We are in a time of immense change when it comes to recruitment. The internet is transforming every sphere into a digital marketplace, including work itself. We tend to think about ecommerce in terms of Amazon and eBay: fast, transparent, marketplaces and exchanges for goods. But now the same is happening for skills and labour.
There are three key pillars of change:
• First is the economy. It’s forcing individuals and businesses to really use assets, resources, money and time in different ways
• Secondly, we are seeing technology as an enabler of connecting people together
• Thirdly we have social, which amplifies those messages to a large audience at scale in a timely manner
Together, these are seeing traditional models crumble as they spur innovation. We’re ending up with a much more dynamic, transferable exchange between buyers and sellers of talent.
For example the smallest trade of talent would be a task, such as picking up a coffee or fetching dry cleaning. I could put together a series of unrelated tasks that has value to me as a hirer. Previously it wasn’t possible to connect with someone to do those tasks, but now we’re seeing just that in the US with Taskrabbit and Airtasker in Australia.
Technology is allowing us to work when we want, where we want. Skills that were traditionally used in a physical environment can now be traded in a digital environment.
The new CV
Through the internet we can learn so much more about an employer and an employee. Technology can now identify and track your social input into the digital world, such as engagement and thought leadership, and this is useful for both recruiters and prospective employees.
Critically, employees want to know more about the companies they may work for. Recent research from Deloitte found that Gen Yers want to work for organisations that foster innovative thinking, develop their skills and make a positive contribution to society.
This means that businesses need to be more innovative and do more for society if they want to attract top talent. Most importantly, they need to actually show that they’re doing it, and this is where virtual environments come in, to improve and democratise the access to talent and information.
Building an employee brand
To build more open and transparent communications with Australians, employers first need to think about what their brand is and how they are communicating it. Money has been poured into consumer and trade brands, but very little has been invested into employee brands.
An employee branding strategy is needed to showcase culture and development within a business: the creativity, the flexibility within the workforce. A company needs to say who they are, what they do, why they are special.
Once they’ve got that story right they can think about how to attract talent. There are different ways to do this: digital headhunting, a content strategy, marketing initiatives, social, video, virtual environments and Vfairs. It’s about developing different channels to market and identifying the right ones for the right individuals and roles.
Making the connection
Our business is here to connect companies and individuals to their chosen audiences for recruitment, brand and marketing messages. We are leading the way globally in how we enable the facilitation of information in the cloud, in real time, giving equal access to Australians in both metro and rural areas, as well as potential overseas hires. It’s about democratising the access to talent and really helping people to connect to their chosen careers.
We’re particularly passionate about connecting Australians to other Australians, building trust between strangers and growing our nation’s labour capital rather than transferring that wealth overseas as other skills marketplaces are doing.
If we’re going to build a strong country we need to be competitive, flexible and have the talent to do that within Australia. If we pay people in Australia for their labour and reward them for their networks they can then buy products and services that will actually drive the economy.