eHarmony are launching their job site, “Elevated Careers by eHarmony” this December.
The company wants to take their dating algorithm into the job market, by matching up jobseekers with employers.
The founder and CEO of eHarmony, Neil Clark Warren, said they have had a team of 10 working for three years on a job matching compatibility test, akin to their dating service’s 29 Dimensions of Compatibility.
Steve Carter, eHarmony’s VP of matching told Marketwatch that it “will try to identify people at eHarmony who are unhappy with their job and give them a way to do something about that.”
eHarmony’s move into the job market comes as a growing number of companies are using the models of online dating to match those looking for jobs.
Two “Tinder for jobs” apps were released this year – Emjoyment and Jobr.
Tinder’s “yes/no” functionality brought online dating to its most minimalist, and these two companies are looking to bring this simplicity to the convoluted and time-consuming recruitment process of CVs, applications and job searching.
With Emjoyment, users connect through LinkedIn and detail their location, top selling points and what type of job they are looking for — full time, part time or internship.
On the other end, employers post jobs, displaying a logo, location, job title and a brief description of the position.
YesGraph is another company which uses a Tinder-style “yes/no” system, to let you quickly refer people you have previously worked with.
The more classic profile-browsing online dating model has been used for some time by sites like CofoundersLab and FounderDating, which match up entrepreneurs and those looking for startup help.
Last September, Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic wrote a piece for Management Today called What Recruitment Should Learn From Online Dating, talking about the possibilities of using algorithm-style dating ideas in recruitment.
He talked of employers creating profiles, jobseekers “completing personality assessments”, then an “algorithm would be used to determine their business compatibility with each candidate or vendor.”
With companies looking towards online dating for inspiration in the job market, and eHarmony diversifying into this area, might we see more online dating services using their matching methods for purposes outside of dating?
Last year, eHarmony spent $90m on advertising, and have already spent $59.4m this year.
Warren said “it’s really tough to make a lot of money and attribute all that ad expense to one product”.
Sites like Match.com and eHarmony are always looking for new revenue streams – whether it be high-end matchmaking or offline events – and toe-dipping outside of dating has been seen before – in 2012, OkCupid said they were beta-testing a roommate-matching site.
While little has been heard of this since, at the time CEO Sam Yagan said it would not be affiliated with the OkCupid brand at all.
This is something eHarmony may struggle with – whether consumers will be comfortable using a dating brand for their job searching needs.
Elevated Careers will go live in December, and the success of eHarmony’s experiment may well decide whether other dating companies follow suit in the future.