Training Industry Magazine - November/December 2020 - 49

methods to cultivate diverse early-career
talent from a variety of backgrounds.
"We're very cognizant about the way
we attract and the way we bring the
talent in," shares Poeppelman. While,
in 2013, the inaugural cohort came
from only eight of the same highly
ranked universities in the U.S., the
2019 cohorts represent students from
over 50 universities and colleges, and
that number is growing each year. In a
blog post for LinkedIn, writer and editor
Bruce Anderson says LinkedIn's campus
recruiting team looks at "historically
black colleges and universities (HBCUs)
and Hispanic Serving Institutions... But
they also scour other data sources to find
schools with diverse populations" and
drive diversity and inclusivity in its talent
pipeline. To that end, LinkedIn seeks to
establish partnerships with companies
like Management Leadership for
Tomorrow - an organization that
works to connect minority students
with career advancement resources
and opportunities. To recruit from
underrepresented communities, LinkedIn
also extends recruiting beyond college
campuses by hosting their own events
and inviting students from a broad range
of schools and universities.
Developing
Associates in LinkedIn's BLP program
move
through
career
rotations
emphasizing the key customer-centric
and leadership competencies integral
to LinkedIn's mission and culture.
Poeppelman
shares
the
BLP,
"[continues] to amplify its focus on sales,
and foundational skills - specifically - in
building sales professionals as a critical
skill to learn early in someone's career."
Although the rotations have evolved
since the BLP's inception, associates
typically move through rotations in
customer-facing support roles, internal
sales productivity teams, and, finally,
sales roles. On top of the rotations,
the BLP team leverages LinkedIn
Learning courses and other virtual
sessions to cultivate foundational skills.
Customer-centric roles offer associates
the foundation they'll need "to listen

and understand our customers," says
Poeppelman. At LinkedIn, customers are
"at the center of everything we do," shares
Poeppelman, "so having [BLP associates]
first and foremost learn about the voice
of customer" as well as "their concerns
and pain points" is integral to gaining the
communication and sales skills that will
enable associates to succeed.
"The essence of what our associates
have always learned is how to actively
listen, tell a story, how to really be
compelling and authentic when it comes
to delivering a message whether it be to
a candidate or a customer. It's the same
skill," says Poeppelman. Not only do the
rotations offer associates the opportunity
to hone critical communication, sales
and leadership skills, Poeppelman
shares, "The constant rotation offers
a resilience - an understanding that
sometimes you have to start from the
beginning and figure out how to figure it
out." By "learning to be adaptable, [and]
learning how to adapt to feedback," BLP
associates gain practice and guidance
in core leadership tenants early on in
their career and establish a resilient
growth mindset to carry them through
their professional journey. "You've got to
teach people to move through ambiguity
sometimes," says Poeppelman, especially
in fast-paced business markets such as
the tech industry.
Although the BLP seeks to cultivate
resilience in its participants, the
associates are certainly not on their
LinkedIn journey alone. The BLP also
offers a highly structured network of
support to its associates, providing
mentorship and coaching every step
of the way.
Supporting
Offering early-career talent a strong
network of support is integral to
fostering their development and driving
the application of new skills on the job,
especially as associates move through
rotations and acquire new skills from
their homes due to the coronavirus
pandemic. Prior to and in the wake of
COVID-19, Poeppelman shares that BLP
"enhanced our support model to be

scalable" and applied it to virtual interns
with regularly dedicated mentors and
coaches across the organization, so
"each intern was assigned to somebody
that they can work with directly, outside
of their core team" and provided the
guidance and mentorship they need.
Poeppelman goes on to say BLP has
always relied heavily on this structure
"to give [associates] that 360-degree
support, and we will leverage the
lessons from this summer for our
incoming cohorts."
Additionally, BLP leverages internal
diversity mentorship programs - such
as the ImpactIn program, which seeks
to cultivate and support minority talent
on a global scale - to ensure associates
have access to mentors who will sponsor
their advancement and aid in their
development. Through the rapid and
"constant movement of rotations and
learning new skills" over the course of
BLP, LinkedIn builds ample opportunities
for "giving associates feedback" to
support and assess their progress over
the course of the program.
RETURN ON DEVELOPMENT
Each year, reports Poeppelman, "The
[BLP] program continues to deliver
incredible results, where participants
outperform in their sales roles compared
to those who didn't go through the
program by nine to 12 percentage
points. We continue to see the direct
impact the program experience has
on our talent's performance." As the
program continues to grow and scale
toward changing business needs, "we
will continue to create a more flexible
program, develop the leadership
tenants, and foster interpersonal skills
to ensure participants are prepared with
the agility they need to be successful
in today's workforce." Poeppelman
shared, "the program has been
constantly evolving and will continue
to evolve over the years to ensure we
meet business needs and support our
talent to be successful throughout their
whole career."
Hope Williams, CPTM, is an associate
editor at Training Industry, Inc. Email Hope.

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Training Industry Magazine - November/December 2020

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