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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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Recommendations for Recruiting Remotely

This week I joined Stacey Schmidt at Pegasystems and Andre Boulais at Jobvite to talk about recruiting in a remote world. Companies are rethinking their processes and technology to support virtual recruiting. And, making changes doesn’t require a huge overhaul of your talent acquisition process. In many cases, it requires some small changes and some different tools. Our discussion offered some practical advice for companies looking to support their recruiting teams, hiring managers, and candidates.

Below are some of the highlights we discussed across the full talent acquisition lifecycle:

Recruitment Marketing
• Be genuine: Companies need to be genuine with their messaging and communication. Employers should use social media to be transparent rather than promotional.
• Clean-up Your CRM: Companies can think about organizing their CRM and reengaging talent. They can also think about targeted messaging and reengaging alumni, internal employees, and candidates that did not receive an offer.
• Rethink rejection: Companies need to rethink the rejection process to engage with talent and provide insights to candidates who may not move forward now but could continue to engage as candidates or customers in the future.

Technology: CRM, Social Media, Career Sites

Sourcing
• Look at competitors: If competitors are laying off employees, consider campaigns in your CRM that would reach these candidates.
• Engage talent pipelines: Companies can reach out to talent pipelines via campaigns and refresh old profiles and continue nurturing those relationships.
• Improve employee referrals: Companies can think about the employee referral program to gather leads for prizes and communicate these programs to employees.

Technology: CRM, passive sourcing solutions, employee referral solutions

Screening
• Invest in Conversational AI and Text: Companies should consider conversational AI or chatbots to support initial candidate engagement during the process and collect necessary information on a candidate.
• Invest in video screening capabilities: Video can help companies screen candidates early in the process and allow hiring managers and recruiters to prebuild these videos from home.

Technology: Conversational AI, Text, Video Screening

Assessments
• Consider digital assessments: Companies should consider digital assessments that can provide validity but also improve the candidate experience through a simple process.
• Shorten the assessment: Companies looking to fill positions in a short period of time should consider providers that offer shorter, candidate-friendly assessments.

Technology: Digital assessments, game-based assessments

Interview
• Leverage digital interviewing solutions in place of onsite interviews: Digital interviewing offers the ability to schedule, manage, and track interviews. Companies should look at providers
• Videotape your company: Key team members and employees can share what it is like to work at your company. Companies can do this by keeping the message genuine and encouraging employees to talk about their jobs. Employees can do this from their homes and submit their videos.
• Communicate with candidates: Companies should overcommunicate with candidates on the interview process. They should guide virtual interviewing and tips to be successful during the interview.

Technology: Interview scheduling, Conversational AI, Video interviewing

Offer and Onboard
• Automate forms management: Companies should be investing in a provider to support forms management for all new hires.
• Connect new hires with team members and peers before day one: Companies should create an environment where new hires feel connected through virtual meetings and networking with peers.
• Consider online coaching: New hires can feel supported through online coaching and mentoring programs.

Technology: Onboarding system, Learning solutions, Online coaching

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Coronavirus and the Workforce: An Interview with Dr Patricia Hibberd

Uncertainty is the new normal when it comes to novel coronavirus (COVID-19). We don’t know. We don’t know who has it or who has been exposed. We don’t know if we can travel or if this is something we need to worry about for the next few months. Companies are starting to take action by restricting travel, implementing work from home policies, and communicating plans with employees. But…we just don’t know.

Like most people, coronavirus thoughts and conversations have been occupying a lot of my time this week. I have so many questions, and I am not sure what sources of information to trust. I reached out to Dr. Patricia Hibberd, Chair and Professor for the Department of Global Health at Boston University, and she graciously helped to answer my questions. She has traveled all over the world, studying better ways to diagnose and treat respiratory issues and helped the CDC study the Ebola virus vaccine in 2015.

Below are some of the topics we discussed, and the full recording will be available on the Radical Research, HR Happy Hour podcast next week.

What do we know and what don’t we know about coronavirus today?

“We know that countries are doing exactly what they should be doing. They are increasing their surveillance to find out how many people have it. The denominator is increasing every single day because we are looking in ways we weren’t a few days ago. We are increasing the number of cases and the denominator to figure out what to do with people that have tested positive.”

