We’d go beyond that assessment and say that Polywork also frees users from the vanity metric hamster wheel that is present on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn.
Much has been written on the psychological effects of likes, shares, and follows on mainstream social media. They create an environment where people create content solely based on what is likely to receive the best engagement, and then assess personal value based on whether or not they got the number of likes or shares they were hoping for.
Polywork, in its current form, seems to acknowledge the danger in this type of feedback loop, and opts instead to free users from vanity metrics. The result, hopefully, will be more honest and transparent content sharing that leads to more fruitful conversations amongst professional peers.
How to sign up for Polywork
As mentioned earlier, there are currently two ways to sign up for Polywork. Both of them start on the social platform’s website.
The first option is to sign up for the waitlist. As of the writing of this article, there are roughly 25 thousand people on the waitlist, so it may take a bit before you can access the platform.
The second option is to access the platform through a VIP code. There are a few different ways to get one of these codes.
First, you can ask a friend who is currently using Polywork to send you a VIP code. All active users have a personalized link and code they can share.
Second, you can find one of the many articles written about Polywork on the web.
Polywork features for recruiters
In its current form, there are three important features of Polywork that are beneficial to recruiters. These include:
- Badges
- Activity Tags
- Hiring Badge
- Hiring Activity
Each of the above act as built-in SEO tags that recruiters can use to search for interesting candidates. Likewise, candidates can use these tags to search for recruiters who are actively hiring.
Let’s look at each in more depth.
Badges
These are tags that any user on Polywork can add to their profile. They’re used to create a collection of all of the different job titles, skills, areas of interest, and areas of expertise that a user may have.
For example, a user might add badges like Content Creator, Software Engineering, Product Engineering, Python Coding, and so on.
As badges are added, that user becomes more and more searchable on the platform for recruiters looking for people with specific skills or job experiences.
Activity Tags
These are similar to Badges, but present things the user has done, rather than who they are. This is where Polywork and Twitter start to overlap in how they aggregate and segment pieces of content.
As an example, a user might post a new Highlight on their professional feed that describes a recent mobile app project they completed. On that Highlight, they can add an Activity Tag that says “Designed a Mobile App”. This process can be repeated for any pertinent achievement or milestone the user wants to share with the network.
From a recruiters perspective, these Activity Tags are a great resources when looking for candidates who have completed projects similar to the ones required for your role.
If you’re looking for people with experience building and designing apps, you can segment users by that Activity Tag and reach out to them individually. Likewise, if you’re looking for gig workers to complete a project, this is a great resource to find people who fit the bill.
Hiring Badges
Hiring Badges are the same as Badges described above, but with one key difference for recruiters. Rather than being used to proactively reach out to candidates, recruiters can place a Hiring Badge on their own profiles to tell other users that they are actively hiring.
This is where Polywork turns into both a proactive social recruiting tool and a potential inbound candidate engine. Users can search for and connect with recruiters in their chosen field by using a combination of Hiring Badges and general Badges to find relevant job opportunities.
Hiring Activity
Likewise, Hiring Activities leverage the same core functionality of Activity Tags, but tailor it specifically for recruiters.
The Hiring Badge of a user profile alone will only tell users that a recruiters is actively looking for candidates. Adding a Hiring Activity, however, lets the recruiter detail what roles and requirements they’re looking for.
Combined, this turns a recruiter’s Polywork account into something of a social recruiting job board with the added benefit of being able to correspond directly with potential candidates.
Why recruiters should use Polywork
Apart from the features outlined above, recruiters have a number of reasons to pay attention to Polywork as a hiring channel.
First, Polywork seems to be building a professional network that strongly appeals and caters to young professionals. If this trend continues, and appears it will, this means that Polywork is set to become a significant talent pool of young and passionate professionals.
Second, Polywork allows recruiters to see potential candidates from a 360-degree perspective right from the first interaction. That means you’ll get an idea of who this candidate is as a person beyond just their current job title and educational background.
More specifically, recruiters are able to see what specific accomplishments the candidate has shared recently, what they are working towards, and where their ambitions lie. This, in addition to traditional resumes, allows recruiters to move away from hard job requirements that call for a specific number of years of experience, job title, or credentials, and instead hire based on a more complete picture of the person’s potential.
Those first two points lead to the third benefit for recruiters: better skills-based hiring.
For recruiters who are looking to hire for specific skills and competencies, Polywork is a gold mine of information. Again, recruiters can search for users who have the exact skills and accomplishments that are required to be successful in the open role. Rather than receiving a list of current job titles in the form of LinkedIn profiles or resumes, recruiters on Polywork can search directly for the skills they’re looking for.
Lastly, Polywork is poised to become a significant resource for recruiters who are looking to fill more gig-based roles, contract positions, or casual contracts.
Polywork users are, by majority, multi-faceted professionals who skew toward the younger working demographics. This is the exact type of professional who is likely to be open to various types of work arrangements: from full-time work to side hustles, and everything in between.
As mentioned earlier, Polywork is still a young platform. It’s actively refining its core functionality and features, and is slowly growing its user base. If you’re a recruiter looking to expand your social recruiting efforts, this is one platform you shouldn’t overlook.
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