1. Talent Advantage™
Case Study
Driving Significant Cost
Savings And Extra Efficiency
In Only Two Months
Kimball Electronics “There’s a better, much The Challenge
Division of Kimball International Denise’s team is responsible for hiring two
Headquarters: Jasper, Indiana
more cost-effective way, types of employees: business-side professionals
Recruiting team: 5 and quite frankly, and shop and floor workers, mainly in the US
LinkedIn Recruiter seats: 4 and Western Europe.
Total employees: 3,061
LinkedIn affords us that.”
Their previous technique for recruiting those
Denise Astrike, Global HR Specialist,
professionals—using job boards to find and
Executive Summary Kimball Electronics
reach out to them—was a long, painstaking,
Only two months into using LinkedIn and thoroughly inefficient process.
Recruiter, Kimball Electronics achieved Company Profile "You may get 300 [resumes], and there may be
dramatic savings on its very first hire—
Established in 1961 to produce electronics for 10 out of them that are really worth looking at.
and immediately decided to stop using
parent company Kimball International, Kimball But you have to look at all 300 of them,”
third-party recruiters and job boards, saving
Electronics is today an industry leader with an says Denise.
them 20 to 35 percent on all future hires.
international presence in electronics manufac- Director of Talent Acquisition Terry Tucker
Kimball now relies exclusively on LinkedIn turing for the automotive, medical, and public wanted a better solution. Acting on a recom-
Recruiter for highly improved cost savings, safety industries. mendation from colleagues, he and the Kimball
collaboration, and team productivity.
Global HR Specialist Denise Astrike is part of team took a close look at LinkedIn Recruiter.
Their greatest success has been in finding
Kimball Electronics’ US recruiting team. A 20-year They compared Recruiter carefully to other
professional-level employees in the US
Kimball veteran, she works closely with each of products for several months.
and Western Europe.
the human resources departments in all nine Then, in late November 2008, they purchased
Kimball Electronics locations around the world. four seats for their US office: One for Denise,
And with 1,037 employees in Kimball’s US one for Terry, and two for Terry and Denise’s
locations—plus almost 2,000 in their Mexico, fellow recruiters.
Europe, and Asia regions—Denise and her team
have a lot of employees to keep track of on a
daily basis.

2. LinkedIn Recruiter: The Solution “It wouldn’t surprise me, when the economy Increased Efficiency
picks up, if we double the amount of seats,”
In December 2008, Kimball Electronics made Recruiting isn’t all that Denise does. She’s
she says. "One hire is all we really need in order
the leap to LinkedIn Recruiter—and found also responsible for a wide range of internal
to cost-justify it for the whole company."
instant success. duties: acquisitions, HR integration, payroll,
She mentions a search that Terry Tucker is best practices, and working on standardization
"It's so intuitive,” Denise says enthusiastically.
currently working on. “Terry is completely issues with Kimball International’s global
“If you use LinkedIn for other things, it's almost
relying on LinkedIn, and not even looking at operations team.
seamless."
other sources.”
So she particularly appreciates Recruiter’s extra
Significant Cost Savings layers of efficiency. She’s even created a work-
Powerful Search And Collaboration
In January 2009, barely two months after flow around a few favorite functions: Advanced
Kimball specifically chose LinkedIn Recruiter Search, converting LinkedIn profiles into easy-
starting Recruiter, Kimball found its “needle in
over LinkedIn’s less expensive (and less com- to-email PDFs, and saving searches for personal
the haystack”: the perfect combination of price
plete) Pro account, for Recruiter’s advanced or team use.
and efficiency.
search and organization tools. “We liked the
On their very first search, Denise’s team And when it’s time for Denise to pick up the
ability to have the door wide open,” Denise says.
identified, found, and hired a highly qualified candidate search again, Recruiter is the tool
Once Denise has saved her search for a can- that makes that process much easier.
US business manager in much less time than
didate, any of her colleagues can pick up that
it usually takes to identify most of their "There are times when you think, 'Oh my God,
search where she left off. That colleague can
candidates. am I ever going to find one?' The time it takes is
then continue the search in Denise’s absence,
What’s more, because that one hire has more just phenomenal,” Denise says of the job-board
or take over for her altogether.
than covered the Recruiter purchase fee, hunt. “But you're able to be more proactive
“Terry and I can both work on the same project,” and target the people you want to talk to, with
any new hire that Kimball makes this year
Denise says. “I can see what he does. Otherwise LinkedIn."
will be 100% profit.
everything is just on my account, and no one
All without a single post to the traditional can see what’s happening.” “Top-Notch” Customer Service
job boards.
Denise also says that this same search capability LinkedIn Recruiter is known for its excellent
“No External Recruiter Fees” has proven to be very helpful with some of HR’s customer service, and Denise has nothing but
more sensitive situations. praise for the level of service that she’s received.
Best of all, Denise is now fulfilling Kimball’s
internal mandate of “No External Recruiter Fees.” "You can't really proactively post a position “They are top-notch professionals,” she says.
Because LinkedIn Recruiter only costs a flat fee on Monster or HotJobs when you have some “They do an outstanding job making sure
per year, Kimball has completely dropped their performance issues,” she explains. But with you know what you’re getting, and helping
use of third-party recruiters—and will save 20 to LinkedIn Recruiter, “you can do some searches you understand the best practices to use in
35 percent in recruiter fees on every future hire. for candidates ahead of time to not be so that process.”
reactive. The collaboration opportunities that
“There’s a better, much more cost-effective way, we have... [Recruiter] helps promote teamwork “A Natural Evolution”
and quite frankly, LinkedIn affords us that,” says and collaboration across our company."
Denise. "Our new hire just started today, and we Only two months into their subscription,
have now just paid for our seats for a year. Denise is completely satisfied with Kimball’s
So we're good." choice of LinkedIn Recruiter.
Denise couldn’t be more pleased with Kimball’s “I had three really excellent candidates that
immediate return on investment. And she’s I found through searches,” she says. “When
already planning for the future. the economy turns around, we’ll be much
further along.”
“It was really a natural evolution for us.
I think there’s real value there for companies
who want to give it a try.”
talent.linkedin.com | sales@linkedin.com
Please contact your sales manager or account manager for
more information.
Copyright © 2009 LinkedIn Corporation. All rights reserved.
10-LCS-011 0109