“Clearly, this is very serious for certain people, but we don’t know the denominator, and that makes it very difficult to know more about this disease. Countries are trying every day to increase that denominator.”

What sources of information can we trust?

“I feel very comfortable with the CDC and the World Health Organization. I am quite concerned with data coming from other sources. We can also trust health officials in each state who are working with the CDC.”

How prepared are we as a country?

“We are getting better. We were a little slow to be testing as widely as we need to be. There are problems with the availability of testing and limitations on who should be tested. Testing needs to be broader than it is. We need to test not just people that have traveled. We need to test anyone with a respiratory issue, and that includes fever, cough, and shortness of breath.”

“Testing also needs to be done at an approved laboratory- not just any laboratory. Anyone that goes to a doctor’s office linked to the state will be able to trust the test has been approved.”

What responsibility do employers have?

“Employers should follow the CDC guidelines and let people work from home if they have symptoms. They should not be setting up their own screening or policies, but they need to make sure that employees can access what they need to remotely.”

Dr. Hibberd also cautions anyone traveling since it might involve transit through a country at risk. As information seems to change every day, she recommends the following CDC. “Yesterday’s information is only as good as yesterday’s information. We need ‘now’ information.”

If anyone is interested in learning more or connecting with Dr. Hibberd, Boston University is live-streaming a discussion on March 14 at 4:30 pm that will include a panel of experts.  This is meant to be an interactive discussion and I am very much looking forward to attending.

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Questions to Ask During a Merger or Acquisition

colleagues shaking hands

Mergers are different from acquisitions because the two companies are equal (for the most part), and they make the joint decision to combine forces. An acquisition is typically a takeover of a smaller firm by a larger firm. Most of the announcements in the HCM space are acquisitions, but we have seen a few mergers over the past year, including Shaker and Montage (ModernHire) and, most recently, Kronos and Ultimate Software.

Kronos and Ultimate Software can easily be characterized as equal companies coming together. They both have 6,000 employees, both have revenue of nearly $1.5 billion, and both went public and then went private again. But, more than anything, they both have the type of leaders who would come to your home if you were sick and cook you a meal and babysit your kids. It’s the type of leadership that was built on a foundation of kindness and decency. In technology, this type of leadership is rare.
While I do have some early thoughts on the merger of these two firms, some of my friends like Lance Haun have done a better job covering this announcement. But I have been thinking about mergers and acquisitions and what I would want to know if I were a customer.

So, here are a few questions that customers and prospects might want to consider when faced with a merger or acquisition:

Company
– What is the timeframe for change? When can customers expect to see changes to the company or products?
– What are the goals of this announcement? Are the revenue and product goals realistic?
– Will any office locations or headquarters change in the next year?
– Are there any plans to add headcount to the new organization?
– Will there be a rebrand?
– Are there future acquisitions or mergers planned in the next year or two?

People
– What will happen to the current leadership team? Are there a certain number of years leaders are required to remain with the new entity?
– What are the plans to retain key customer contacts, including sales, customer support, and services? Are there short-term or long-term plans to consolidate these functions or replace these functions?
– What will change for implementation teams and support? Will there be a transition period that will impact implementation timeframes?
– What is the morale of the current employees at both companies? Are they excited about the announcement or concerned about their future?

Products
– Are there any plans to sunset the brand of one of the companies?
– What is the investment in research and development moving forward?
– What are the plans to integrate these products?
– What products will be the focus moving forward?
– What is the product roadmap for the next six months to a year?
– Will customers be involved in product development?

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Blog Talent Acquisition Strategies

The Forgotten Workforce: New Research on the Hourly Candidate

Many people holding up tablets in front of their faces with their pictures on the back

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, nearly 82 million workers in the United States are paid hourly, representing 58.5% of all wage and salary workers. Hourly workers comprise the largest segment of today’s workforce yet, these individuals are too often ignored.

I am so excited about the latest research study by Aptitude and Alexander Mann Solutions on The Forgotten Workforce. We found that only 62% of candidates hear back from an employer after they have applied for a job. This reality means that many hourly job seekers that invest the time to research and apply do not even get the courtesy of a response.

