LinkedIn, the social network for professionals has ditched recruiting interns and workers from college and has opted for regional recruitment events. Why? It's because they wanted a stronger, more diverse workforce in their ranks.
"Our goal is to create economic opportunity for every member of the global workforce." LinkedIn's talent acquisition executive behind the change in strategy, Tey Scott, told Mashable. "When I looked at the process of traditional college recruiting, it wasn't necessarily in line with our company's vision to do just that."
In its 2016 report, LinkedIn says that they are striving to increase diversity in their ranks. As of June 2016, 3% of its workers are Black, and 5% are Latino.
When LinkedIn discovered that campus recruitments add to the growing lack of diversity among their interns and workers, it decided to change the way it does campus recruitments. LinkedIn now hosts recruitment events that also cater to students other than those in four-year colleges.
Rather than approach college career centers, LinkedIn now tries to arrange events with student groups when it does go to a school.
The events that took the place of traditional campus recruitments generally attract more students, all of them coming from a variety of schools. These schools include traditionally black colleges and universities, junior colleges, and those enrolled in online degree programs.
In 2015, LinkedIn attended 30 campus recruitments. This year, LinkedIn only attended five, but increased the number of non-technical team members from underrepresented backgrounds by 23 percent. Although there have been some changes, it is still too early to measure the effects that the new recruitment program brings, said a LinkedIn spokeswoman.
This new recruitment method goes in line with what LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner said earlier.
"We would do much better if we stopped ensuring that everyone had to have a four-year degree to get certain types of jobs and started being open to the fact that there's a much broader array of talents and skills and perspectives and experiences that people can be successful," Weiner told Recode last week.
