Tag: AI

How HiredScore Is Making Waves With Smarter, Sharper and ✨Iconic✨ Outcomes

Post author By Kyle Lagunas
Post date January 28, 2025

On this episode of Transformation Realness, I’m sitting down with Jason Scheckner, Senior Director of Business Strategy, and Ernest Ng, Senior Principal and Product Strategist, at HiredScore—now officially part of the Workday family. HiredScore is rewriting the rules of HR tech with their AI Talent Orchestration platform, moving beyond buzzwords to deliver tools that actually work.

HiredScore was doing some great work before being acquired, but now Jason and Ernest have the power of Workday’s ecosystem behind them to deliver even better value to clients.

“What’s been really fun for me at Workday is we’re not just a bolt-on piece that adds to the end of their skew list,” Jason says, “but rather, Workday is looking at HiredScore as something they can integrate throughout their product.”

We get into how HiredScore evolved from basic matching and scoring to becoming the orchestration powerhouse it is today, what it means to partner with Workday, and how they’re driving iconic outcomes for their customers. If you’re ready to hear what’s really possible when AI works for you instead of against you, this one’s for you.

Find the Harmonies in Your Current Tech

HiredScore didn’t show up with just another limited use platform — their vision is much bigger than that. They’ve spent the last decade redefining what it means to deliver outcomes in talent management. “The world doesn’t need another platform, doesn’t need another system,” Jason says. “Orchestration is the opportunity to make the systems, the tools that people have, more successful.”

At its core, orchestration is about connecting the dots—between systems, data and decisions—so recruiters and HR teams can focus on the work that matters most. “We have an opportunity to transform how business is done, and how HR is done, in a real material way,” Ernest says, “not just making things a little bit faster, a little bit easier to do, but really transforming it with AI.”

Take HiredScore’s Fetch feature, for example. It’s like having an AI-powered treasure hunter digging through your ATS to rediscover talent you already have but forgot about. Instead of starting every search from scratch, Fetch helps recruiters surface qualified candidates in seconds. That’s a game-changer for overwhelmed teams juggling too much at once.

And orchestration isn’t just for recruiters. It’s about creating workflows that make everyone’s life easier, from hiring managers who need real-time insights to employees looking for their next big opportunity.

Create Impact That’s Iconic

Let’s talk about HiredScore’s secret sauce: iconic outcomes. This isn’t just about automating tasks or adding some shiny AI bells and whistles. It’s about delivering outcomes that are so high-impact, so transformative, they feel iconic.

Jason is especially sensitive to meeting the needs of non-HR persona, such as hiring managers. They’re not HR pros, but they’re constantly in the thick of HR workflows. If you’re running a talent strategy and missing this key group, you’re leaving value on the table. “Your processes run through your managers,” Jason explains. “If you want to deliver great outcomes to your org and you have thousands of managers you’re interacting with, and you miss that persona, that’s a big miss.”

Iconic outcomes aren’t just about making recruiters more efficient or surfacing talent faster—though HiredScore crushes that, too. It’s about enabling managers to make better decisions without the frustration of clunky tools or outdated processes. The AI orchestration layer makes everything flow, connecting data, processes and people to drive results that aren’t just good—they’re game-changing.

Contribute to a Bigger Solution

Here’s a hot take: the best HR tools aren’t built in isolation—they’re co-created with the people who actually use them. That’s exactly how HiredScore approaches innovation, and it’s one of the reasons their partnership with Workday is making waves. “It really shows with that co-innovation where you’re actually digging into their processes, understanding their pain points, really trying to figure out what their outcomes that they’re trying to achieve,” Ernest says.

This isn’t about throwing generic solutions at customers and hoping they stick. It’s about sitting down with recruiters, hiring managers, and HR leaders to really get into the weeds of their workflows. What’s slowing them down? What’s keeping them up at night? From there, HiredScore and Workday design tools in collaboration with users, making sure every feature actually solves a real problem.

And the benefits go beyond the product. “It’s also leading to better relationships and trust that we can build with the customer as well,” Ernest says. By rolling up their sleeves and working alongside their users, HiredScore and Workday are creating more than just software—they’re building a community of trust and collaboration.

People in This Episode

Jason Scheckner: LinkedIn
Ernest Ng: LinkedIn

Transcript

Kyle Lagunas:

Hello, my little blueberries and welcome back to Transformation Realness, the only show all about people who are doing their best to make the world at work less shitty and have the guts to share their story: the good, the bad, and most of all, the real. This podcast is produced in partnership with Rep Cap and hosted by yours truly, the ever inquisitive and delightfully direct, Kyle Lagunas, Head of Strategy and Principal Analyst at Aptitude Research, the leading boutique research firm covering HR tech and transformation. You’re welcome.

Now hold onto your headphones because this isn’t just any season of Transformation Realness. Oh no, my friends. This is something extra special. I’m thrilled to kick off a brand new miniseries, “Built on Workday: The Birth of the New HR Tech Ecosystem.” Here’s the deal. For years, Workday has been known for its tightly controlled unified platform, but the winds of change are a-blowing and Workday is leaning all the way into collaboration, opening up their ecosystem and inviting innovation to the party.

And trust me, the HR tech world is abuzz. For those of us who live for those behind the scenes shifts that change how we work, this is the equivalent of a front row seat to a Beyonce concert. The idea for this series has been brewing for a while and yeah, I’ll just go ahead and say it. I’ve been nudging Workday to embrace this kind of ecosystem strategy since way back in 2016 — and receipts are available upon request, honey. So when they rolled out the red carpet for partners like Paradox, Lightcast, GoodTime and HiredScore, and doubled down on platforms like Extend to empower customers with innovation, I knew it was time to dig in.

Over the course of this miniseries, I’ll be talking to some of Workday’s most strategic partners: the game changers, the innovators, the why didn’t we think of that sooner problem solvers about what this bold new ecosystem strategy means.

We’ll unpack how collaboration is driving real innovation and talent acquisition, workforce planning and skills transformation and why it’s about more than just integrations. It’s about building a future where tech actually empowers HR and talent teams to drive business outcomes without getting buried in complexity. And the best part, all of this was recorded live from the back of Workday’s Forever Forward Bus, fully equipped for audio and video podcasting. That’s right, girlies. You’ll be able to catch all these incredible conversations in their fullest glory on the Transformation Realness YouTube page. So go ahead and like and subscribe if you haven’t already because this series is one you don’t want to miss.

All right, so what can you expect? First up, we’re diving into AI driven Talent Orchestration with HiredScore. We’ll talk about how they’re helping recruiters do more with less and enabling organizations to make smarter, faster workforce decisions.

Next, we’ll tackle interview chaos with GoodTime because let’s face it, interviews are often the wild west of hiring and they’re bringing some much needed structure and intelligence to the process.

Then we’re switching gears to chat big-picture with Dave Wachtel, GM of Talent Products at Workday. Dave will give us his inside scoop on Workday’s vision for this new ecosystem and what it means for customers and partners alike.

After that, we’ll hop back on the Workday Bus for a conversation with Lightcast about skills-based transformation, the buzzwords everyone’s talking about, but few are doing well. Spoiler alert, they’ve got some powerful insights about how skills can actually connect the dots between hiring, learning and workforce planning.

Finally, we’re closing out the series with Paradox, where we’ll dig into how conversational AI is transforming high-volume hiring, scheduling, and making candidate experiences a little more seamless. Trust me, this one’s a mic drop moment.

The bottom line, whether you’re an HR leader, a tech enthusiast, or just here for the tea, this series will give you an insider’s look at how Workday is changing the rules and why this matters for you. Expect bold insights, practical takeaways and a whole lot of sass because well, this is still Transformation Realness after all. So buckle up, grab your favorite beverage and get ready for some real talk about HR transformation. It’s Workday like you’ve never heard before. Let’s get into it.

What’s the tea, honeybee? For our first episode, we are exploring what happens when one of the most exciting AI Talent Orchestration platforms joins the Workday family. That’s right, HiredScore is now officially part of Workday and their combined vision for smarter, more agile talent management is nothing short of inspiring.

