Happy young woman using her verified credentials to share with a hiring manager in pursuit of a new … [+]
Job hunters, human resources, recruiters and hiring managers constantly complain that the interview and hiring process is ‘broken.’ They cite a litany of issues including interviews that last up to six months, and applicants ordered to meet with three to ten people at the company.
You’ll be treated rudely, there will be long periods of time when you don’t receive any communication or feedback from the company—and then you realize you’ve been ghosted. There’s the lingering feeling that maybe you weren’t offered the job because of your age, race, religion or other non-relevant subjective criteria. You’re left thinking there must be a better and fairer way to get a job.
If you have charisma and are a smooth, confident conversationalist, the chances of getting the job is higher than a person who possesses all the requisite skills but isn’t comfortable selling herself. Fortunately, there is now a more appropriate data-driven, facts-based platform to solve this problem.
Jonathan Finkelstein is the CEO of Credly, the leading provider of digital credentials. He created the biggest talent network built on verified digital credentials which recognizes a job hunter’s skills, accomplishments and certifications.
Credly, headquartered in New York City, offers an employee or job seeker a ‘digital badge’ based upon the completion of a program. Instead of being judged by your looks and charm, you’re viewed by hard data and facts. The way it works is that people take coursework from a wide array of sources. Credly is the stamp of approval indicating that a person possesses all the necessary skills, tools, experience and background for a certain type of job.
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Employers, training organizations, associations, certification programs, and workforce development initiatives rely upon Credly to help people leverage their learning experiences to gain access to professional opportunities using trusted, portable, digital credentials.
With a war-for-talent and Great Resignation trend, businesses must be laser-focused on attracting, recruiting and retaining personnel. To prevent attrition, corporations are upskilling and retraining employees so that they can advance within the organization and won’t feel the need to look for a job elsewhere.
Finkelstein says about employee empowerment, “The growing demand for Credly’s services is being driven by the massive move to skills-based learning and hiring.” He adds that paradigm shift has led to the “rapid growth of interest in short-form credentials that signal readiness for jobs; and the acceleration of major changes within the labor market over the last year, including a focus on retention, upskilling, talent mobility, equity, and the demand for a more humane and human company culture.”
By having job seekers verify their skills through learning, paired with digital credentials, validates their knowledge. It makes it easier for interviewers and recruiters to make an informed, intelligent hiring decision. Applicants that possess digital credentials can confidently showcase proof of skills, achievements, and learning.
The elongated hiring process will be streamlined as the credentials will speak for themselves about a person’s capability to do the job. Taking the time, effort, energy and money to gain the accreditations highlights the motivation, drive and dedication of a candidate. The badges can be placed on your resume and LinkedIn profile in addition to college and graduate school degrees.
It doesn’t have to be all about finding a new job. Credly certifications can be used by managers to make promotion decisions. If you are on the job hunt, the accreditations on your profile will help you be matched on talent platforms by companies seeking your on-target relevant background. Instead of interviewers making a decision based upon their ‘gut instinct’ and feelings, they are rendering a hiring decision based upon the data.
The company has seen impressive growth with “more than six times as many industry certifications were issued on Credly’s digital credential platform since the pandemic began in March 2020 as there were bachelor’s degrees issued in all of 2019 .” By comparison “in 2019, 1.9m bachelor’s degrees were issued in the U.S.,” and during the pandemic period over the past year, “more than 12M non-degree credentials were issued on Credly.”
Credly could disrupt business as usual in the job market. With massive amounts of churn in the labor force, fears of employees quitting, and the tough challenges faced by companies to recruit talent, Finkelstein says, “There has been a massive shift in the way companies now think about both incumbent and new talent — with a strong focus on retention, upskilling, talent mobility, equity, and the demand for a more human company culture.”
