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Author: Madeline Laurano

Madeline Laurano is the founder and chief analyst of Aptitude Research. For over 18 years, Madeline’s primary focus has been on the HCM market, specializing in talent acquisition and employee experience. Her work helps companies both validate and re-evaluate their strategies and understand the role technology can play in driving business outcomes. She has watched HCM transform from a back-office function to a strategic company initiative with a focus on partnerships, experience and efficiency.

Before founding Aptitude Research, Madeline held research roles at Aberdeen, Bersin by Deloitte, ERE Media and Brandon Hall Group. She is the co-author of Best Practices in Leading a Global Workforce and is often quoted in leading business publications including The Wall Street Journal, The Boston Globe, Yahoo News, The New York Times and The Financial Times. She is a frequent presenter at industry conferences including the HR Technology Conference and Exposition, SHRM, IHRIM, HCI’s Strategic Talent Acquisition Conference, Unleash, GDS International’s HCM Summit, and HRO Today.

In her spare time, she is a runner, an avid sports fan and juggles a house full of boys (where a spontaneous indoor hockey game is not unheard of!).

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New Research: Quality of Hire

Over 60% of companies in Aptitude Research’s latest survey identified improving quality of hire as their greatest recruitment challenge. Organizations have been talking about quality of hire for years. Yet, we have no standard in the market for defining or measuring it. In fact, most companies still don’t know what makes a great hire at their organization.

Why is quality of hire such a struggle? What can organizations do to improve it?

I am excited to announce that we are launching some new research on quality of hire that will help to answer these questions. Yves Lermusi, CEO of Checkster, and I will be discussing some of the findings on a webinar next Tuesday at 12pm EST. I hope you can join us!

Here are some of the topics we are going to discuss include:

–          Ownership: Is quality of hire a talent acquisition metric or a hiring manager metric? Over 70% of companies surveyed said it is the responsibility of talent acquisition. Yet, companies need to use post-hire indicators to measure it. We are going to discuss how to get the right data on your first- year employees and use that data to improve your talent acquisition processes.

–          Business Impact: Organizations can no longer ignore quality of hire. The impact extends into the business since companies that improve quality of hire are three times more likely to see gains in first-year retention , first-year performance, and first-year productivity.

–          Definition: Currently, only 26% of companies have a formal methodology for measuring quality of hire. Quality of applicant is a pre-hire metric that addresses the candidate’s performance at previous jobs or through previous experiences. Quality of hire measures post-hire metrics including first-year retention, performance and productivity. Understanding this distinction and then creating better collaboration and communication around the two is critical for defining quality.

–          Measurement: Measuring quality of hire is dependent on the availability of data . While many of these key performance indicators are common in discussions around quality of hire, more organizations do not have visibility into this data. Hiring manager satisfaction is not measured consistently throughout the organization while organizational fit is often not measured at all. This data is easy for hiring managers to access through payroll or HRIS systems but it is not communicated with talent acquisition teams and leaders.

–          Improvement: Companies that invest in technology solutions were two times more likely to improve quality of hire. The key to success for quality of hire is in what happens from interview to offer. Organizations cannot ignore solutions that play further down in the funnel that directly impact quality of hire including interview solutions, assessments, background screening, online reference checking and onboarding solutions.

Organizations need more clarity around how to define, measure and improve quality of hire. If you are just starting your quality of hire journey or you are looking to help validate or refine what you are currently doing, I hope you can join us next week!

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Talent Acquisition Technology: Innovation from Ireland

Last summer, I was invited by Enterprise Ireland to attend an event in Dublin and learn about some of the leading technology companies in talent acquisition and talent management. Enterprise Ireland is the Government agency in Ireland responsible for supporting Irish businesses in the manufacturing and internationally traded service sectors. Eight hundred Irish owned companies operate across all 50 US states and Enterprise Ireland supports many of these providers. Not surprising, talent and HR is a growing area of investment. Enterprise Ireland helps these businesses to start-up, innovate and ultimately, to achieve global success. It gives them the support and guidance that many stat-ups in the United States lack.