I’m sitting down with two brilliant minds from HiredScore, Jason Scheckner, Senior Director of Business Strategy and Ernest Ng, Senior Principal and Product Strategist. We talk about what happens when AI Talent Orchestration becomes more than a buzzword. We’re digging into how HiredScore’s helping organizations go beyond matching and scoring candidates to delivering what they call “iconic outcomes” which I absolutely love.

Think recruiter efficiency, workforce agility, and yes, total Talent Orchestration and with Workday’s platform and ecosystem in the mix, the potential to transform how work gets done has never been bigger. Grab your headphones or play this loudly and on public transportation. I don’t care. Your fellow passengers won’t mind at all, trust me. And anyway, let’s dive into a conversation that’s as inspiring as it is game changing.

Hello, besties. Welcome back to an extremely special episode of Transformation Realness, live coming to you from this sick bus. It’s actually a bus. We’re sitting in the back of it podcasting, thanks to our friends at Workday. They have a full ass studio set up for us and it’s kind of surreal. I’m sitting now with two of my absolute besties, my friends coming from HiredScore, a Workday company now. Jason and Ernest, welcome onto the show. You guys want to say hi?

Jason Scheckner:

Yeah, it’s great to be here. So excited to be with you always in Las Vegas, but especially here in the Workday bus and spending some time talking about what we’re up to.

Kyle Lagunas:

Yeah. Hi Ernest.

Ernest Ng:

Hi. Who the hell are you? I’m just grateful to be here and grateful to always have a conversation with you as well. So thank you for having us.

Kyle Lagunas:

Yeah, I love it too. Well, look, we’ve been working in this space for a long time, right? We know that a lot of these major HCM players, they are a bit of a walled garden. It’s really tough as best-in-breed providers to bring as much impact to your customers as you’d like without partnership. I thought it was really cool that Workday, which has also followed that historical same pattern of, we’re going to be really slow and really intentional with who we do let in. I wanted to talk for this miniseries about this major push into partnership. I just think it’s a different kind of market leadership and I know that customers are really excited about it. We saw it rising last week, just how many people were spending time in the partner booths and then of course, HiredScore is a shining example of that partnership because now, you are not just partners, you are workmates. You’re part of the team.

Jason Scheckner:

Yeah.

Kyle Lagunas:

How’s that been going?

Jason Scheckner:

It’s amazing. I mean, even if I just go back to when we looked at this and we said, “How do these companies come together?” I mean, first of all, nearly 60% of our customers were already using Workday.

Kyle Lagunas:

Yeah.

Jason Scheckner:

We’d been through that partnership process over several years. We had gone through certification and I think that felt good because again, to your point, Workday felt like they were taking that next step to allow key partners in that were impacting their customers. We felt like we were doing that. And I think what’s been exciting, probably maybe unexpected, is now on the inside, the unexpected integration like WoWs, the value alignment for instance, the leadership, the people, the direction of the company. I think those are the things, obviously, being acquired is exciting, but when you get on the other side and you’re actually going through it and you’re saying, “Actually this is a really good home for us.”

Kyle Lagunas:

Yeah.

Jason Scheckner:

And really exciting opportunity to continue our vision that we are building on for the last 11, 12 years.

Kyle Lagunas:

Yeah, I mean, I see it. I know you all really well and I know the Workday team really well. I do feel like there is really good cultural alignment. There really is just a strong entrepreneurial spirit here, a lot of really intelligent, very passionate collaborators. But you guys are having a lot of fun.

Jason Scheckner:

Yeah.

Ernest Ng:

Oh, yeah, for sure. One of the things that I think we all share, Workday and HiredScore, is really the focus on the customer, bringing great value to the customer. And I think that’s something that we’re seeing and we’re actually being able to create much more within Workday as well. And then as that partner community opens up and expands, I think the value as Workday and what we can bring to our customer expands as well. And so we’re able to and deliver that value for the customer.

Kyle Lagunas:

Ernest, were you a customer of HiredScore before you joined the team? I can’t remember.

Ernest Ng:

I was not a customer of HiredScore.

Kyle Lagunas:

Okay.

Ernest Ng:

I tried. Jason and I tried to-

Jason Scheckner:

Tried very hard.

Ernest Ng:

Very hard-

Kyle Lagunas:

It’s like moving mountains-

Ernest Ng:

… for a long, long time. It was like a seven-year journey of trying to get HiredScore into Salesforce, but eventually, we’ll do it.

Kyle Lagunas:

Yeah, I couldn’t remember. The reason I ask is, as you guys at HiredScore have had a long history of being willing and able to work with any partner in the space, even partners that might be a little bit competitive in nature, right? And so I can only imagine how, I mean, frustrating it would be to be like, “Look, we could do so many incredible things with you if you would only partner with us in more than just a standard partnership.” Which I think is really exciting about the program Workday’s building is those people that are consistently driving results for their shared customers, those that are consistently showing integrity and cultural alignment, that’s what’s driving that partnership. Getting them closer and closer because we have that. It’s built on trust, right? So it’s really cool. Well, let’s talk about what HiredScore actually does instead of just gushing over like, “We are really happy here.” I’m glad to hear it, but for those that don’t know, what is HiredScore? What do you guys do?

Jason Scheckner:

Yeah, I mean, so we’ve talked about it as AI Talent Orchestration, and that journey has been very interesting because you have this inflection point I think a few years ago with talent intelligence coming to market. And obviously, that can mean a lot of different things to people we’ve talked about.

Kyle Lagunas:

It’s a very ambiguous term. Yeah.

Jason Scheckner:

It can mean a lot of things, but I think if you asked the average person, they’d say, “Oh yeah, we know what talent intelligence [is].” And credit to Athena, who obviously isn’t with us today, but she really, when we made a decision-

Kyle Lagunas:

She’s just not here. She is still alive.

Jason Scheckner:

Oh, yeah. She’s alive.

Kyle Lagunas:

Oh, my God. [laughs]

Jason Scheckner:

I just meant not physically here. But when we looked at the market, there was this opportunity to become another platform and there were so many people going in that direction. And I think we said, and again, credit to the team, “The world doesn’t need another platform, doesn’t need another system. Orchestration is the opportunity to make the systems, the tools that people have, more successful. How do you make the people who use them smarter, faster, quicker? How do you make the data inside?” And that’s actually one of the great things about Workday is because it’s a platform, because of their data strategy, it’s actually a great home for us because we can build on top of the hard work they’ve done. And that is differentiated, in my opinion, so far from what I’ve seen. And so-

Kyle Lagunas:

I mean, as a product strategy for sure. I mean, I think a lot of people were leaning into “platform.” I’m doing air quotes over here to try and grow TAM, to try and grow, I don’t know, market cache. They thought if we call ourselves an AI powered enterprise level platform, it became meaningless.

But I do remember when Athena told me, “Hey, we are actually investing heavily. We’re building out a market leading integration layer. We want to be able to integrate with any application, with any vendor because that’s what our customers need.” And no one else was willing to do that. That’s platform, to me. You know what I mean? That’s what we really are talking about.

Jason Scheckner:

For sure. And so going back to what does that do then, right? I’m telling you what the name of it was, but what it meant for our customers is that we’re actually able to deliver these things. We talk about iconic outcomes. But okay, you’ve got Workday, you put HiredScore on top of it, maybe you have other vendors, maybe you’re betting heavy on Workday. It didn’t matter to us because again, our goal was to take whatever-

Kyle Lagunas:

Because you also had customers at Oracle, you have customers at SuccessFactors, you have customers…

Jason Scheckner:

And we’ll continue to do that-

Kyle Lagunas:

Yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely.

