LinkedIn today launched a new initiative to help "essential" businesses look for the right skills and talent to perform critical jobs amid the coronavirus pandemic. The company is providing free job posting tools to services in the healthcare, food, and logistics sectors as well as disaster relief organizations for the next three months.
Hospitals, supermarkets, package delivery and warehousing companies can now post jobs on the platform for free. These job postings will be highlighted in the LinkedIn feed and appear in job search results. The ads will also be made visible to job seekers with relevant skills through push notifications and real-time alerts. LinkedIn notes that it has seen a 35% increase in health-related job posts on the platform since the COVID-19 outbreak began.
Additionally, the service will dedicate a prominent location on its main home page and jobs page for urgent hiring for critical roles like doctors and nurses. The goal is to drive the right people to these job postings more quickly.
LinkedIn is also expanding its Recruiting for Good program worldwide in order to help frontline organizations fill their paid and volunteer positions with the help of LinkedIn"s team of recruiters. One organization participating in this effort is the the American Red Cross of Los Angeles, which sourced volunteers earlier this week for free meal distribution across affected communities.