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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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Ian Millar on March 21, 2008 at 1:33am

Sounds like the same benefits I get for BusinessPro. I'll Gar-on-tee we're not paying 15k.

What do you have to pay for them to create better search tools?

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Permalink Reply by Paul Lovallo on March 21, 2008 at 9:00am

Lol! My point exactly... They say there are 500 paying customers, I just don't see the value. Continue to build your linkedIn network to have access to the majority of the DB!

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Permalink Reply by Shannon Underhill on April 1, 2008 at 9:09pm

I agree .. Linkedin launched this piece of the pie way too late in the game. There are too many other solutions out there that are much better (pull Linkein data anyway) and less expensive.

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Permalink Reply by Teresa R. Bustamante, PHR, ACIR on April 30, 2008 at 3:01am

Yes, I went through 2 demos. I'm a passive candidate sourcer for Avery Dennison. Since I'm a bit scrappy... and cheap, I didn't like it much. But, the recruiters on the team are chompin' at the bit to learn more. I know how to see everyone on LI without the 15k min. tool they offer. But, for the recruiter who has a ton of reqs and hiring managers breathing down their necks, I totally get it. We're still exploring but keep in touch with me and we'll voyage together.

Check me out on LI

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Permalink Reply by Maureen Sharib on April 30, 2008 at 3:10am

$15,000???

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Permalink Reply by pam claughton on April 30, 2008 at 9:57am

I think that they are promoting it as if LinkedIn is a job board, and that with the corp solution they'll have access to a huge network of great passive candidates.

Except that they're not all candidates, and 60% return on inmail is way optimistic...and that is just response to inmail....a vast majority of those reponses are likely to be, 'thanks, but I'm not interested'.

It will be interesting to see how this goes. I wouldn't be at all surprised if you start seeing people taking their profiles off LinkedIn because they don't want to be perceived as a 'candidate' who is looking.

I think the timing is phenomenal right now for someone to swoop in and capture the true initial intent of LinkedIn, networking....switching gears into an admitted job board, which is what they've now done with the corporate solution, may backfire on them.

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Permalink Reply by Susan Burns on April 30, 2008 at 10:54am

A similar service used to be about 2500 from LI. But, think of who has benefited the most from LinkedIn - recruiters. So, if you think of the talent you have access to (level, skill, global..., the opt in % - believe its around 80%, the response rate - which Paul mentions @60%, and that this is a passive, global talent pool, compared to Monster is sort of a bargain. LI has also been the most effective social networking tool for recruitment - if you have others I'd love to hear about them. So, I don't work for LI but have been following this somewhat closely. I agree that its shocking and was somewhat disappointed myself when I heard the news. But, they are a biz and are trying to develop a revenue model. The biggest challenge for recruiting departments is reallocating budget to cover costs - esp mid-year.

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Permalink Reply by Pete Radloff on April 30, 2008 at 11:05am

It might seem costly, but considering I was able to drop a non-performing 20k job board and get 3 licenses for 15k and 9 job postings, and access to people not in my network it's been great. ROI has surpassed the job board we dropped (it was a big 3 board) and in mail return has been over 80%.

Even the "not interested people" respond most times, with a referral even if the job isn't a match for them. With the ability to build projects around jobs, and track contacts made ( that the whole recruiting team can see!) this has been a good pickup. Time will tell if it pans out long-term, but it was worth a shot for a year, given that we've hired 2x as many people from there in 3 months, than the JB we dropped did in a year.

I give it a thumbs up.

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Permalink Reply by Paul Lovallo on April 30, 2008 at 11:53am

if you made 3 hires already your ROI is covered. I am glad to hear that you are receiving responses from In Mail...are you a Corporate Recruiter or Agency?

Paul

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Permalink Reply by Pete Radloff on April 30, 2008 at 12:01pm

Corporate - To my knowledge they have not allowed Agencies to purchase this solution.

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Permalink Reply by Teresa R. Bustamante, PHR, ACIR on April 30, 2008 at 12:06pm

As an aside, I have to mention that I am a big fan of LI inmails as I receive pretty good response to them and people are always positive upon receiving them. However, with my LI Pro Account, I have plenty and to pay so much so that they can offer me a 'template', clipboard, and multiple sending of them simultaneously... as a sourcer for my company, I'm still on the fence. Nice frills but eeks at the dollars. Also, my partner and I are concerned that LI's positive reputation may be tarnished if it begins to be seen as a job board and there comes with it recruiter saturation. They argue this point with the fact that Corporate Solutions will only be offered to corporate staffing departments, NOT 3rd parties. We're on the fence....

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Permalink Reply by Pete Radloff on April 30, 2008 at 12:08pm

I forgot to mention the mass in-mails and clipboard options - thanks Teresa. I think the templates allow you to personalize it, and therefore (hopefully) eliminate the perception of the "job board" - Linked In has always had the job board capability, and I think most (most) people use it responsibly.