Jason Scheckner:

… which is exciting. But what was interesting is, it was about taking whatever your bets were and putting the AI on top of it, the orchestration layer, and then driving the outcomes. And so for us, we call that iconic outcomes, Kyle. We were focused on, how do you augment the recruiter? How do you change how a hiring manager works? It’s one of these personas that we call it a non-HR persona, but they have to do a lot of HR work and your processes run through your managers. If you want to deliver great outcomes to your org and you have thousands of managers you’re interacting and you miss that persona, that’s a big miss.

Kyle Lagunas:

Yeah.

Jason Scheckner:

And so those are the types of things we are bringing on top of these solutions to employees. Meeting people in the flow of work was a big bet for us in the last couple of years. And so orchestration was about, take the data, take the observable processes, take the policies, take the personas, run AI on top of it, and then focus on driving the actual outcomes. And they have been huge wins for our customers. So that’s really what we’ve been up to and it’s been great.

Kyle Lagunas:

Well, I mean I actually do want to dig into this because what you said at the end, you’re having a really great time with your customers. You actually, I haven’t seen vendors that do as much co-innovation with their customers as you do. Your customer’s like, “Oh, can we orchestrate this? Can we orchestrate that?” Da, da, da, da. I mean, I think we looked at the product roadmap at Forward last year and there’s a whole bunch of new stuff, and I just love that you all were able to say, “Oh, and by the way, we’re already doing it with this customer who’s right over there if you have any questions for him, how it’s going. We’re here.” A lot of providers in the space like to talk about innovating for their customers, but they’re really not getting down on the ground and rolling up their sleeves. They’re not invited to that level of collaboration. You guys have built a lot of trust with your customers.

Ernest Ng:

Yeah, I think it really shows with that co-innovation where you’re actually digging into their processes, understanding their pain points, really trying to figure out what their outcomes that they’re trying to achieve. And with that, designing the process in collaboration with them. And it’s not just leading to better product, but it’s also, like you said, leading to better relationships and trust that we can build with the customer as well.

Kyle Lagunas:

Can I ask? I thought you guys were matching and scoring AI. I thought that’s all HiredScore was. When they announced the acquisition, there was just a lot of “meh.” I think from some detractors in the space, some real cynics that they’re like, “No, this isn’t that big of a deal.” The story that you all just talked about for AI orchestration, a lot of people I don’t think realize that this was part of the current delivering-

Jason Scheckner:

Totally.

Kyle Lagunas:

… vision. It’s not just future. So you guys are actually doing these things. How has joining the Workday organization helped to accelerate that vision, to get more awareness, to make that more than just ideas we have. You were already delivering, but I imagine now the scale of opportunity in front of you is massive, right? You have a lot more people raising their hands. Can we talk a little bit about, because that journey did happen actually very quickly, right? You were still selling matching and scoring, you were still selling Fetch, right? And those were great features that had a lot of material value for your customers. The story evolved really quickly, right? I’m thinking like 2021, 2022.

Jason Scheckner:

Yeah, for sure. What’s interesting about it, and actually connects to the prior question too, about how do we partner. What’s interesting is, well, two things I’ll say. A) Surprisingly, recruiter efficiency is still a problem. So even the things that we built and took to market 10 years ago, are still really relevant. I don’t think it’s like, we’re just catching up with the late bloomers now. It’s really still an issue in companies. Hiring needs change and their volumes change and they are profitability problems-

Kyle Lagunas:

And the market and the world that we live in has completely changed.

Jason Scheckner:

Totally.

Kyle Lagunas:

Yeah.

Jason Scheckner:

Yeah, and the systems change, the data changes and the priorities change. So what’s interesting is the core thing that we start out with is still really relevant and it’s exciting to see Workday bringing that to market and how people are responding even to the things we’ve been doing forever and the scale that we can do that at. That’s been amazing. But to your point, I think a lot of people didn’t know the other things we were doing because the name sort of begets, “Hey, we’re doing recruiting work.”

Kyle Lagunas:

No one was even talking about orchestration two years ago.

Jason Scheckner:

Correct. So now, what’s interesting, and this goes back to the collaboration piece is, when you do a great job and you earn their trust and you make their recruiters more efficient, then they go, “Hey, could you help me with this problem?” And that’s where Fetch came… Fetch became, “Hey, we are scoring your candidates. Can you also help us find candidates?” So that’s easy. We turn the AI at your rediscovery… Yeah. Then people, “Well, you did that with our external candidates, can you do that with our employees?” Then all of a sudden, you’re solving internal mobility problems and “Hey, you’re helping our recruiters be way more efficient. Can you help our managers change their work?” And so we move from recruiter effectiveness-

Kyle Lagunas:

You’re working with our full-time workforce, could you help us with our contingent workforce?

Jason Scheckner:

Contingent labor. Exactly. And so you’re seeing it. And so now today we have an entire- what’s exciting is, we had an entire suite of solutions prior to the acquisition. And what’s been really fun for me at Workday is, we’re not just, in my view, we’re not just like a bolt-on piece that adds to the end of their skew list, but rather, Workday is looking at HiredScore as something they can integrate throughout their product. So think about Workday recruiting, think about candidate engagement, messaging, think about talent optimization, think about VNDLY and the contingent side, to your point. Think about workforce planning.

Kyle Lagunas:

Workforce planning maybe.

Jason Scheckner:

And then we’re not even talking about the Fin side yet, who knows? But then the HR side-

Kyle Lagunas:

Don’t go over there. It’s boring.

Jason Scheckner:

Yeah. But on the HR side, there’s so many endless possibilities and that’s what’s really exciting for us. But to your point, it’s about building on those use cases and all the things that we’ve been able to do, and those are the outcomes that our customers know and love us for and probably doesn’t get enough coverage actually.

Kyle Lagunas:

Well, Ernest, I know that you and Athena had been really deep thought partners and really collaborating a lot on what is this new vision, I mean, before this acquisition. How do you find that your work is evolving? Are you feeling like a proud papa that all of these concepts and talk tracks that you’ve been working on are taking flight across all of Workday? Or are you feeling like, “Oh, now I’ve got a whole lot more evangelizing than I have to do internally?” How’s your role evolved?

Ernest Ng:

I mean, personally, I feel like a kid in a candy store. I mean, the opportunities are endless, just in terms of with the power of the platform, with the customer base that we have, with all the ideas coming in, we can really have an opportunity to transform how business is done and how HR is done.

Kyle Lagunas:

Yeah, in a real material way.

Ernest Ng:

In a real material way, not just making things a little bit faster, a little bit easier to do, but really transforming it with AI. I think that is the opportunity in front of us. And with all of these AI technologies that are out there that are developing really quickly, now the possibilities become wide open, right?

Kyle Lagunas:

Sure.

Ernest Ng:

And so I think we’re getting so much interest in AI, and I think for us, we really need to-

Kyle Lagunas:

Focus.

Ernest Ng:

What are those core use cases that can really impact and drive value into the organization and for the end users? And that’s really what we want to focus on.

Kyle Lagunas:

Yeah. I’m glad to hear it. I mean, focus is going to be really important, but I really like this concept you guys keep throwing out of iconic outcomes, that is the North Star. Let’s drive impact. So one of the questions I’m having for everybody, this theme for this show is, what are we building on Workday?

Jason Scheckner:

Yep.

Kyle Lagunas:

And I want to know what are some exclusive capabilities that maybe the Workday customer base has access to with HiredScore?

Jason Scheckner:

Yeah, so first of all, obviously, we have our certified integration on top of Workday, it’s world class. Workday is allowing us to continue to leverage those other third-party integrations, so none of that’s going away. I just want to make sure everybody knows that.

Kyle Lagunas:

Yeah.

Jason Scheckner:

But for Workday specifically, I think what the future holds are a couple things. One: customers already know and love HiredScore, excited about HiredScore, can look forward to a lot of the elements starting to show up inside of Workday natively.

Kyle Lagunas:

Yeah, because currently you guys… I mean, because I was a customer of HiredScore in the past. I remember that in recruiting, in the Workday recruiting, I could see the match score for applicants in the rack. But that was an iframe, right? That was…

Jason Scheckner:

Yeah, good question. So for all of our customers, all of our systems, we always put the grade inside the ATS natively. And that’s partly-

Kyle Lagunas:

But I couldn’t get the explainable AI from it, right?

