Skills to Career Platform

We are committed to reducing double-digit youth unemployment and general under-employment by doing two things. First, our platform helps candidates to verify their job-relevant soft and hard skills and provides suggested paths to career advancement (up-skilling, mentorship and jobs). Secondly, we use these insights to help companies find candidates with the right skills and traits for their jobs. This applies both to external jobs seekers as well as existing employees. 

By helping to optimize the employee life-cycle we help move the flow of talent up and out (growth opportunities) thus improving the availability of entry-level jobs for new graduates.

Our approach reduces the implicit bias related to lack of prior experience, gender, age, address, and disability by showcasing upfront the strengths of the candidate. It also provides a way to quantify career capital (accumulation of knowledge, experience and skills throughout the career-life-cycle) because candidates are more than a resume.

In 2019 the ILO reported that across Latin America and the Caribbean, 40% of the unemployed or about 10 million persons are youth (aged 15-24). In Jamaica, double-digit youth unemployment persists. It takes over 2 years for graduates to find gainful employment (ILO Tracer Studies, 2014). 

The increased presence of BPO firms in the Caribbean has contributed to over 75,000 jobs, many filled by new graduates. However, these are at risk if these positions are not transitioned to higher-skilled KPO jobs within the sector. The sector is riddled with high turnover rates and negative stigma. Many who got their first jobs in that sector find it hard to find employment outside of the sector.

The 2017 Jamaican Labour Market Survey showed that 80% of companies have difficulty filling their vacancies and that companies value job-relevant skills and conscientiousness more than work experience. However, there is a gap adoption of modern recruitment tools limiting the employer's ability to verify the job-relevant skills of candidates. Instead, they misguidedly focus on those that meet 'safe criteria', for example, prior work experience. There is also a gap in the candidate's awareness of how to identify and leverage relevant skills to position themselves for opportunities.

The platform primarily serves career professionals and HR or Hiring Managers. It can be used worldwide but we are focusing on entry-level candidates and companies that do volume recruitment in the Caribbean to be early adopters.

We have engaged over 1300 job seekers via surveys, resume and career services as well as, online or in-person presentations. We have engaged over 200 HR and Hiring Managers through a shortlisting service, surveys, direct contact, and collaboration on local and regional HR Conferences. We have also had meetings with Career representatives of three local Universities whose graduates may benefit.

For career professionals, the platform will allow their strengths to shine and increase their chances of getting shortlisted for interviews. They become more self-aware as they assess and see opportunities to test and enhance their job-relevant skills and interact with mentors while we match them to opportunities. 

For companies, the platform provides affordable and automated pre-hire assessment and job matching for both internal and external candidates. Companies get a more diverse batch of interviewees with the right skills and competence for the job, thus helping them reduce the time, cost and risk of hiring while optimizing the life-cycle of their workforce.

Our first version of the web app assesses soft-skills using Traitify and recommends jobs.

Planned Solution

Candidates will be prompted to complete their profile which includes their goals, work and education history, career and general interests, skills, references and achievements. We collect and digitally verify experience and reference details. We also provide real-time results of any psychometric or hard-skill challenges/assessments that they take on the platform. Our system uses this information to qualify the job-relevant skill, knowledge and experience of the individual so that we can match them to opportunities for skill development, careers they may not have considered and jobs. Skills development includes online mentorship and connections to learning opportunities through partners. New entrants to the workforce will benefit from the interactive stories used for job/career previews. Interactive story games are engaging and can be used to teach as well as assess. We are developing them to train new graduates on real job scenarios and soft-skills so they are better prepared.

Companies are verified before they can post jobs or accept applications. They are able to issue challenges/assessments and verification requests for candidates. As candidates apply to vacancies, companies can see recommended matches based on the relevance of their profile. They are able to view the details of the skills of each candidate and invite them to further steps in the process. They will maintain a skills repository so they can refer for future hiring needs. Employees are matched to internal vacancies and have enhanced career development features. They can also be assigned mentors within the organization from on-boarding onward.