The companies that I met in Ireland were professional and had a clear understanding of their differentiators, goals and target customers.

In the spirit of St. Patrick’s Day, I want to highlight a few of the leading talent acquisition technology companies headquartered in Ireland.

Sonru: With over 500 customers all over the world, Sonru (which means “stand out”) is a global video interviewing provider that supports companies such as Pepsico and Volvo.

Clinch: In the competitive recruitment marketing industry, Clinch differentiates itself with strong customer support and an innovative product. Over the past year, Clinch has added internal mobility capabilities, SMS and communication, and focused on helping companies stay GDPR compliant.

HireUp: HireUp is a referral app that was designed for employees. It allows employees to share jobs through any channel they want and provides communication and notifications about the status of a candidate to the individual that provided the referral.

Jobbio: with over 6,000 SMB customers, Jobbio is an employer branding company that focuses on helping companies with recruitment marketing, job distribution and the candidate experience.

These companies represent just a handful of innovative providers coming out of Ireland. Other areas of growth include learning, communication, and engagement. The support these providers get from Enterprise Ireland helps them make better decisions around their roadmaps, partnerships, and global expansion.

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Mathematical Curiosity and the Future Workforce

Yesterday, I attended a math workshop for parents of elementary schoolers (grades K-5). The workshop was designed to provide more support for students at home and to give parents a better understanding of the math curriculum. I love the idea of learning new ways to better help my kids. But, to be honest, the thought of spending a few hours reviewing multiplication and division was the last thing I wanted to do in the middle of a busy workday.

I went anyway and what I learned was much more valuable than a refresher on algebra.

The presenter kicked off the workshop with this quote: “Good mathematics is not about how many answers you know… it’s about how you behave when you don’t know.” Math teaching has completely changed since I was a kid and is now focused on helping students understand concepts and reasoning. Kids are encouraged to experiment and make mistakes. Teachers want math to be collaborative and fun not scary and condescending. I started to wonder if elementary school is where the true reskilling of the workforce is happening.

As organizations prepare for an AI-future of work or an analytics-driven future of work, empowering employees to adopt new technologies and embrace “math” is a priority. According to TrainingIndustry.com reports, North American organizations spent over $160 billion on corporate training last year. Yet, much of this training for reskilling the workforce is conducted in an “old math” kind of way. It feels intimidating and discouraging. And, it doesn’t promote curiosity or opportunity.

Maybe we need a lesson in “new math”. Maybe we need to think more like elementary students and not be afraid to make mistakes. If we do one thing to reskill our workforce, maybe it should be to create a curiosity around math and data.

Below are some of the takeaways that I learned (based on research from Dr. Jo Boaler, a mathematics professor at Stanford University).

1.       Everyone can learn math to the highest levels.

2.       Mistakes are valuable.

3.       Questions are really important.

4.       Math is about creativity and making sense.

5.       Math is about connections and communicating.

6.       Math class is about learning not performing.

7.       Depth is more important than speed.

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Key Takeaways from IBM Think

Two weeks ago, I had the privilege of attending IBM Think, an event focused on topics such as AI, blockchain, and cognitive computing. With nearly 40,000 attendees, this event is massive and spans all industries and company sizes. Think is not an HR event but talent was a central theme this year both in IBM’s messaging and in the level of attendees.

This event put two things in perspective for me:

  1. IBM is an innovator. When you think of IBM, traditional (or maybe even, “stuffy”) may come to mind. With a history of selling hardware and services, it is best known for its blue suit culture. Its nickname is “Big Blue” after all. But IBM is helping to define how we use AI in our personal and professional lives through Watson. Whether it is the weather app on your phone or the IBM candidate assistant (which partners with several ATS companies), you might be surprised about Watson’s growing presence in all things.
  2. AI is maturing. It is becoming more prevalent in enterprise technology. But, talent acquisition technology still lags behind. Companies are trying to understand AI’s role in recruitment and what providers they can trust. This reality is transparent when seeing how other parts of the business are embracing AI.

