Job Matching…a Disruptive Approach to Tackling the IT Talent Shortage
Despite the robust global economy, there are still millions of unfilled positions available in the workforce. There are many reasons for this gap, but on a fundamental level, the issue often comes down to job matching employment opportunities with a set of candidates that match the specific job requirements.
The Challenge of finding candidates with the right skills, at the right time
In the IT world, tech vendors and their partners have had a difficult time finding candidates with the right skills, at the right time and in the right place. Efficiently matching their job requirements with qualified applicants tends to be a hit and miss undertaking. Most enterprises and individuals, still today, use what we describe as a “spray and pray” approach. In other words, they use hiring platforms to spray out the openings and pray that a qualified individual sees the opportunity. Even if one qualified candidate does see the opening, they will likely be grouped in with many others who aren’t qualified—and then it’s the recruiter’s job to dig through all the resumes to find that one needle in the haystack.
So if traditional job search engines are inexact and randomly find (or don’t find) qualified individuals, what’s the alternative?
In a word: Job Matching
All job or employee candidate searches involve at least some matching. But real-time job matching involves much more than drilling down through keywords. Vendors can blast out job ads all day, yet still get the same results unless they employ a solution that brings back very close to exact matches for the positions they have available.
Real-time matching can incorporate many factors beyond basic keywords. For example, vendors can specify exact certifications, credentials, education levels, locations and time available for work etc. This opens the door to extremely closely aligned applicants.
Because job matching always works in two directions, candidates get continually updated results the same as recruiters do. If the recruiter updates information in a way that creates a better match, the candidate sees more potential jobs to choose from.
Job Matching in Practice
This approach to matching ideal candidates with the exact requirements of an employer has enabled the Cisco Networking Academy Program to not only help 1.3 million students a year get access to technology and entrepreneurship skills but has closed the loop, thereby enabling them to connect to the many jobs they are qualified for.
Cisco’s Networking Academy Program
The Cisco’s Networking Academy Program, one of its largest CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) programs, identified a need to match graduates of its program with employment opportunities worldwide. Cisco’s Networking Academy Program, which operates in 180 countries and has trained over 7.8 million students in networking technologies, offers skills in environments ranging from community colleges and universities to community centers across the world. Students earn CCNA, CCENT and other certifications and credentials much in demand with employers around the world. The challenge for the program was how to pair skilled graduates with the right career opportunities. Both in terms of credentials, work location, and other important factors.
For this, The Cisco Networking Academy Program turned to Channel Mechanics to solve their problem. Because their SaaS platform was easily adaptable to tackle student and employer job matching requirements, it was the perfect match.
The resulting collaboration is Cisco’s Networking Academy Talent Bridge. This job matching engine is now matching employers and candidates worldwide in a dozen languages on a daily basis. Employers are happy because they are finding precisely qualified talent exactly where they need them. And Cisco can view not only the number of hires made using the engine, but where they now work. And all in real-time.
The job matching engine is easy to use for all concerned. One of the many benefits is that recruiters are saving hours of wasted time sifting through applicants that aren’t closely matched with opportunities. This means that qualified candidates can be hired quickly and that the business in turn becomes that much more efficient.
Omar Shaban, Director of Operations with the Cisco Networking Academy Program:
“the matching engine has enabled employers to scale, connecting to Networking Academy students in 180 countries and providing them with a pathway to careers that match their qualifications, interests and geographical preferences.”
For companies struggling to find qualified candidates using the old spray and pray search engine/keyword approach, job matching engines provide a welcome alternative and a fast track to growing their business by hiring the most qualified employees.
If you’d like to learn more about how Channel Mechanics SaaS powers channel enablement as well as our job matching engine, please contact us for a demo.