Posts

Feature in Twin Cities Business Mag: MHTA Rolls Out New Skills-Focused Job Board

RealTime Talent’s newest platform, the Exchange, was featured in Twin Cities Business Magazine this week in a story highlighting the Minnesota High Tech Association’s new site. The story was picked up at MHTA’s Tech.2017 breakfast which was held at the Metropolitan Ballroom last week and drew around 200 leaders in high tech innovation.  Featured in the article are insights from Margaret Anderson Kelliher, President and CEO of MHTA, and WorkFountain’s Program Manager for Minnesota, Dave Kornecki.

The full article by Andrew Eggert can be read on the Twin Cities Business Magazine website at: http://tcbmag.com/News/Recent-News/2017/February/MHTA-Rolls-Out-New-Skills-Focused-Job-Board

 

 

Revolutionize How Your Company Finds Talent: The RealTime Talent Exchange

The RealTime Talent Exchange Leapfrogs Other Posting Systems

 

Hey Minnesota employers! Every day you work hard to attract, develop, and retain the talent your organization needs for today and for the future. This important and time-consuming work starts with hiring the right people for the right roles. The RealTime Talent Exchange can help!

 

The Exchange provides cutting-edge technology that creates a more efficient and effective labor market by moving away from the sole use of traditional recruiting practices toward a new matching technology that leapfrogs other online tools. This innovative technology helps employers fill open positions by easily accessing candidates who are the best possible fit.

 

Here’s how it works.

The Exchange surveys employers and candidates about needs, interests, abilities, and preferences using a set of statistically validated questions for the specific role. Then, the system uses patent-pending algorithms to create matches, instantly connecting employers and job seekers. This cuts the time and cost of recruiting and serves the unique needs of small, mid-sized, and large employers. Built on WorkFountain technology, this innovative platform allows your organization to make meaningful connections and find the best person for the job–faster than ever before.

 

Some key benefits for employers:

  • One-stop exposure to top talent, regardless of recruiting budget or name recognition
  • Job board broadcasting and social media promotion
  • Centralized scoring, screening, and stack ranking of candidates
  • Prioritized shortlist of top matches to consider first
  • Cost effective ($39 per job posting and $19 per internship posting)

 

Now in the pre-launch phase, this new online labor Exchange will be officially launching in February. View the site now at www.realtime.workfountain.com. There are early opportunities for large employers, regional economic development bodies, academic institutions, and others to become hosts or create enterprise accounts on the new platform. If your organization is interested in this kind of opportunity,  please contact Jess@realtimetalentmn.org

Online Labor Exchanges: What makes an Advanced Matching Platform different from an aggregator?

Ever wonder what makes a job board different from an aggregator or exchange? We did too, and we found that there isn’t a lot of literature that defines differences in functionality clearly for the common user.  In this post, we’ve compiled a brief summary of four types of online labor exchanges and how applications, social media, and recruitment technology interact with them.  We hope that it helps to clarify some of the strengths and weaknesses of these different kinds of platforms.

Job Boards
An online job board (or job bank) is a site on which an employer may post a job opening directly to be seen by active job-seekers. The exchange occurs as jobs are advertised (jobs go out) and candidates apply for openings (applications come in). These sites may require payment per job post, by subscription, or access to a candidate database, although some are free of charge to employers (in many cases obtaining revenue from the sale of advertisements). Some companies are experimenting with fully app-based job boards that operate on a swipe left-right basis.
Some job boards are password protected and hidden from public view, as is the case with many professional associations, colleges, universities, and unions. By restricting access to a membership group that pays for the service in the form of tuition or membership fees, these organizations focus on providing a high value to their job-seeking constituents. Although this exclusivity can be a drawback to employers who wish to reach a large audience, value can be demonstrated if the quality of candidates is consistently higher than from the general population.