IBM is enhancing its products and addressing some critical challenges in recruiting and engaging talent. Yet, these changes and advancements are sometimes overlooked and lack the awareness that they deserve. I was surprised.

Here are some of the key takeaways from IBM Think:

–          Diversity and Inclusion: With Watson Recruitment’s Adverse Impact Analysis, companies can  identify whether unconscious bias is present in the hiring process and take action to eliminate it.

–          Partnerships: IBM has expanded its partnerships including Greenhouse last year and recently, announced a partnership with Workday to expand the use of AI among HR professionals. Select IBM Watson Recruitment features will now be available to Workday Recruiting users, helping to accelerate and improve the hiring process.

–          Assessments: IBM has transformed its assessment practice to include more candidate-friendly, game-based assessments. Its assessments include skills assessments, behavioral assessments and simulations. It is also committed to providing assessments for smaller organizations.

As IBM continues to expand its product suite, the value it provides to companies is in Watson. Moving forward, it will need to figure out how to include more Watson capabilities in more of its core talent acquisition and talent management solutions.

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Aptitude Weekly Update: Jobvite, TMP, Yello, Google and IBM

It is the end of another exciting week in HCM technology with some major acquisitions, product announcements, and new partnerships. The recruitment marketing landscape is changing while AI continues to define technology decisions in 2019.

Below are some of the highlights from this week:

–        K1 Investment Management (a private equity firm based out of Los Angeles) invested over $200 million in Jobvite. This funding will be used to acquire three distinct (and notably different) talent acquisition providers: Talemetry (Recruitment Marketing Platform), Rolepoint (Employee Referrals), and Canvas (Candidate Communication and Text). Each provider offers a unique set of products and capabilities that when (and if) integrated will provide one of the most robust talent acquisition suites available in the market. You can read my thoughts from Monday’s blog.

–          TMP Acquires CKR Interactive. TMP Worldwide also announced the acquisition of CKR Interactive, an employer branding and recruitment marketing firm founded in 2001. This acquisition expands TMP’s market share in the recruitment marketing space and gives CKR Interactive access to more creative services and technology (through the TalentBrew platform).

–          Yello Launches a New Interview Scheduling Product. Scheduling interviews is one of the greatest challenges facing talent acquisition professionals today. Ineffective scheduling can negatively impact recruiter productivity and the candidate experience. According to our recently survey, over 60% of companies have dedicated schedulers on their talent acquisition teams. Yello is helping companies manage the way interviews are scheduled with a new product that is powered by AI and can match and manage complicated schedules in one system.

–          Hire by Google Expands in the US and Canada: In 2017, Google launched its Hire product in the US and began to expand its products in the talent acquisition market. This week it announced expansion in Canada and the UK. I am guessing we will continue to see global expansion and a possible move up market in the next year or two.

–       IBM Announces Partnerships with Skillsoft and ServiceNow: I was at the IBM Think conference this week to learn more about AI, blockchain, automation and talent. I will post more from this event on Monday but two major announcements were IBM’s partnerships with ServiceNow and SkillSoft. These partnerships represent IBM’s commitment to areas like internal mobility and succession planning.

Have a great weekend!

 

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Talent Acquisition: The Next Wave of Acquisitions

Today, K1 Investment Management (a private equity firm based out of Los Angeles) invested over $200 million in Jobvite. This funding will be used to acquire three distinct (and notably different) talent acquisition providers: Talemetry (Recruitment Marketing Platform), Rolepoint (Employee Referrals), and Canvas (Candidate Communication and Text). Each provider offers a unique set of products and capabilities that when (and if) integrated will provide one of the most robust talent acquisition suites available in the market.

Without diminishing the value of Rolepoint and Canvas, this acquisition is significant for two main reasons:

–          Jobvite: Jobvite is here to stay. This announcement puts to rest any rumors about the future of Jobvite as an ATS and its’ staying power in a competitive market. Jobvite’s customers can expect more products, services, and support over the next few years.

