Online dating site eHarmony is venturing into the hiring and recruiting world with the launch of a new careers platform.
Slated for a 2015 launch, eHarmonys new Elevated Careers platform will seek to pair hiring managers with candidates based on desired culture, personality and skillset traits. The company is planning a beta launch with a handful of companies in December.
If we can match people for marriage, perhaps our matching skills would also work in terms of matching people for jobs, Dr. Neil Clark Warren, founder and CEO of eHarmony, tells EBN, adding that the companys career matchmaking effort dates back nearly three years.
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We came to the conclusion that [personal] relationships are very connected with [work] relationships, says Warren. In other words, if a person has a job that he or she is not happy with, and comes home every night discouraged and frustrated, they are going to have tough time having a marriage that really scintillates and is satisfying.
Dan Erickson, director of special projects at eHarmony, says the service is expected to help with the high costs and lost time associated with filling vacant positions.
We dont want to send a recruiter [or hiring manager] 200 résumés for a position he is trying to fill, says Erickson. We want to send him a match-run of five candidates who we know strongly match with that company so he can be confident that they have been vetted and worth bringing in for the interview process.
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Dr. Steve Carter, who currently serves as the companys vice president of matching, says its review of academic research on culture assessment helped eHarmony to figure out 16 essential cultural values to use in the platform. Also, Carter says it has licensed a technology from another company that was created after modeling essential skillsets from a review of millions and millions of résumés.
Meanwhile, the Santa Monica, Calif.-based company is currently working with roughly five large U.S. companies to determine the personality matching characteristics of their workforce.
Warren adds that eHarmony came to the realization that youve got to have skillset, culture fit and personality fit in order to properly match people with employment opportunities. And according to Erickson, this correct match can also help companies to maintain an engaged and motivated workforce.
What we keep talking about is engagement, explains Erickson, noting a recent Gallup poll that found only 70% of employees identify themselves as either not engaged, or actively disengaged from their work.
We want to be part of increasing the productivity for that company, Erickson says. And on the candidate side, we want to make sure they are going to places where theyre engaged so that they will be healthier and happier and a more productive employee.
While the pricing model has not been finalized, Erickson explains that companies will likely be asked to pay similar fees to what they were previously paying with other career sites.