Examples: CareerBuilder, Craigslist, Jobr, University of Minnesota Student Job Portal

 

Job Search Engines
Also called aggregators, job search engines have many of the same visual and functional characteristics as job boards, but instead of receiving direct postings from employers they “scrape” jobs from multiple job boards, corporate sites, and other sources. Job search engines are more likely than job boards to sell ads through a pay-per-click model rather than requiring employers to subscribe or pay for job posts, although some do follow this model. Job search engines were first developed in 2005 and although they are in one sense competitors to job boards, they are also another means of attracting high traffic to job boards and corporate sites. A large proportion of jobs on search engines come from job boards, meaning that the two overlapping systems have become somewhat symbiotic.
In 2011, Indeed surpassed the job board Monster as the most visited job site online, although consumer studies suggest that job-seekers are often frustrated by the user experience of bouncing between different sites. Standard search engines, such as Google are now providing similar services. This report does not include research done on job search engines.
Examples: Indeed, SimplyHired

 

Classic Online Labor Exchanges
RealTime Talent has identified “classic online labor exchanges” as job boards that have added functionality to match talent to opportunities going beyond keyword searches. For example, these systems may scan candidate profiles or resumes for education, skills, and experience and pull job postings that make reference to the same. They almost always offer other services to employers such as applicant tracking systems (ATS) or “push out” postings to job aggregators. They may also offer career planning tools for job-seekers, back-end access for career counselors and workforce centers, or data dashboards that can be used in labor force analysis. Like job boards, most sites require payment from employers, however statewide labor exchanges, customized and launched by government bodies, often establish a no-fee system to encourage employers to use their site.
Examples: MinnesotaWorks, Monster

 

Advanced Matching Platforms
A new brand of online labor exchange has surfaced in the past five years that uses complex algorithms to customize the job search results to individual candidates. Catering to passive candidates and those working on developing a long-term career goal, these platforms reduce the noise in the job market by filtering for only those candidates that have the optimal match of interests, hard skills, soft skills, experience, and educational background for a position. Their algorithms go far beyond the resume or keyword searches to understand subtle differences between candidates that make for stronger matches and more valuable employees. In some cases, they factor in preferred work environments, office culture, and schedule. Advanced matching platforms level the playing field between job seekers and employers, allowing either party to initiate the selection process once a match has been determined by the platform. This approach is successful in overcoming common hiring biases, removing from the process the candidate’s name, gender, address, or other traits that can be deduced from a resume or cover letter.
However, this unique approach may be frustrating to some active job-seekers accustomed to sifting through traditional job boards. Most advanced matching platforms require the completion of a questionnaire to match to positions, ranging in time commitments from 5 minutes to 45 minutes to complete – depending on the platform. Upon completion, few or even no matches may be presented if the answers do not match a currently open position.
Examples: Anthology, Elevated Careers, WhiteTruffle, WorkFountain

 

Applications and Social Media Technology
Social networking and app-based labor exchanges function as job boards, classic exchanges, or include some degree of advanced matching. However, they are typically highly simplified for a mobile environment and often do not operate well on desktop systems. Not a discreet category in and of themselves, and because functionality in both a desktop and mobile environment is critical for this pilot, sites that solely operate in a mobile environment were excluded from this study. LinkedIn Talent Solutions was reviewed, however, as it operates like a classic labor exchange that is able to leverage the data and connectivity of professional networks in the job search.
Examples: Jobr, JobandTalent, LinkedIn Talent Solutions

 

Recruitment Technology
Recruitment technology assists employers with passive recruitment of top candidates, sometimes serving the role that staffing firms and temporary agencies fulfill in larger companies. These technologies use marketing and communications as a means for “selling” positions to candidates directly. There is almost always a subscription fee for service paid by employers. The platforms are almost always candidate-facing, with recruitment companies performing all of the recruitment needs for a company including advertising jobs, researching passive candidates, reviewing applications, and screening potential hires. These systems feature large candidate databases with advanced capacities for searching, evaluating, and contacting them directly. They may connect to an ATS, or provide tracking services themselves. As these are not true labor exchanges and did not fit the functional needs of this pilot, recruitment technology were not evaluated beyond Phase 1.
Examples: Vettery, JobVite

Introducing RealTime Talent’s New Executive Director: Sandee Joppa

sandee_blog_picture

RealTime Talent is experiencing new growth and a season of transition early in its second year.  Jess Niebuhr, RealTime Talent’s first Executive Director, has shifted her role to that of Director of the RealTime Talent Exchange, the innovative new online job matching platform brought to Minnesota through funding by the Minnesota Legislature.