Development of social capital is important for career advancement. We have a system for referrals and mentorship through our rewards program. Referrals are good for companies since they are known to generate the best applicants, however, it also encourages diversity and equity when more people are 'in the know' for great job opportunities. Having free career and skill mentors helps candidates to get needed feedback and knowledge so they can refine their career direction, make the needed improvements, expand their network and increase access to opportunities. 

Sharing of opportunities and information, with the right consents, lends itself to the ability to generate valuable insights at an industry and national level. For example, aggregated skills and compensation data to shape workforce planning. Our vision is to be the hub for data and actionable insights on the labour market.

Our emphasis on features for career advancement for candidates and employees is not typical of recruitment systems which usually focus on optimizing the employer experience. Additionally, our approach to collecting references and measurable aspects of work experience allow us to quantify experience unlike most other systems.

Our full-cycle, automated recruitment approach eliminates steps in the recruitment workflow which is important in getting customers to change old habits. Most recruitment software focuses on optimizing very specific things and companies end up doing and spending more to use three or more different software (ATS, Assessments, verification, references, onboarding etc). This is simply not practical for most companies in our region.

The interactive story game framework is a new approach to job and soft-skills training. This framework is popularly used for fictional storytelling games but the story base makes them ideal for simulating a work environment. Gamifying learning boosts engagement, completion rates and learning outcomes. While serious games are nothing new, we believe our adaptation and use for soft-skills and career/job previews is unique. 

Lastly, the major educational institutions in the region have been working on Blockchain credentialing using different systems. We know that certain individuals and companies are more likely to be slower or unable to adapt. We see an opportunity to bridge the gap. Candidates can store digital credentials in one location for all their institutions regardless of whether that institution has a digital system or not. Companies can verify credentials in one place via our system with no learning curve.

Over 1200 persons took the first version of our soft-skills assessment. The feedback showed an 84% satisfaction rate. Here are some comments we have received: 'I learnt more about myself', 'This site is very good helps with choices', 'I think this is a wonderful opportunity for young people. Thank you for this and I hope you grow and expand.', 'I learn so much by just reading and completing the survey', 'The career path is very accurate. As I am actually in the career path that I scored the highest in.' An HR Professional also provided the following response: 'I must say the tool is very comprehensive and covers quite a number of elements to be considered by the job seeker'.

The top request received from assessment takers was to now help them to find job opportunities in the areas they were matched for. We believe the platform will help us to have a tangible impact on their lives.

Feedback from Career Offices at three Universities indicate companies want to get information that helps them see why certain graduates were referred to them for specific vacancies.

From September 2018 to May 2019 we ran a shortlisting service as a manual test using 35 job requests from companies within our network (no ads). Companies were happy with the shortlists, however, doing all the tasks manually took very long. We believe that the platform automation and marketing to attract more candidates will resolve that. 

After we ended the manual MVP mentioned above we moved into development. We will be launching the new soft-skills assessment and job match platform in April 2020. 

Companies previously served (15)

Candidates previously assessed (over 1300)

Number of people we are serving with current solution: 0 (launching in April 2020)

Number we will be serving in one year: 50,000 candidates, 250 companies, 

Number we will be serving in five years: 2.5 million candidates, 1500 companies

Our platform's success hinges on its use and the satisfaction of both job seekers/career professionals and hiring managers/HR professionals. We will be monitoring the level of adoption and usage by both parties. Our first year will include some development and launch marketing so our aim is to onboard 25,000 applicants through partnerships and marketing and fill our first 150 jobs. This would yield a revenue of $75,000. 

Referrals are very important to the recruitment industry. We want to maintain a positive net promoter score and since we will be targeting companies who recruit more than once per year we will also be looking at repeat business.

