Zapoint Supports New Phase of Commonwealth Compact Initiative

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31 August 2011phil

The Massachusetts Commonwealth Compact has announced the launch of Phase Two of its Talent Source database, enabling employer members to search for professional women and persons of color for opportunities relating to Board and Commission opportunities, networking, event information and career opportunities. Zapoint SkillsMapper provides a crucial component of the system by helping identify talent by skill set and matching those individuals with companies interested in enhancing diversity within their organizations.

“We know that a diverse workforce has a positive economic impact,” said Georgianna Melendez, co-director for the Commonwealth Compact. “Companies tell us they want to have a more diverse workforce but don’t know how to find the right people. Zapoint SkillsMapper is the tool we rely on to identify the skills of professionals in our Talent Source database and match them with corporations, nonprofits and government agencies.”

In total, the 220 Commonwealth Compact member companies employ approximately 280,000 people, or just over 10 percent of the state’s workforce. Compact members agree to participate by providing baseline information about their workforce in order to create an aggregated picture of their current diversity situation and opportunities. At the end of 2011, companies will provide updated numbers to ascertain how much progress has been made. Members will continue to provide updates on an annual basis.

“The Commonwealth Compact, at its most fundamental level, is about dispelling the notion that we have to choose between doing well and doing good,” said Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick, commenting earlier on the launch of Phase One. “It’s about demonstrating in practical terms that diversity is not just about our idealism; it directly benefits our social and economic interests.”

Zapoint SkillsMapper not only makes it easy to highlight key attributes of professionals, but will also make data collection significantly more accurate and faster to collect, analyze and report.

“Zapoint technology was designed to support initiatives such as the Commonwealth Compact through analytics that identify strengths of a diverse workforce,” said Chris Twyman, founder and CEO of Zapoint. “Zapoint technology will have an extensive impact in encouraging diversity across the state by matching opportunities with skilled professionals.  Whatever goals an organization is trying to achieve – productivity, diversity, efficiency – matching the right people to the right job is critical. Zapoint SkillsMapper supports all of these goals by aligning core business objectives.”

Massachusetts women and persons of color are encouraged to submit their profiles to the Talent Source database at http://www.commonwealthcompact.umb.edu. Organizations seeking talent can now search for professionals of diversity through the database.

Full announcement here.

Zapoint Introduces Career “Credit Report”

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10 August 2011phil

Personal Career Analytics tools show users how their skills and experience stack up against the competition.

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Aug. 10, 2011 /PRNewswire/ — In an increasingly competitive job market, those looking to find (or stay in) the right position urgently need to know how they compare to others with similar backgrounds and experience. To meet this need, Zapoint has launched a new free service that enables users to analyze their skills and experience against the rest of the workforce.

“Personal Career Analytics truly is a ‘credit report’ for your career,” said Chris Twyman, founder and CEO of Zapoint. “But it’s much more than that. Imagine applying for a position and having instant access to data showing that your experience level is greater than 95% of the likely candidates. Or imagine learning that your competency level with a key skill is only 30% of the norm for people in the position you currently hold. Such tools enable a new, empowered approach to career management both for job-seekers and for those wishing to grow within their current positions.”

Personal Career Analytics is now available at Zapoint’s job-search site, Jobster.com. The tool set enables users to plot their own skills and experience against Zapoint’s talent database, which contains more than half a million profiles. Users can compare their overall work experience, their experience within individual positions, their skill sets, and their competency levels with individual skills against the whole population or any relevant subset. Packaged in an easy-to-use dashboard environment, Personal Career Analytics also makes Zapoint’s colorful and interactive SkillScape and LifeChart tools available to users at no charge.

“Anyone can use these tools to get a powerful new look at where they stand,” added Twyman. “A Zapoint Talent Profile takes just minutes to complete. Plus, anyone with a LinkedIn profile can import it with as few as three clicks and immediately begin analyzing their career data.”

10 Reasons to Use SkillsMapper

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29 July 2011phil

I bet there are some items on this list you never thought about!

What can you do with Zapoint SkillsMapper? well, you can…

Build a career path
Share with experts
Connect with skills you need
Share ideas
Develop a skill
Share cool stuff
Assemble teams
Start a group
Analyze your career
Share files

And that is just the beginning. Check it out.

Career Paths Are Key

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19 July 2011phil

Hannah Glover writing at the Financial Times blog Ignites (access requires paid subscription) sites some eye-opening figures from an employee survey by Blessing White in which more than 10,000 workers were interviewed on the subject of retention.

Having a strong  career path was the second-most cited reason for employees to want to stay with a company.

Lacking a strong career path was the most frequent answer given for why employees choose to leave.

Such data points represent a strong validation of Zapoint SkillsMapper, which provides an easy and straightforward way to develop and follow a career path, linked to one’s skills and experience as well as the organization’s needs.

Glover quotes our own Keith Woodward:

“The concept is all around transparency. The idea is to look at where you came from and where you are headed.”

As simple as that may sound, doing it effectively is not an easy task. Organizations are increasingly looking for tools like SkillsMapper to help them bridge that gap.

Is Your Job Killing You?

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11 July 2011phil

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (July 11, 2011) – As demands for increasing profits skyrocket and enterprises scramble for greater productivity, employees are breaking under the strain of work/life imbalance. Employees are literally dying on the job because of overwork and stress. With a lack of boundaries between personal and office life, workers globally are hungry for tools to help them manage their not only their career, but their life.

“We see instances everywhere of smart, educated professionals caught up in spiraling expectations of more, more, more,” said Chris Twyman, founder and CEO of Zapoint. “People need to know how and when to hit the ‘reset’ button on their life to put work back into perspective. Hands-on, interactive tools are the key to making this easy.”

Previously available only as part of Zapoint’s enterprise solution, SkillsMapper, the LifeChart is now available at no charge to all of the more than one million members of Zapoint’s job-search division, Jobster.com. Zapoint’s LifeChart helps individuals condense their resume into an interactive chart, creating the equivalent to a personal career stock chart. Calculated from resume data, peaks in the chart represent periods of achievement or activity.

“People like to look at a picture and understand a story,” added Twyman. “LifeChart creates a visual resume that helps people understand their personal, educational and professional progress over the life of their career. Users are able to highlight interesting or important times in life by adding a note to a particular event.”

Users indicate that the visual representation of their career and life help them gain understanding about patterns of behavior that conflict with their life goals. The solution also helps them discover areas of their professional life that require additional attention in order to reach their career objectives.