LinkedIn has launched new Profile features “to help our members better represent themselves in a more authentic way and share their career goals and aspirations,” the company said.
LinkedIn Profile is aiming to become warmer, and more inclusive to help members more authentically express themselves online and easily demonstrate their personality and skills, the company said.
The new features rolling out globally beginning this week include:
● Cover Story–allows members to upload a short video to their Profile to bring to life their story. For job seekers, Cover Story is a way to showcase their personality and demonstrate soft skills to recruiters and hiring managers.
● Pronoun fields–(optional) where members can add their gender pronouns and showcase their core identity at the top of their Profile.
● Creator mode–helps members who share content and insights on LinkedIn grow a following by more prominently displaying their content and adding hashtags about topics in their area of expertise.
● Service Pages–help freelancers looking to build their business attract new clients by listing the services they offer, linked to their Profile.
Virtual job seeking in the age of COVID-19
LinkedIn conducted a survey of job seekers and hiring managers in the U.S. to understand how the job-seeking and hiring process has evolved since COVID-19.
Key findings include:
Authentic representation at work has become increasingly important
● More than 50% (56%) of job seekers believe how they represent themselves at work has changed since COVID-19.
● Almost 50% (46%) of respondents say they’re more likely to be their authentic self in how they show up in the workplace vs. a year ago.
● More than 50% (55%) of job seekers agree that gender is an important aspect of their identity, both in and out of the workplace, and 70% of job seekers believe it’s important that recruiters and hiring managers know their gender pronoun.
● More than 70% (72%) of hiring managers believe having clarity about a candidate’s self-identification (i.e. gender pronouns) is beneficial and helps others to be respectful of their identity.
Job seekers want new ways to stand out; demonstrating soft skills is critical
● Almost 80% (79%) of job seekers believe that as a result of COVID-19, the job search has become more competitive and they need to find new ways to stand out to recruiters.
● Almost 80% (76%) of job seekers wish there was a better way to represent themselves to recruiters and hiring managers, and more than 70% (74%) believe it is important to highlight soft skills.
● Almost 70% (69%) of hiring managers agree that soft skills are hard to assess in a job candidate, and 75% believe a standard resume is insufficient in evaluating a candidate’s soft skills.
Video is a key channel for job seekers to stand out in the hiring process
● Seventy-nine percent of hiring managers believe that video has become more important when it comes to interacting with or vetting job candidates, and more than 60% (61%) of job seekers believe a recorded video could be the next iteration of the traditional cover letter.
● More than 60% (62%) of job seekers believe sharing more about themselves, their experience and career goals on video could help them land a job. And hiring managers agree—almost 80% (76%) of hiring managers believe seeing a recorded video of a job seeker would be useful.
● 59% of job seekers believe video is becoming the new norm as part of the job-seeking process, and 41% have used video to stand out to recruiters and hiring managers.
● Job seekers feel sharing a video with hiring managers would be helpful because it allows them to better highlight their personality (57%) and showcase their true self (41%).
“We hope these new tools help you feel seen and represented, and that you’ll add them to your Profile–because your Profile is only complete if it’s completely you,” said Tomer Cohen, chief product officer at LinkedIn, in a blog post.
Source: Tech Republic
