Intern Pursuit

COVID 19 changed how we work in a short time frame and the wrongful death of George Floyd heightened the need for diversity and inclusion in all areas of life, including the workforce. Our solution is intelligent HR recruiting and training that improves diversity and inclusion and bridges skill gaps for the future of work across 5 generations in the workforce. Our platform will reduce employer bias through our proprietary algorithm that matches candidates to opportunities. Humans are complex and there are numerous factors that determine success for tomorrow's workforce. Factors such as PowerSkills (aka soft skills), personality type, culture fit, and how humans learn through peer and reverse mentoring and servant leadership are valuable data points to bridge skill gaps and upskill humans.  Our solution can positively change the workforce globally by transforming the data collected  on learners’ activities into actionable insights.

According to PwC, Age, more than gender – is a stronger predictor of the degree to which diversity is perceived to be a barrier to progression.49% of respondents aged 18-29 agreed or strongly agreed with this statement, while only 20% of those over 60 did. This speaks to the untapped opportunity for organisations to more effectively engage their youngest employees in driving forward their D&I strategies. People are affected by this problem because it impacts individuals in their team and internal communication to promotion and leadership development.  82% of respondents whose organisations have a global footprint agree or strongly agree that employees demonstrate a commitment to inclusion – compared to 67% of local companies (PwC, 2017). Factors that contribute to the problem are human bias, generational perceptions, and inconsistent company training that is inclusive of personality type, cross generational communication, and development of mentor and leadership skills. Leadership and mentor engagement improves diversity and inclusion while developing Power Skills for the future of work.  50% of organisations where diversity is not seen as a barrier to progression have leaders trained on managing diverse populations.(PwC, 2017). 

Our solution is an end to end cloud-based platform that provides employers with a proprietary algorithm that matches candidates based on skills required for the job along with culture fit and personality type. The platform keeps the candidate's identity hidden to reduce employer bias. Once the algorithm matches candidates to the job description, the employers can send a skill assessment to the candidate for the job. The assessment addresses five key skills in demand through 2030. The employer receives a short list of qualified candidates once they have completed the skill assessment and personality type.  Processes and Technology: We use the U.S. National Institute of Health (NIH) Proficiency Scale instrument that is used to measure a person's ability to demonstrate a competency on the job for matching and assessing skills. The scale captures a wide range of ability levels and organizes them into five steps; from “Fundamental Awareness” to “Expert”. Our technology will use AI machine learning to gather and evaluate skill development for all employees that use the platform. 

Our target population includes all five generations in the workforce: Traditionalists—born 1925 to 1945, Baby Boomers—born 1946 to 1964, Gen X—born 1965 to 1980, Millennials—born 1981 to 2000 and Gen Z—born 2001 to 2020. Each generation was born during a significant technological, historical, and communication time frame. Our platform provides a learning academy for employees that addresses trending training topics such as multi-generational communication, optimizing remote working, personality types to improve team communication, peer and reverse mentoring, diversity and inclusion, individuals with disabilities, and other key topics to develop and improve human connection and understanding. Additionally, our platform partners with global companies to provide access to learning modules that provide employees with certifications and skills that enhance their skills and knowledge. These are free and allow small companies to educate and develop their employees through affordable delivery methods. Delivery will be continuous, on-demand, and include behavior exercises to instill and measure behavior changes.

There are over 30 m small/medium size businesses in the U.S. These companies alone are the backbone of job opportunities. The same holds true globally when seeking job opportunities. Short story: I was accepted to the 2018 Web Summit in Lisbon, Portugal and had a booth on the floor. I had over 200 people in line to speak with me about my concept platform. The global appeal for the product spanned government, and nonprofit, small to enterprise businesses. I spoke individuals from Cape Town, Africa, Italy, Portugal, Germany, Russia, and the United States. THis validated the global market need.

Zoho is a global product that provides end to end HR management to enterprise companies. This company is based in India and does not have the proprietary algorithm that includes culture fit and personality assessments, nor the online learning academy.  Other competitors are considered potential partners and based in the U.S. They include Handshake, WayUp, GradLeaders, and Chegg. These companies provide online recruiting but do not have the proprietary algorithm that Intern Pursuit provides.  Future goals include re-packaging the product and market to companies that do not use intern talent and name it SkillzHack).Additionally, we have to go to market strategies: Our live radio/Facebook show called The Intern Whisperer distributed on 6 podcast channels. The second is our game Intern Pursuit Game to tap specifically into the gaming industry and gamifying our marketing approach to reach the target users. 

Our platform is a blend of existing technology, online learning academy, and our proprietary algorithm to bring intelligent recruiting and learning to employees and interns. We have two unique opportunities. The first is our algorithm that includes culture fit and addresses PowerSkills to match candidates to job opportunities. The second is unlocking and bridging skill development using multi-generational peer and reverse mentoring in addition to servant leadership learning to change behaviors and improve PowerSkill development.

The concept has been tested with a small local group of users including the pricing model. We are now partnering with University of California Berkeley computer science club to create our AI machine learning platform that will gather skills from three critical points: job description, assessment, and individual development plan for the intern and employee mentor. Our learning academy will provide micro learning modules with pre-test and post-test to measure learning along with learning modules to help intern talent or employees ramp up quickly during the onboarding process.  Our individual development tool will track and measure PowerSkills during the employee development process to quantify the proficiency level.  

Our MVP will be released end of 2020 for market use. 

The platform is designed for future generations entering the workforce that demand and want mentor and real skill development that leaves impact. This is based on face-to-face customer discovery with Millennials and Gen Z intern and employees in addition to research published by PEW, PwC, McKinsey, Deloitte, The Aspen Institute, Training & Development, Workforce, and other reputable publications and studies. Our product will be distributed using affordable pricing that allows small businesses, startups, and solopreneurs to access talent and guide them in best practices that grows and unlocks the superpowers in people.  Initially, we predict we will see micro skill development and behavior changes in knowledge, skills, attitudes, and motivations that are reflected in communication. Intermediate changes may will be measured in customer relationship engagement and measured through behavior practices, activities, and methods with customers. We believe this will produce long-term change that improves internal innovation and increases sales for the company.

We will launch in the United States initially since we are based here. In year 1, we anticipate 1,180 students and 187 employers signed up on the platform. In year 5, we anticipate 30,000 students and 6,000 employers using the platform. These projects are based on conservative and realistic numbers.