The latest chapter talks about strategies for improving the candidate experience for hourly job seekers. In industries like retail and hospitality, there is a direct correlation between the candidate experience and the success of the organization. The majority of companies that have filed for bankruptcy in 2019 include organizations in industries that hire hourly workers. Comparing these companies’ business performance and Glassdoor employee ratings, it becomes clear how closely the consumer experience and the candidate and employee experience are intertwined.

The average rating on Glassdoor is 3.4.

  Stores Closed Glassdoor Ratings
Sears 263 (by January) 2.8
Payless 2300 3.0
Gymboree 800 3.4
Charlotte Russ 416 3.2
Perkins 29 3.4
Forever 21 350 2.8
Shopko 363 3.0

Glassdoor announced its top 10 places to work in 2019 and number 3 on the list was In-N-Out Burger. In-N-Out Burger is close to $1 Billion in revenue and has a loyal customer base. It is a company that has not moved to a franchise model or gone public despite pressure to do so in the past few years. One reason for In-N-Out’s success is its commitment to its employees. In-N-Out pays its employees $14 an hour – well above minimum wage and supports policies and programs that recruit and retain talent.

We have three more chapters to publish in this report series that will look at topics such as age discrimination, industry trends, and candidate communication.

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New Research: Pre-Hire Assessments

Digital Transformation in Talent Acquisition
Digital Transformation in Talent Acquisition

I am excited about a new research report, that we published this week on the assessment market. It is an exciting time to consider assessments and today, companies have better options to make data-driven decisions around talent. One case study that we featured in the report is Proctor and Gamble ( a ModernHire client). I was impressed with the company’s ability to balance science and validity with the candidate experience. This year, P&G announced an initiative to donate a liter of water to every candidate who applies for a job. If you aren’t following P&G or the incredible work of their I/O psychologists and talent team (including Daniele Bologna), I highly recommend it.

Below is the case study from the Future of Pre-Hire Assessments report:

Procter & Gamble (P&G) is an American multinational consumer goods company headquartered in downtown Cincinnati, Ohio, founded in 1837 by English-American William Procter and Irish-American James Gamble. It specializes in a wide range of consumer products in six core categories: Beauty; Grooming; Health Care; Fabric & Home Care; Baby & Feminine Care, and Family Care.

As a Fortune 500 company with roughly 95,000 employees, P&G wanted to improve its talent acquisition process in order to reduce the number of steps and expand the use of assessments beyond campus recruiting. It embarked on a journey to improve selection with a more engaging assessment experience and improved reporting and scoring.

The Goals:

Procter & Gamble’s objectives were to deploy a new assessment for sales to reduce time-to-fill while providing an assessment that would enable quality hires. P&G also wanted to provide candidates with a “Day in the Life” experience.

The Strategy:

Through a partnership with Shaker, P&G was able to provide candidates with a Realistic Job Preview that would measure problem-solving, the ability to integrate information, customer service, teamwork, and relationship-building. Candidates were presented with a series of cognitive questions, scenarios, and prioritization sequences.

Beginning in July 2017, P&G began the job analysis that included focus group interviews and questionnaires, a pilot program to validate the assessment, and ongoing monitoring and refinement.

The Results:

P&G was able to achieve the following results:

Expand the funnel of diverse and highly qualified talent by 7%.

Shorten the interview process by ~2.5 months

Cost savings of 80% per assessment

Enhance candidate experience by reducing time needed

The report also features a case study from Comcast and new data and trends to think about in assessments.

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iCIMS INFLUENCE Event: Esurance Competes for Tech Talent

Last month, iCIMS hosted its first-ever combined customer and analyst event in Scottsdale, Arizona. It was an opportunity for influencers and talent acquisition leaders to share ideas, research, and opinions on everything related to talent acquisition and its impact on business outcomes. One of the topics discussed during the event was the increasing competition for tech talent. According to iCIMS’ Hiring Benchmarking report, companies only fill 6 out of 10 tech positions. And, it takes 50% longer to hire tech talent than any other positions.

