Recruitment Industry: How companies like Linkedin can pave the way

The mismatch between work opportunities and qualifications

There is a high proportion of youth in developing countries who are unemployed and there is a mismatch between work opportunities & qualifications of youth. The identified causes for this are lack of quality education and job opportunities. These problems lead to poverty, financial burden to society, and low levels of economic growth. According to Plan International, 621 million young people aged 15-24 are neither enrolled in school or in training nor are employed. With 1 billion youth projected to enter the labour market within the next decade, 90% of whom live in developing countries, this group faces a precarious future of informal or irregular employment, one exacerbated by the effects of climate change which could trigger mass economic migration to zones less affected.

Promoting meaningful youth economic participation will require a holistic approach that involved both public and private sector interventions ranging from broader public policies to partnerships with industry players to train and promote the development of an appropriately skilled workforce. This balance will be the hardest to achieve in developing countries where there is high youth unemployment due to low economic growth, few job opportunities, and lack of quality education. We believe there is an opportunity to play in markets where there is a mismatch between work opportunities and the qualifications of youth–especially where it concerns the knowledge economy–that governments are unable to adequately address through formal systems. In order for an economy to evolve, the workforce must be able to change with it. We believe the greatest opportunity lies in working with youth and in substantially developing their relevant skills for employment through affordable and quality technical and vocational education.

 

Business Model Innovation – Linkedin’s new recruitment solution

LinkedIn can help solve these problems by developing a business model that provides relevant vocational training to the underprivileged youth and connects them with corporates looking to hire.  We propose leveraging LinkedIn’s position with workers in the knowledge economy to expand into the service economy or ‘blue collar’ jobs and connect job-seeking youth with corporate partners looking to hire talent with relevant skill sets. LinkedIn addresses the needs of knowledge workers and can expand its reach by engaging youth in developing economies. One of the obstacles many of these youth face is the gap between the extent of their formal education and the human capital needs of corporations looking to expand their operations into these developing markets; another is limited access to quality, non-formal educational resources.

There is an opportunity here for LinkedIn to leverage both its online learning platform, LinkedIn Learning, and its professional network to both connect job-seeking youth with talent-seeking corporations while appropriately upskilling those in the talent pool for available roles. This would provide youth with the opportunity to bridge the gap in their skill sets and to become a more attractive talent, thus increasing incentives for companies and multinational corporations maintain operations in those markets.

In addition, this model helps LinkedIn to expand and to achieve CEO Jeff Weiner’s dream of there being 3 billion users, almost half the planet’s population, on LinkedIn. This will only be possible by extending the company’s current target segment into new markets. With a robust presence in emerging economies, LinkedIn has the opportunity to expand its customer base and increase its revenues: candidates willing to pay for premium services and companies looking to use targeted means to reach qualified candidates.

How it might work

-LinkedIn, in collaboration with local partners, provides learning content relevant to open roles

-Candidates complete learning modules, earning badges that certify their knowledge/competence

-Companies review candidate pool, using badges to identify and recruit talent

-The more qualified candidates there are, the more companies use the platform, the more companies use the platform, the more candidates go there to find opportunities ← positive feedback loop

-Opportunity to expand scope into professions that require apprenticeship and craftsmanship

The business model can be further explained in the following steps:

1. Linkedin data analytics help in forecasting future job trends and corporate partnerships
2. LinkedIn will create vocational training videos on Linkedin Learning. NGOs will educate the youth of the platform and assist in learning
3. Trained talent pool will use Linkedin to apply and will have profile badges for companies to identify talent easily
4. Potential scope expansion to blue-collar professions that require apprenticeship and craftsmanship (i.e. work hands)

 

Addressable SDG goals

The SDG goals that can be addressed through the solution are providing equal opportunities for youth through access to both quality education and decent jobs. Specifically, the following goals are targeted:
1. By 2030, substantially increase the number of youth and adults who have relevant skills, including technical and vocational skills, for employment, decent jobs and entrepreneurship

2. By 2030, ensure equal access for all women and men to affordable and quality technical, vocational and tertiary education, including university

Why is this game changing?

• Liquidity – Linkedin already has an existing network of business professionals and corporations that can act as mentors and job providers from the market’s supply side. Empowering youth early in their career would further enhance demand  
• Feedback loop – Linkedin currently has embedded features such as skill mapping, job alerts, most demanded skills  and trainings, which provide feedback and insights for youths new to the job market. These additional user  profiles would further enhance Linkedin’s insights on different job markets, economy conditions and business decisions
• Long-term sustainability  – It helps the youth cover the last mile to getting a job. It will reduce waste on job search and friction,  enable platform to narrow the circular loops (by improving resource allocation and creating more jobs faster), map economic opportunities

 

Apart from the benefits highlighted above, the business model innovation is beneficial to Linkedin through employee management, value chain efficiency, and goodwill.

Value Source	Description
Customer	New Segment –      Increase number of users on the platform targeting underprivileged youths in Asian developing countries Change of Value Perception –      Improved brand perception among job seeker and corporations (brand) –      New business segment of enabling workforce (product)
Employee	Talent Management –      Increased motivation of employees because of socially responsible activities of LinkedIn –      Attract talents who identify with such values
Value Chain	Efficiency –      Increase in size of the global workforce (good for a job marketplace such as LinkedIn) Innovation –      Increasing data for preparing workforce for future trend
Community/ Ecosystem	–      Strategically place LinkedIn as a Keystone position in the recruitment industry –      Tax Benefits from CSR –      Goodwill for overall society

 

Implementation Plan and Challenges

To initiate the plan, we Linkedin will have to set up the team as a new business unit, program. Talent for the dedicated team can be recruited internally or externally based on corporate available resources. The next step will be to collaborate and build partnerships with NGOs who are willing and already well connected to the targeted job-seekers because it will take some time to discuss about the interests, concerns and approaches in a general framework as well as in details. These partnerships will not only help in providing access to Linkedin Learning program during execution but also in fine tuning the appropriate format and content of the learning videos. Simultaneously, Linkedin would have to gather insights into the job market opportunities in the near future as well as maintain close-ties and better understand corporations hiring needs.

Some of the challenges that we foresee are:

• Potential brand dilution (i.e. professional network community versus platform for all)
• Need to partner with NGOs/networks/school/local communities to attract the youth and encourage businesses to post targeting positions
• Need to develop additional tailor-made sites/features for entry-level/blue-collar positions, such as photos and videos that demonstrate past work samples
• Costs to create tailored products and experiences for a separate segment

Linkedin can reduce information risk is by ensuring extensive research on potential opportunities through its existing relationships with large corporations. This will ensure there is a demand in the future. Additionally, it can do extensive research on the supply side by approaching on-ground NGO networks and assessing the demand and doing further problem analysis.

 

 

Authors: Rachel Zhu, Ashley Wiseman, Sanjana Sud

Sources:
S4YE (2015) Toward Solutions for Youth Employment. A 2015 Baseline Report, as found on: http://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/
https://plan-international.org/eu/youth-unemployment-facts
UN SDG Goal 4: https://www.un.org/development/desa/disabilities/envision2030-goal4.html