Dive Brief:
- The Microsoft/LinkedIn merger will combine 433 million LinkedIn members with a $1 billion plus Microsoft user base, reports Health Data Management (HDM). The feat alone will be a major challenge for human resources. But the merger’s aftermath might revitalize HR’s recruitment and managing strategies and reinvent today’s workplace, says HDM.
- By having access to LinkedIn’s data about its users’ skills and abilities, Microsoft can provide employees and contractors to the customers who use its workplace tools for productivity, such as Office. The combined companies might develop new applications for services neither currently provides, such as employee training, performance management and succession planning.
- The merger expects to serve job candidates in LinkedIn’s database, too, by allowing recruiters to identify those who meet their search requirements and keeping recruiters up to date on what changes candidates have undergone, such as earning an advanced degree or when a long-term project they’re working on ends.
Dive Insight:
The LinkedIn story has been closely monitored by many in HR due to the power the networking site holds in recruitment spaces. Continued development of LinkedIn by Microsoft could further expand its reach and give LinkedIn a stronger foothold in more workplaces.
Further details of what the deal will mean for LinkedIn and its users is currently unknown, as the deal is still in the process of being approved worldwide.
