Wired For Talent

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The launch by Telecom of a sophisticated e-recruiting tool this week could see New Zealand gain a name as the first country in the world wired for talent," says Jonathan Wyles, Director of Haines Recruitment Advertising.

Based on software pioneered by Texas-based Hire.com, Telecom's Career Exchange, enables the company to use the web's interactive power to create its own community of talent. The site is designed to make it quick and easy for potential candidates to leave their ideal job "footprint" which can then be matched to talent needs that, in Telecom's case, translate to around 1100 jobs a year.

It's the first time this system has been used outside the United States and, says Wyles, it has huge potential to help combat growing skill shortages evident not just in high-tech industries but in most sectors of the economy.

Haines partnered with Hire.com to introduce the technology into this country and Wyles believes the internet is destined to play a much larger role in recruitment here.

"Partly because it enables employers to draw from a wider pool, but also because it provides a more efficient way of sourcing candidates, screening them and then maintaining a relationship with them. Once a company has captured the talent, it can keep fishing from that pool over time."

Career Exchange not only offers Telecom a quicker, more efficient access to IQAs - interested, qualified and available candidates - it also signals a major shift in recruitment philosophy," says Wyles.

"The key difference with this technology is that it's candidate driven. Philosophically, it's acknowledging that the recruiting base has changed and more power now resides with the candidates."

That's because the database it collects comprises brief profiles of candidate aspirations and an email address. The entry hurdle is deliberately low. Candidates, which in Telecom's case may be either internal or external, can choose how much information they want to post and don't have to spend ages filling in a detailed resume.

"It's not a resume-based database, it's a candidate marketing database," explains Wyles.

New entrants to the pool whose talents match required skills can be quickly flagged, and job details emailed to them along with invitations to apply. Apart from making initial candidate screening more efficient, the responsiveness of the system allows employers to communicate with the best talent quickly - before they are lost to competitors.

Haines Recruitment Advertising has already embraced the internet as a new media for recruitment communication through establishment of nzjobs.co.nz - recently voted New Zealand's top internet employment site. It also runs Haineslink Online, an extranet site via which client companies can easily post job needs directly to appropriate print or electronic media.

"We're always on the lookout for technology and information solutions to recruitment issues which is why we initiated the partnership with Hire.com," says Wyles.

Telecom is the first company outside the US to use a recruitment technology now being employed by some of America's leading corporates including AT&T, IBM, and General Instrument. Hire.com was named one of the "Hot 100 Private Companies" of 1999 by Upside magazine.

ENDS

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