Anyone who has followed iCIMS’ journey over the past two decades knows its commitment to helping organizations attract and recruit talent and the tech sector is no exception. One of its clients, Esurance, was at the event and its head of talent acquisition, Kristi Robinson, shared the challenges and success with competing for tech talent in the Bay area.

Esurance has 3,000 employees and is owned by AllState. Attracting talent is difficult since most candidates do not recognize it as a tech company. Its recruitment efforts are focused on data scientists, engineers, and digital specialists. In order to compete for tech talent and differentiate itself, it has invested in the following strategies:

– Start with the Employer Value Proposition (EVP): Esurance put effort into defining and communicating its EVP to both employees and candidates by focusing on team, culture and community.

– Focus on Campus: Esurance decided to focus on campus and internship programs to compete for tech talent. It was successful at making the candidate experience as simple as possible by leveraging event management solutions, capturing candidate information through QR codes, and engaging with candidates consistently. Its campus offer rate is 62%, acceptance rate is 88% and conversion rate is 54%- all above the NACE industry standards.

– Go Mobile: Esurance was able to improve the mobile experience and the mobile apply process. In 2016, applications submitted through mobile were only 26% and in 2019, they reached 39%.

– Improve Communication: The tech company leveraged TextRecruit to help improve candidate communication. The text open rate is now 99% compared to 7.3% for email and the text response rate is now 46% compared to 2.1% for email.

By streamlining the recruitment process and investing in these strategies, Esurance was able to improve the candidate experience by 36% year over year and decreased cost per hire by 41% year after year.

The challenge of attracting and recruiting tech talent impacts organizations in every industry today. As talent acquisition becomes more complex for organizations, investing in providers with deep domain expertise and solutions that help to improve the candidate experience is critical. The good news is that companies can invest in strategies that deliver results in a very short timeframe.

To echo iCIMS’ Chairman, Colin Daly, “Recruiting is not like the rest of HR. People are unique & special. Your recruiting platform to attract, engage & hire talent should be as well.”

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A Love Letter to Startups

Early in my career, I was great at taking briefings with startups, writing about startups, and advising startups. At one time, covering startups was my favorite part of being an analyst. I loved the innovation and the excitement that came with emerging providers.

Ten years ago, talent acquisition was very much a startup market. Jobs2Web created a new way of engaging with talent. HireVue and Montage (now Modern Hire) were introducing video to the hiring process. Jobfox was the premier partner for the ATS market. And, Veechi offered capabilities to take a picture of a resume and parse it into an ATS.

But at some point, I became cynical about startups. I was bothered by the “change the world” mentality, the failure rate, and the inability to carry out the product roadmap. I started cautioning companies about investing in startups, which I affectionately named “two guys in skinny jeans.”

I wasn’t wrong.

Sometimes startups don’t have the experience or expertise to be able to develop great technology. Sometimes they don’t care about what talent acquisition practitioners want from technology. Sometimes they take too much investment.. or the wrong investment… or too little investment. Sometimes investing in startups is risky.

But sometimes, startups get it right. They understand what buyers want, and they are committed to delivering great products. Sometimes, startups bring change and hope to a market. Recently, I realized that I don’t spend enough time with startups, and I need to change that for next year.

Below are some of the startups worth watching in 2020 (this not a complete list).

Zapinfo: Founded by Doug Berg, Zapinfo provides recruiting intelligence by automating how companies find contacts and candidate profiles from multiple sites, add contacts to an ATS or CRM, and communicate with candidates more consistently.

CandidateID: CandidateID provides marketing automation to recruitment and helps companies manage their talent pipelines to engage better, nurture, and hire talent. As companies move from requisitions to pipelines, CandidateID offers a solution that can automate this process and better engage with talent.

Survale: Improving the candidate experience is a priority for companies in every industry and every geography. Yet, most companies fail when collecting feedback. Survale helps companies collect feedback on the candidate experience, employee experience, quality of hire, and references.

Small Improvements: Small Improvements also enables continuous feedback and recognition by fueling a company’s ongoing feedback culture, and integrates with collaboration tools such as Slack and Gmail.

Pilot: Pilot is a software-based employee coaching platform that helps companies empower employees and improve performance through feedback that is consistent, frequent, and meaningful.