This solution is dependent on development of unique features a proper design and development process with a team that is knowledgeable in HR Tech. Development costs are a barrier at the moment. We are bootstrapping so it has taken us a long time to get to where we are. 

Cultural barriers have to be considered because we are asking companies to try something new. Many companies still collect resumes using email and advertise in the newspaper. Another cultural barrier is the bias against new graduates. Despite showcasing job-relevant knowledge and skills, it may take some time for old habits to change. We are confident that since surveys show that since companies already invest in training for onboarded candidates once we can assure them these candidates have the traits to succeed that culture will change.

The parent company of a dominant job advertiser in the region has recently invested in an assessment platform. While conversations with the assessment company indicate the Caribbean may not be an area of focus in the short-term and they do not have plans to add career management features or an employee portal we still consider this a potential threat as they would be a pre-hire assessment alternative.

We have to be very transparent about what we collect, how it is used and who it is shared with. We also need to make it very easy for customers to opt out of sharing this information if they desire. Global Data Protection compliance is key.

As of March 2020, we have an MVP with limited features which we can take to market. It is undergoing bug testing now and should be ready to launch in April 2020. We hope to use revenues from that as well as funding from these challenges or other funding opportunities to accelerate our progress and impact. We also started discussions with Angel investors in 2018. We plan to resume discussions once we have started to get traction with the MVP.

We will need to invest in education about the merits of our approach as well as brand ourselves as experts to generate trust. So far we are sponsoring and speaking at conferences and events. We are reselling well known HRIS systems to solve other problems for our target market and develop relationships. I write on HR and Career topics for a local business magazine and invite key HR leaders for input. I provide free career advice to job seekers on LinkedIn. A lot of work is needed to build the brand on social media. Once we start to generate revenue we will invest more in that area.

First to market advantage and greater value for price is what we will use to separate ourselves from that competitor. We are aggressively seeking funding so that we can accelerate both feature development, sales and branding.

The platform is being built with an aim to comply with GDPR requirements. We have also identified a local data security company that we will work with.

The solution is still in development. We will be launching an MVP that provides soft-skill assessment and job matching capabilities. It allows companies to request soft-skill and career assessments for employees and external job candidates. We have sensitized over 200 HR/Hiring Managers about the upcoming product. Many are interested and some have started to ask for specific features. Recruitment and placement agencies are requesting whitelable features, for example. A bank wanted us to build out the feature set for them for internal use. While these are all good options, our focus in April will be to monetize the existing feature set.

We participated in an online HR Tech Demo Day in February. This was organized by Hacking HR and allowed us to showcase snapshots of the product and get some exposure. 

We collaborated with the Caribbean Society of HR Professionals to organize their first annual conference. The conference has been postponed due to COVID-19 but that has allowed me to engage with hundreds of HR Professionals across the Caribbean. We are sponsoring an online HR Congress for them in April.

Going forward we will continue sales outreach and focus on getting our first customers and feedback for this version of the MVP.

The team consists of one full-time and three part-time staff members, an outsourced Development team (3 total), one outsourced Data Scientist, two business Advisors. 

Danielle Tait - CEO (see below)

Angela Tait - Director and Company Secretary 

She has over 30 managerial experience including as a hiring manager and Executive decision-maker. She is PR and Trade Marketing Manager for a large organization. She is known for the ability to identify talent and develop persons. She brings both experience and social capital.

Jordon Tait - Advisor (General Business and Risk)

He is Assistant General Manager focused on launching innovative products lines. 

The company was founded by Danielle Tait, CEO. I have a knowledge of the HR technology through research I have done over the past two years and am currently pursuing an MBA. I also have seven years of sales experience and previous entrepreneurship experience. I have also been a reseller of BambooHR and JazzHR, helping HR Departments to evaluate, get buy-in for and implement those solutions. That has given me much needed experience. 

