LinkedIn is the world’s largest professional networking platform, with over 722 million users worldwide as of April 2021. As a recruiting and job seeking tool, LinkedIn allows employers to post job listings and search for potential candidates, while job seekers can browse openings, follow companies, and apply to jobs directly through the site.
With so many users and active recruitment happening on the platform, LinkedIn needs robust systems to track applicants that apply for positions. LinkedIn leverages sophisticated algorithms and metadata to manage applicant information and surface relevant profiles to recruiters. Understanding how LinkedIn keeps track of applicants can help both employers and job seekers better navigate the recruitment process on the platform.
LinkedIn Recruiter
The key tool LinkedIn uses for applicant tracking is LinkedIn Recruiter, the platform’s suite of recruiting software. LinkedIn Recruiter comes in three product tiers – Recruiter Lite, Professional, and Corporate – with increasing levels of features and functionality. Large enterprises often opt for the Corporate tier, while small and mid-size companies frequently use Recruiter Professional or Lite.
With LinkedIn Recruiter, hiring managers and recruiters can post jobs, search LinkedIn profiles using sophisticated filters, manage candidates in a centralized dashboard, and leverage analytics on their hiring funnel. Applicant tracking functionality becomes increasingly robust in the higher Recruiter tiers.
Key features related to tracking applicants in LinkedIn Recruiter include:
– Application tracking with customizable status stages (applied, phone screen, skills test, etc.)
– Database of all candidates with profile data and notes
– Recruiting analytics like time-to-hire, source of hire, and pipeline reports
– Tools to sort, filter, and search candidate database
– Email templates and communication tools for engaging applicants
– Integration with background check and assessment vendors
By centralizing all applicant information for open positions in LinkedIn Recruiter, hiring teams can easily track applicants throughout the assessment and hiring workflow.
Unique Applicant IDs
A pivotal part of how LinkedIn Recruiter tracks applicants is through assigning each candidate a unique applicant ID. Anytime a job seeker applies to a role through LinkedIn, a distinct ID is generated to represent that specific applicant and application. Even if the same candidate applies for multiple roles at the same company, they will have separate applicant IDs for each application.
Some key features enabled by the applicant ID system:
– Ability to discuss specific applicants using a simple alphanumeric code vs. repeatedly referencing names
– Streamlined tracking of individual applicant status, notes, and activity throughout the hiring process
– Data and analytics aggregation at an individual applicant level
– Easy exporting of specific applicant data for use outside of LinkedIn
Applicant IDs provide essential structure to organize and maneuver through volumes of applicant information. The IDs also integrate with other recruiting platform features like talent pipelines and project tracking.
Communication History Tracking
A major part of managing applicants is the communication between recruiters and candidates throughout the assessment process. LinkedIn Recruiter stores a complete history of all communication touchpoints between the hiring team and applicants.
As recruiters send emails, InMails, text messages, or make phone calls within Recruiter, the platform logs details like:
– Date, time, and channel of communication
– Direction of communication (incoming/outgoing)
– Content summary (email subject, InMail message, etc.)
– Communication attachments
– Discussion summaries or notes
This information builds up over time into a detailed record of all the interactions between the recruiter and each applicant. At a glance, the recruiter can see the full communication flow and pick up exactly where they left off with an applicant.
The visibility into communication history also helps recruiters provide a consistent, smooth experience for applicants. Key details won’t slip through the cracks when handing off applicants between recruiters.
Pipeline and Project Management
For large-scale recruiting efforts, LinkedIn Recruiter offers pipeline and project management functionality to segment applicants based on status, source, date applied, or custom criteria.
Recruiters can organize applicants into different pipelines or projects to represent priority, hiring stage, role/department, or other groupings. Pipelines provide metrics like the number of applicants at each stage and where drop-off is occurring in the hiring funnel. With pipelines, it’s easier to track applicants according to the recruiting workflow for specific roles or business needs.
Some examples of pipelines include:
– Sourcing Pipeline: applicants from LinkedIn sourcing vs. company site applicants vs. employee referrals
– Regional Pipeline: candidate progress by geographical region – West Coast pipeline, Midwest pipeline, etc.
– Role Pipeline: segregate applicants by positions – Sales pipeline, Engineering pipeline, Design pipeline
The pipeline construct allows granular tracking and analysis of applicants based on how the business views its hiring processes and priorities.
Custom Tracking Fields
While the core applicant tracking functionality of LinkedIn Recruiter provides extensive visibility into candidate data, recruiters can further customize tracking to their team’s needs through custom fields.