 

We are pleased to announce the appointment of Sandee Joppa as Executive Director of Real Time Talent effective October 17, 2016. Sandee has over 25 years of experience in Minnesota-based companies, including 10 years as Vice President/Chief Human Resources Officer for the Donaldson Company; a Minnesota-based industrial manufacturing organization with more than 12,000 employees in 44 countries. At Donaldson, Sandee led the creation of a global HR function and built organizational capacity, talent pipelines, and world class leadership development programs to meet the organization’s growth strategy. During her tenure, the Star Tribune named Donaldson a “Top 100 Workplace.” Before joining Donaldson, Sandee worked at General Mills for 16 years in corporate recruiting, human resource manager roles in manufacturing plants and in sales and distribution, as a corporate diversity manager, and finally as director of human resources for the foodservice, baking products, Yoplait, and marketing communications divisions. Most recently, Sandee ran her own executive coaching and leadership development consulting company and continues to serve as President of the Twin Cities Human Resources Executive Council, which is comprised of Human Resource leaders across the Twin Cities.

 

Sandee’s philanthropic efforts include serving on the Luther College Board of Regents, the Luther College Audit and Outreach and Gifts Committees, and the Make-A-Wish Minnesota Human Resources Committee. Sandee has a bachelor’s degree in English from Luther College and a Master’s degree in Industrial Relations from the University of Minnesota. Sandee is originally from Moorhead, Minnesota and is looking forward to working with the various regions across the state to lead and support regional work force development efforts.

 

Sandee’s collaborative style, passion for work force development, and skill set in strategic planning, change management and talent pipeline development make her very well suited for the Executive Director role at this critical point in RealTime Talent’s growth. Given the importance of more actively engaging employers in strategic work force planning, Sandee’s extensive experience and connections will be instrumental to delivering the RealTime Talent mission in building the world’s best work force for Minnesota.

Introducing the RealTime Talent Exchange

Our new job-matching platform finally has a name: RealTime Talent Exchange.

realtime-talent-exchange-logo5-9-2016

This cutting edge, web-based tool is designed to blind-matching the needs of Minnesota’s employers with quality candidates at all phases of the talent pipeline. Under the leadership of Senator Terri Bonoff and building upon the successful Minnesota PIPELINE Project, the RealTime Talent Exchange seeks to further its momentum with this regional, tech-based partnership.

Powered by WorkFountain technology, the goal of the RealTime Talent Exchange is to engage key regional and state business associations, trade groups, governmental programs, workforce development and placement efforts, educational institutions and training programs in a centralized, “no wrong door” approach to connecting with compatible experiential-learning talent. This powerful network of data-driven web platforms allows employers, non-profits, and government agencies to band together to build talent pipelines that serve them individually, while simultaneously strengthening the region as a whole.

With the support of the Minnesota Office of Higher Education in launching this pilot, RealTime Talent will leverage the technology platform to:

  • Create efficiencies in regional recruiting practices
  • Reduce hiring bias, which increases workplace diversity
  • Provide real-time data on candidate pools, industry activity, and skills alignments
  • Increase time- and cost-savings in recruitment efforts for employers of all sizes

With a variety of ways to participate, RealTime Talent is seeking regional partners in education and industry to promote and benefit from this new platform.  We are aiming to launch the site in November, with full functionality coming in January 2017.

For more information about the RealTime Talent Exchange, please contact Jess Niebuhr at jess@realtimetalentmn.org.

RealTime Talent is bringing WorkFountain to Minnesota

Today, RealTime Talent announced its selection of WorkFountain as the platform for a new kind of online labor exchange in Minnesota. Designed by Michigan-based company Digerati, WorkFountain “is a unique scalable platform that engages businesses of all sizes and creates greater efficiency in the labor market. The platform builds pathways for meaningful employment, ultimately creating jobs and strengthening the economy,” says CEO Brian Balasia.

