Building Equity and Inclusivity in the Global Workforce Through Partnerships and Collaboration

Across LinkedIn, we work with over 50 strategic partners who share our focus on creating diverse and inclusive workplaces across the globe. Collaborating with partner organizations has been significant to Linkedin’s mission and is a continual source of inspiration. Today, followers of our DIBS partners are close to 1 million LinkedIn members, and I firmly believe that, together as a team of partner organizations all standing for equity, we can be a collective force for change.?

Over the past year, several key trends have shaped our community. We have seen massive growth in virtual events and online communities that are now thriving all year round. Also, a growing number of organizations have been actively shaping conversations by becoming thought leaders on the LinkedIn platform. This past year, we were pleased to welcome leaders such as Morgan DeBaun (Blavity), Claudia Romo Edelman (We Are All Human), Wanda Jackson (National Urban League), Lanaya Irvin (Coqual) and Lori Nishiura MacKensie (Stanford University) to our list of LinkedIn Influencers. Todd Sears (OutLeadership) and Porter Braswell (Jopwell) were also recognized for their contributions as LinkedIn Top Voices 2020:Equity in the Workplace. As a result of being in our Black Voices to Follow, partners such as Christal Jackson,CEO of Mosaic Genius, increased her base of LinkedIn Followers from 2.5K to 220K+ followers.?

Our strategy to collaborate together and be a force for change is twofold. First, our partners work with us directly to support LinkedIn’s talent strategy, which includes hiring and employee development. Secondly, our partners work with us to create equity for professionals on the LinkedIn Platform by engaging their members, creating content, and providing feedback on new equity initiatives.?

To support our internal talent development strategy, we work with our strategic partners and internal teams across LinkedIn, such as Talent Acquisition and our Employee Resource Groups to support hiring and employee development. For example, this strategy includes connecting LinkedIn with talent pools through Blavity Inc.’s Afrotech platform and Latinas In Tech in the United States, and with CareerTrackers focused on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in Australia. We are also expanding the way we engage external expertise and resources to strengthen professional development and build an inclusive environment for our employees, working with organizations like NBMBAA, Ascend, Culture Shift and Prospanica.

Externally, on the LinkedIn platform, our partner strategy focuses on our shared objective of creating equity for professionals. We have seen a 70% increase in the number of LinkedIn followers of our major Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging (DIBs) partners and increased engagement, supported by DIBs partner forums and roundtable discussions, access to our DIBS Resource Hub, and online community building and events in partnership like AdColor. In collaboration with our Social Impact team, our partners have participated in our AdGrants Program and product roundtables, which have been pivotal in sharing our partners’ DEI? initiatives, and for gathering feedback from our partners on equity initiatives.?

As we look ahead to the future, our DIBs partnerships programming will expand in FY22 as we continue to develop our relationships with external organizations, partners and customers, globally. Our vision is to create economic opportunity for every member of the global workforce and through our partnerships, we accomplish this vision with intention and authenticity.