Bayt.com, a leading job site in the Middle East, has launched a new, socially active platform designed to bring professionals and employers in the Mena region together in new and innovative ways.

The Bayt.com Specialties platform enables professionals to express their thought leadership in their professional areas of expertise, and allows employers to tap into this with innovative tools for finding professionals whose true abilities surpass those represented through traditional CVs.

The new platform brings together professionals in an online environment that empowers them to share their knowledge within their self-specified areas of interest and expertise.

It allows them to demonstrate their skills and knowledge amongst their peers and to potential employers, by contributing to open dialogues related to their specific specialties. It presents the opportunity for professionals to expand their circle of connections, while establishing a definitive presence as an expert in their particular field.

Having a professional online presence is absolutely essential, as 84 per cent of employers take the time to research candidates online before making a final hiring decision. Of these, 57.1 per cent ‘always’ check, and 26.9 per cent ‘frequently’ check, a Bayt.com report said.

The biggest challenge stated by employers is sourcing relevant candidates for senior executive and management positions, which suggests that those candidates who do have an online presence, and who are able to prove their expertise such as through Bayt.com’s Specialties, will stand out from the competition.

Industry knowledge is also a highly desirable trait for senior executive and management candidates, which Specialties allows job seekers to demonstrate.

“We are very excited with the launch of Bayt.com Specialties, and with the possibilities it brings to redefine the online recruitment landscape in the region,” said Omar Tahboub, VP of Product, Bayt.com.

“We are especially excited with the extent and depth of engagement of our users on Bayt.com Specialties during the past controlled invite period.  The feedback has been very positive and encouraging.  The platform has evidently addressed an urgent need by our users to express their skills and expertise beyond the confines of the CV document.

“We want to enable professionals to tell the stories that go far beyond a CV, and we want to help employers discover these stories, and learn what these professionals are really all about. Often, the classic markers of competence, such as work history, education, credentials, and the like, are not the only pointers to professional leadership. It is well thought-out, intelligent, original content related to areas of interest and expertise that can make people shine. That’s what Bayt.com Specialties is all about: helping professionals at all career levels and in all industries and roles, highlight their unique abilities and truly shine,” he added.

Bayt.com’s Public Profiles channel already has more than 1.5 million professional profiles, and with Bayt.com Specialties, users on Bayt.com are able to choose from thousands of specialties, which are then added to their professional public profiles.

Upon selecting specialties, they are automatically connected to others who share the same expertise, and are able to create discussions and ask questions within their professional peer group. Additionally, they are able to share their knowledge and provide answers to questions posted by other Bayt.com users, thereby demonstrating their expertise in their chosen specialty areas.

Users can expand their connections by following other professionals and inviting them to return the follow. They can have their contributions ratified by their peers as their contributions are voted on based on the insight shared, improving their overall rank and thereby proving their expertise through peer approval.

Bayt.com Specialties will also provide ranks based on points accumulated, which show up on user’s profiles for potential employers to see.  All answers, interactions, and ranks on Bayt.com Specialties can then be viewed by hiring companies as they look to source the best qualified candidates.

Bayt.com has a rapidly growing community of over 12 million professionals and with over 6.75 million visitors a month is already amongst the most trafficked and visited professional networks in the world, said Tahboub.

“Bayt.com Specialties will not only enable professionals to ask pressing professional questions and receive answers from other specialists in a timely and organized manner, but also to build a far more powerful personal online brand by empowering them to turn their thought-leadership into relevant content and showcase it in front of audiences that have the potential to further their careers,” Tahboub continued.

“The platform will be host to a constant stream of valuable, engaging, fruitful discussions between experts, who can follow each others’ profiles, contact each other, browse the knowledge base, and expand their domain of professional interest by following any specialty that they are interested in,” he concluded. – TradeArabia News Service