reThinkData was proud to be a sponsor of the 2017 TAtech Fall Congress in Denver, CO. The conference was a great opportunity for recruitment technology leaders to network, participate in informational sessions and discusses different challenges they face as our industry evolves. If you were not able to attend, here are some of the things we learned.

  1. Intermediaries are developing programs where traditional educations are falling short in training workers in the 21th century. The skills gap has been a hot topic in recent years and it seems that employers and universities are not able to tackle this problem on their own. That is why newer types of job training programs are gaining momentum. These new types can be broken up into three different models, the boot camp model, the staffing model and the Income Share Agreement model. The Boot camp model is targeted to train workers for specific jobs, offer a job at the end of the program but is paid for like a traditional education. IT and healthcare have utilized this method to great effect because it eliminates the need to search for quality candidates or train new workers in these skills. The staffing model trains candidates for free, gives the trainee projects to work on while they are training then offers a job at the end of the training. The Income Sharing Agreement the trainee agrees to give back a percent of their income in exchange for the training but is not guaranteed a job at the end of the program. All of these programs allow workers to bridge the gap between their education and their first job.
  2. Selling apply clicks may not be a sustainable business model with Google, Facebook and other large players entering the space. Selling other ways products maybe the key to sustain a recruitment site. These include a combination of job promotion, email campaigns, advertising and sponsorship, and retargeting.While this was a great presentation all around, full of great selling strategies for a changing market, here at reThinkData we have a bit of a different philosophy on what recruitment sites actually sell. While all of these vehicles, what recruitment sites actually sell is candidates. Even with the entrance of players like Google and Facebook, candidates will always choose the path of least resistance to a completed application. If we can fix the inefficiencies in the application process we can mitigate the impact of large competitors in the space.
  3. The market for sourcing talent from foreign countries may become more necessary. With the birth rate in many developed countries decreasing (think Japan, Germany, and Canada) employers are going to have to look outside their borders to find the right talent. Parallel to this trend The Networks 2015 Global Talent Survey indicates that an increasing number of people are willing to move internationally for work, around 2 out of 3 which is up from 1 out of 3 in 2006. The U.S. remains the top destination for international talent.

We want to thank all of the speakers that presented and the TAtech team hat made this event so worth while attending. We look forward to seeing everyone at the 2018 Spring Congress in Chicago.