Jason Scheckner:

Exactly, right.

Kyle Lagunas:

I could just see that score.

Jason Scheckner:

And so that grade was typically not only for user experience but also for, we’re big on responsible AI, you know that.

Kyle Lagunas:

Mm-hmm.

Jason Scheckner:

So it was for auditability, record keeping, any kind of reporting the customer needed to do. But yeah, we always had our UI on top of it, which is always bi-directional and we’ll continue to maintain that. But we’re starting to move some of those elements actually into Workday. So coming in this spring, for instance, customers will have access to candidate rediscovery. We call that Fetch inside of Workday. So that’s again, Safe Harbor that’s coming, I think R1 for Workday.

Kyle Lagunas:

Did you just say Safe Harbor?

Jason Scheckner:

Yeah, I said Safe Harbor. It’s a new term.

Kyle Lagunas:

This is the press, baby. Yeah. No, that’s exciting. I mean, you guys are delivering right away.

Jason Scheckner:

Yeah, right away. Fetch was such an easy choice to focus on right away because at the moment-

Kyle Lagunas:

Just so much utility in it.

Jason Scheckner:

…of the point of rec, which you’re already doing in Workday, the very next thing you do is you have a lead list and it’s right there inside of Workday, and it’s all the people that are already inside of your Workday. It could be your Workday recruiting, it could be candidate engagement, your prospects, your pools. So we’re connecting to those parts as well and rediscovering across all those object types to bring those people.

We can also connect to the HM side on internals. So again, there’s some really exciting things that’ll be available to customers. And then we are starting to connect to other talent acquisition objects. So we talked about pools, prospects will be available. We’ll have some bi-directional things there. Some of the native messaging that already exists inside of Workday that we didn’t leverage before, that’ll be available to customers. If they want to SMS, outreach to a prospect, a Fetch lead, they can do that now through Workday, which is really exciting.

Kyle Lagunas:

Oh, yeah.

Jason Scheckner:

We’re going to have, on the talent mobility side-

Kyle Lagunas:

Are you guys doing any orchestration there? Because I do remember looking at one of the use cases you had was, we’ve already reached out to these candidates. Or you could click and say, “Yes, reach out to these ones,” like a rec is open, let’s go ahead and get this started. Are you guys doing that in Workday too or is that just a HiredScore feature?

Jason Scheckner:

You mean in terms of following up with a candidate?

Kyle Lagunas:

Yeah, you mentioned SMS. I’m thinking, can I go ahead and kick off an engagement campaign right at the point of rec?

Jason Scheckner:

Yeah. So what’s exciting is, with candidate engagement now, which is the solution Workday has for non-applicant candidates, that’s a really nice way of saying CRM-lite. CRM. Well, actually, surprisingly, and I want to say this because I wasn’t here to say this, but I’m actually really impressed with it. I think my expectation coming in was, hey, maybe it is that, and by the way, I think customers are going to be pleasantly surprised that it actually has a lot of functionality. I’ve had a few customers move over into it.

Kyle Lagunas:

Okay. I don’t know…

Jason Scheckner:

I’m telling you.

Kyle Lagunas:

I mean, hey, for those that don’t know, I come from CRM. I worked at Beamery for two years actually and partnered with the HiredScore team. And I think that is where I see immediate value of bringing in a solution like HiredScore. It’s going to accelerate the utilization of these other capabilities that they have because of the intelligent automation that you are able to use.

Jason Scheckner:

Totally.

Kyle Lagunas:

Yeah. It’s going to be really interesting next CRM cycle.

Jason Scheckner:

And by the way, so just on the thing about the CRM side, we’re going to do the same things on the mobility side. So one of the other things coming up soon is HiredScore will be offering our AI for talent mobility solutions. So that connects to the internal employees. So we’ll be able to rediscover those. We’ll be able to outreach to employees, contact their managers and let them know that their employees might be eligible for opportunities. And we’re going to actually connect that to Workday’s talent optimization. So things like Career Hub will actually have bi-directional connection with HiredScore and we’ll actually, I think in the near future, even be offering HiredScore based recommendations natively inside of the Workday Career Hub.

Kyle Lagunas:

See babe, this is why I said that this was the biggest deal since Oracle bought Taleo. Because I really do see the utilization of talent and workforce applications in Workday being rapidly accelerated with a solution, like a deeply embedded solution like HiredScore. It’s really exciting for you guys. I’m sure the Workday teams, product teams are really excited, but I bet you their customers, those HR and talent leaders that are working tirelessly to try and improve talent retention, try and improve internal mobility rates, trying to… They’re like, “Oh, thank God. I don’t have to do all of this heavy lifting.” Right? I mean, it’s really solving for-

Jason Scheckner:

And by the way, sneak peek.

Kyle Lagunas:

Yeah? Is this under embargo because we’re literally on a podcast.

Jason Scheckner:

Safe Harbor.

Kyle Lagunas:

Yeah. I don’t know what that means.

Jason Scheckner:

No, we’re even connecting, we’re already starting to work on connecting to VNDLY. So you talked about the contingent side?

Kyle Lagunas:

Yeah.

Jason Scheckner:

How long are people going to talk about total talent? But that’s the power of a platform like Workday, where you actually have a recruiting system, you have contingent talent. We’re going to actually be able to look at an employee, a contingent worker and external talent, and start to say, “Who’s the right talent for this role, regardless of the talent type, and how do we connect that across the different data sets?”

Kyle Lagunas:

Oh, imagine getting even further than that, where it’s like, “Oh, we opened a rec. This is a high priority role or skillset. I’m going to immediately put out somebody from contingent so we can close this gap right away. In the meantime, we have these candidates we can start moving with.” That is, that’s total talent.

Jason Scheckner:

It’s not science fiction.

Kyle Lagunas:

Oh, no. I mean, that’s a use case you could actually deliver, right?

Ernest Ng:

It’s actually not very far off.

Kyle Lagunas:

I know.

Ernest Ng:

You just think about-

Kyle Lagunas:

It’s exciting.

Ernest Ng:

… the power of adaptive planning. You can build these plans, you can actually put-

Kyle Lagunas:

And then activate it.

Ernest Ng:

Exactly. Yeah. You can actually activate these workforce plans and put them into the system. Let the agent run. Let the agent really work through that and actually deliver the outcomes that you’re looking for.

Kyle Lagunas:

Super cool. You guys are making it really hard for me to be industry agnostic, but whatever. Everybody knows I have a big crush on you. All right, cool. Well, before we wrap, anything that you guys want to make sure that we leave with?

Jason Scheckner:

No, I think hopefully as people are listening, they’re hearing the excitement. We have what it means to be, I think, Workday’s differentiated and I think we feel like it’s a great home for us to be able to add value to people and have a second look back at what’s actually happening. And by the way, I know you’re going to talk with Workday more, but that discounts, by the way, all the work they’re doing on their partnership ecosystem, their extensibility, their ability to build on Extend. I’ve been blown away by that. I mean, as a third party coming in, what customers are doing on Extend is so cool to see and the solutions they’re building. So it’s exciting times. We’re really optimistic about the potential.

Kyle Lagunas:

I am too. I mean, look, I track innovation for my job, but I also am a little bit different as an analyst because I feel like the ethos of companies is part of leadership too. That’s part of not just what are you building, but who are you? And all of the partners that we’ve talked to this week, there really is just this, I don’t know, deep sense of connection. We’re coming together to solve problems together.

Jason Scheckner:

Yep.

Kyle Lagunas:

There is co-opetition in the space and everyone’s acknowledged it. They’re really comfortable with this. And I, I don’t know, I just feel like that is super unique. I want to see more of this, which is why I’m kind of leaning into this conversation-

Jason Scheckner:

I love that.

