Idea 16: Lexicon/One-Stop-Shop for Company Information

Problem:

An argument can be made about the difficulties of actually getting a job vs finding the right job that fits one´s profile and interests. In addition, oftentimes people don’t truly understand the job market and have no idea about all the companies that are actually out there that could possibly be looking for what they have to offer.

However, even if figured out what company one would like to work for, many people still lack the knowledge of what the company is actually about as its requires going through the company’s website, which many people simply don’t do.

Solution:

The job market and all the information within it need to be organized in a similar way as Google organizes the internet; in other words, a one-stop-shop for all “job” related information. People use lexicons to define certain words in a certain alphabetical order. Taking this as a base, an online platform could be developed that gives one all necessary information on for example a particular company. For example, if one looks for McKinsey one would get information on:

• Company history
• What it looks for in a candidate
• Average recruitment requirements
• Current employees working in one´s geographical proximity through using LinkedIn for example
• Events information
• Information on McKinsey interviews and the recruitment process
• Information on career progressions
• Negative reviews about working at McKinsey
• Etc

In addition, the platform could be used to search for companies not only by their name but also by industry (top 10 consulting companies in one´s region focused on marketing for example), and skills (language skills, education, public speaking etc) among other parameters, as many people simply dont know all the companies that exist. For that the user might have to create a certain profile based on the vocabulary provided by the platform to describe oneself to make this possible. But overall, the idea would be to create a one-stop-shop for all job related information regarding companies that facilitates information on what companies exist and what they are about in an easy and accessible way (similar to what investopedia does with finance but for the entire market of all companies).

Idea 2: Hiring 2.0

Problem:

Finding new employees with the right mix of capabilities, character and cultural fit is one of the most important investments in terms of time and sometimes additional resources that companies are facing on a constant basis especially in times of expansion. Platforms like LinkedIn and companies like Michael Page are trying to solve this need but possibly only in a one-dimensional way.

Solution:

Two of the assumptions that might help to make the hiring process faster and more efficient are that people in general get a long better with people that are somewhat similar to oneself and that character, capabilities and cultural fit are a consequence of someone’s experiences and past decisions. Applying this to the hiring process might imply that in addition to the profiles of the employment seeking persons, the profiles of the “boss” should analyzed to establish a “degree” of similarity, given the success of the boss in the company and his/her own characteristics/past decisions. For a platform such as LinkedIn this could mean that for instance through a certain algorithm a “similarity” between one and another profile could be established to indicate a possible fit between character, capabilities and cultural fit based on the boss’s/or whoever’s profile.

For example:

• Both, the boss and the candidate, played tennis successfully which could mean that both are very goal-driven, know how to push themselves and work in a team
• Both, the boss and the candidate, have gone bag-packing when and have a favorite book in common which could indicate a shared interested for adventure and the new, as well as mindset
• etc.

This could also be applied to the opposite. Sometimes, a company needs different profiles to innovate and initiate a paradigm shift. Thus, the more different a profile is in connection to the “base,” the better it might be.

In sum, creating a hiring process through platforms or other entities that allow for a comparison between variables/characteristics that are part of the “successful people” in a company and the candidates might help to determine a better overall fit given the profiles of the human resources that one already has in one’s company.