Gloat harnesses AI to transform the career ladder into a lattice
Facilitating internal mobility within enterprises has increasingly become the focus of Tel Aviv-based artificial intelligence career development start-up Gloat's work.
By EYTAN HALON
The notion of career advancement is fundamentally changing.The traditional perception of career progression as climbing up the corporate ladder is fading, as employers and employees realize the benefits of replacing the ladder with a corporate lattice.Promoting internal mobility rather than recruiting from outside the company certainly makes financial sense. According to Deloitte, the departure of an average employee earning $130,000 annually results in a loss of almost $110,000 in lost productivity, recruitment and training a replacement.Yet star employees, eager for new challenges and experiences, often find it easier to identify opportunities outside their current company rather than moving horizontally within it. Slightly more than half of US employees (51%) are actively looking for a new job or seeking potential openings, according to a recent report by Gallup.Facilitating internal mobility within enterprises has increasingly become the focus of Tel Aviv-based artificial intelligence (AI) career development start-up Gloat.Founded in 2014, Gloat commenced operations as an external recruitment marketplace, using AI to match employee career paths and potential recruitment opportunities. The platform, requiring just a thumbs up or down for each potential match, was dubbed by some as the Tinder for recruitment.Today, the company has adapted the platform to work with enterprises – both employers and employees – and take advantage of the benefits of internal talent.“People are stagnating at work with no idea of where they’re going, but the idea here is to focus on the employees and let them take ownership of their own career,” Gloat business development manager Noam Mordechai told The Jerusalem Post.“You can horizontally advance your career by pursuing new skills, projects and experiences without leaving your current place of work. That stretches your capabilities, and gives you a desire to stay at that company.”
Gloat’s InnerMobility platform matches employees with opportunities inside the company based on their skills and ambitions, and enables managers to identify employees that could fit their team. Employees who don’t find a suitable horizontal move receive feedback on what skills or experiences they are lacking in order to succeed in future.“Employees can finally understand how they are moving from Point A to Point B, and take responsibility for their career trajectory,” said Mordechai.“What we strive to do is to become the one-stop shop for employees within enterprises to advance their career, and realize their dreams and aspirations. The only thing we need to do is to connect the dots.”Gloat’s ambition, Mordechai said, is to eventually facilitate job swaps between companies for fixed periods, enabling employees to pursue experiences in entirely different environments and bring new skills back to their employers.“Market trends are heading to an era of an open-talent economy, with more freelancing, more project-oriented work and greater delayering of hierarchies,” said Mordechai.“Big enterprises that wish to survive are starting to adopt this flexible and agile mindset. In addition to the technology, a cultural change process is also required, and we help companies tailor and convey the message of gradual change to both their managers and employees.”