In part one, LinkedIn Vice President of Talent Solutions Mark Lobosco joined HR Works Podcast to discuss the latest LinkedIn research report, “Global Talent Trends 2019.” Lobosco offered insight into the research, as well as information for handling the skills gap and talent shortage.
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In today’s article, Lobosco covers LinkedIn’s research as it relates to workplace harassment and transparency during the hiring process.
Jim Davis: Let’s switch gears to workplace harassment. Obviously, last year, we heard a lot from the #MeToo movement, and it was just a watershed moment. It’s still a major issue for a lot of employers. It’s hard on the employees, it’s hard on people’s legal funds, and it’s just all around something that I strongly believe really needs to be fixed, whatever it takes. How can companies take action to be part of the solution for sexual harassment or harassment in general?
Mark Lobosco: So, it’s a great question. To your point, it does feel like there was kind of a watershed moment over the past year or so, given #MeToo and a number of other things. There’s a set of things I guess I think about as they relate to what we saw in the research, and then there’s a set of things I can share as they relate to my opinion, being kind of a leader here at LinkedIn; managing north of a few thousand people; and working at a company where talent is its number one priority, and diversity, inclusion, and belonging are its talent priorities.
First off, it’s really to the research. It is one of the four major trends we saw in this year’s “Global Talent Trends Report.” In addition to that, just on LinkedIn itself, we saw a 71% increase in workplace harassment content being shared. This kind of openness to having a conversation about antiharassment within the workplace was also identified in the research, in which 80% of talent professionals say their company has recently taken or is currently planning to take some antiharassment action.
Ironically, the most sated actions that are being taken are about ensuring existing policies are more well known, which includes ways for folks to be able to share feedback if there are issues that need to be reported.
What are companies to do on this front? That certainly could be one area to start. Revisit and, where necessary, rethink existing policies, and ensure they’re communicated. Listen to your employees, and genuinely listen to how things are going and where things can be improved. Then, provide access to a different training curriculum, whether developed in-house or leveraging courses online.
That’s the research and what we’re seeing on LinkedIn. My perspective on this, as you mentioned earlier: In addition to leading our talent solutions customer success team globally, I’m also part of a number of companywide DIB initiatives and the executive sponsor of our Latino and Latina Employee Research Group.
I think at the end of the day, the culture that’s created in the company starts at the top, with the leadership of the company. If your executive team and its direct reports, filling down the organization, are not convinced of the importance of building a diverse workforce—building an environment where no matter your background, you feel your opinions are treated equally and that all of your employees feel like they belong—you can come up with the best policies in the world, but it won’t really make a huge difference.
You may be covering your bases so you don’t have lawsuits, and sure, that’s great and important, but if you want to create real culture change and an environment where things like harassment won’t happen, it starts at the top with getting leadership teams that talk about it, highlight it in priorities, and walk the walk.
They promote against it, they do performance management against it, and they create a consistent drum beat around the importance of creating an inclusive environment. That’s the thing that, without a doubt, has helped us make the most progress on our overall DIB initiatives within the company.
Davis: Those are great ideas and consistent with everything that I read about making the culture real for accepting and understanding these complex issues. Your “Global Talent Trends Report” found that 54% of talent professionals agree that pay transparency is extremely important in shaping the future of recruiting in talent. Can you explain to me why this trend is so important for the future?
Lobosco: To your point, yes, it is definitely cited as one of the major trends. The trend of more transparency in the world is a trend that will only continue and accelerate, whether it be about companies or restaurants, flight information, jobs, you name it. Transparency will only accelerate.
As we think about that and what it’s historically been like for a jobseeker, in particular, to better understand what it’s like for the company and how much he or she gets paid for working there, we’ve seen that trend for a little while. But it does feel like there has been a tipping point this past year, according to the report.
There are a number of different factors that go into decisions about accepting a new job opportunity. There’s no doubt that salary is a significant one. As I said, it’s really not surprising that this is now becoming a key topic in the workplace. Pay transparency has historically been one of the hardest conversations for a jobseeker to have with a recruiter or hiring manager until really far along in the process, but studies show that the benefits of pay transparency outweigh these fears.
In the research, close to 30% of talent and talent professionals or hiring managers said that they do share salary ranges. Of those who did share, close to 70% have shared pay with candidates early on in the process. About 60% share with existing employees, and this last stat is kind of the most interesting: Close to 10% are now sharing publicly on job posts, and that’s with the employer providing that. I think you’ll only see this trend continue.
There’s other benefits, too. It streamlines negotiations with candidates. This is something you’re just going to see more and more of. LinkedIn’s position here is that we want to increase transparency, as well, for both sides of the marketplace—for both seekers and employers. Over the past 2 years, we’ve also been investing heavily in creating more pay transparency for jobseekers on LinkedIn through job posts, for example, and more.
Davis: Well, this has been fantastic. I really appreciate you taking the time to go over the report with me and offer your insights and ideas.
Lobosco: Yeah, well, thanks for having me. I was really excited to be invited to the podcast, and I appreciate you and your audience listening to the podcast and reading the report.
Davis: Listeners, we are always interested in suggestions you might have for what HR Works should cover next. Please feel free to reach out to us on Twitter at @HRWorksPodcast if you have any thoughts, concerns, or ideas in general for the podcast or if you just want to say hi. This is Jim Davis with HR Works. Have a great day, everybody.
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