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LinkedIn's Forthcoming Analytics Tool May Boost Job Poaching (techtarget.com)

dcblogs writes: LinkedIn has developed a new analytics platform that should make it easier to poach job candidates. It will use its vast database of nearly 600 million profiles to help recruiters find pockets of talent, know the attrition rate and glean competitive data. The platform, due in September, was discussed at a recent HR conference. One attendee asked a LinkedIn official: "Does that set up an environment for poaching talent?" And then she immediately answered her own question. "I think the answer is yes. And so why would I sign off on that?" In response to the attendees' question, Eric Owski, the head of product for Talent Insights at LinkedIn, said there was nothing wrong with making this data available. The LinkedIn team concluded that "the world is becoming more transparent," and "very sophisticated teams at large companies were able to figure out a lot of the calculations that we're making available in this product," he said. "We think by packaging it up nicely, it levels the playing field," Owski said. "We feel like we're on safe ground."

41 of 85 comments (clear)

  1. Nobody owns me. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    If I want to leave for a better job, it is my right. My employer does not own me, and these days, the employer has probably not paid for training or made any other investment in me.

    1. Re:Nobody owns me. by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 2, Insightful

      the employer has probably not paid for training or made any other investment in me.

      Years ago it was common for employers to invest in training because they could require the employee to agree to either continue to work for X years, or reimburse the company for the cost of the training if they quit early.

      Today, those agreements are illegal. So why should a company invest in you if they don't know if they can recoup the cost?

      The change in the law was to "protect employees". But the result was lower skills, lower productivity, lower pay, hurting employees, hurting companies, and hurting the country. Oops. Another example of unintended consequences.

    2. Re:Nobody owns me. by youngone · · Score: 2
      Good slave.
      Keep spouting the corporate line. Your betters will see what a good slave you are and reward you.

      Any minute now.

    3. Re:Nobody owns me. by turbidostato · · Score: 5, Insightful

      "Today, those agreements are illegal. So why should a company invest in you if they don't know if they can recoup the cost?"

      Because they think of the consequences of *not* training you?

      They can have a productive worker that *may* go, or a inefficient worker that *will* stay.

    4. Re:Nobody owns me. by Alain+Williams · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Years ago it was common for employers to invest in training because they could require the employee to agree to either continue to work for X years, or reimburse the company for the cost of the training if they quit early.

      I have had people complain to me that they had been sent on courses in which they had no interest and been asked to pay for them when they left.

      An employer should make valued employees want to stay by making working for them attractive. A good wage, pleasant environment, being sent on courses all help to make the employer attractive.

    5. Re:Nobody owns me. by Comrade+Ogilvy · · Score: 1

      I can see both sides. There may be classes/training that is necessary to achieve a promotion that comes with a raise; if so, perhaps such is fair. But, yes, in general, I do not see it as appropriate to shackle an employee with fake debt to keep his or her job -- I can see how that could be horrendously gamed.

    6. Re:Nobody owns me. by Shotgun · · Score: 1

      One of my first employers was an honest guy. He told me my job was to sell my services to the highest bidder.

      --
      Aah, change is good. -- Rafiki
      Yeah, but it ain't easy. -- Simba
  2. Re:I already have a job by PPH · · Score: 3, Funny

    earning $50,000 ... in Silicon Valley

    IOW, you have TWO shopping carts parked in front of your tent.

    --
    Have gnu, will travel.
  3. Sounds Like A Good Thing by Maxwell'sSilverLART · · Score: 1

    For solid employees, anyway. Poaching generally requires a company to make a better offer; this sounds like it'll let good employees know when they're underpaid and get them an offer closer to what they're worth.

    Less of a good deal for employers, of course, and deadwood will continue to be paid what they're worth (or not) as well.

    --
    Moderate drunk! It's more fun that way!
    1. Re:Sounds Like A Good Thing by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 2, Interesting

      deadwood will continue to be paid what they're worth (or not) as well.

      I don't think so. Employers will start gaming this as soon as it goes live, by writing glowing endorsements for their deadwood employees in the hope that someone else poaches them. That way they can get rid of them without paying severance.

    2. Re: Sounds Like A Good Thing by HornWumpus · · Score: 1

      True. Which is why a known rat in the organization is useful. You feed her the disinformation, she passes it on to her contact and collects a reference fee.