Kyle Lagunas:

… this week. People are like, “Oh, you love Workday.” I’m like, “No, I want to put a spotlight on what’s happening here,” because any one of these other major vendors can be doing this same thing and should. The customer matters more than anything else. They have been through the wringer the last several years. Let’s put their needs before anything else. And guess what? You’re going to make a ton of money if you can do that. It’s not just like, “Oh, we’re going to be totally idealistic.” It’s like, no, this I do really think is the ethos of partnership as a customer to solution provider that we need to see more of. I’m really excited about it. Thank you guys for coming on the show.

Jason Scheckner:

Always a pleasure to be with you.

Ernest Ng:

Pleasure. Sounds good. Thank you.

Kyle Lagunas:

And that is a wrap. A huge thank you to Jason and Ernest for joining me and giving us an inside look at how they see AI Talent Orchestration rewriting the rules of HR and talent management.

Here’s what I’m walking away with. It’s not enough to just automate or optimize. The future is about delivery, outcomes that matter. Whether it’s helping recruiters to do more with less, empowering managers with better data, or enabling organizations to make smarter workforce decisions.

And thanks to HiredScore’s deep integration with Workday, customers, I think, are getting access to a whole new level of capability and insights. Big thanks to our friends at Workday for hosting this episode, and to you, my fearless listeners for tuning in. I’ll be back soon with more bold conversations and stories about the people, platforms and ideas driving transformation in the world of work.

Until next time, stay curious, stay focused, and keep pushing for those iconic outcomes. Catch you on the next one.

Tags AI, skills, Talent, talent acquisition technology

Blog

Announcing Aptitude’s Human-Centric AI Council: A New Initiative to Put HR in the Driver’s Seat in AI Innovation

Post author By Kyle Lagunas
Post date December 11, 2024

I’ve been getting lots of requests for predictions this time of year, and it’s been an absolute whirlwind of a year in our industry. AI is everywhere all at once—and we’re only just beginning to see how much it can do in HR and talent.

After 15 years tracking innovation cycles in HR technology and research trends in talent, I can honestly say I have never seen things move as fast (or as dramatically) as they have in the 24 months.

We are, quite literally, at the cusp of total and complete transformation of how HR and talent functions operate. And I’m not sure we’re quite ready for it.

Here’s why: For the last three years Aptitude Research surveyed HR and talent leaders about the greatest obstacles they face when it comes to the adoption of AI, and the leading response every year has been gaps in the HR organization’s understanding of AI and automation.

Figure 1 – Obstacles to Adoption of AI in HR, 2024

But the future of HR is undeniably intertwined with AI. As we look to 2024 and beyond, AI is poised to become the largest area of tech investment within HR, with 61% of organizations planning to increase their AI investments this year. While the opportunities presented by AI are vast, however, the pace of innovation has far outstripped the guidance and clarity many HR leaders need to confidently determine where and how to utilize AI.

And in the absence of established best practices, the potential pitfalls AI presents to HR—issues like the introduction of bias, lack of workforce readiness, lack of clear ROI—are stalling HR innovation at a pivotal moment. Lacking technical expertise and AI literacy, more and more HR and talent teams are being relegated to the stakeholder seat when it comes to AI and tech innovation.

My big question—and something I’ve been talking about with HR, talent, and tech execs all year—is, “How can we ensure the ethical, effective, and equitable use of AI in HR if HR doesn’t have a seat at the AI table?”

So… Yeah. It’s clear that AI will play a central role in the evolution of HR, but I’m worried that we’re headed down a path where HR leaders and talent professionals are offering input from the sidelines when it comes to how we utilize these rapidly evolving capabilities.

In a perfect world, we are working closely with our colleagues in IT, Legal, Compliance, and Operations to ensure AI is implemented and adopted in a way that serves the needs of businesses, the well-being of the workforce, and the fair and equitable treatment of candidates. But in reality, HR is increasingly relegated to the stakeholder’s seat–that decisions about how AI is adopted are being made by others. And now, more than ever, it’s critical that HR is in the driver’s seat.

So what are we going to do about it?

Announcing Aptitude’s Human-Centric AI Council (HCAIC)

Today, I’m excited to share we’re embarking on our own HCAI Initiative with the launch of a new program: the Aptitude HCAIC, a deeply collaborative, practical, and forward-thinking effort dedicated to supporting HR leaders in the responsible, ethical, and effective utilization of AI in HR.

Whereas we’ve hosted Research Councils in the past—bringing HR and talent execs and consultants together to shape and inform Aptitude’s Research agenda—this is a more focused effort dedicated to empowering HR and talent teams in the evaluation, implementation, and utilization of AI.

We believe AI should augment human workers and enhance human experiences—not displace human workers or over-automate important interactions. And who is better to inform and share best practices in this way than talent, HR, and technology leaders who have experience doing these things?

To ensure that AI technologies in the HR space are human-centric—prioritizing workforce well-being, fairness, equity, and productivity as we embrace the future of work.

Our Council is founded on three core principles: leadership, trust, and accountability. We’re starting strong with 10 founding members, all exec-level HR and talent practitioners who have been navigating these challenges and opportunities firsthand in global enterprise organizations.

At the heart of this Council is a commitment to ensuring that AI solutions are developed with human-centric values in mind. We want to move beyond just making HR processes more efficient—we want to ensure that AI enhances HR stakeholder experiences (candidates, employees, etc.), fosters equitable people practices and processes, and drives positive organizational outcomes.

As we move forward, our Council will focus on creating a framework for ethical AI practices, which will include establishing clear guidelines and standards for vendors and practitioners alike. By leading the way in this space, we aim to raise the bar for AI solutions that will have a lasting, positive impact on both the workforce and the organizations that rely on them.

It’s a mighty effort we’re undertaking—and we can’t do it alone. That’s why we’re also thrilled to announce our initial underwriter, GoodTime, whose support will help us get things off the ground. Together, we have spent the last couple of months assembling a collective of visionary and expert practitioner leaders who are committed to ensuring that AI in HR doesn’t just drive exceptional results, but also aligned with the values of fairness and inclusivity.

To kick off this exciting initiative, we’ll be hosting our inaugural “Session Zero,” where we’ll workshop the HCAIC’s first-year agenda. This session will bring together our founding members to identify key challenges in the AI adoption process, crowdsource best practices, and create a roadmap for the future for this effort.

Together, we’ll lay the foundation for an initiative that will (hopefully) help to shape how our industry approaches the integration and augmentation of AI into HR.

Ramping Up: What’s Next for Aptitude’s HCAIC
The HCAIC’s mission is not about regulation or lobbying—though these will be important efforts for our industry in the future. Rather, we’re more focused on empowering HR and talent leaders with the knowledge, tools, and connections to utilize AI responsibly and effectively. This Council’s value is built on collaboration, education, and practical guidance to ensure AI enhances the human elements of human capital and talent management

As part of our ongoing efforts, we’ll host virtual- and in-person meetings to connect, build relationships, discuss emerging topics, and set the agenda for our quarterly summits. These quarterly deep-dive sessions will tackle specific issues including discussions of what’s working, what’s not, and what we need to get ahead of, and will also identify opportunities for co-innovation between solution providers—on their own and with their partners.

We’ll also host “town hall” webinars to share notes with our colleagues, produce annual white papers to share key insights, highlight emerging best practices, and offer guidance on the most critical AI and HR trends. Our work will culminate in quarterly memos that share the Council’s perspective with the wider industry.

A Call to Action for HR and Talent Leaders: Join Us
The shift toward AI-powered HR is not just a trend—it’s a movement, a snowball effect that is already reshaping the way we work. We are inviting HR and Talent leaders, Technology and Change Management experts, and HR solution providers in Tech, Consulting, and Services to join us as we navigate this transformative journey. By coming together, we can ensure that HR isn’t just a stakeholder but a driving force in the conversation about how AI will shape the workforce of tomorrow.

Together, we believe we can create a future where AI is not only powerful but human-centric, where innovation is guided by ethical standards, and where HR has a clear and confident voice in shaping the technologies that are transforming the industry.

