Advertisment

Advertisment

Home » Knowledge Hub » » A new jobs dating app that matches people to jobs, based on skill

A new jobs dating app that matches people to jobs, based on skill

11 May 2022 Sponsored

Dr Kelly Neaves

Story by
Dr Kelly Neaves Chief Content Officer, Cognisess

Skills Abyss by Cognisess

We’ve all heard of the skills gap: “Nearly 9 out of 10 executives say they are facing a skills gap” McKinsey 2020 survey. But new evidence shows that “the skills gap” doesn’t even slightly do the crisis justice; we are now on the precipice of a skills abyss.

Choose the Skills Matrix from Cognisess on Vimeo.

What on earth does that mean and how do we survive the fall? The simple answer is that the skills gap can no longer be plugged, and we must all learn to live in a constantly evolving skills market.
Read on to find out how you can get the best out of skill in changing world, how to embrace human potential, and how to keep the people with the skills you need …

According to the 2021 Talent Trends Survey, most companies recognise that they do need to do something about the skills crisis but don’t know how. So here is a solution that might make the crucial difference between success and failure.

What skills do you need?

There is an ongoing debate about whether Soft Skills or Hard Skills are more important.

Step back 20 years and everything was about Hard Skills – the knowledge, qualifications, and technical skills you must have to do the job. Soft skills were seen as the weaker partner. Hence the name “Soft”.

Now the tables have turned, and everyone is talking about Soft Skills. According to the 2020 future of Jobs report, Soft Skills – such as critical thinking, problem-solving, resilience, flexibility, creativity, originality, initiative, and communication – are the top skill sets that global employers see rising in prominence in the run up to 2025.

There are now countless articles out there suggesting we should all be employing people based on their Soft Skills, not their Hard Skills.

But perhaps this isn’t a competition …

Perhaps the real magic lies in the interplay between both Soft and Hard Skills.

Some things in life go together. Like Gin and Tonic, Wine and Cheese, Unicorns and Glitter… Hard Skills and Soft Skills.

Enter the Skills Matrix

Ingredient One: Soft or Human Skills

From here on in am going to scrap the phrase “Soft Skills”, a far better description is “Human Skills”.

These Human Skills: – the skills that make us uniquely human and allow us to communicate, lead, and apply abstract thought – have always been much harder to quantify and measure than Hard Skills. Right from school, Hard Skills such as literacy and numeracy are systematically measured and graded. But empathy, and flexibility? Not so much.

But that is changing. With deeper understanding of psychology to ascertain behavioural preferences and machine learning to mine language and context; we can begin to evaluate “Human Skills”.

With robust psychometric and cognitive assessments, we can understand who has natural tendencies for things like critical thinking, resilience, and flexibility.

In addition to this, at Cognisess, we are using Artificial Intelligence to objectively analyse self-reports and interviews for relevant Human Skills experience.

Some people are already ahead of the game in this. Global giants Google and Amazon have, for some time, been predicting success by selecting people with key Human Skills such as learnability and problem solving.

Alongside Congnisess there are now, a growing number of organisations that offer psychological assessments and career matching based on Human Skills. But, although it is right that Human Skills have been given the status they deserve, that doesn’t get away from the fact that hard qualifications and knowledge are also vital requirements for many positions.

Ingredient Two: Hard Skills

If I am going for open heart surgery, it is vital my surgeon possesses Human Skills such as working under pressure, rapidly adapting to change, leading a team etc. But I also want them to have a robust medical degree and an up-to-date and in-depth knowledge of the latest surgical techniques.

So that’s easy – let’s simply look at their CV and check they have the right qualifications for the job.

Think again…

Because Hard Skills have always been easier to measure with qualifications and exams, they are often dismissed as being simply something that you can list on a CV. But the reality is that a list of qualifications gives little indication of how recently and frequently a skill might have been used. Given the choice of two surgeons with identical qualifications – one with 10 successful operations under her belt in the last year, and the other with only 2 – I know which one I’d choose.