WorkFountain is specifically built with the goal of reducing hiring bias and economic inequalities through blind-correlated matching of candidates to job opportunities. RealTime Talent evaluated 11 online labor exchange platforms, but what sets WorkFountain is the quality of the matches. Organizations that have implemented the technology share that they are seeing faster matches to higher quality candidates. By requiring both job-seekers and employers to complete job-specific surveys, the site goes far beyond resumes or keyword searches to understand subtle differences between candidates, including their preferred work environment, daily tasks, and leadership style.

Small and mid-sized businesses stand to gain from this new approach to hiring. Blind matching candidates based on compatibility means that brand strength doesn’t play as significant of a role in the job-seeker’s search. “As a board member of RealTime Talent, I am really excited to be bringing this innovation to Minnesota,” shared Scott Peterson, representative of the Itasca Project and chair of the RealTime Talent board. “WorkFountain has the potential to bring tremendous efficiencies to match job seekers with employers, as well as harness the power of our diverse workforce. “

The project received funding from the Minnesota Legislature in July 2016 through the leadership of Senator Terri E. Bonoff, chair of the Higher Education and Workforce Development Committee. The Legislature dedicated funding to RealTime Talent to bring a 21st century web-based job and intern-seeking software tool that blind matches the needs of Minnesota’s employers with high school seniors and college students.

“While working on the MN PIPELINE Project, we heard loud and clear from employers that they are struggling to identify and connect with their future workforce” stated Senator Bonoff. “I always knew there had to be a way to harness technology to bring about more meaningful connections between employers and our youth, so we set out to find a solution for them beyond just creating an education and training program and I’m pleased to say today that we found it. WorkFountain is currently doing this connection work with great success in Michigan and Ohio, and I am thrilled that they are coming to Minnesota to unlock so much potential for our employers and students. Thank you to Jess Niebuhr of RealTime Talent and her board for being the engine of workforce solution innovation for our State and making this happen.”

RealTime Talent is working with the support of the Office of Higher Education to implement this pilot. We are seeking regional, education, and industry partners to build, use, and launch this new platform for the benefit of Minnesota employers and job-seekers.

For more information about this pilot project, access to the full report evaluating similar platforms, or inquiries on becoming a partner in this pilot project, please contact Jess Niebuhr at jess@realtimetalentmn.org. More information is available at http://www.realtimetalent.org/ and http://digerati.co/workfountain/.

Read the full press release here:
2016 08 24 RTT WorkFountain Press Release – FINAL

WorkFountainFullLogo

RealTime Talent Closes FY 2016 with an Announcement of Funding for an Online Labor Exchange

Happy anniversary to RealTime Talent! One year ago, we embarked on a journey to bring partners across the state of Minnesota to build the world’s best workforce right here at home.  We started by building our team and providing hundreds of practitioners across the state with access to a robust real-time labor market tool called TalentNeuron Recruit (formerly Wanted Analytics).  We trained over 900 people in this tool and presented to over 1,500 on applications of new data sources in labor market research, planning, and development.

 

RealTime Talent is excited to announce that we are no longer a “one tool wonder.”  While we continue to work to expand the use and accessibility of real-time data by providing licenses, technical assistance and research using TalentNeuron Recruit, we feel very fortunate to be receiving legislative funds to pilot a new online labor exchange.  The goal of this pilot is to explore new technologies that bring efficiency into the job seeking and hiring processes while also impacting disparities.  Strategies include removing common sources of bias in the hiring process, increasing candidate access to information about the skills and certifications desired by employers, and providing employers with a tool that truly matches the most qualified candidates with their job openings. Look for a summary of our evaluation of current tools and technology coming in mid to late August.

 

RealTime Talent is looking for partners in this innovative work to better match candidates with the best opportunities. Our goal is to pilot regionally and / or with industry specific context, as well as with colleges and universities.  Contact Jess Niebuhr to learn more.

Portfolio Items