In the application tracking interface, recruiters can define additional fields to capture and report on specialized applicant data. Custom fields could include things like:
– Screening call completed (yes/no)
– Years of experience in X software
– Willingness to relocate (yes/no)
– Portfolio URL
– College graduation year
The values for these custom fields can be selected, entered manually, or updated any time by recruiters or automated by applying tags to applicants.
Custom fields allow recruiters to track metrics and details important for their particular roles and screening processes beyond the standard applicant data. The values can then be used to filter and segment applicants.
Search and Filtering
LinkedIn Recruiter provides powerful search and filtering capabilities so recruiters can quickly find specific applicants among hundreds or thousands of candidates.
From the main applicants dashboard, recruiters can search by keywords, filters like date applied and current stage, or custom criteria based on configured applicant fields. Searches can be saved for easily retrieving the same filtered applicant list.
Common examples of filtering and searching applicant pools include:
– Text search for skill keywords like “JavaScript”
– Location filters like “Based in London”
– Date range filters like “Applied last 30 days”
– Custom field filters like “Portfolio provided = Yes”
Advanced search allows combining multiple search criteria for pulling specific applicant segments, like “Software Engineer applicants in San Francisco with Python expertise who applied in the last 14 days”.
Segmenting applicants into relevant subgroups or checking for specific criteria enables streamlined tracking and management.
Integration with ATS and HR Systems
While LinkedIn Recruiter provides extensive applicant tracking capabilities, many enterprises also use dedicated Applicant Tracking System (ATS) software for high-volume corporate recruiting. LinkedIn Recruiter integrates with over 100 popular ATS, HRMS, and HCM platforms to sync candidate data.
Key functionality enabled by ATS integrations includes:
– Bi-directional applicant data sync between LinkedIn Recruiter and ATS
– Single click applicant export from LinkedIn to ATS
– Automatic transfer of applicants from LinkedIn to ATS based on status change or tagging
– Bulk applicant export, import, and profile updating between systems
With integrations, recruiters can use LinkedIn Recruiter as the front-end tool for sourcing and screening applicants, while the ATS acts as the system of record for later-stage applicant tracking and workflow. Recruiter’s integration layer ensures applicant data flows seamlessly between the two platforms.
Analytics and Reporting
The various tracking features and data points available in LinkedIn Recruiter provide a wealth of analytical potential to gain insights into the recruiting funnel. Recruiter includes robust analytics and reporting functionality to harness applicant data.
Types of applicant analytics include:
Pipeline analytics: Measure pass-through rates, fall out rates, and time spent at each hiring stage. Identify sticking points in the hiring workflow.
Source analytics: Report on the applicant volume and quality from different talent channels like LinkedIn, company career site, or online job boards. Identify best sources.
Diversity analytics: Track gender, ethnicity, veteran status, and other demographic indicators across the applicant pool. Highlight areas for improving diversity sourcing.
Custom analytics: Build reports and dashboards pulling from custom applicant fields like skill keywords or years of experience.
In addition to prebuilt reports, recruiters can create fully customized reports to pull metrics on applicant volume, source, funnel movement, custom criteria, and more. The analytics aid data-driven recruitment strategy planning.
Legal and Ethical Considerations
While applicant tracking brings many benefits for recruiters, the collection and use of applicant data also raises legal and ethical obligations around privacy and fairness. LinkedIn Recruiter provides functionality to support compliant and ethical treatment of applicants.
Data access controls: Recruiter allows setting granular permissions on who can view and interact with applicant information. Sensitive personal data can be protected from unintended visibility.
Data retention policies: Applicant data can be automatically or manually purged after set time periods according to company data retention rules. Data isn’t stored indefinitely.
Fair hiring settings: Names, photos, age, and other protected class information can be hidden from recruiters to reduce unconscious bias.
EEO and OFCCP compliance: Usage data, pipelines, and applicant fields can provide reporting required for equal opportunity regulations.
While no technology can guarantee ethical behavior, LinkedIn Recruiter provides the controls to help teams respect applicant privacy and promote fair treatment in the recruitment process enabled by tracking.
Conclusion
Sophisticated algorithms, metadata frameworks, automation, and integrations enable LinkedIn Recruiter to provide extensive applicant tracking capabilities. Features like applicant IDs, pipelines, communication history, and analytics empower recruiters to efficiently track and manage high volumes of applicants with speed and insight.
At the same time, tools like access controls, data retention, and fair hiring settings help uphold important ethical boundaries when leveraging applicant data. Finding the right balance allows organizations to reap the advantages of tracking while respecting the human dignity and privacy at the heart of recruiting.
As LinkedIn continues evolving its tracking features and AI capabilities, recruiters will gain an even more versatile platform to manage applicants as unique individuals on their journey, not just as data points in a pipeline. The human touch augmented by technology can create recruiting experiences where applicants, hiring teams, and organizations all thrive.