Eliyon: What the Future Looks Like
I believe it represents THE wave of the future!
I have written before on the topic of Eliyon (e.g., in connection with diversity hiring; see here).
What I address here is a well-written article in Workforce Magazine, which reviews some of the myriad uses of Eliyon and what some the of critics say.
Eliyon can be used for recruitment, competitive intelligence gathering, and other uses. I think it is the wave of the future, and anyone in HR needs to become familiar with the model it uses.
To learn more, keep reading here!
Simply put, Eliyon is little more than a huge database:
Eliyon’s computers continuously crawl the Internet, automatically extracting information from more than 15 million Web sites. Eliyon “reads” news articles, press releases, company Web pages and SEC fillings, recognizing company and business professional data.
Subscribers (who pay about 12K annually to use it) can then:
search the 20 million Eliyon profiles and locate top-echelon people in the U.S. corporate workforce, including more than 11 million scientists, engineers and other professionals.
Eliyon enables subscribers to search its database, using various criteria, such as professional area (e.g., marketing), experience sought, and so forth. In many cases, one can find detailed information about people, including list of present and past positions, education, professional association memberships, and other potentially useful pieces of information.
Eliyon can also be used to develop an “informal network of other companies that human resources managers can contact for advice or benchmarking information.” For the same reason, Eliyon might be used for competitive intelligence purposes, to determine which areas a company is hiring in, and which areas a company may be cutting back on its workforce.
Finally, a new development is people can enter the database and update or add to their profiles. In the future, I predict that savvy employees will focus on keeping their Eliyon profiles up to date and accurate.
Critics worry about privacy issues, which I think is inevitable in many ways; the U.S. has always been less sensitive to privacy issues, especially compared to Europe!
Note: To date, no one has contacted me through Eliyon to determine if I was interested in a new job, though I have checked, and I am listed in this database.
To read the complete Workforce Magazine article, go here.
I just checked, and am listed, along with a couple of others with the same name.
But the flaws in the technology are such that some meaningful information is missing (it knows I have this blawg and am an attorney, but ignored details in my Blogger profile, Martindale listing, etc.).
Other information is incorrect, though the derivation is clear (e.g., Dennis Kennedy will get a kick out learning I’m an attorney with Kennedy Law Office)
Heavy recruiting into the “not looking” segment may dramatically alter the workplace. Will everyone be a “contingent” worker? Is it dog-eat-dog or is there something to be said for an unspoken mutual hands-off approach — don’t recruit mine and I won’t recruit yours? Probably the former. So what will companies do to try to keep good people? How to avoid investing in training only to have someone go to the competitor? Many questions.
I am of the impression that P&G has been a trianing ground for the rest of the consumer goods industry for decades and that large firms who can afford great college recruting programs and internal development programs trains for smaller firms. I do not see that changing.
What I am currious to know is how tools like Elyon, Linkin, and spoke will affect the applicant flow regarding minorities. I have partially evaluated 2 of the 3 for my niche and am concerned.