Join us in leading the way forward. Help us ensure that AI in HR serves people—not just processes. The time to lead from the practitioner’s seat is now.

Tags AI, HR Technology, Human Resources, Innovation

Blog Podcast

AI Is Here, Baby: How HR Leaders Can Harness It Fairly

Post author By Kyle Lagunas
Post date November 26, 2024

On this episode of Transformation Realness, Kyle Lagunas is talking with Keith Sonderling, former commissioner at the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). Keith is a trailblazer in HR tech policy, and believes HR leaders are uniquely positioned to guide organizations through the responsible adoption of AI tools.

“Everyone wants to make this world so difficult to understand, where you know you’re not going to be able to keep up with it, so ignore it and just implement it,” Keith says. “Or on the flip side … it’s too complicated, so let’s just not move forward.”

Neither of these attitudes is the right approach. We can’t afford to avoid AI, but we need to assume its risks, too. And that’s exactly the thoughtful, balanced approach that Keith spearheaded during his time as EEOC commissioner. “If there’s ways to help us make employment decisions more fair, more transparent, and without bias, we should be all for that,” he says.

Keith and I cover everything from AI’s role in amplifying HR’s effectiveness to the importance of HR literacy in these new technologies. Whether you’re overwhelmed by the rapid pace of change or excited about AI’s possibilities, this conversation will leave you with actionable insights on how to lead responsibly in this evolving space.

Special thanks to the team over at Glider AI. Without their sponsorship, all these juicy insights would have stayed on the show floor at HR Tech! Thankfully, we were able to bring them to you… Yay!

AI Isn’t Creating New Decisions — It’s Just Making the Old Ones Better

First things first, let’s address the elephant in the room — AI in HR. Keith made it crystal clear that this train has left the station, my friends. AI is no longer some far-off, futuristic concept in our world: It’s here, it’s real, and we better start figuring out how to use it the right way.

That’s why Keith wants to address one of the biggest misconceptions about AI: that it’s fundamentally changing HR processes. “At the end of the day, AI has not created a new employment decision,” he explains. “All AI is doing is either making those for you or giving you more data, augmenting it.” AI isn’t inventing new ways to hire, promote or fire‌ — ‌it’s enhancing the decisions HR has always made by providing better, more transparent data.

But with innovation comes fear: fear of bias, fear of lawsuits and fear of the unknown. Keith acknowledges this but challenges HR leaders to reframe the narrative. “If we don’t move to this, we’re going to stick with the status quo, and the status quo has issues within itself,” he warns. By addressing these risks head-on, HR can use AI to make employment practices not only more efficient but also more equitable.

HR Professionals Are the Stewards of AI in the Workplace

Let’s get one thing straight: HR is no stranger to high-stakes decisions, and Keith believes that HR’s role is only growing. “It doesn’t matter what industry you’re in: HR is highly regulated,” Keith says. “But that’s where I’ve been trying to empower everyone in the HR functions, saying you’ve been dealing with a much higher risk area your entire career than other parts of your business, because you’re dealing with people’s ability to provide for their families, to enter and thrive in the workforce.”

That’s why, as we enter the AI era, Keith believes that it’s your time to step up as trusted guardians of your business and its people.

And that means you can’t sit back and let someone else figure out the tech. AI literacy is a core competency for HR and talent acquisition — because we’re not just here to make sure AI complies with the law. We’re here to align it with our company’s values, ethics and vision. This is our time to lead, and we can’t afford to miss the opportunity.

Bringing the Government and HR Worlds Together, Finally

One of Keith’s biggest wins during his time at the EEOC? Bringing government regulators and HR pros to the same table. “The EEOC is the biggest show in town for HR technology. And the EEOC … was completely absent,” he admitted. Keith didn’t just sit behind a desk during his tenure. He got out there‌ — ‌talking to everyone from venture capitalists to HR leaders to ensure the voices shaping workplace technology understood what was at stake.

Keith believes most companies want to do the right thing, but making that happen requires partnership and open dialogue. Keith showed us what it looks like to create a bridge between innovation and regulation. And here’s the kicker: HR pros are the best ones to walk that line. We understand the people side and the compliance side, which means we’re uniquely qualified to steer this ship toward a future where AI serves everyone.

The future of HR is all about embracing responsible AI, and Keith brought that message loud and clear. We have a unique opportunity to be the stewards of trust in our organizations, to make sure AI is used to build a better, fairer workplace for everyone. HR isn’t just about compliance anymore — it’s about being leaders in this new era of work. So let’s lean in, get literate, and guide our companies toward a future where AI serves us all responsibly.

People in This Episode

Keith Sonderling: LinkedIn

Transcript

Kyle Lagunas:

Hello, my little blueberries and welcome back to Transformation Realness, the only show all about people who are doing their best to make the world of work less shitty and have the guts to share their story: the good, the bad, and most of all, the real.

It’s produced in partnership with Rep Cap Media and hosted by yours truly, Kyle Lagunas, head of Strategy and Principal Analyst at Aptitude Research. Hiee.

Our talent Transformation Ecosystem is made possible thanks to the team over at Glider AI, who so kindly offered to sponsor us. In da club, we really are all fam.

Today’s guest … Oh, it’s a reunion, folks. I am joined by none other than Keith Sonderling, commish, my very first podcast guest. Yes. Maybe you recall. But this time Keith is fresh off a major career move having just wrapped up his term as commissioner of the EEOC.

Yes. The man is technically unemployed. But if you know Keith, if you are familiar with his work, then you know that the world is literally his oyster at this moment. And it is a huge honor that he took a moment to sit down with us while he was scoping out what’s next.

This episode today is packed with real talk about the intersection of AI, HR and civil rights, and honestly, how Keith’s leadership has helped HR professionals embrace tech without losing sight of ethics. We riff on the evolving role of HR, the rising need for AI literacy and why doing nothing isn’t an option when the status quo is, well, kind of dumpster fire.

From the struggles of mental health accommodations to the challenges of getting AI adoption right, this conversation is one for the books. Let’s dive in.

I’m really excited to be joined by a dear friend, dare I say colleague, Keith Sonderling.

Keith Sonderling:

Thank you for having me. I’m really excited to be chatting with you in this really nice booth and setup you have. We’ve done this podcast virtually, but now we’re doing it live.

Kyle Lagunas:

For those who don’t know, who are you, Keith?

Keith Sonderling:

I am Keith Sonderling, formerly the commissioner of the United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. I’m no longer the commissioner. My term ended, but my desire and passion to stay in the HR space lives on because I’m here live at HR Tech in Las Vegas.

Kyle Lagunas:

Let’s go baby. Let’s go. So, you’re technically unemployed right now?

Keith Sonderling:

I am unemployed and a good place to be unemployed at an HR conference with a lot of recruiters. At the EEOC, you have terms.

Kyle Lagunas:

Didn’t get fired.

Keith Sonderling:

It was a term, and the term came to end, and I only wanted to do it one time. So, to continue on, I’d have to be renominated and go through the Senate confirmation process, which I could have done. I just knew I wanted to do it one time, make a big impact and leave. And I think that’s really important in these roles. But they’re not career positions. I mean, a lot of these high-level government jobs.

Kyle Lagunas:

It would inevitably, the leadership in the role would stagnate or it would warp. There’s just too much vulnerability in being in that position of extreme authority and influence. I mean, there have been many people who have been in your role who have done really important work in the commissionership. But especially at this point in time when artificial intelligence is literally everywhere and compliance is literally all over the place.

And I mean, I’m a geriatric millennial, so what do I know about the history of HR? But I feel like it has never been this hard and your leadership in this space, especially around the use of AI in HR, there hasn’t been very much federal legislation to regulate the use of this to inform the ethical and responsible use of it.

But that hasn’t stopped you from going out and talking about, well, look, and I love what you always say, “Position of EEOC has not changed. You cannot discriminate based on gender and race and religious background.” And I just feel like it has been really powerful for you to come out and say, “In the absence of legislative guidance, I’m going to come out and give you” … The story is the same. And you actually did it with confidence and with humility. It was really refreshing in our space.