–          Talemetry: This acquisition is the first significant announcement in the recruitment marketing landscape and it will not be the last. With many of these providers looking for an exit, is the future of recruitment marketing in a stand-alone solution or an integrated suite (ATS and Recruitment Marketing)? My bet is on the latter.

The ATS market is no stranger to acquisitions. In fact, it has gone through two major waves of acquisitions in the past 15 years. The first in 2005-2006 with acquisitions that included Virtual Edge by ADP and BrassRing by Kenexa. These providers were looking to complete a broader vision of their talent management suites. Smaller companies such as Cytiva (by Taleo) and HodesiQ (by Technomedia) followed suit a few years later. The second wave was in 2012 with the acquisitions of Taleo by Oracle, SuccessFactors by SAP, and Kenexa by IBM. These larger ERP companies were looking to check a box for recruitment technology. What followed was a de-prioritization of talent acquisition and very little innovation or product development.

This most recent announcement could spark the third-wave and possibly, the most significant. In this case, talent acquisition is not a piece of the puzzle. It is not an extra module that is getting acquired to fill some larger HCM story. In the case of this acquisition, talent acquisition IS the story.

Below are my early thoughts on what we know at this point, what we don’t know, and what this means for the market.

What We Know

–          Integration: In the short-term, K1 plans to keep the four providers separate with their own product, sales, and marketing teams. Each of these entities will roll-up under Jobvite with Dan Finnigan as the CEO. The goal in the long-term is to have an integrated platform.

–          Enterprise: Talemetry has been very successful at serving the global enterprise market through strong leadership and a product that was originally built for integration with Oracle customers. It is the unsung hero of the recruitment marketing world with high utilization and 70% year over year growth. It is the provider that can help support enterprise growth.

–          Services: Jobvite has strengthened its’ services and customer support over the past few years. Ultimately, services will be under one shared entity but it will take time and a commitment to the customer.

What We Don’t Know

–          Oracle Integration: Questions may arise around the future of Talemetry’s close partnership with Oracle. Overall, it should not have a major impact since Talemetry integrates with many of the ATS providers including Workday, iCIMS, and PeopleFluent. And ultimately, customer requests tend to drive partnerships more than providers’ decisions.

–          Timeframe: Acquisitions take time. As a result, delays can impact product strategies, support, and resources. Customers will not know the long-term goals until some of the short-term objectives have been met.

–          Target Customer: These providers serve different markets. Although there is some overlap, only time will tell where this new entity will thrive. What we do know is that the emphasis will be expanding in the enterprise market.

What It Means

This acquisition has the potential to change the talent acquisition landscape for a few reasons:

–          It will put pressure on other stand-alone recruitment marketing providers that are looking to get acquired or fearful that they won’t be able to compete against a larger firm. We can expect to see more acquisitions over the next year in recruitment marketing.

–          Providers that play in the larger ecosystem (such as Rolepoint and Canvas) may also get acquired by ATS companies or talent acquisition suite companies. These types of acquisitions can leave customers feeling uncertain about future investments in third-party providers.

–          ATS companies will need to enhance their capabilities. Most of these providers have some type of lightweight CRM in place. They will need to enhance these products or make future acquisitions. Expect more and ask for more from your existing providers.

It is an exciting time to be in talent acquisition. It is no longer a piece of the HCM puzzle. Solution providers feel pressure to do more and talent acquisition leaders are in a unique position to ask for more. We look forward to what the next few months will bring.

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Blog Talent Acquisition Strategies

Recruitment Marketing: Four Trends to Consider When Evaluating Providers

compass with the arrow pointing towards the word talent

In a few weeks, we are publishing an updated Recruitment Marketing Index. It is a project I started a year ago and this market continues to surprise me. Although, it is one of the most exciting areas of talent acquisition technology, evaluating these providers is not always easy. Organizations are looking at these solutions from very different perspectives and based on very different needs. Some companies want support with career sites. Some companies want a true CRM. And, some companies are not even sure what they want. Unlike the ATS market, recruitment marketing can feel like apples and oranges.

