Job seekers creating or updating their Idaho Department of Labor profile will be part of a new online database that businesses throughout the United States can use to search for prospective employees.
“Our goal is to do everything we can to better connect job seekers with prospective employers,” Labor Field Services Director Rogelio (Roy) Valdez said. “This service is simple, easy to use, and best of all, it’s free. People creating profiles, updating them and adding résumés will have a competitive edge when seeking work. We’ll be promoting this database to more than 50,000 prospective employers.”
As job seekers registered with the department and looking for work populate the database, Idaho employers will be able to search for workers by work history, skills, job and salary preference, education level and more.
One of the new features allows job seekers to select the information a prospective employer can see.
“We’ve gone to great lengths to make the system secure so employers only see the information job seekers want them to see,” Valdez said.
If an employer wants to interview a job seeker, either the department will send an e-mail to the job seeker or the employer will make direct contact if the job seeker has chosen that option.
The new service is among several improvements to the department’s job seeker registration system, which also allows job seekers to file claims for unemployment insurance and sign up for direct deposit of benefits.
In addition to elaborating on job skills, work history and salary preferences, the new online profile service includes several templates for creating résumés and allows job seekers to attach cover letters and references directly to their portal page. Job seekers are allocated 1.5 megabytes of disc storage for their documents, which will not be accessible by employers unless the job seeker allows it.
People creating or updating their profiles can e-mail résumés and documents through the agency’s server even if they do not have a personal e-mail account.
For job seekers who have already created a profile or uploaded documents, all of their information will be automatically transferred to the new system, but they will need to update their profiles and activate the opt-in feature that allows their profiles to be added to the searchable database.
This system was developed by the Idaho Department of Labor and the Region IV Workforce Development Alliance in south central Idaho, which devoted part of its $5 million, three-year WIRED grant from the U.S. Department of Labor.
“Our partnership with the Idaho Department of Labor demonstrates what can be accomplished through public–private sector efforts,” alliance Executive Director Brent Tolman said.
To access the online profile service on the department’s Web site, visit http://labor.idaho.gov/idahoworks.