New Opportunities Being Sourced Through SkillPages

August 17, 2011

Tools

Rapidly Growing Social Network Fixing an Ineffective Labor Market

PALO ALTO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- SkillPages (www.skillpages.com), the skill based social network is changing how people find new opportunities. With hundreds of thousands of new members every month, SkillPages is aiming to fix the ineffective U.S. labor market. The sourcing of trustworthy, skilled people remains an issue for employers despite an abundance of potential workers due to high unemployment rates. Word of mouth is slow and advertising means having to deal with strangers. SkillPages solves this problem.

Social media has changed how people interact. “The idea of hiring a stranger, whether it is to cut your grass once a week or as a fulltime hire will soon be obsolete” says SkillPage CEO Iain Mac Donald. “People want to hire somebody that they trust, and they want to do so quickly and with a minimum of fuss.”

Research has shown that referral job candidates are hired faster and therefore at less expense for employers. The traditional way to find such candidates is through existing employee’s contacts, and many companies reward staff for referring contacts to suitable positions. This is limited as people don’t always know the skills that their friends or contacts possess. Using SkillPages a member can quickly see if any online contact has the skill they seek or if an existing contact knows someone who has that skill. “Think of it as word of mouth except that it is instantaneous and across a much wider network” says Mac Donald.

Creating bonds of trust and understanding are the most important aspects to getting hired. “A person’s SkillPage is the most accurate, credible and in-depth representation of their skills online” says Mac Donald. “Billions of people worldwide have skills and billions of people are looking to find them. Currently, it's not easy for them to find each other. In the US the unemployment rate remains high, yet we hear so much anecdotal evidence of companies not being able to fill positions. That is a big problem, a problem SkillPages is solving globally and millions of people are joining SkillPages as a result.”

About SkillPages

SkillPages, the skill based social network, is transforming the way people with skills connect to the people who need them. The platform brings together your real life friends and social connections to help you find skilled people you can trust and also, to get found by people who need your skills. Over 1,000,000 people have joined SkillPages, finding skilled people they can trust and getting found by new customers, employers, business partners and more.

Since launching the SkillPages platform in January 2011, the company has been growing exponentially, with hundreds of thousands of people joining every month.

SkillPages is a privately held company with offices in Dublin, Ireland and Palo Alto, CA. See: www.SkillPages.com