Over the past year, many of the providers in our report have enhanced their capabilities, secured investment, created service offerings, and acquired large global customers. It has certainly been a year of change but some of the confusion around what these solutions do and what value they bring has remained the same. The goal of this research is to help provide clarity on a complex market and highlight the key differentiators in this space. With over 70% of enterprise companies investing or planning to invest in these solutions this year, we want to share some of the latest trends.

Below are a few of the key takeaways from the report:

Replacement: It is amazing to see how many second and third generation buyers exist in a market that is still immature. Recruitment marketing is the top area of replacement in the next year above ATS, assessments and background screening. Organizations looking to replace these solutions cited capabilities, price and customer support as the top reasons. The providers that succeed in this market are not those that have secured the most investment but those that are committed to building products that their customers want to use.

Adoption: Adoption continues to be one of the greatest challenges with recruitment marketing. Only 2% of companies are using all of the functionality in their recruitment marketing solutions. The problem is two-fold: many companies do not have the resources in place to support implementation and adoption and many of these providers are not making products that are simple enough to get adopted. These solutions provide great value but only if they are getting used.

Buyer: The recruitment marketing buyer is different for every company and it is not always the head of talent acquisition that is the key decision maker. At many companies, recruitment operations professionals are responsible for evaluating providers and talent acquisition teams with candidate experience roles, campus recruiting roles and employer brand specialists are having influence as well.

Events Management: One of the key drivers for investing in recruitment marketing is the ability to create, track and manage all events. It is surprising that many of the providers in this market are still lacking some robust capabilities in events management. This is one area that is becoming increasingly important especially with the demand for more campus recruiting solutions.

The Recruitment Marketing Index report profiles eight of the leading providers in the space and will look at differentiators, product roadmap, investment, and capabilities. We are looking forward to sharing this research with you!

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Aptitude’s Weekly Update

Last year ended with some significant acquisitions, a busy conference season, and record high industry investment. This year, the momentum has continued and solution providers are expanding their products and reach while corporations are making more strategic investments.

It is a great time to be in HCM technology.

Each week, we will be posting some of the most relevant news announcements and industry updates. Here are some of this week’s highlights:

–          CareerBuilder Acquires Textkernel: CareerBuilder announced its acquisition of the remaining stake in Textkernel that it didn’t’ already own. Textkernel, a Netherlands-based company, provides AI-driven sourcing solutions and labor market statistics. According to Aptitude Research’s latest survey, one in four companies are increasing their investment in AI this year. This acquisition is not CareerBuilder’s first move into analytics since its acquisition of Wanted Technologies and efforts to build out a more robust talent acquisition suite.

–         SAP Finalizes its Acquisition of Qualtrics: Qualtrics withdrew its IPO last year after being acquired by SAP for a reported $8 million. As employee experience remains a top investment for companies, this acquisition gives SAP more opportunities to focus on employee engagement.

–          Outmatch Acquires WePow: Last week, Outmatch acquired WePow with the goal of expanding its’ predictive hiring solutions and providing a better candidate experience. In our latest research, companies identified interviewing as the top area for change in 2019 and this acquisition will help companies do a better job of managing the process from interview to hire. This acquisition makes sense given the strong leadership and similar customer base of these providers.

–          International Women’s Day: We are so proud to work in an industry where many companies and providers are pushing for more equality in the workforce. In honor of International Women’s Day in March, Ultimate Software shared this video of its employees (50% of whom are women). It’s worth watching.

 It has been a busy week. Not to mention that companies like Aduro, 7shifts, The Predictive Index, and Jyve Corporation all raised funds this week. George LaRocque, Founder of HRWins, is the best resource for tracking all of the investment in this space. We are looking forward to seeing what surprises next week brings.

Have a great weekend!