When faced with thousands of candidates or an entire corporate workforce, ascertaining the quality of skillsets gets a lot more tricky.

The good news is that recent breakthroughs in Artificial Intelligence, mean that it is now possible to measure the quality of skills at scale.

At Cognisess we have trained CogSkillsTM – our Artificial Intelligence –  to turn the subjective language of skills into robust data.

CogSkillsTM can rate and map the quality and frequency of use, of thousands of skillsets. It can successfully match people to relevant jobs and rate the transferability of skillsets into new roles at scale.

Result: The Skills Matrix

If we put all of this together – Hard Skills, Human Skills, Skills Quality, Skills Frequency, Skills Experience, Skills Transferability, Skills Potential, Skills Preferences…

We end up with a revolutionised Skills Matrix.

This powerful matrix is where the magic happens.

It provides a way of truly understanding the complete skillset of any individual, team, or an entire organisation.

Layer on an understanding of cognition and personality and you have a complete holistic approach to people management that leads to successful, happy, equitable, adaptable, and futureproof workforces.

At Cognisess we measure everything you need to know about people in one easy to use place. A fun but insightful application for matching people to jobs at scale.

We provide game-based assessments that evaluate all vital aspects of skill, personality, cognition, emotion, behaviour, values, culture, and knowledge.

Over 60 people focused games and assessments.

Measuring over 120 attributes of human success.

Creating millions of insightful datapoints.

We can assess your entire workforce or candidate pool in just a matter of hours giving you the flexibility to adapt to a constantly evolving jobs market; all at a price that is affordable to all.

Our mission is to democratise human skill and unleash everyone’s true potential.

The idea of a “Skills Abyss” might sound terrifying and, many companies are likely to fail as the world rapidly changes. But I for one see this as an exciting opportunity to discover the true potential of humanity. If we adapt and bravely dive into the skills abyss, I hope those that succeed will emerge to a liberating new era of human work, where people are fulfilled, and we value all the human qualities.

Get in touch with Cognisess to find out more.

Topics

Share

Advertisment

Latest Events

Mar 2024 – Leveraging Digital Learning Tools: Empowering HR Teams for Success

In today's fast-paced business landscape, the role of HR teams is evolving rapidly. To stay competitive and foster organisational growth, companies must leverage effective learning programs strategically.

Mar 2024 – The Efficiency Programme: How HR can maximise technology benefits

There are huge promises and potential for the use of AI and technology in HR and in this session we discuss the best way ahead for HR for technology and AI use.

Effective Resourcing Models & How We Guarantee the Integrity of Inclusive Recruitment Regardless of Approach

A opportunity to debate how can we adopt a cohesive inclusive approach that enhances the candidate experience without creating barriers between us and the talent essential to your organisational success.

Feb 2024 – It’s All HR’s Fault

Despite being a trusted voice in the C-suite, HR is still viewed with distrust and outright disdain by many employees – the very people HR is there to support.
Its all HRs Fault On demand Webinar

Jan 2024 – Health and Wellbeing: Making it Personal

If you’re investing in a health and wellbeing strategy, you want to make sure it meets the needs of your workforce.

Dec 2023 – Year in Review 2023

In this webinar we brought back some of our previous 2023 webinar speakers who gave their view on the past 12 months.

Nov 2023 – Reward and Recognition for the International Workforce

In this webinar we explored the dispersed workplace and asked what it means to support employees all over the world.
Reward and Recognition for the International Workforce

Streamlining Year-End HR Operations

Providing seasonal support, ideas and inspiration, this webinar covered the challenges and opportunities presented to HR professionals at this time of year.
Streamlining year-end HR operations

Compensation Planning – The key to a motivated and satisfied workforce

Compensation and reward strategies have changed radically over the past few years with the impact of the pandemic and the trends that followed.
Compensation Planning - The key to a motivated and satisfied workforce

Oct 2023 – Talent Acquisition: Why your Employee Value Proposition (EVP) is more important than ever

This webinar addressing talent acquisition majored on the Employee Value Proposition (EVP).
Talent Acquisition – Why your Employee Value Proposition (EVP) is more important than ever

Resourcing Models, Insource, Outsource or Hybrid what are the best solutions?

