Raymundo Rush: LinkedIn will let Connectifier live on, but changes are coming to the recruiting service

Monday, 28 March 2016

LinkedIn will let Connectifier live on, but changes are coming to the recruiting service

LinkedIn today announced its initial plan for integrating recruiting service Connectifier, which LinkedIn acquired earlier this year. Connectifier will get to live on as a standalone service, with some changes.

“We’ve spent a lot of time in the last few weeks learning about each other, and figuring out the path forward, especially in terms of the best way to create economic opportunity for both our members and our loyal customers,” LinkedIn head of talent solutions Eduardo Vivas wrote in a blog post. “Today, we’re proceeding with Connectifier as a wholly owned subsidiary of LinkedIn.

“So, what does this mean? Connectifier will sell to their customers and we will sell to ours, but since there is a tremendous amount of crossover between our customer base, we see great opportunities for collaboration in a way that is going to benefit the recruiting industry as a whole.”

The decision puts Connectifier on a similar level as Lynda.com, which LinkedIn acquired for $1.5 billion, in the sense that the services get to remain independent. Other acquisitions, like Bizo and Bright (where Vivas previously worked), have been rebranded.

A new application programming interface (API) will bring improvements to Connectifier.

“Connectifier will deliver more accurate profile matches and more complete profile data via a new Connectifier-LinkedIn API integration, improving data quality and replacing profile information from third party sites which was sometimes incomplete or inaccurate,” Connectifier founder John Jersin — who is now head of LinkedIn Recruiter — wrote in a blog post of his own. As for LinkedIn Recruiter, its Auto Search will see “significantly improved profile matches, Jersin wrote.

Connectifier will allow users to more easily email candidates “on more profiles than before,” Jersin wrote. Phone numbers and links to candidates’ social media profiles will no longer be available in the tool.

But Connectifier is also going to concentrate on a more narrow subset of customers.

“We are focusing on our core market, as such, Connectifier will now only be available to recruiting professionals filling roles in the United States,” Jersin wrote. “Those affected will be contacted by a Connectifier representative for any applicable refunds to those specific accounts.”