LinkedIn Corporate Recruiting Solutions

I just got off a demo call with LinkedIn Corporate Recruiting Solutions. (Pricing is not available without the demo.)

I was surprised to find out the cost is comparable to a Monster or CareerBuilder solution, $15,000 per year buys 2 license, 9 reusable job postings and 150 per month In-mails-

Because this is packaged as a "passive candidate" solution you do not have direct access to the candidates contact information only In-mails (which reports a 60% return rate) which is pretty decent, however a very passive approach in contacting a candidate in my opinion. Of course the option to search using a spoke.com pipl.com jigsaw.com or zoominfo.com is always an option ( I use currently to locate contact information.)

The upside to the corporate LinkedIn solution was having search results to include candidates that are not directly linked to you by degrees!

Is anyone currently subscribed to LinkedIn Corporate Solutions, and what has been your experience or ROI?

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Permalink Reply by Ann Mayahi on April 30, 2008 at 12:39pm

I am extremely curious to know if LI has opened it up to agencies too.
Ann

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Permalink Reply by pam claughton on April 30, 2008 at 5:00pm

You know I have to say it bothers me that LinkedIn is selling this solution to corporate recruiters only, considering that the content within LinkedIn has been built to its current level largely due to third party recruiter efforts...yet corporate now has total access to our networks with zero effort.

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Permalink Reply by Susan Burns on April 30, 2008 at 5:24pm

Pam - I can understand your frustration w/ LI around their decision to not include 3rd party. However, your comments around LI being built by agency's is really inappropriate and unfair to a lot of work that's been done by in-house corporate recruiters. To say that agency's have been the primary driver behind LIs content growth (assuming you mean profiles) also underestimates the power of grass roots communities and social networking in general. Maybe I've misinterpreted your comments and, if so, please let me know but I think your shot at corporate recruiters was quite inappropriate.

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Permalink Reply by pam claughton on May 1, 2008 at 8:02am

Susan,

You definitely misunderstood me. It was never my intention to take a shot at corporate recruiters! It's not their fault LinkedIn is choosing to market the solution to them, and if I were in their shoes, as I was once, I'd be all over it. And of course corporate recruiters have also built LinkedIn as well, my frustration was simply with the fact that third-party recruiters that have built significant networks on LinkedIn are being shut out while a corporate recruiter who is brand new to LinkedIn and has no network at all, will have access to the entire network. That is what bothers me.

Pam

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Permalink Reply by Pete Radloff on May 1, 2008 at 8:12am

Pam,

I think there are a couple of points to make here. While I agree with you that it appear selective, I think LI is trying to cater to a specific market place, and simultaneously alleviate perception (as someone else put it) as "just another job board". Too often what happens is the staffing side is only worried about filling the job ASAP (by NO means saying this is the case with you and your colleagues!), and blast emailing/posting, and closing the deal. Not so much networking, or at least selective networking. Having spent 6 years on the staffing side, I know that first hand.

Secondly, if they are only jumping on the LI bandwagon for this capability with no network prior, they won't necessarily get the full benefit. Part of the benefit of this is to be able to reach out to people, who can then look at your network as part of their decision to talk to you (in conjunction with the job offered of course).

If you look at the overwhelming trends of the job boards lately, probably about 80% of them are staffing company jobs, and given the shady practices of some of those companies, about 50 % are REAL jobs. So this allows for a staffing-free, corporate environment/haven for internal recruiters, start ups making their way, and the lot.

Like I said, it definitely stinks that it has to be segregated out, but you in some way have to applaud their stance in the market, in not just opening it up to everyone for the sake of the almighty dollar.

Pete

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Permalink Reply by Noel Reidy on June 10, 2008 at 6:21am

This would only be of benefit to US based companies and 15k is nothing nowadays, one senior hire made using the tool pays for itself.

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Permalink Reply by Melynda on June 24, 2008 at 1:52pm

One suggestion I could offer is to ask for LI references, companies of your size and possibly even similar industry background. I did this and received 3 - 2 of which are our direct competitors. Starting our companies recruiting department from the ground up has been a challenge in itself, let alone in a tight market for Top Talent. Coming out of the staffing industry gave me the tools for cold calling into companies. However, in a social networking environment, I am getting a much heavier response.
For all the corporate recruiters out there, start asking for a 1-3 month trial. You never know where that will get you. Several other boards have enabled me to do so.

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Permalink Reply by Joshua Letourneau on June 24, 2008 at 3:04pm

Paul, I'd just whip out the good old LinkedIn hack if you want access to the entire network (even those you're not linked to).

Inmail is now at 60% response (or was that 6%)? I was pulling about 5% response because LI is not (by its nature) an email tool. When the Inmail is bogged into every other kind of LI message you can get, it doesn't surprise me why people probably don't even see the mail in the first place.

In fact, I'm not even a fan of the RBC email architecture either (maybe I'm different, but I don't like having to go to 5 different places to read my mail . . . ) Call me crazy but I only have one mailbox at the end of my driveway!

Josh

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Permalink Reply by Paul Lovallo on June 25, 2008 at 9:30am

Josh could you send me an email with your contact information I like to discuss off line
plovallo@associatedrecruiters.net

Thank you Paul

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Permalink Reply by Ian Millar on June 25, 2008 at 10:06am

I looked at the corporate solution, but my division manager was unimpressed with the pricing.

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Permalink Reply by Teresa R. Bustamante, PHR, ACIR on June 25, 2008 at 10:17am

Ian, we here at Avery Dennison had much of the same response to the pricing. However, there is some room for negotiation should there be multiple people who would be registered to use the tool....

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Permalink Reply by Jrad on July 19, 2008 at 5:20pm

The tools look like they work well for recruiting groups in large corporations. According to Linked In they have 500 businesses using the tool. I think its well overdue but sheer genius on Linked In's part. In August we plan to launch the same tool "but better" for college recruiting at Zumeo.com.