Discussions on the evening were led by two invited experts Jim Richardson, with spells at Santander and Royal Bank of Scotland as Global Head of Talent, Jim now advises corporate businesses on their TA models, and, Ross Crook, Managing Director at Sanderson Solutions.
Resourcing models round table

Sep 2023 – Retention: Holding on to The Talent You Need

The post-pandemic workforce now presents more of a challenge in terms of feeling satisfied and content in the workplace. This webinar on retention also provided a masterclass on employee engagement.
Retention holding on to the talent you need

Aug 2023 – Professional Development: Making the Step Up

What does it take to be an HR Director, or to take a position at Board level? This webinar looked at professional development for HR leaders.
What does it take to be an HR Director?

Jul 2023 – Employee Benefits: Then, now and next

The importance and value of giving employees choice on rewards and recognition.
Employee benefits, then now and next.

Jun 2023 – HR Data: The Key To Delivering Real Value

This webinar on HR Data brought home the importance of understanding the value of people data not just to HR but to the business as a whole.
HR on demand event - HR data: the key to delivering real value

RPO Market – Insource, Outsource or Hybrid: What are the best solutions?

The HR World and Sanderson Managed Services Ltd held an exclusive Round Table dinner to explore and debate the current RPO arena.

AI as part of the hiring, on-boarding and retention processes

The HR World and Sanderson Managed Services Ltd held an exclusive Round Table dinner to further the discussion of AI among Senior HR Leaders.

May 2023 – AI in HR: The Perfect Balance

AI is hitting the headlines right now as experts forecast a future that’s powered by tech. But what will this mean for HR?
On demand hr webinar - Ai in HR

Apr 2023 – HR Tech: Ensuring your technology delivers for all your people

Technology continues to throw challenges at the HR function as the speed of change increases and new technology (anyone noticed something called AI?) enters the arena.
HR tech on demand webinar with Sympa

Mar 2023 – Equality, diversity, and inclusion: Reshaping thinking for action

In this webinar we explored how ED&I can have a real impact for businesses. At the centre of the discussion was the idea of changing thinking in order to make things happen.
Equality, diversity, and inclusion: Reshaping thinking for action

Feb 2023 – Leading With Agility: How to give your business the behaviours and mindsets it needs for volatile times

This webinar took as its focus agility and how businesses can develop and maintain these skills among its workforce.
This webinar took as its focus agility and how businesses can develop and maintain these skills among its workforce.

Jan 2023 – How can you create a culture of health and wellbeing in the workplace?

This webinar tackled the important and timely issue of creating a health and wellbeing culture in the workplace.
How can you create a culture of health and wellbeing in the workplace?

Hiring Gen Z – what can employers learn about emerging talent in 2023?

Join us at this cross-learning, in-person event as part of The HR World Culture Clash series at RSA House in London on 20 Oct 2022.
Hiring Gen Z: Culture Clash Panellists

Bridging the gap: what can employers learn about emerging talent to drive better hiring strategies?

Join us at this cross-learning, in-person event as part of The HR World Culture Clash series, bringing HRDs, founders and emerging talent together to build a better workforce for the future.
Bridging the gap: what can employers learn about emerging talent to drive better hiring strategies?
HRW Membership@2x@2x

Are you a senior HR professional?

Join our membership to shape the future of work, get exclusive access to events, white papers and research content, profile your work, gain access to support from HR experts and celebrate your successes.

Become a Partner

Please get in touch to talk about how we can help your business make an impact in the world of work through our content marketing, partnership plans and advertising.