The model

Workforce capability, not job titles

Workforce capability is what a person can actually do: the systems they have worked on, the licences and authorisations they hold, the scale they have worked at, where they can work and when they are free. It is a far better predictor of whether someone can do the work than a job title, and it is the thing conventional hiring records worst.

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What a capability record contains

Six things, each of which changes whether a person can actually take on a piece of work.
  • Licences, authorisations and tickets, with the jurisdiction and network they apply to - an electrical licence in one state is not the same permission as in another.
  • The systems actually worked on: which switchgear, which UPS platform, which protection scheme, which plant class. This is the part a CV almost never records.
  • Scale and role: whether someone terminated a board, ran the crew that did, or wrote and witnessed the test script.
  • Assurance discipline: working to a witnessed script, under permit, inside a live asset, with the documentation that goes with it.
  • Location and mobility: where they are based, how far they will travel daily, and whether they will fly in or relocate.
  • Availability: when their current commitment ends, and the roster they will accept.

Why job titles and CVs fall short

This is not a criticism of resumes. It is that the technical questions a programme needs answered are not the questions a resume answers.
  • Two people with the identical title - A-grade electrician - can have entirely non-overlapping capability. One has spent six years on HV terminations and witnessed testing; the other has spent six years on commercial fitout.
  • Most of the capability that matters on a critical power programme was built in another industry: utilities, mining, rail, semiconductor fabs. Screening for the words data centre filters those people out.
  • A CV is a record of employment, not of competence. It lists who paid someone and for how long, not what they were trusted to do.
  • Availability and mobility - the two things that most often decide whether someone can take the work - change monthly and appear nowhere on a CV.
  • Keyword filtering rewards people who write good CVs, which is not correlated with being good on the tools.

Capability, discovery, connection, mobility

The chain Poachd is built around.

Step 1

Capability

A technical person records what they can actually do: licences, tickets, systems worked on, project history, location, how far they will travel and when they are next available.

Step 2

Discovery

Companies search that capability directly - by skill, experience, industry, region and availability - instead of filtering CVs for keywords.

Step 3

Connection

When a company finds relevant capability, it approaches that person directly. The person decides whether to open the conversation.

Step 4

Mobility

Movement between projects and employers gets recorded, so the network learns where capability is scarce and which capability is in demand.

How capability discovery differs from the models you already use

Poachd is not an agency, a labour hire business, a job board or a CV database. Those are four different things, and Poachd is none of them.

A recruitment agency

An agency owns the relationship and sells you a shortlist. Poachd gives you the search itself: you look at capability directly and approach people yourself, and nobody is on a commission to push a candidate.

A labour hire company

Labour hire supplies and employs the worker. Poachd does not employ anyone or on-hire workers - the hiring company holds the engagement, the obligations and the relationship.

A job board

A job board waits for people who are looking. The technical people who decide whether a project gets energised are already working, so Poachd is built around discovering them rather than advertising to them.

A CV database

A CV describes a job title and a date range. A capability profile records the systems someone has actually worked on, the licences they hold, where they can work and when - the things that decide whether they can do the work.

Capability by category

  • Electricians - Licensed electrical workers installing, terminating, testing and energising power systems on critical infrastructure projects.
  • Electrical supervisors - Leading hands, site supervisors and electrical leads who run crews, sequence electrical work and carry the quality and safety load on site.
  • Instrumentation and controls - Technicians who install, terminate, calibrate and prove the control and monitoring systems that make plant behave predictably.
  • HVAC and mechanical - Mechanical trades installing, connecting and commissioning the air and water systems that keep critical plant within temperature.
  • Refrigeration - Licensed refrigeration trades working on chillers, heat rejection and refrigerant systems that critical facilities depend on.
  • Fitters - Mechanical fitters who install, align, maintain and repair rotating and static plant to tolerance.

Go deeper

Put capability on the record

Tradespeople record what they can actually do. Companies search it directly. Nobody has to write a better CV.

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