Keith Sonderling:

I think you could write my biography of my time in the EEOC. How much do I have to pay you? Thank you. But in all seriousness, when you get in these jobs, especially at the EEOC being the regulator of HR, you realize that, like in HR there’s always fires to put out. There’s always something distracting you from the next big issue.

And I think what was important for me getting into this role coming off COVID, coming off the Me Too movement, coming off all these lingering issues with pay equity, is how do we be proactive? How do we get ahead of the next biggest issue in HR, instead of being reactive, which is a lot of what HR is, just because that’s the nature of the job. There’s just always something going on. There’s always something to distract you.

So, that’s why I picked up HR technology and artificial intelligence in the workplace. I was really the first regulator to talk about AI in this space, and really one of the first regulators broadly to talk about the implications of AI. And when I got into it, like you, I’m a very big fan of a lot of the software. I think if there’s programs, if there’s ways to help us make employment decisions more fair, more transparent, and without bias, we should be all for that.

But a lot of the negativity from AI and workplace technologies leads the conversation, especially out of DC, “Oh, it’s going to discriminate. Oh, it’s going to take all the jobs.” And look, all of that is possible, but we have to balance that with a positive side of it as well. So, that’s what I started digging into it as a worthy cause to take up.

And to what you alluded to, everyone wants to complicate it. Everyone wants to make this world so difficult to understand where you’re not going to be able to keep up with it, so ignore it and just implement it. Or on the flip side …

Kyle Lagunas:

Put your head in the sand.

Keith Sonderling:

… it’s too complicated, so let’s just not move forward. And I think both of those have problems. On the frontend side of that, if you’re saying, “Well, there’s too many potential risks of this and we don’t understand it.” Well, okay, let’s stick the status quo.

Kyle Lagunas:

You’ll never understand it.

Keith Sonderling:

Right. Right.

Kyle Lagunas:

You know what? Risk is the big fear. But I don’t actually find anybody … In the beginning, I feel like we are maturing very quickly here, thankfully. But people weren’t really evaluating risk. They were assuming risk and then avoiding it.

Keith Sonderling:

Or just saying, “We’ll deal with it later.”

Kyle Lagunas:

Yeah. Kicking it down the road.

Keith Sonderling:

Or we’re just not going to deal with any of these innovations and not take that risk associated with it. And I always argue that’s not great.

Kyle Lagunas:

Which completely de-risks their entire HR process, right?

Keith Sonderling:

Guess what? The way that humans have been doing this, no offense to everybody in this community, hasn’t been great to begin with. That’s why we’re at this conference. That’s why there’s so many innovative vendors in this space to make a very difficult process that has been not efficient, that has had serious bias issues, which is the reason the EEOC was created in the last two years, have collected $1.2 billion from employers violating these laws that there’s a problem.

And so, to not move forward into some of these technological advances that make these decisions not more efficient, not just better, faster hires, but actually removing bias and actually allowing workers to get the jobs that they’re the most qualified for and employers to actually fill those needs is something we should all be very positive on, and not just the negative.

So, one who is reframing it, too, and just saying, “If we don’t move to this, we’re going to stick with the status quo.” And the status quo has issues within itself. So, it’s just a different way of looking at this. But to your point where it really made the most impact is by going back to the basics and saying, “With all these fancy AI tools, with all these vendors out there, at the end of the day, AI has not created a new employment decision.”

There’s only a finite amount of employment decisions, hiring, firing, wages, training, promotions, benefits, demotions, terminations. There’s not a new one.

Kyle Lagunas:

No.

Keith Sonderling:

So, all AI is doing is either making those for you or giving you more data, augmenting it, all these different words. But at the end of the day, there’s an employment decision.

Kyle Lagunas:

The process hasn’t really actually changed.

Keith Sonderling:

Not at all. And in a sense, they’re changing in the positive where now you could actually go back and show exactly how you made that employment decision.

Kyle Lagunas:

Yeah. The how is changing.

Keith Sonderling:

Versus how we were worrying when you’re accused of doing wrong or making a bad employment decision, not just on the bias side, just, “Oh, why did you make this terrible hire?”

Kyle Lagunas:

And you have no documentation either way or the other?

Keith Sonderling:

And you have documentation. And then you’re defensive versus this is exactly what we looked at. At the time, this was the best decision, whether it’s lawful.

Kyle Lagunas:

This is what we looked at, specifically. This is what we didn’t look at, right?

Keith Sonderling:

Exactly. We didn’t have that before. So, in a lot of ways, it can help the whole process from start to finish. But that’s getting over the fear of that, “Oh, no. The government’s going to rue this.” “Oh, no. Our fear of class action lawyers, if we make this mistake is going to prevent us from implementing this stuff.” And I’ve really been trying to change the narrative there.

Kyle Lagunas:

So, do you think this AI thing’s going to stick then, huh?

Keith Sonderling:

I’ve said that it’s no longer a question, are you going to use AI in your HR process? Not just on the hiring side, not just on the recruiting offer side, but through the entire employee lifecycle, from performance reviews to management of the employees of what they’re supposed to be doing, to compensation determinations, to even termination decisions. We’re past that point.

It’s just reframing it. AI is here. It’s happening. You have to use it to stay competitive. But let’s just reframe the question to saying, “How are we going to use it?”

Kyle Lagunas:

Exactly?

Keith Sonderling:

“What are we going to use it for? What vendors are we going to get in bed with to make these very big decisions? And how are they going to ensure not only are they complying with the law?” that’s one part of it. “But how are you complying with your own company’s ethics, civility codes, moral conducts?”

Because every company’s different and they have to ingrain into your organization as well because they’re going to be the ones as if they’re your new hiring managers. So, they have to understand your culture as well and what your principles and ethics and beliefs. And that goes from the CEO all the way down to what that company believes and how hiring practices and performance practices should be done.

Kyle Lagunas:

Let me ask you. So, commissionership has wrapped. You are a free man. But I have to imagine, because you’ve done so much work, I mean, literally on the road every single week for most of the week, for the entire commissionership, what are you most proud of?

Keith Sonderling:

Being able to learn a trade, being able to learn a whole area that we are the sole regulator for. The EEOC is the biggest show in town for HR technology. And the EEOC before I started doing this and being on the road was completely absent. And what that allowed me to do was learn the entire, and I’m going to drop a tech word on you, ecosystem. And to be able to properly regulate this, to be able to properly look at it, you have to look at the whole chain.

And the EEOC, since the 1960s, has known basically three groups, unions, employers, staffing agencies, and a fourth obviously, employees and applicants. But now, you have VC companies and private equity looking to invest, and they don’t want to invest in products that are going to violate civil rights law.

You have the entrepreneurs who are smart enough to make this technology and help us solve this problem. They don’t want to build technology that’s going to violate civil rights laws. And then you have the people, like I joke around in the worst position, are the buyers, the companies who have to make that determination not only what vendor to pick, but then how to implement it within your organization.

And everyone was speaking different languages. Everyone was talking to each other from their perspective, but what was their interest in these products. And for me, I had to learn all those different considerations to be able then to properly say, “Well, here’s the landscape from A to Z. Here’s all the different concerns.” But at the end of the day, the most important concern is the civil rights implications of your applicants, of your employees, and you’re all involved in that. But we, the regulator, was nowhere to be found.

Kyle Lagunas:

Yeah. Right.

Keith Sonderling:

So, that’s why I did that. Not only to be able to get out there and learn the technology, learn various functions within HR that are very complicated that you don’t understand unless you practice there. Most DC people and lawyers like myself just don’t get. But also, leading some of my now closest friends, like you, and really just being able to ingrain myself in that.

Kyle Lagunas:

There’s a lot of heart in the space, isn’t there? You mean, honestly, the work that we do is really important, and I think that because it’s so hard and because it’s thankless, we forget how important the work is. You know what’s interesting though, I feel like there has been a parallel between your journey and the HR profession itself.

