HardSkills help & support centre
We are happy to help you utilize the platform efficiently and respond to any inquiry you have
We are happy to help you utilize the platform efficiently and respond to any inquiry you have
Our availability is monday to friday between 9 and 18 CET (Central European Time). We offer support in English, Swedish and Italian at the moment.
Data is our bread and butter and we want everything in our database to be represented accurately. Let us know if you found some data you would like to modify.
HardSkills uses machine learning and Elastic Search to translate the recruiter's terminology into search hits in the patent database in terms of skills. In filtering, we have created an intuitive user interface, where a well-illustrated hierarchical system has been created in consultation with recruiters with different levels of technical knowledge. In this way, we have made the tool easy to use for anyone, regardless of earlier experience of patents.
The detailed classification system, with 61,500 detailed areas of expertise, is updated annually to constantly incorporate the latest technology trends. The system is often updated as soon as a new technology area is mentioned in academic research, several years before commercialisation.
To account for possible gaps in the system, HardSkills smart algorithms also searches the full-text patent documents, in search of further categorisation opportunities.
The patent technology classification system, IPC, is a more than 50-year-old guiding document to systematise the categorisation of new technologies by all 193 patent offices using the system. The detailed system, with over 61,500 technology classes, is designed to allow easy comparison of categorisations between all member countries.
Hardskills assigns the innovators behind each patent one or more of these 61,500 technical skills, as validated by the patent offices' experts.
The result is the world's largest, and most detailed, human-validated database of technological skills - 29 million R&D experts in 61,500 expert fields. We call these skills Hard Skills.
HardSkills focuses primarily on the recruitment of experienced R&D experts in a variety of technology areas - 29 million candidates in 193 countries.
For people who do not have published patents, there is not yet a way to categorise skills at the level of detail that Hardskills does. We are constantly working to improve and refine our product, and we are of course looking at this opportunity for the future.
At present, however, Hardskills offers the world's largest human-validated recruitment database for R&D experts, with thousands of search hits for even the most detailed of technological skills.
At the moment, Hardskill's international database contains approximately 29 million potential candidates, spread across 193 countries.
As HardSkills skills validation function is based on the time of the published patent document, generally the older the validation, the fewer candidates are still working. HardSkills automatically filters out candidates validated earlier than 2000, but you can move the time horizon forward or backward in any way you like.
HardSkills allows easy free text searching. The interface is easy and intuitive making the platform straight-forward to use regardless of previous computer-experience.
Whether you have access to a detailed technical job description, or simple keywords, HardSkills’ innovative algorithms will interpret and rank search hits based on their relevance in relation to your search.
Hardskills of course allows boolean searches, as recognised from well-known recruitment tools such as Linkedin Sales Navigator.
Not all candidates are members of LinkedIn; R&D experts are no exception.
Linkedin is certainly one of the world's largest social media sites, with over 700 million members, but both fluctuating activity (about 50% are active on a monthly basis) and active absence choices can make it difficult to get a response in the desired timeframe.
To bridge this issue, Hardskills also offers a direct link to Google, to facilitate the search for alternative contact routes.
Hardskills offers, through a unique matching algorithm, a link to the recruiters' favourite tool; Linkedin. Hardskills will not create an internal chat function as most recruiters want to keep track of fewer communication channels, not more.
In the future, Hardskills plans to create links to alternative candidate systems, such as Xing, Researchgate and more specialised tools.
Currently, Hardskills offers formatted exports of CSV and Excel files, which can be easily imported into most established ATS systems on the market.
We are always considering new development opportunities and looking at the possibility of API interfaces for future versions of HardSkills.
Yes, with a single click you can export lists in CSV or Excel format. The lists are optimised for good visibility for the recruiters' employers. The lists also enable the possibility to import information into the many ATS systems (Applicant Tracking Systems) already used by most recruiters on the market.
No, in HardSkills there are no restrictions on the number of lists or candidates that can be saved.
However, for reasons of visibility, we recommend that lists and candidates are limited to a level where they can be effectively managed by the recruiter.
In HardSkills it is simple to save candidates into lists. Simply click the checkbox next to the candidates profile and click the plus-sign to add it to a new or existing list. In this way you can have several different lists, for example for different on-going recruitments.
Data is our bread and butter and we want everything in our database to be represented accurately. Let us know if you found some data you would like to modify.