Chris Russell

2 min read

Recruiting Technology

Talent Exchange for Recruiting?

What if companies decided to share talent among each other? That’s always been the general idea behind so-called talent exchanges’. Over the years, I have seen a number attempts at startups tackling this idea to help connect job seekers and employers. None took off but that might be slowly changing.

What is a talent exchange?

The Griffin Groupe defines a talent exchange as an online (possibly cloud technology-based) platform spanning worker type, location , and time . This broad definition could conceivably include job boards, crowdsourcing platforms, and the Staffing Industry.

You could also say the exchange of talent can also be applied beyond the organizational level. Many companies now take part in larger scale exchange programs which involve partnering with other organizations or educational institutions in order to access new sources of talent.

These partnerships provide an opportunity for companies to expand their networks, exchange best practices and information about new markets and resources, as well as gain valuable insights into how to better serve employees across different industries.

Furthermore, such exchanges help employers develop innovative solutions for recruiting top talent that may not have been accessible before. Overall, the exchange of talent can be an invaluable source of recruitment support for companies looking to stay ahead of the labor market.

Do talent exchanges exist?

Yes in fact the A.I. recruiting platform Eightfold operates a talent exchange in which many of their clients participate. It’s called the “Career Exchange”. They started it in 2020, when the economy saw entire industries disrupted and job seekers “left in a state of uncertainty as they tried to find new opportunities.”

Eightfold says many of these individuals have transferable skills that are relevant across industries, but it was difficult to identify employment opportunities at companies that are still hiring. So they launched the Career Exchange free of charge to help recruiters and job seekers find each other using AI-based skill matching.

I think a national platform is needed to helped displaced workers find new opportunities. We are seeing companies share spreadsheets of laid off workers. A national talent exchange could;

  • Instantly provide new job opportunities at other companies that are hiring.
  • Let employers communicate with furloughed or laid off workers so they can get rehired faster.
  • Provide a one stop shop to both employer and seeker.

A talent exchange has the same kind of features as a job board does its just concentrates the candidate side to laid of or furloughed workers. It should have private messaging functionality, job alerts, automatic skills matching and the ability for employers to search from and source that talent.

There is one site today, Layoffs.fyi which does crowdsource lists of laid off workers. Check it out here.

The popularity of posting spreadsheets online is a good first step but some kind of online platform that all employers were encouraged to use might be just what recruiting needs right now. Especially with all the disaffected workers out there.

Seems to me the big HCM platforms which currently house all that employee data  could become the catalyst for such a tool. Being able to export a list of laid off workers into a national talent exchange would be how I’d start to build it.

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