How diversity is driving conversations on LinkedIn

On LinkedIn, companies have been steering the conversations. In fact, we’ve seen a 48% increase in companies across all industries posting on LinkedIn between April 2019 and June 2020.

And from the beginning of 2020 to now, conversations on LinkedIn have shifted dramatically. What started out as business-as-usual quickly turned to the global impact of Covid-19, remote working, and most recently the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement taking over the conversations.

We took a look at what topics are driving engagement across the globe, with a particular focus on Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (EMEA).

Companies are taking a stand and expressing their values

People want and expect companies to be vocal about their values, and issues such as race and diversity are too big for companies to ignore.

As the BLM movement gained momentum globally, a greater focus on Diversity and Inclusion (D&I) has given companies, employees and candidates the opportunity to engage in more meaningful and authentic conversations. Posts about D&I receive on average 91% more engagement than the average company post.

The graph below shows how conversations around D&I have grown globally. Across EMEA the percentage of member posts mentioning D&I, particularly by senior leaders, grew significantly. In the UK, member posts grew by 153% in June YoY and 33% in July YoY. Globally, the sharp rise in June 2020 of company posts, and LinkedIn member engagement, correlates with the BLM movement and Pride month.

Taking a closer look at EMEA

Across EMEA, senior leaders are already starting to take the lead in conversations about diversity, ensuring their company messages are seen by more people.  Between Aug'19 and July'20, senior leaders were 60% more likely to mention D&I in one of their posts compared to non-senior leaders.

Based on a percentage increase of posts by senior leaders (director and above) across EMEA (June YoY), the highest increases were seen in the Netherlands (146%), Germany (130%) and the UK (128%) – closely followed by France (100%), Spain (60%), Italy (61%) and the UAE (60%).

The top industries across EMEA posting about D&I were Education, Corporate Services, and Finance – and the top phrases for the most engaged with posts about Diversity included ‘women’, ‘team’, ‘equality’, ‘pride’ and ‘employees’. Interestingly, global employers that posted more about diversity received 26% more applications from women, with a 19% increase in EMEA.  This shows that job seekers are responding positively to companies committed to diversity.

People are listening, and more importantly they’re engaging

Whilst companies are starting the conversation, employees and members are listening, responding and engaging. A member’s post is likely to gain 3X more traction than a company’s post. So if members are proud of the values their employer is expressing, they’re very effective at spreading that message.

For general member sharing, there has been on average 29% growth in June YoY across EMEA, with the UAE (54%) and Germany (43%) showing the highest increase. This graph illustrates the traction posts about D&I have had on LinkedIn across EMEA. Again, the spike in June correlates with the Black Lives Matter movement and Pride month.

Trending topics – from Covid-19 to racial injustice

Over the year, the conversations have shifted from Covid-19 and remote working in March to racial equality and injustice in June. In March, the top 5 hashtags were #covid19, #coronavirus #stayathome, #business, and  #staysafe.

From mid-July we’ve started to see a move to more business-related topics. While #covid19 is still a popular hashtag, the most popular hashtags (as of July 13th) include #business, #marketing, #technology, #jobs and #innovation. This signals a positive shift towards getting back to business and moving forward with hopefulness about the future.

Overall, one of the biggest changes across EMEA from March to July has been the focus on digital and social media marketing, with hashtag usage growing by 27%. This shows that companies want to get involved in the conversation, express their values and show their commitment to D&I.