Several years ago I volunteered to help a 'police-youth group' in a proverty and violence challenged area. One of the major gaps for the youth (18-35) there was employment. I began an informal job network, leveraging relationships with business owners and friends to help them find employment. However, I soon realized that there was a lot more to gainful employment than simply finding an unemployed person and a vacant position. I had already been helping persons with resumes and career advice for years but now I was exposed to the challenges on the company's side as well. The importance of soft-skills and basic employ-ability skills came up as I realized a person's resume was not always an accurate reflection of who they were or what they could do. This lead to a desire to understand the recruitment space, the challenges and what was available globally to meet them. This platform was conceptualized to fill the gaps identified as a result of that iterative process.

The technical team has experience developing HR tech solutions.

We have a referral partnership with BambooHR and JazzHR as a revenue stream to help fund development. We partner with Ingenuity Technologies for any implementation needs of the companies that we partner with. 

For the solution, we use Traitify as our soft-skills assessment partner.

I volunteer on a Career and Alumni Department taskforce for one of the major local universities. I also volunteer on the coordinating committee for the Caribbean Society of HR Professionals. I write career and HR focused articles for Wealth Magazine, a popular business magazine that is distributed directly to managers at businesses. 

We operate a double-sided platform so we have a B2B and a B2C component. We develop in-house as well as partner with existing technology companies to provide our solution via this online platform. Our platform will be free for career professionals to use, with the potential for PRO features in the future, but companies will pay a monthly subscription distinguished by the features they want to access. Companies can advertise jobs for free but will need a subscription to access pre-hire assessment, matching and other value added features. Our MVP has this free tier and but only one paid tier for now. Companies pay $115 USD per month to access unlimited assessments, matching etc.

In order to attract job seekers, once we launch the platform we will be adding jobs that are in the public domain for free and allow candidates to apply directly to the companies. Those resumes will go directly to the companies but will be accompanied by an invitation to register and subscribe to access the digital profile with all its benefits (skill-match, assessments, verification etc).  Companies do not have to depend on our internal candidate database, they may direct candidates to apply using our platform or invite their candidates to join and take our assessment so that they can benefit from the features.

We will be doing a mixture of direct outreach, social media, advertisements, PR activities, video and audio content, participating in conferences and events. 

Our platform will be free for career professionals to use but companies will pay subscriptions by feature and hiring volume. This will allow us to reach a broad spectrum of companies because those with less hiring needs and requiring less sophisticated features can budget for their use while those with higher usage will pay more to access premium features and higher volumes. We plan to get large numbers of candidates and companies utilizing the basic features then focus on converting those companies to paying customers. Since the platform is cloud-based we will be accessible by companies worldwide. We hope to attract companies online in addition to those we target directly. 

In the short-term we are seeking investment in order to accelerate development and adoption. In the long-run, however, we have identified several revenue streams under 4 categories of features spanning the candidate life-cycle as well as income from reporting and analytics. Once the development phase is complete the platform will have basic recurring costs that will be covered by revenue these revenue streams. Additionally, we have had some success with generating revenue through referral of complementary HR Software through partnerships with BambooHR and Jazz HR. We will continue to do so to as an additional revenue stream.

TPrize provides access to a community of innovators, mentors and experts across a wide range of areas. Exposure to and feedback and perspectives from these sources, including the judges, are invaluable for our team as we work to build a solution that can scale beyond the borders of the Caribbean. 

Being selected would give us access to invaluable short-term grant support and possible exposure for future investment opportunities as well. This grant support would allow us to accelerate focus on the in the career/job previews and soft-skills training using interactive story games. We have had to focus on developing features that directly generate revenue but funding would allow us to have a better balance with features to benefit career professionals from all backgrounds.

We would like to partner with Blockcerts, Credly and other experts in digital credentialing. We are also open to other hr tech providers such as assessment and reference checking companies. If we are able to partner in a suitable way we may be able to lower or delay development costs. We are also looking for mentors who want to contribute to our network, Marketing partners, investors and hr tech developers who can provide guidance and support.