LinkedIn Adds New ‘Diversity Nudges’ to Help Recruiters to Expand their Candidate Search Efforts

LinkedIn’s looking to help businesses maximize their approach to diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) with the launch of new prompts in LinkedIn Recruiter which will alert hiring professionals as to when they’re not getting enough gender diversity in their candidate search.

Called ‘Diversity Nudges’, the new prompts will alert managers to an imbalance, and recommend ways to expand the candidate search to address such.

Here’s a closer look at the new Diversity Nudge’ pop-up:

As explained by LinkedIn:

“If gender representation in a given talent pool is unbalanced, a notification will pop up to let you know the Male/Female ratio of that search. You’ll also receive recommendations of Skills, Locations, and Companies filters you can add to your search to improve the gender balance. For example, if you’re hiring for an electrical engineer, Diversity Nudges might suggest adding skills such as data analysis, analytical skills, and Simulink to increase the number of women electrical engineers in your candidate search.”

It could be a good way to, at the least, make recruiters aware of such, and to help encourage more thinking and discussion around representation in the process.

Of course, roles should always be awarded on merit, but there’s a growing pool of research which suggests that increasing gender diversity can lead to better outcomes for all types of organizations, while also ensuring greater opportunity for a wider breadth of people through the recruitment process.

Maintaining the right mix, however, can be a challenge, as you can’t make people apply. But maybe, through small ‘nudges’ like this, you can start to shift your focus on how you recruit, and how you can broaden your candidate pool with respect to key elements.

In addition to these new prompts, LinkedIn’s also adding a new way for companies to highlight their values and organizational commitments.

“Organizations will be able to add a dedicated section to their Company Page highlighting their commitments in areas such as DEI, Environmental Sustainability, Social Impact, Career Growth and Learning, and Work-Life Balance.”

The new option will enable companies to add an ‘Our Featured Commitments’ section to their ‘About’ page, where they’ll be able to showcase reports, certifications, articles, videos, etc.

“Members can easily view these commitments and the documentation provided by each company to assess authenticity. Members will also be able to search for companies with relevant commitments in their job search.”

That could be another way to help candidates find workplaces more aligned to their beliefs and concerns, which could ultimately help to enhance their professional experience.

Finally, LinkedIn’s also making several LinkedIn Learning courses related to diversity, equity and inclusion free for members from now until September 8th.

Those courses are:

1. Recruit Diverse Talent and Promote Equitable Hiring
2. Manage Diverse and Inclusive Teams
3. Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging for All
4. Create an Inclusive Work Culture

Add this to the 20 most popular LinkedIn Learning courses which are also free this month, and you have a wide range of ways to up your skills and knowledge, and update your processes in line with evolving best practices.

Expanding your candidate pool is a key consideration for modern workforces, but it can often be challenging to actually do that, based on historical norms, your existing audience, inherent bias, etc. These new prompts could be a handy addition to the process, helping to raise awareness at the intake level, and it’s could be a valuable addition to LinkedIn’s recruitment tool.