Talvista: TalVista offers optimized job descriptions, objective data points from redacted resume reviews, and structured interview evaluations to help companies to support a company’s diversity and inclusion efforts.

Moovila: Moovila is helping companies bring autonomy to work and project management through the use of critical path modeling and diagnostics, Real-life Capacity Management, AI, machine learning, and IoT integration.

In addition to taking more briefings with startups, one of my goals for the next year is to focus on conversational AI solutions. I am also planning a major research study in 2020, including providers such as Mya, AllyO, JobPal, Paradox, TalkPush, Karen, and XOR.

If you are a startup and interested in a briefing, please let me know!

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The Talent Landscape in 2020: Total Talent, Metrics that Matter, and Finding a Partner

It has been an exciting year in talent acquisition.

The technology landscape has changed. Talent acquisition leaders face new responsibilities and are being held more accountable for business metrics.

Yet, at the same time, so much in talent acquisition remains the same.

When we asked what recruiters spend their time doing, scheduling interviews and finding candidates in the ATS were top of the list. With new responsibilities, talent acquisition leaders need to think about partners that can help them focus on more strategic initiatives. I am excited because next Tuesday, I will join Jim McCoy, General Manager of Scout, for a webinar to discuss some of the most critical topics in talent acquisition in the next year that is driving change including:

Total Talent Acquisition: Although a flexible workforce can help organizations reduce costs, close talent gaps, and navigate change, developing a strategy around the use of contingent labor has become increasingly complex. In order to maximize the value of contingent labor and plan for future workforce needs, organizations must adopt a more systematic approach to the way they manage this critical talent pool. During this webinar, we will discuss how organizations are looking beyond the long-standing boundaries that divide traditional employee talent acquisition from management of the contingent and free agent workforce talent supply. Companies are adopting a single-integrated framework for employee recruitment, and contingent workforce supply chain management, yielding what is known as a total talent strategy. Nearly 30% of companies have a strategy for total talent acquisition.

Metrics that Drive Success: Talent acquisition is being held more accountable to business metrics yet, some companies still fall behind in their efforts to measure the success of their talent acquisition efforts and recruiter performance. During this webinar, we will discuss the metrics that are most critical for talent acquisition leaders and solutions that can help to measure the performance of recruiters and recruiting teams.

Finding the Right Partners: According to Aptitude Research, nearly 50% of companies are still not measuring the ROI of their investments in talent acquisition technology and services. With so many new options and startups to consider, companies need to be careful when evaluating providers and look for partners that have demonstrated expertise and a commitment to talent acquisition. During this webinar, we will talk about the questions that companies need to ask when evaluating partners in today’s market.

And, it wouldn’t be a talent acquisition webinar without a discussion around AI, so we plan to discuss AI’s role as well. This webinar will help companies at any stage of talent acquisition prepare for the next year. I hope you can join us!

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Symphony Talent Acquires SmashFly: A New Leader in Recruitment Marketing

Symphony Talent Acquires SmashFly: A New Leader in Recruitment Marketing
Symphony Talent Acquires SmashFly: A New Leader in Recruitment Marketing

My views on the recruitment marketing/CRM space have (admittedly) shifted quite a bit over the past two years. It is an exciting space to watch and a challenging one to predict because as the demand increases, the confusion around this market persists. In the research I have conducted this year at Aptitude, a few themes stand out:

  • 72% of companies are increasing their investment in recruitment marketing. Companies want solutions that can help them better engage and attract talent before they apply for a job.
  • The buyer is more sophisticated. We are seeing second and third generation buyers, and nearly 30% of companies have replaced or are looking to replace their provider this year.
  • This market is not apples to apples. The differentiators are clear since these products have different strengths and weaknesses. 
  • Adoption is low for many of the recruitment marketing platforms, so investing in a partner is critical. Companies need to work with providers to make sure that they have the services they need to support them.

One trend that I have gone back and forth on is the future of recruitment marketing. Will it be from a larger ATS and Talent Acquisition Suite or stand-alone provider. Several acquisitions earlier this year (K1 acquiring Jobvite and Talemetry and iCIMS acquiring Jibe) and the success of providers like SmartRecruiters and Avature selling integrated solutions hint at a future where one provider supports both. Yet, today, we are seeing a move toward the stand-alone model. Symphony Talent announced its plans to acquire SmashFly and enhance its products and services in all things recruitment marketing. This move signals that the value of recruitment is not in going broad but in going deep in one area.

