Written by: Chandrika Pasricha
27/09/2023
5 minutes read
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The fact that the search for assignments and candidates has gone increasingly online over the past decade and a half is indisputable. Whether it be job sites or social media or referral platforms, 85% of professionals look to online searches to explore opportunities. This, however, brings with it its own sets of challenges. Most job sites are in fact ‘job boards’ permitting companies to advertise their openings and receive a large number of often un-curated CVs that match to varying degrees of what the role requires. A Corporate Executive Board (CEB) survey of large recruiters in 2012 found that on average 118 applications are received for a job opening, of which 35% do not even meet the basic experience, education and skills requirements.
These challenges apply equally when companies are looking for consultants for short projects or on a part-time basis which is our focus at Flexing It™ and hence ensuring the quality of profiles and the ability to make connections happen efficiently are critical priorities in our product evolution.
To do this, we are excited to introduce our proprietary matching algorithm – FlexScore™ – that will ensure that companies are able to find relevant and high-quality skills efficiently based on an intelligent heuristic. This algorithm is the first of its kind for skill-based marketplaces and job sites in India and has 3 core elements: our custom skill architecture, the intelligent matching algorithm, and inputs from external validation. The algorithm has been launched on the platform as a ‘beta’ version with the aim of improving it further with inputs from users.
Skill Architecture
At Flexing It, we ask you to invest a little of your time, in the beginning, to make the heavy lifting later far, far easier! We have developed our own architecture of skills – a detailed listing of functional skills, sub-skills, and industries – that professionals must opt from as they fill out their skill profiles. This is a ‘must do’ - just posting a CV is not sufficient. The architecture also lets professionals identify areas of deep expertise where they are recognized to have mastery.
The use of the architecture is not one-sided, and also forms the basis of the assignments posted by companies. This, in fact, permits companies to quickly determine a basic level of fit – as the summary profiles tell you in a quick glance whether the candidate has the specific sub-skills (e.g., business modeling and valuations) and industry exposure (e.g., in real estate). You can then decide to look at the detailed profiles only where it makes sense versus having to download and open a hundred plus CVs to find most of them unsuitable for your needs.
External Validation
We have recently introduced a feedback functionality wherein a professional can obtain input from prior clients on their expertise, creativity, quality of work and timeliness of deliverables. This feedback is shared in a consolidated manner on a consultants profile so that organizations get a ready reckoner on his/her past projects. Professionals with more discrete pieces of feedback and higher average scores will benefit in the matching algorithm (explained below) leading to a virtuous cycle of more consultants requesting feedback.
The soon-to-be integrated ‘background verification’ will permit candidates (and organizations) to opt for an employment or reference check. We believe this will provide an extra degree of comfort to hiring organizations as recent surveys have found that one in three resumes in India is falsified.
FlexScore™: Intelligent Matching Algorithm
We are now looking to go a few steps further and help companies – and professionals – identify a prioritized set of profiles or assignments to further enable successful connections. For this, we have developed FlexScore™, a heuristic that identifies the degree of ‘match’ for an assignment based on parameters such as skills specified, similar positions held, experience, industry, the capacity needed, and location. Critical external inputs such as the existence and quality of feedback, as also results of a background verification will also be reflected, and bump up - or down!- the matching score as they become more extensively used.
This heuristic has been tested with the results of live roles/projects and we will, of course, continue to fine tune this as the product evolves.
So as a company that has posted an assignment, you will see all the applications and (also additional profiles that fit), organized into one of 3 folders based on the underlying score: Perfect Fit, Best Fit, and Good Fit. Instead of looking at hundreds of CVs blind, you will be able to look at a set that has been prioritized based on structured parameters.As a professional as well, the heuristic will ensure that the most relevant assignments show up as ‘matching’ on your dashboard and through the regular assignment feeds, making the search a lot easier.
In summary, FlexScore™ helps place a greater focus on the specific ‘skills’ and ‘experience’ needed for any assignment, and act as a true professional matching platform versus the more traditional online job boards.
We invite you to try it out and help us shape it by sending in your feedback at info@flexingit.com
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