      Works from the other side too, if shes ratting to management and you're a coworker.

      Knowledge is power, don't let her know your on to her or the disinformation channel is burned.

      Also coworkers...I will never hesitate to give a glowing rec to an airthief...it will burn a headhunter and help me get rid of wastes of space (who drag everybody down). All good.

      --
      John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
  4. Re:I already have a job by 110010001000 · · Score: 1

    I also get a Christmas bonus.

  5. I'm pretty happy with this, now. Not before by raymorris · · Score: 3, Interesting

    At this stage of my career, I'm happy to have recruiters have better tools to know when to contact me and when NOT to. I'm pretty happy with my job, I love working from home. I also see the handwriting on the wall as my employer moves jobs overseas. So I'm aware that while I like my job now, I'll probably have to entertain offers before too long. Anything that better matches the offers to my skills and requirements is good, in my opinion.

    A few years ago, I was significantly underpaid. It was advantageous for me to have potential employers offer what I'm worth, rather than making an offer based on my current salary at the time. Had they known my salary, my take-home probably wouldn't have doubled the last two times I switched jobs.

    * Yes they always *ask* what your current salary is. You can answer "I'm looking for ...", because that's what they really.want to know - "how much will we have to pay you?"

  6. PS I always ask about the budget first by raymorris · · Score: 3, Informative

    PS to my footnote - whenever a third-party recruiter calls me, I always ask about the budget for the position very early in the conversation. The recruiter won't be offended, and it saves them time as well as saving me time and if it's not in the range I'm looking for. If it IS in the right range, I have a good starting point for negotiation.

  7. Re:I already have a job by 110010001000 · · Score: 1

    Are those Al Gore disciples?

  8. Charming, as always... by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It's pretty shameless to use the term 'poaching'; when it specifically implies that the animal being hunted is the property of someone other than the hunter.

    Not that I'd ever suspect that HR sees us a prey animals who are owned by our feudal overlords or anything; that sort of negativity just isn't in keeping with company values.

    1. Re:Charming, as always... by mikael · · Score: 1

      I know of directors who consider "recruiting bright graduates is like trapping wild animals" or that "bright graduates just need a kick in the right direction". Or they call their technical experts "webheads" or "renderheads".

      --
      Vintage computer adverts: http://www.vintageadbrowser.com/computers-and-software-ads
    2. Re:Charming, as always... by AbRASiON · · Score: 1

      I spent several months in my last role (which was tangential / partial management) trying to convince the other managers at my level and above me, to stop damn well referring to the staff as "resources" it was so dehumanising. They were just tools.

      I ended up failing to be honest, I never adopted the term myself but it's just too ingrained and these guys weren't even HR. Management think is pretty crap in regards to staff.

    3. Re: Charming, as always... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      To be fair, recent college grads need to be housebroken, and have at least since the late 90's. Plenty of talent, creativity and energy, but tend to mess all over the place and bite when confronted with actually finishing a project.

    4. Re: Charming, as always... by HornWumpus · · Score: 1

      Not disagreeing but so do most managers, and it's worse. They usually have decades long habits of crapping all over the place.

      --
      John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
  9. Is "poaching" bad by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    What's wrong with a job market with liquidity? Make as much information about resources available and let the market for those resources sort it out. Bad for HR, good for workers as far as I can tell.

  10. Re:I already have a job by CaptainDork · · Score: 2

    And Al Gore rhythm?

    He, and guilty feet, ain't got no rhythm.

    --
    It little behooves the best of us to comment on the rest of us.
  11. External recruiters don't want to lowball you by raymorris · · Score: 3, Interesting

    That California law is fine and all, but personally I don't have much need for it.

    External recruiters typically get 10% of the employee's first-year salary, so they don't want to low ball candidates. They want to get as many people hired as they can each month, at the highest salaries. They know what the salary range is, because that determines their commission, and have no reason to hide that information. Hiding it would reduce their success rate by spending time on candidates who won't take the position.

    The vast majority of recruiters I hear from are external, so when I ask, they tell me the salary range before I ever talk to anyone from the company that is hiring.

  12. GDPR implications ? by Alain+Williams · · Score: 2

    This is use of personal data. Has linked in sought permission to use the data in this way and then share it with recruiters ?