 

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Blog Talent Acquisition Strategies

Background Screening: Improving Your Talent Acquisition Strategy

For organizations struggling to compete for talent, background screening may seem like an unnecessary step in the recruitment process. In fact, 38% of companies are not screening for every position. Yet, background screening is a critical part of any talent acquisition strategy and helps companies improve quality and efficiency. According to Aptitude Research’s latest talent acquisition study, companies that leverage background screening were:

• Two times more likely to improve time to fill;
• Three times more likely to improve quality of hire and;
• Two times more likely to improve hiring manager satisfaction.

Background screening is not a hindrance to talent acquisition. It is a strategic advantage. But, in order to see the value, companies need to make sure that they are using screening consistently with the right provider. On January 29, I will be sharing some of our latest research on background screening and its impact on talent acquisition initiatives. Below are some of the topics we will cover:

• Building the Business Case for Background Screening: Over 80% of companies are using background screening solutions, but many companies still struggle to articulate the value within their organizations. On the webcast, we will be discussing why background screening is important and how to communicate the value to key stakeholders in your organization.
• Using Data to Make Decisions: In our latest research, only 1 in 3 companies have the right data to make decisions around talent. As talent acquisition becomes more complex and companies increase the number of tools they are using, it is important to rely on solutions and data that you can trust. We will discuss how backgrounds screening can help you save time and better inform your decisions.
• Measuring the ROI of Your Investment: When selecting a screening provider, demonstrated ROI needs to be considered. We will look at how companies can think about the costs and benefits of a screening investment and when they should start seeing a payback on this investment.
• Selecting the Right Provider: With 1 in 3 companies looking to replace their background screening provider in the next year, selecting the right provider can be challenging. During this webinar we will discuss the ways that companies should evaluate providers by company, product and key differentiators.

With a shrinking talent pool and more competition for talent, it is easy to think that companies should move quickly when recruiting talent. Background screening can empower talent acquisition professionals with the right decisions to make more efficient decisions and improve quality. I hope you can join us on January 29, and if not, the webcast will be available on-demand until approximately May 1.

Thanks to SHRM and Verified First for hosting and sponsoring this webcast.

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A New Year. A New Commitment.

Welcome to Aptitude Research.

2018 was an exciting year in HR Technology. Recruit Holdings acquired Glassdoor. LinkedIn acquired Glint and launched an ATS. SAP acquired Qualtrics. And Google demonstrated its staying power in talent acquisition. Some providers raised money. Others lost money (and market share). And startups continued to emerge creating new opportunities in a crowded market. Overall, 2018 brought change.

And we changed too.

I am thrilled to share a new website, new branding, new survey results, and a new commitment to research and advisory services. I have spent most of my career as an analyst trying to stay ahead of trends and provide some insight into a very complex industry. I have learned a lot and I know I can do better…as an analyst, researcher, and consultant.

I am starting off 2019 with a new outlook on research and advisory and I am making a commitment to the following:

More Customer-Driven Research

Too often, research is driven by vendors. I’ve been guilty. But, research needs to be influenced by practitioners, the people that actually select and implement solutions. Last year, we partnered with Talent Function and invited ten enterprise companies to join us for a two-day discussion in Boston to help shape or research agenda for 2019. We are spending more time this year talking to companies to learn about what really matters to them.

More Market News

The technology landscape changes every week and we are committed to helping companies stay informed and stay ahead. We will be posting weekly reports on the news and market announcements that are the most relevant. Stay tuned for an announcement on our latest newsletter.

More Research and Content

We have already launched two surveys this year and will be publishing those results later this week. We are committed to sharing more of this research and publishing more content in the next year.

More Conversations

Our content and services improve through conversations. And this year, we want to have more conversations with companies, consultants, and vendors. If your organizations is going through change or if you are looking for new research coverage, please reach out. We would love to hear from you.

I am excited for everything that we have planned for this year and would love any feedback on research topics that you would like covered or areas that we should explore.

Happy New Year!

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