Users of LinkedIn are about to benefit from the partnership agreement between LinkedIn and Taleo signed last week.  Bottom line — keep your LinkedIn profile up-to-date to save time and increase accuracy when applying for jobs online.

Taleo is the largest job applicant tracking source in the U.S. and serves approximately 5,000 of the country’s largest corporations.  And, we all know that LinkedIn, with their 120 million+ users, is the most popular professional networking site in the U.S. 

LinkedIn users will soon be able to use their LinkedIn information to complete job applications with Taleo clients.  Taleo already has the option to auto-fill, but this new partnership will allow you to lift data or even a resume from your LinkedIn site as well. 

This all goes hand-in-hand with LinkdIn’s feature, “Apply with LinkedIn” widget that was released in July of this year.  Netflix and LivingSocial have adopted the widget, and it’s a safe bet that others will follow.  Adopting the widget is free. 

Within the applicant tracking system business, the primary competitors are Taleo (26% market share), Oracle (11% market share) and Kenexa (7% market share.  Kenexa and LinkedIn already have a similar partnership agreement.

Rosealee M. Lee, CAE, CM; Business & Management Faculty