LinkedIn Referrals to be available from November 1

A major problem faced by job-seekers is that of getting referred. It is not possible for everyone to have “connections” in the corporate world to help them get an interview call.

LinkedIn, a business-oriented social networking site, acknowledges the problem and has announced its new product “Referrals”. LinkedIn provides a platform for the employers and employees to establish connections and to communicate and with this new product it goes a step further.

“I’m thrilled to introduce LinkedIn Referrals – our brand new referrals product that makes it dead simple for employees to make quality referrals, and helps you unlock your employees’ networks to hire the best talent faster,” LinkedIn’s head of talent solutions Eddie Vivas said in a blog post.

LinkedIn Referrals, available from November 01, automatically identifies employees’ first-degree connections who are a match for open jobs on LinkedIn and will even send a summary of their matches to their work email address every two weeks to help spur engagement.

It will cost companies about $10 to $12 annually per employee using the service and should simplify the process of recommending qualified, interested job candidates, a LinkedIn spokesperson said.

Besides Referrals, LinkedIn also announced the next generation of LinkedIn Recruiter to “empower almost anyone who recruits to be a data-driven recruiter and identify and hire the right talent faster.” It will be available in Q1 2016, and is a free upgrade for LinkedIn Recruiter users.