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Recruiting For Good: How LinkedIn Sees Its Role In Effecting Social Change

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Since its founding eleven years ago LinkedIn has connected the world’s professionals to make them more productive and successful.  LinkedIn’s Bob Spoer shares how their platform is currently being used to connect people who are driving social change through volunteerism and philanthropy, and how millions of users can collectively facilitate collaboration and movement-building.

Ashoka: How does LinkedIn leverage its platform to create social impact?

Bob Spoer: LinkedIn members are able to showcase their passion for specific causes and organizations on their Profile, making social impact a part of their professional identity. And it turns out that volunteering is good for your career. In fact, one of five hiring managers in the U.S. agrees that they have hired a candidate because of his/her volunteer work experience, based on a survey of LinkedIn members.

We recently launched the Volunteer Marketplace, which delivers volunteer opportunities to LinkedIn members and volunteer candidates to nonprofits. This allows a Tanzania-based organization to find a volunteer in Omaha, Nebraska, and a Mississippi-based nonprofit to find a board member with the specific skills they need for their board composition.

Many professionals are seeking opportunities to donate their time and talents to support the causes they are passionate about. Last August we added the ability for LinkedIn members to signal their interest in volunteering or serving on a board. To date, more than one million LinkedIn members have signaled their interest, making it easier than ever for nonprofits to find them.

Ashoka: You are the co-founder of “Recruiting for Good.” Tell us about that.

Spoer: Once a month at LinkedIn we have an “inDay,” in which employees take the day off from our regular work to explore new ideas, hack with friends, volunteer for special causes, and invest in ourselves—whatever inspires us. The idea of Recruiting for Good came about during an inDay, and the program engages teams of approximately five employees, many of whom are not recruiters, to “crowdsource” the best talent for key executives and technical roles in NGOs, leveraging LinkedIn’s Recruiter platform. The program is designed so that each participant can help change the world in eight hours by tapping the right person for a great organization. We’ve grown to more than 55 LinkedIn employees participating in six countries.

We piloted the program with an Ashoka-backed NGO, Playworks, and Recruiting for Good co-founder Colleen Carr successfully placed a GM at Playworks to run its Chicago operations in just eight weeks. Since then, we’ve built a global partnership with Ashoka to help them identify new fellows and staff members across the globe.

Ashoka: Ashoka's vision of the world is one in which "everyone is a changemaker," mastering the skills of leadership, teamwork, empathy and problem-solving so they are empowered to effect change. You work on recruitment for LinkedIn staff. Do you see these qualities reflected in your hires?

Spoer: We hire people with very similar qualities, particularly problem solving, collaboration and compassion. What’s especially rewarding is how our work with Ashoka helps us do our own jobs better by learning how to spot these qualities in a different field.

Ashoka: How do you envision social entrepreneurs using technology to impact social change?

Spoer: Many Silicon Valley companies make products that can be incredibly valuable in addressing social challenges. LinkedIn’s mission, for example, is to connect the world’s professionals to make them more productive and successful. Imagine the collective impact of each of our 300 million members finding and acting on one volunteer opportunity on LinkedIn—it could create transformational social impact.

Social impact organizations—social entrepreneurs included—are notoriously strapped for resources but they are also some of the most innovative individuals in the world. Fortunately, companies are mobilizing to make technology accessible for social impact organizations by providing discounts, donations and training. Some companies, like LinkedIn, are adapting their products specifically to make these groups more effective.