I have spent time with both Symphony Talent and SmashFly over the years, and here are my early thoughts: 

Symphony Talent is a product company, and Roopesh Nair is a strong CEO. While other providers have pushed marketing and sales efforts, Symphony has focused on building out capabilities that customers want and support teams so that the product gets adopted. Symphony has continued to strengthen its deep functionality in career sites, candidate journey, and candidate communication. It has differentiated itself in a competitive market with an innovative product, global capabilities, and strong services.

With any acquisition, companies have questions about the integration of products and companies. We can expect to see the integration of some of SmashFly’s core features such as CRM and internal mobility into the product as well as the integration of sales and marketing teams.  

Symphony and SmashFly were competitors in the market, so we don’t expect to see customer overlap, but combined, they will have strong brands in the market, including Hilton, Nestle, and Intel.  

Services: Most enterprise companies invest in some recruitment marketing technology platforms and services from an agency or marketing firm. Although some have argued that services can dilute the value of the technology, having a provider that offers both is a differentiator for Symphony Talent. The creative services they offer can help support companies that are looking to strengthen their brands and engage with talent in a more meaningful way.

The acquisition was announced today, and it will raise many questions for customers, prospects, and anyone interested in talent acquisition. I know I still have questions. The good news is that at 2 pm EST today, George LaRocque and I will be interviewing Roopesh Nair live. I hope you can join us!

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HR Technology Conference 2019: A More Sophisticated Buyer

The HR Technology Conference gives me the opportunity to reflect on the past year and look ahead to the future. In preparing for this year’s event, I decided to dig up old notes and presentations from the past 14 years. This landscape has changed dramatically. Integrated talent management has been replaced with employee experience. Big data is nowhere to be found. And talent acquisition and AI are at the center of it all.

When thinking about trends, the pendulum always seems to swing back and forth between start-ups driving innovation and traditional players enhancing products. As I tried to figure out where I would land, I began to realize that this year’s event wasn’t really about the technology. It was about the people.

HR professionals were driving innovation and change at this year’s event. They were asking the tough questions, aligning with business objectives, showing value in their investments, and evaluating providers that can stand-up as partners. Executives from P&G, Walmart and Spectrum openly shared their experience with AI and deep learning in talent acquisition. Fedex and Verizon questioned the CRM providers’ ability to support legal concerns. Oh, and McDonald’s announced that candidates can now apply for a job using Alexa or Google Home. The HR buyer at this year’s event was more sophisticated than ever before.  

Solution providers need to keep up with these expectations. They need to work  to establish partnerships across every layer of the organization from leadership to product teams to customer support. Below are a few of the providers making partnerships a priority.

Talent Acquisition

Beamery:  Beamery, a company founded in the UK, has had tremendous success expanding into the US market with significant brand awareness and customer acquisitions. It is a product company that continuously innovates while somehow mastering the art of customer success. It is helping companies clarify this market through its Talent Operating System model which helps companies at any stage of recruitment marketing. 

Cornerstone OnDemand: Cornerstone is making a commitment to talent acquisition this year. It has focused on improving the user experience for all stakeholders, improving speed to task and automation, and investing in internal mobility as well as personalization.

Jobvite and Talemetry: All eyes have been on Jobvite this year with K1’s acquisition of Jobvite, Talemetry, Canvas and Rolepoint. Over the past 16 months, Jobvite has continued to maintain its strong commitment to product and client support. Last week, it announced a fully integrated talent acquisition suite that uses smart automation to connect data, processes and interactions across the candidate journey. The big focus is to help clients get data from one place and consolidate all reporting and analytics.

Symphony Talent: Symphony Talent has continued to strengthen its deep functionality in career sites, candidate journey, and candidate communication. It has differentiated itself in a competitive market with an innovative product, global capabilities, and strong services.  

Entelo: Entelo acquired ConveyiQ this year and is in the process of combining two products to provide companies with better sourcing capabilities, automation and candidate communication.

