Key players in the job board space could be doing much more than just selling job ads and repackaging our resumes; they could be helping our careers. (I'm talking to you LinkedIn, Indeed, and Glassdoor.)
As we shift from company-focused careers to individual skill-based careers, tools that help professionals understand and connect with compatible teams could dramatically improve career satisfaction and reduce the massive resources wasted on hiring culturally mismatched candidates.
One place to start, adding personality-based work-style preferences (note: not personality tests) to user profiles and aggregated team information to company descriptions. Doing so would provide new career insights for professionals, add proactive candidate recruiting tools for HR clients, increase revenue streams for the job board/career development organization, and engage people on a long-term/intimate level that currently no one in the career space is even coming close to achieving.
Key Program Initiatives for the Job Board/Career Development Organization
Create a small set of behavioral questions that describe an individual's preferred and most productive work environments. (Question example: Do you generally prefer working in a lively or calm office environment?)
Use the collected data to suggest roles, organizations, and career paths that have high job satisfaction rates among similar professionals. Services that support the individual's specific goals can also be recommended, such as sponsored training courses and products.
Add a "team personality" section to company profiles based on aggregated, influence-weighted information from the organization's employees. Example: ACME's employees generally prefer having a flexible schedule, working in a lively office environment, and socializing together after work hours.
Add useful data to selected service offerings that can help recruiters/HR managers improve their candidate selections and guide their companies' brand objectives. (Lots of possible revenue streams!)
Collect user experience and career satisfaction information to continuously improve the questions, successful job matches, career-path suggestions, and the value of the program's data to users, HR clients, and business partners.
Benefits for Professionals/Job Seekers
An improved understanding of their personal and professional strengths.
A way to assess the work environments of previous and potential employers so they can discover career opportunities that match their preferred and most productive working styles.
A new/novel way to explore roles, organizations, and career paths they may never have otherwise considered. Example: Examining career paths similar professionals have taken.
Benefits for HR Professionals/Recruiters/Hiring Managers
Adds additional tools to help HR professionals locate candidates ideally suited to thrive within their organization and/or a specific team.
Supplies new information that can help hiring managers engage candidates who possess traits an organization/team may be lacking or weak in.
Provides senior leaders and brand managers data that can help them better understand (and potentially guide) how their employees' traits are shaping their organization's brand.
Benefits for the Job Board/Career Development Organization
Helps the career organization become an indispensable partner in their users' long-term, ongoing career development.
Presents useful and emotionally engaging company information on a nonjudgmental spectrum (versus implementing the typical positive/negative or star rating systems that can alienate clients).
Companies are incentivized to encourage employees to join the career organization's programs because, among other benefits, increased employee engagement will shape a more accurate company profile.
Increases potential revenue streams and competitive advantages by adding levels of targeted data associated with specific career paths, personality types, and parsing organizations in new, unique market segments.
Want to talk about this program or develop some innovative ideas for your company? Don't waste your time posting a comment; email/call me and we can make real things happen that will actually help your team. Seriously, I'd love to connect.