Entrepreneur Gary Hicks
Company Information
SkillSniper
Olathe, KS
(913) 232-2832
www.skillsniper.com
Type of Business Online Employment Recruiting
Year Founded 2010
Using a traditional online recruiting website to fill a position in your company is one of those good news/bad news scenarios. The good news is that you may get hundreds of applicants. The bad news is that, well, you may get hundreds of applicants—and someone has to scan through all those resumes looking for relevant experience, skills, etc.
Gary Hicks, president and CEO of SkillSniper, is focused on turning online recruiting into a good news/good news scenario for employers. SkillSniper has developed skill-based matching technology that takes the focus off of resumes, and puts it on actual job skills and years of experience.
“We match qualified candidates with employers 99 percent faster than other sites,” Hicks said.
SkillSniper allows employers to select skills pertinent to a position and specify a minimum amount of experience a candidate must have related to those skills. The matching is quick and easy because job seekers have pre-selected their skills and experience from a defined list when completing their online profile. On other sites, employers typically have to search and try to extract relevant skills and years of experience from job descriptions on resumes—a hit or miss proposition, Hicks said.
“We are trying to make the process a lot faster and more affordable for employers,” Hicks said.
In addition to the time/cost savings from greater efficiency in assessing the relevant skills and experience of candidates, the company also offers significant savings on job postings. Posting fees are as low as $100 on SkillSniper, versus $300-$500 on other online job boards. That also makes it affordable for smaller businesses, Hicks said.
“It’s a tremendous opportunity for small and mid-sized businesses,” he said. “We’re trying to remove the barriers for companies of all sizes and boost employment.”
It also has significant benefits for the most qualified job seekers, Hicks said. Rather than getting stuck in the middle of a pile of resumes with less qualified candidates, their job skills and years of experience will make them rise to the top in skill-based searches.
With the launch of a new website in November, SkillSniper refined its focus on skill-intensive areas, including information technology, engineering, health care, accounting, tax, finance, human resources, advertising and marketing. The company made a concerted effort to target its skills database to the most relevant skills for those industries.
Another component of SkillSniper is a job referral network, which allows job seekers and others to sign up to receive daily e-mails with new job postings. Companies can tap into passive job candidates by adding a referral fee to their posting. This provides recipients an incentive to encourage qualified candidates they may know to apply for the position.
David Day is executive editor for Thinking Bigger Business magazine. This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
