LinkedIn is launching a Talent Pipeline tool for users of its Recruiter suite at no additional cost in the first quarter of next year, alongside a paid-for standalone version for non-users.

Talent Pipeline allows recruiters to track and manage their talent leads in one place before entering a formal application process.

Wade Burgess, senior director at LinkedIn EMEA for hiring solutions, told Recruiter that Talent Pipeline meets a request from users to be able to keep their talent pool fresh. “The challenge with most systems that retain data is that the value of that data diminishes over time. It ages no matter what its source,” said Burgess, explaining that when a lead is imported into Talent Pipeline, it is automatically connected to a LinkedIn profile, which typically a member will be regularly updating. It can be particularly useful when tracking passive candidates, he added. “It can be irritating for a member if an outbound professional reaches out to them and the conversation is irrelevant. Timely information on passive candidates is critical.”

Talent Pipeline allows recruiters to import leads and CVs from various sources such as company career sites, job boards, applicant tracking systems, spreadsheets as well as a folder on their desktop which could contain personal referrals or leads acquired from
conferences. Such information can be searched, tagged and shared with colleagues. Because leads are matched with a LinkedIn profile, a recruiter can also quickly glean wider insight about the person based on their activity updates, recommendations and groups.

When Talent Pipeline can’t find a matching profile on LinkedIn, the recruiter has the option of creating their own private record. Matching to a profile is carried out via a combination of cues, including email address, name and job title.

Talent Pipeline is a potentially powerful tool for recruiters but Burgess is keen to point out that its priority remains its members and it is important that any commercial interaction that happens on LinkedIn doesn’t disrupt their professional experience but rather adds to it. The professional networking site has more than 120m members worldwide and more than 6m in the UK.

“Our internal vision is that we aspire to find economic opportunity for every professional in the world and connecting talent with opportunities is one of the ways we do this,” he said. “Imagine a timeline continuum which has specific points when individuals look to change careers. We need to make sure we are building a community and ecosystem that adds value for the entire continuum, not just the recruiting space.”

As with all product development, LinkedIn is currently working with a number of major companies to develop the product as part of a pilot programme and this is helping them to decide the price point of the standalone product. Those taking part include PepsiCo and Pfizer, and leading open source technology provider Red Hat.

LJ Brock, vice president of global talent acquisition and infrastructure at Red Hat, said its talent strategy is based on creating “refined” talent pools for its strategic roles: “Maintaining meaningful relationships with these candidates in a personalised but scaleable manner is a priority for us.”

Burgess wouldn’t be drawn on future functionality that might be added to its Recruiter tool or any other specific developments but said it would continue to address what it describes as LinkedIn’s three primary areas of value: identity, by giving members unique and interesting ways to present themselves; the network, by continuing to provide ways for members to better manage their relationships; and thirdly, its aspiration “to be everywhere”.

Burgess explained that this means continuing to add value in the mobile space since it is the fastest growing platform at the moment. As important is to continue to build relationships with partners and to develop its application programming interface (API) strategies. This allows more integration and information and content sharing across different platforms and media. “A key component is making sure that the information from an individual’s social layer is available to them everywhere,” said Burgess.

Regarding recent developments such as the launch of BeKnown from Monster and BranchOut, Burgess believes there is a place for all platforms but said it was important to be aware that social recruiting represented just one sector of the industry. “We can’t ignore job fairs, campus recruiting as well as offline networking and the recruiter’s cold call is not dead yet,” he said. “Companies need to understand their key market objectives and talent acquisition strategy and use the tools to implement that. I see some organisations using the tools to determine the strategy and I would caution against that.”

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