  13. Don't link with recruiters by DrXym · · Score: 3, Insightful
    If you have to use the platform and you're not actively seeking work, the best thing you can do is unlink from every single recruiter you've linked with in the past and refuse further invites. If they're linked they can spam you with impunity and can see more detail of your own links

    If a recruiter is that keen to make contact they can send an InMail. They only get a limited number of InMail credits in a month so it acts as a deterrent unless they have something of high relevance. Responding to the InMail returns the credit so I don't do that either unless the recruiter actually works for the hiring firm. Anything that devalues LinkedIn is a good thing as far as I am concerned.

    1. Re:Don't link with recruiters by DrXym · · Score: 1
      I've locked down my settings too. My own experience of accepting recruiters is it rapidly becomes intolerable. These idiots do a search on "java" and then spam all the top matches with the job spec regardless of expressions of interest, qualification, salary, or being geographically close to the job. As far as they are concerned I'm a "prospect" so they'll spam on the off-chance. Unlink and they at least have to go through the motions with an InMail.

      I generally ignore that too because I consider recruiters to be a fucking pox. As soon as I realised these assholes were collecting 10% of my monthly wage for literally acting as nothing more than an introduction to a company. I would rather approach a company directly, split the difference and cut these parasites out of the equation.

      The only recruiters I give any consideration to are those working in the HR department of the company doing the hiring. They're not raking a % their way. In that instance, I'll be polite and respectful. To the rest I just ignore them, hoping I devalue LinkedIn in the process.

  14. Overestimating Recruiters. by jythie · · Score: 2

    Eh, I think this kinda overestimates how nuanced recruiters are. I am skeptical that they will want to put in the extra effort to carefully match jobs to candidates through something sophisticated when they are not even using the full set of tools today. As far as I can tell the process usually seems to come down to 'oh, a high commission posting came up for a .Net developer, I'll spam everyone with 'net' in their profile!'. Targeted advertising has been the 'hope' of people trying to sell to marketers for decades, but at the end of the day dumb spamming is so cheap and low effort that it still rules.

  15. Their "poaching" is my better job offer! by Tony+Isaac · · Score: 1

    If this analytics tool lives up to its promise, it would seem to offer more and better opportunities for ME the employee.

    Employers have been slowly eroding benefits for decades, because it "costs too much." Many of them forget that when you reduce costs somewhere, there are unintended consequences.

    This tool sounds like a good thing to me!

  16. Poaching? by cascadingstylesheet · · Score: 1

    "Those are the king's stags, varlet!!"

  17. Can you say... by XB-70 · · Score: 1

    Class Action Lawsuit? If I were an HR dept. and had the additional issue of dealing with poaches that came from LinkedIn, I'd be looking to coordinate with other companies in my industry to stop the practice. These days, due to the current economic madness, everyone is looking all the time. Adding additional pressure to move is deleterious to both the company in question and the person who may move to a job that is not what was promised. Regardless, LinkedIn's interest is in getting recruiters to sign on for $1,000's per month. They don't give a rat's ass about the consequences. This only bolsters their coffers. It doesn't do employees or companies any good.

    --
    *** Don't be dull.***
    1. Re:Can you say... by Shotgun · · Score: 1

      Who would you sue? People provide information about themselves voluntarily. Are you saying that employers should sue their employees for letting LinkedIn know where they worked and what skills they have?

      --
      Aah, change is good. -- Rafiki
      Yeah, but it ain't easy. -- Simba
  18. The recruiter is done before negotiation starts by raymorris · · Score: 1

    The real estate agent tells you the asking price and the current going rates for the neighborhood up front.
    Like a real estate agent would be wasting their time showing you houses you won't buy, a recruiter would be wasting their time and credibility messing around if they know the job isn't in your range, so they have no reason to mislead you. They'd be better off even referring you to a different recruiter to find you a job you'll want, because yes they get paid when you take the job.

    Unlike a real estate agent, the recruiter isn't part of the salary negotiations after the interview. So they have no opportunity for "dragging the process out in the hope of getting you a higher amount" - they are done after the first couple of phone calls.

    If you don't communicate about salary and benefit expectations, then sure they'll send you on any interviews they can - they would have no way of knowing that they are wasting their time and credibility.

