LinkedIn's Chris Burgess explained how they enable the transition from data-informed to data-driven HR.
Linkedln senior account director for the Africa growth market Chris Burgess closed day one of HR Indaba with a riveting account of the data they have harnessed and how it can be used to transform talent management.
He said that platform was so vast that, between the beginning and end of the day’s programme, the number of new members on LinkedIn will have been enough to fill Ellis Park Stadium.
Said Chris:
“Globally, LinkedIn has 645 million members, 30 million jobs, 20 million vacancies at any given time, 50,000 skills and 90,000 schools globally. When I joined LinkedIn four years ago, we had 300 million members, so we've more than doubled since I joined. What that means for South Africa is we are close to 8 million members, 21,000 skills, 100,000 companies, 64,000 jobs and 8,000 schools.”
Through this ecosystem, Chris said LinkedIn’s mission was to create economic opportunity for every member of the global workforce. And, to achieve that, they enable organisations to attract people that not only have the right skill set, but also have a mindset that makes them a cultural fit.
“When we talk about members on LinkedIn and the data, there so much more to it than information about job titles, skills education and experience. That is identity data,” said Chris. “Underneath that, we have engagement data, which tracks the kinds of groups you are joining, the content you are reading, listening to and sharing, the company pages you are visiting, the jobs you are applying for. Through this data, LinkedIn can ascertain whether an individual prioritises their own professional development, and whether they are seeking career advice or a mentor.”
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Beyond that, they can go one level further to look at the intent of an individual, and use it to help organisations plan develop and hire winning talent. They can tell if a person deeply cares about working in a purpose-driven organisation and can get a sense of their values by checking the comments they like and the thought-leaders they follow.
They aim is to remove the need to rely on gut feel and allow HR professionals to use LinkedIn data to help HR teams and CEOs make smarter people decisions by moving from a data-informed to a data-led approach.