The Evolution of the Talent Profile

Even after obtaining formal credentials (undergraduate degree, graduate degree, short-term credential), the job placement process remains inefficient and challenging for both talent and hiring managers alike. Resumes are submitted for an untold amount of positions only to fall into a black hole of oblivion where neither recruiter nor hiring manager even looks at them. Hiring managers and recruiters searching for talent are met with the constant pressure of filling a role quickly, finding talent with the requisite skills, and spending a minimum amount of resources to do all of it at once. For all sides, it all starts with a resume.

A large part of the educational experience culminates in the creation of some sort of resume or curriculum vitae. The effort that students put into these documents is correlated to job placement success. However, 75% of resumes never actually make it to the hiring manager and only about 2% of job applicants are invited to interview for any corporate job. This speaks to a clear case of inefficiency and inequality in the job placement process.

One tool that can be used to enhance this process is more than just a resume, but a talent profile. A talent profile is a comprehensive, holistic view of a candidate from the very beginning of the job placement process. LinkedIn has made significant strides in developing this type of overview of a candidate, but there are systemic limitations that do not make it the most efficient platform for job placement. Additionally, a company’s human resources department will be equipped to make more well-informed decisions on how talent can be cultivated in their role. If there are skill gaps identified in the candidate, additional steps could also be taken to address them.

The sheer number of applications that recruiters (or robots) must go through do not make it an equitable process for candidates on the platform. Additionally, how can skilled workers showcase their skill-sets, personalities, and talents in a way to give hiring managers more information to make quicker decisions?

Current State Components of a “Talent Profile”

A talent profile could look different depending on industry and job function (i.e. in creative and technical roles, a portfolio will typically be prioritized). However, there are several consistent components in the current state:

1. Resume

2. Cover Letter

3. Portfolio

4. LinkedIn

5. References

6. Additional online presence

With all these components, a company should be able to identify the best possible talent to interview or directly hire for any given role. Much of the time, however, even these documents don’t paint the full picture of what a candidate is all about. A talent profile must have a few characteristics that would make it a great medium for both hiring managers and talent. It must be content-rich, with varied media incorporated through the candidate’s profile. It must also be dynamic, accessible in multiple formats from multiple devices so decisions can be made quickly. Finally, and most importantly, the talent profiles should be housed in a marketplace with back-and-forth interaction between the parties involved (hiring managers, recruiters, and talent). Otherwise, the talent profile becomes yet another relic that takes up space in a process rather than cutting the waste.

More specific components of a talent profile could include:

• Video Content. A large amount of time in the early recruitment process is spent on phone screens and getting-to-know-you calls. What if we could make this process even more informative by including more personal accounts of a candidate at the very beginning of the process? Rather than a resume phone screen, recruiters could watch a candidate video in which they explain their story in their own words in real time. In this video, they could also explain more about why they are interested in applying to a specific role. If the recruiter likes the profile, they could (1) follow up with the candidate for some additional questions, (2) pass on the candidate, or (3) automatically send it to the hiring manager for the next step in the recruitment process.
• Skill Badges. People can put pretty much anything on their resume. Fluent in Spanish? Check. Proficient at Python? Check. While these factoids might be important to gauge the skill level of a prospective candidate, they are not verifiable at first glance (which is really all that goes into reviewing a resume in the first place) and they do not share a consistent definition of skill level either. One person’s “proficient” might be another person’s “expert”. Enter skill badges. Skill badges are a way to build reliability and consistency into the skill identification part of a resume. For example, Open Badges are verifiable digital badges with embedded metadata about skills and achievements.
• API-enabled. Bringing on third-party application compatibility could automatically link a candidate’s talent profile to any company’s talent management system, internal social network, or another new hire system. It could also allow for a hiring manager or recruiter to manage all of their candidates leads on a portal that corresponds to their own internal systems. The integration from recruiting, to onboarding, to professional development would make for a seamless process that would significantly save on transition costs for a recruitment function of any type of organization.

There are many components to assessing talent, yet the job placement process is still a burden on many. Getting to know people better and faster has become an increasingly important skill in the current workplace and the use of a talent profile and marketplace will be essential in making the job placement process more efficient.

Have feedback or thoughts on this article? As a former educator turned technologist, I am passionate about managing products for technology organizations that seek to empower their users to achieve more. Feel free to reach out to me via e-mail or leave a comment below to continue the discussion.