How LinkedIn Is Closing The Network Gap And Building A More Equitable Workforce

LinkedIn Employees Empower Bay Area Job Seekers: A Community Networking Event in Mountain View | LinkedIn

When it comes to leveraging technology to build a better, more equitable workforce, the professional social network LinkedIn is setting the standard. Meg Garlinghouse, Vice President of Social Impact at LinkedIn, sat down with me to share insights into how the platform articulates its purpose, addresses systemic challenges, and fosters innovation to make the professional world more inclusive. From bridging network gaps to empowering job seekers through volunteerism, LinkedIn’s approach is not just impactful—it’s transformative. 

LinkedIn’s Vision: Economic Opportunity for All

At the heart of LinkedIn’s mission is a bold vision: to create economic opportunity for every member of the global workforce. “Our Social Impact team focuses specifically on the “every” in our vision statement, with programs to support professionals who have a nontraditional path to the workforce or may be facing barriers to entering the workforce,” Garlinghouse explained. This includes refugees, first-generation college students, justice-impacted individuals, U.S. military veterans, and more. By leveraging its platform, products, partnerships with non-profit organizations, and mobilizing employees, LinkedIn helps create more equitable access to jobs, networks, learning resources, and skills development tools —to create a more level playing field for all.

Closing the ‘Network Gap’

Meg Garlinghouse, VP of Social Impact, LinkedIn | LinkedIn

Garlinghouse identifies the “network gap” as a critical challenge in the professional world, where factors like geography, education, and work history can limit an individual’s career prospects. “Networks play an important role in career development, and where you grew up, where you went to school, and where you work all impact the kind of network you have,” Garlinghouse noted. These differences can create a network gap, where some professionals are at a disadvantage because they may not have contacts who can help them get a foot in the door. “As the world’s largest professional network, we have the opportunity - and responsibility - to help provide equitable access to jobs for professionals of all backgrounds, and we do that in a few ways,” she added.

LinkedIn tackles this disparity head-on by helping members build networks, and connections, and access professional knowledge to ensure that they are empowered to take their next career step. With more than one billion members worldwide, the platform enables individuals to share expertise and engage meaningfully with others through tools like videos and newsletters.

She also highlighted LinkedIn’s role in equipping members with forward-looking data and insights to navigate the changing world of work: “Our data show that the skills required to do our jobs are set to change by 70% by 2030.” This indicates that members need to continuously upskill and gain new skills to stay ahead in the workforce. 

Additionally, the company partners with mission-aligned nonprofit organizations, such as Braven and Year Up to provide complimentary one-year LinkedIn Premium subscriptions for professionals overcoming barriers to help them identify job opportunities, learn new skills through access to LinkedIn Learning, and build their networks.

LinkedIn Coaches: Volunteering with Purpose

Volunteerism is another cornerstone of LinkedIn’s strategy. Garlinghouse highlighted the success of the LinkedIn Coaches program: “We believe deeply in giving back and creating connections to our communities by volunteering our time and talents. LinkedIn Coaches is our signature employee volunteer program where employees connect with job seekers overcoming barriers to review best practices for LinkedIn profiles, learn how to network, and practice interviews, either in 1:1 sessions or group settings.” In 2023 alone, nearly 500 LinkedIn Coaches sessions supported 37,000 job seekers. Since its inception in 2015, the program has supported over 1 million job seekers and continues to grow. “We look forward to driving more impact as we celebrate 10 years of LinkedIn Coaches in 2025,” Garlinghouse added.

Garlinghouse emphasized the dual impact of the initiative: “What’s really powerful about LinkedIn Coaches is that it also benefits our employees. LinkedIn Coaches builds community for our 18,000+ employees globally and provides a direct way to support our vision and connect to a greater sense of purpose - the “why” behind so many employees choosing to work at LinkedIn. It’s inspiring to see how employees embrace LinkedIn Coaches in a variety of ways, from hosting an event for a local organization at their office to adding Coaches sessions to meeting agendas as a team building activity.” 

Beyond benefiting job seekers, the program also offers LinkedIn employees valuable insights into how different user groups of all backgrounds experience the platform and products, creating a feedback loop for improvement and ensuring the platform serves the needs of all professionals.

LinkedIn Employees Empower Bay Area Job Seekers: A Community Networking Event in Mountain View | LinkedIn

Leveraging LinkedIn’s Platform for Good

In addition to supporting mission-aligned nonprofit organizations focused on workforce development through grants and other funding initiatives, LinkedIn extends its mission of creating equity through other innovative programs like the LinkedIn Ad Grants program. Nonprofit organizations selected to be part of this program receive free advertising on LinkedIn to reach their target audience and inspire conversations. They also have dedicated support from volunteers from LinkedIn’s advertising team to ensure campaign effectiveness. In fiscal year 2024 alone, over 90 nonprofits benefited from more than 2,400 free campaigns, allowing them to amplify their missions and engage with supporters.

Additionally, the company’s LinkedIn for Nonprofits Resource Hub provides guides, best practices, and discounted tools to help nonprofits focused on all types of causes optimize their presence on the platform to raise awareness of their initiatives, build community, and engage with individuals who support their work.

Garlinghouse also mentioned a newly launched feature, Open to Volunteer, which allows LinkedIn members to showcase their interest in volunteering opportunities, making it easier for them to find volunteer opportunities aligned with their skills and passions: “Our research shows that 75% of LinkedIn members are interested in volunteering or volunteering more, and with this new feature, we can help members more easily find opportunities to give back that align with their professional skills and preferences. 

Metrics of Success: A Dual Focus on Impact and Business Growth

For Garlinghouse, success lies at the intersection of social impact and LinkedIn’s broader business objectives: “Our Social Impact initiatives are focused on what we uniquely offer at LinkedIn - our platform and products - so our success metrics closely mirror our overall business objectives. As one example, video is the fastest-growing format on LinkedIn right now and we’re building more features to make it easier for members and organizations on LinkedIn to share video. When it comes to evaluating video success for our Social Impact audiences, we’re looking at metrics like how many nonprofit professionals are using video to share information and connect with their audiences.” This year, LinkedIn made video the centerpiece of its GivingTuesday campaign to light up the platform with stories of generosity, doing good for business, and doing good for the world.

Member engagement is another important measure of success as it helps drive LinkedIn’s entire ecosystem. LinkedIn wants to make sure that job seekers and professionals overcoming barriers know how to best use the platform. Based on learnings from the LinkedIn Coaches programming, LinkedIn launched a “train the trainer” effort, empowering nonprofit partners to extend LinkedIn’s benefits and knowledge of how to use the platform to their own communities.

“These are just two examples of how our programs support our company goals, enabling us to do well and do good,” Garlinghouse concluded.