worldwide
Adam Glassman
LinkedIn has built a massive database containing a wealth of information on much of the employable workforce. Their future will be determined by what Microsoft wants to do with that database, of course. I see them expanding their content creation model, as well as their workforce education (through their Lynda training). I also see LI making a concerted push to expand in global markets, as well as the hourly workforce.
Adam Glassman, Recruitment Strategies Manager, Alorica
Hung Lee
LinkedIn’s direction of travel is fairly clear – they are going to be the data layer for Microsoft Dynamics. The combination of Microsoft’s dominance of the enterprise with native products like Office Suite, Outlook and acquisitions of communication / collaboration tools like Skype, Yammer and now LinkedIn will lead to an attempt to own sales and hiring and L&D in the enterprise. It’s exciting times in the world of work – both Microsoft and Google have aggressively entered the space and are playing for all the marbles – both are aiming to create complete eco-system, cradle-to-grave recruiting solutions.
Hung Lee, CEO, WorkShape.io
Chris Russell
Linkedin will continue to be integrated into the Microsoft world. From Skype to Office, LinkedIn profiles will become embedded throughout their ecosystem. This should lead to future growth and probably more expensive licenses.
Chris Russell, Managing Director, RecTech Media
Bryan Chaney
At Indeed, we stay laser focused on helping the jobseeker with their search, as well as free tools to understand the culture and employee experience of companies that are hiring, so they can make informed career decisions. Don’t get me wrong, understanding the recruiting landscape is important, but everything else is secondary to our mission.
Bryan Chaney, Director of Employer Brand, Indeed
