LinkedIn Uses New Tool to Link Employers and Applicants

LinkedIn (NYSE:LNKD) recently announced a new professional web-plug in called “Apply with LinkedIn.” ^[1] The plug-in enables employers/companies to embed the plug-in on their own website allowing for job seekers to directly contact the company. This new feature stands to benefit both the employer and the employee as job seekers aim to contact the company directly while the employer gets instant access to interested candidates from LinkedIn’s +110 million members database. LinkedIn competes with other online job portals such as Monster (NYSE:MWW) and Craigslist. It also competes in the online advertising space with Facebook, Yahoo (NASDAQ:YHOO) and Google (NASDAQ:GOOG).

We current have a price estimate of $34 for LinkedIn’s stock, which is well below the current market price. Refer to our article Why LinkedIn’s Fundamentals Don’t Support the Market Price on why we think the market is getting ahead of itself on the company.

For Applicant: Eliminating the Middleman

The “Apply with LinkedIn” feature effectively eliminates the need for intermediaries such as recruitment companies.

On the employee side, this allows for direct contact with the company. Additionally, the inherent simplicity of the “Apply with LinkedIn” plug-in can substantially increase user engagement as job seekers should find it much easier to apply as compared to traditional means. The plug-in would also allow an applicant to view any connections he has in the same company helping him or her find opportunities for referrals. Given the above advantages, we could see a strong growth in LinkedIn’s subscriber base, which currently stands at around 115 million.

For Employer: Easy Access and a Credible Source

Through “Apply With LinkedIn”, the employer stands to gain in two ways.

Firstly, it gives them an immediate access to a standardized set of profiles. Moreover, these profiles can be automatically saved on the company’s own database (by adding a few additional lines of code). We also expect this plug-in to lend more credibility to employee resumes through the LinkedIn brand as compared to other direct applications on the company site.

Given that LinkedIn plans to launch the plug-in in over a thousand company websites, ^[2] the number of job postings on LinkedIn stands to gain as more companies adopt this feature. For LinkedIn, the “Apply With LinkedIn” plug-in might turn out to be a win-win proposition as the plug-in appeals to both employers and applicants through its simple-yet-effective approach.

See our complete analysis for LinkedIn stock here

1. TechCrunch: LinkedIn Debuts Embeddable Job Application Tool for Companies [↩]
2. The Power of LinkedIn Everywhere: Apply with LinkedIn [↩]