This November Sweden ICT hosted a matchmaking event between international talent and Swedish companies using an AI matchmaking tool. Eight companies and 35 talents from 13 different countries attended the event.
The events are a part of a pilot project where the six Swedish Science Parks of the Sweden ICT-network have joined forces. Included in the Sweden ICT collaboration are Linköping Science Park, Luleå Science Park, Kista Science City, Blue Science Park, Lindholmen Science Park and Ideon Science Park. The matchmaking tool that has been used during the events is created with support of the Swedish Institute.
– It’s been a great way of adjusting recruitment events when COVID-19 prohibits physical meetings. But we also see that this kind of process will create value even when we are allowed to travel and meet again. The aim of the process is to bring international talents and companies closer to each other, says Anna Broeders, Community & Employer Branding Manager at Linköping Science Park, who has been project managing the events.
Match by AI
During the event companies and professionals have been matched together by Cruitives AI ( a Norrköping based company) solution for matchmaking. First, applicants add profiles and companies add job descriptions. Then, they are matched together by a text based AI-tool. It works as a first sorting of the candidates, and allows the companies to recruit without the influence of their own unconscious bias. When the matching was made the companies were given 20 minutes in a digital meeting with each candidate. This part is inspired by matchmaking process used by Ignite Sweden.
– We saw this as a smart and creative way to handle the situation with the pandemic, since we can’t travel to Career Fairs right now. It’s also a way to make our work more climate friendly since this doesn’t include traveling. We think it’s great that the AI-tool makes the first sorting without being biased, this process really challenges the participants to think in new ways, says Malin Wilson, Project Manager at The Swedish Institute.
48 interviews in one day
The pilot started with a smaller event on the 6th of November during East Sweden Innovation Week, to give the tool and process a try. The next event was held during the Sweden Innovation Days, on November 18th, and had the focus of letting international talent meet Swedish companies. This event was joined by 8 companies and 35 talents from 13 different countries. Together there were 12 available positions at the companies and altogether 48 digital interviews were held. And the event was truly a success, 91% of the talents and 100% of the companies were satisfied with how the day turned out. Every participant said that they would recommend the event to others.
“A great complement when physical meetings”
Anders Berg represented the company Ekkono Solutions that participated in both events and he was pleased with the day.
– I think the event worked out great, I appreciated that it was very well structured. At Ekkono we try to be open to trying new things and in addition, even though we are still a startup, we are always on the lookout for new talent to recruit. We would not have exposed ourselves to these types of candidates before and would not have met these people without the event, shares Anders Berg.
Anders compared the experience to exhibiting at a fair and finds it to be a great complement when physical meetings are hard to arrange. At a fair it’s equally important to market your own company as meeting potential candidates. And at fairs it can be quite hard as a startup to get the same kind of visibility as large companies.
– We find this to be an advantage with this kind of event, all companies, big or small, get the same amount of visibility, says Anna Broeders.
The event was joined by 8 companies and 35 talents from 13 different countries. Together there were 12 available positions at the companies and 48 digital interviews were held.
Diversity can be the key to success
Malin Wilson and Lisa Truedsson of the Swedish Institute work with talent mobility and are well acquainted with the matter of international talent in Sweden.
– There is a need for international talent in Sweden. If the Swedish ICT-sector is going to stay strong, more companies need to recruit internationally, says Lisa Truedsson, Communications Specialist at The Swedish Institute and Anna Broeders agrees:
– Recruiting international talent is a must for continued growth. Many companies direct their products and services globally. But if the company employees only represent one country and culture, they will most probably have issues with their business abroad, continues Anna Broeders.
And studies show that high diversity within companies correlate with the company:
• Attracting top talents
• Better understand their customers
• Improved well-being of employees
• Better decision making
• Increased creativity and innovation
The Swedish Institute works with promoting Sweden as a great destination for studies and careerand are therefore very pleased to be part of this pilot.
– We find that arranging an innovative event such as this one is in itself great marketing for Sweden. We also find it great that this solution will be easy to scale up and that it can be used by many in several different ways, says Malin Wilson.
The pilot will continue with several similar events to try out different target groups and tweak the concept.
A guide for hiring internationally
Many companies have the will to, or are already, recruiting internationally but find the processes hard and complicated. It can be quite tricky to know where to turn to and when. Linköping Science Park wants to be able to offer better support to companies in the recruitment process and are now taking help from Emma Gustafsson who studies human resources at Linné University.
– I am putting together a guide for companies who want to recruit internationally where they can get step by step instructions on what to do and where to turn for assistance, shares Emma Gustafsson about her work.