    That's my experience with recruiters. The conversation typically goes about like this:

    Me: That sounds interesting. What is the budgeted salary range for this position?
    Recruiter: $80-$90K
    Me: That's probably not a good match for what I'm looking for, with 20 years of experience.
    Them: What range are you looking for?
    Me: Depending on location and other factors, somewhere above $130K
    Them: May I call you in the future when I have an opening that's a better match?
    Me: Sure, please do.

    1. Re:The recruiter is done before negotiation starts by HornWumpus · · Score: 1

      I was with you, until you said the recruiters have credibility.

      --
      John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
  19. Re:I already have a job by The+Fat+Bastard · · Score: 1

    I've been hearing that for the last 20+ years. However, I'm not a programmer. I'm just the local grunt at the help desk, desktop support or data center. Local grunts are not from India.

    This is creimer. Where are the creimertards? Oh, wait. It's an AC comment that's not searchable and requires reading comprehension.

  20. Re:I already have a job by The+Fat+Bastard · · Score: 1

    You should get a job as an I.T. Closet Cleaner, and wear a family friendly Goat C shirt.

    This is creimer. Where are the creimertards? Oh, wait. It's an AC comment that's not searchable and requires reading comprehension.

  21. I doubt it by cellocgw · · Score: 1

    I get dozens of calls weekly from cold-call recruiters who find my name on linkedin or indeed or whatever. Apparently they're incapable of reading anything else, since I get calls for:

    -- positions requiring active clearance, when my CV clearly says I don't.
    -- positions for SQL, network maintenance, embedded software, etc., for which I have nothing even close listed.
    -- insurance sales positions
    -- customer package pickup window positions (really)

    For the record, I'm a physicist w/ optics and radar experience, plus data analysis/statistics. A clear match for the above. So I am highly skeptical that this new shiny tool will help.

    --
    https://app.box.com/WitthoftResume Code: https://github.com/cellocgw
    1. Re:I doubt it by Average · · Score: 1

      See, I keep hearing this "I'm always getting called" from other people and it just boggles my mind, because it's so different from my experience. I have a pretty fleshed-out public LinkedIn profile. Some stuff in GitHub (though 95% of my commits are in our enterprise gitlab). I've been doing this for quite a while (3-digit slashdot ID), but can cover a lot of modern hip buzzwords (Kubernetes, ElasticSearch, etc). And I get a recruiter e-mail about once a quarter, maybe, and a cold call generally less than once a year.

      All depends on geography I guess. Recruiters... just because there are lots of targets within 5 miles of a given major metro ZIP code, those people may be tired of hearing from you, and you might want to look in weirder places.

  22. Confused. by fish_in_the_c · · Score: 1

    What exactly is the objection to providing people with better information?
    Isn't it the people who decide what to do about that information?

    Last time I checked part of the point of a 'free market' included the idea that you had better be paying your employees enough (including intangables) that they are not so miserable doing their jobs that they feel like they need a different one. If someone makes them a better offer, that is the employers fault and those who offer better salaries should expect the better employees. More to the point , it is better if people actually feel some loyalty and personal investment in there work, usually a result of being well treated and dealt with transparently.

    It seems a win for employees, ( who are the majority), It is neither illegal or immoral, so exactly what is the objection?

    --
    âoeTolerance applies only to persons, but never to truth. Intolerance applies only to truth, but never to persons.
  23. Re:This is a positive move by HornWumpus · · Score: 1

    I agree, _never_ accept counters.

    Not only should they have paid you, before, but consider the two options after: 1. Your a new employee, with a nice high basis for all future raises. or 2. Your a disloyal old employee, who just 'extorted' a huge raise. Who do you think will get better raises and opportunities in the future?

    I once accepted a counter, just don't do it. NEVER, not for twice the money.

    --
    John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
  24. Lol, with companies by raymorris · · Score: 1

    That's funny. They DO need to have some credibility with the companies who hire them. Would you keep using a recruiter who routinely sends you junk candidates that aren't close to be a fit for the job?

  25. Re:I already have a job by The+Fat+Bastard · · Score: 1

    Wrong cremer, Since you posted an amazon referrer link and did not label it as such, I've reported you to amazon for ToS violations.

    Still no result from Amazon after reporting creimer for a year? Your understanding of the TOS is probably flawed.