Patrick Bonnin, CEO of Ouestfrance-emploi.com, tells us about the launch of its new matching tool and gives us some insight into the implementation of this project with the technological support of Textkernel.
Could you tell us about Ouestfrance-emploi in a few words?
The first iteration of our jobboard dates back to 2001. It was simply an optional service for people publishing job ads in Ouest-France, the number one French daily newspaper (2.5 million readers daily). Since then the website has grown and today Ouestfrance-emploi.com logs about 1 million visits and more than 10,000 jobs monthly.
Ouestfrance-emploi is the go-to jobboard for recruiters and job seekers in western France accessible from any device at any time. It is an efficient and simple platform which relies on partnerships with leading technology providers.
What motivated you to integrate Textkernel’s Match! technology?
We wanted to launch a new matching service free of charge for our job ads package customers. We then submitted a technical brief to several companies. Textkernel’s response was both exhaustive and adapted to our needs. But above all, we understood we were talking with professionals with an in-depth knowledge of the market and a profound understanding of our requirements. Sustained communications with Yves Loiseau [Business Development Manager France at Textkernel ] confirmed the team’s keen interest in our project, and several onsite technical meetings comforted us in our choice.
Could you tell us how the matching functionality works for the user?
When the recruiter publishes a job, the system analyses the main information found in the text of the ad such as the job title, the location of the job, the professional experience the level of education and skills.. It automatically compares these elements to our database of candidates’ profiles. The client then receives an email notifying him of the number of CVs matching his job description. This gives the recruiter the ability to assess potential candidates even before receiving applications.
How did the integration go and when did you go live with the functionality
We wanted to launch a solution which would be perfect from the get-go. We worked together with Textkernel’s technical team in a very constructive spirit! Meetings and conference-calls between our teams allowed us to fine-tune the product to our specifications
Matching is based on very concrete elements which can actually be subject to interpretation in a recruitment context. Matching configurations are hence not set in stone and might be adjusted at any time to take customer feedback into account. The matching functionality was launched in March 2015 and is included free of charge in our recruiters pack.
Have you had any feedback since launching your matching service ?
Before deploying the product, we decided to test it on a group of 10 companies. Their positive feedback has led us to release it to all our clients. We will conduct a review in three months time to evaluate, both the qualitatively and quantitatively, the success of this new tool.
Ouestfrance-emploi uses Textkernel’s semantic matching technology. For more information contact Textkernel.