Scout: Scout is a recruitment marketplace that connects search firms and corporations. Originally founded in 2012 as an agency, Scout is now a platform that uses machine learning to analyze billions of recruiting performance data points to predict recruiter success by specific job type. Scout’s AI then matches specific recruiters to specific jobs to ensure candidate quality while reducing fill times.

Yello: Aptitude has identified campus recruiting as a top area of investment for companies this year and Yello continues to be a leader in this market. Yello is enhancing its campus recruiting capabilities. It is focused on sourcing and the candidate experience. Its Passport product uses one code and a single point of entry for candidates to update their resumes for all jobs that they may want to apply.

Employee Experience Surveys

Willis Towers Watson: Willis Towers Watson’s differentiator is its deep domain expertise across services, data and technology. While many of its traditional competitors have not been able to expand into software, Willis Towers Watson has seen tremendous growth in its Employee Insights solutions including surveys, pulse surveys, and its HR portal. It helps clients ask questions in the right way, use data to drive decisions, and take action on findings.

Ultimate Software: Ultimate Software is a provider that has excelled through strong products, team and a focus on partnering with companies across every area of HR Technology. Its Perception product helps companies track, measure and improve the employee experience through better communication and AI that enables change.

Limeade: Limeade brings together employee well-being, inclusion, communication and engagement in one platform. My briefings with Limeade are always a highlight at HRTech because I get to spend time with its incredible team talking about the topics that matter in the workforce. Limeade has built a framework around care and the impact a culture of care has on the employee experience.

Moovila: If you have ever led a project or leveraged a project management tool, you know that projects are rarely delivered on time or on budget. Moovila is helping companies bring autonomy to work and project management through the use of critical path modeling and diagnostics, real-life capacity management, AI, machine learning, and IoT integration.

Conversational AI

IBM: IBM offers clients several AI solutions including Watson Candidate Assistant (WCA), Watson Recruiter Assistant and Watson Career Coach. WCA includes a wide range of capabilities from chatbots to messaging and is rolled-out to multiple sites and by geography. WRA partners with several of the larger ATS to offer capabilities that improve candidate communication and candidate match. WCC is a post-hire solution that enables career development and internal mobility.

Jobpal: Jobpal was founded in 2016 in Berlin and has some significant global customers including British Airways, DHL, and BSF. It is helping companies communicate with candidates and improve conversion rates and has strong integrations with messaging platforms. We can expect to see Jobpal emerge as a leading player over the next year with new partners, capabilities, and plans to develop internal mobility capabilities.

AllyO: It has been a big year for AllyO. This providers has raised $45 million and expanded capabilities beyond talent acquisition.  AllyO is tackling the employee experience and bringing its conversational AI solutions to help companies better engage and retain employees. AllyO Connect provides a SMS inbox for companies to engage with employees and candidates in one central way.

Mya: Mya is impressive on all fronts from its strong leadership team to its product vision to its customer success model. Mya has established a very strategic partnership with Workday as well as Bullhorn, SmartRecruiters, Avature, and SAP. This conversational AI platform enables customers to improve talent acquisition efforts including  93% screen completion rates, 79% time-to-interview reduction, 2.5x increase in funnel conversion, and 144% recruiter productivity gains. It is helping provide clarity to the role conversational AI plays in talent acquisition and the value it can deliver.

Assessments and Interviewing

Modern Hire: The lines between assessment and interviewing have blended. Earlier this year, Montage and Shaker merged companies to create what is now Modern Hire, a platform that combines science, technology, and predictive analytics to improve hiring and candidate communication. I have worked closely with both companies over the years and have always been impressed with the teams, clients and products. Combined, their clients include nearly half of the Fortune 100 companies.

Outmatch: The acquisition of Wepow last year proves to be a valuable investment for Outmatch as it expands its offering beyond assessments. Outmatch is seamlessly integrating these products to give customers the flexibility to use video and assessments together. Outmatch offers a simple user experience that helps companies identify quality hires through its solutions.

 The future of HR Technology is in the ability to partner,  stay flexible to what customers need, and deliver on what has been promised. Providers that will succeed will be those that understand and work closely with today’s more sophisticated buyer.

 It is a great time to be in HR Tech!

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