We have actually had to do that learning that you have done. We have had to lean in and figure out what is this? How does this work? What doesn’t this do? How can I use this responsibly and effectively at the same time? I’ve got to get something done. How am I going to do that? HR has been on that same journey. You’ve been right there with us.

Keith Sonderling:

And it’s amazing, too, because these governance terms that HR really never had any involvement in. And a lot of these keeping up with regulations and legislation, it’s just changed. Coming from DC, HR is now at the front and center of a lot of senators, the White House mind, where it wasn’t before the pandemic, it wasn’t in that.

So, it’s also a learning experience, too, for everyone in this community to hear directly from me, from DC saying, “I’m not making this up. These are the concerns of the agency. These are the concerns of Congress. These are the concerns of the White House. And it literally implicates your daily job.” And it’s just a new way of thinking where other industries, where other parts of the business are really involved in that regulation scene.

So, I think it’s a really cool experience for HR professionals now as their practice elevates. As you see CHROs now are the CEO’s best friend, like the CFOs wars getting on boards. Well, that’s part of, in a sense, growing up, is now dealing with this highly regulatory environment, which is across all industries. It doesn’t matter what industry you’re in, HR is highly regulated.

But that’s where I’ve been trying to empower everyone in the HR function saying, “You’ve been dealing with some much higher risk area your entire career than other parts of your business, because dealing with people’s ability to provide for their families to enter and thrive in the workforce. So, you’re familiar with this. This is what you know. We’re just now throwing all these fancy new terms into it.

Kyle Lagunas:

I know. HR has always gotten a pass for not being very tech-savvy and for implementing a new ATS or a new piece of software in HR. You just had to have a project team that knew how to implement the software, and that was enough. Not everybody needed to know what an API was. Not everybody needed to know what a custom field was. We didn’t need to know the software stuff.

But I feel like now AI literacy is a core competency for HR. And for talent acquisition, we are change agents ourselves. We’re not just policy police. We need to actually know what this stuff is in a way that matters in my day-to-day, because we’re stewards of a lot of these things and we’re the frontline for a lot of these things.

Keith Sonderling:

If you’re in the area, that’s easy to understand, and I don’t want HR professionals to lose sight of how impactful they can be, because when you think about practical uses of AI that companies are using, not just reviewing millions of documents or making shipping routes faster, everyone at some point has had a resume. Everyone has applied for a job. And that’s a familiar aspect for most employees. And now that you’re dealing with AI in this sense, you can lead it because you can explain it.

Kyle Lagunas:

We’re like stewards of trust in this new era. Oh, it’s so interesting.

Keith Sonderling:

Right. You talking about responsible AI, there’s so many panels on that. It’s such a hot topic. That’s where I’m encouraging HR leaders to say, “Well, here is an actual use you understand. Everyone’s applied for a job. Here’s how AI is going to impact that, and here’s how we’re going to do it responsibly within our organization,” versus if we said, “Well, here’s how we’re going to use AI to make a new pharmaceutical drug.” We wouldn’t understand anything of it.

Kyle Lagunas:

Nobody would. They’re really cool.

Keith Sonderling:

Versus, “Hey, here’s how AI is going to look at your performance review over the course of year.

Kyle Lagunas:

Yeah. Absolutely. Every single person can understand it. Yeah.

Keith Sonderling:

It’s not like people analytics software. And here, you can actually understand it. It doesn’t require an advanced science degree or math or finance. It’s dealing with humans and dealing with an aspect that everyone in every industry has dealt with.

Kyle Lagunas:

Right. Yeah. Right. Well, all right. Let me ask you, what’s one thing that you would have done differently? Or what’s one thing that sticks with you now?

Keith Sonderling:

I don’t know if it’s about doing something differently. I think it’s more about what else could I have tackled? And it took a lot of time to focus my efforts on AI because it’s just a global issue on the technology, all the different people involved. I call that my hobby. But the day job was dealing with all the cases of discrimination in the U.S. and the tens of thousands of new cases, 80,000 to 100,000 new cases every single year.

So, I think there’s still a lot of huge issues impacting HR that are at the forefront. And mental health in the workplace is significantly a bigger issue now for employers dealing with some of the accommodation requests that employees are asking, especially with a lot of the return to office mandates. So, there’s just always something that needs to be tackled, that you just don’t have the resources, you don’t have the time to. Everything, too, with pay equity and all the pay movements, there’s just so much to do and so much to tackle.

Kyle Lagunas:

The work’s not done.

Keith Sonderling:

The work’s not done. In a lot of sense, it’s not even started in a lot of these areas.

Kyle Lagunas:

Exactly. Yes.

Keith Sonderling:

You think about some of the issues still we …

Kyle Lagunas:

We’re just getting started.

Keith Sonderling:

… see the systemic issues with pregnant applicants and pregnant workers in the workplace, and some of the discrimination issues they face, disabled workers. There’s just always something. So, I wouldn’t say if I could go back and change anything, it’s just almost you need more time. The more resources you have, the more investigations we’d have in that sense so there’s always something.

Kyle Lagunas:

Well, I have a feeling that we’re still going to see you around, that your voice is going to carry through. But I also do hope that your, I don’t know if it’s successor, but the current commish, I guess, may I call them that? I hope that they see the value in the work that you’ve done and continue to carry that torch, because we need that level of guidance, but we also need that level of connection to our governing bodies. How can you effectively regulate anything if you aren’t connected to it in that kind of way?

Keith Sonderling:

Yeah. And I think I’ve used this position to elevate what government officials at my level can do. And whether it’s at the FTC or the SEC, you could use your position to go out there and people will listen. Instead of just using your position in court through government investigations or litigations, which is what these agencies normally do. You know why? Because it’s a home-field advantage.

Because I don’t need to tell you what to do. I’m the government. I have investigators. I have lawyers. At the end of the day, I can just file claims against your company, investigate it and go to court.

Kyle Lagunas:

You are so sued.

Keith Sonderling:

Right. And that’s how normally you don’t have guidance, you don’t know how to change versus, “Hey. Be proactive. Whatever industry you’re in, they will welcome you.” Because most employers, the vast majority of employers want to get it right.

Kyle Lagunas:

Yeah. They want to get it right.

Keith Sonderling:

They just need the tools to be able to do that. They really don’t want to be in the limelight.

Kyle Lagunas:

I love that. It’s not just like, “I’m afraid of getting it wrong.” It’s actually we want to get this right.

Keith Sonderling:

Right.

Kyle Lagunas:

Well, I love it. And honestly, this is why we’re friends, is because you are truly a civil servant. And I think that you’ve given so much to our space and your time. I can’t wait to see what you do next. I love you, buddy.

Keith Sonderling:

I love you, too. And I’ll be in this area. I’m not leaving. I’ll be still hovering above you, making sure you’re compliant.

Kyle Lagunas:

Well, you can’t sue me now. You can’t bring a case against me. All right. Well, thanks Keith. I’ll see you more soon, bud.

Keith Sonderling:

Thanks, Kyle.

Kyle Lagunas:

Well, folks, that is a wrap. If today’s conversation with Keith taught us anything, it’s this. HR isn’t just keeping up, it’s evolving. Whether it’s navigating bias, getting real about compliance, or becoming stewards of AI, there’s no room today for staying on autopilot. The status quo, mm-mm, not cutting it. Keith, huge thanks for joining me again, dropping wisdom reminding us that avoiding risk isn’t the answer. Navigating it is.

HR pros, the bar has been raised. AI literacy is no longer optional. It is an absolute must. He may be off the government payroll, but you better believe he’s still out here keeping an eye on all of us. Thanks for listening, my little blueberries, that’s all the time we have for today. Until next time, keep it real, keep it human and keep transforming. Catch you on the next episode.

Tags AI, employment, equity

Blog

Key Takeaways from Eightfold’s Cultivate Event

Post author By Madeline Laurano
Post date May 16, 2023

Last week I attended Eightfold’s Cultivate event in San Francisco. It was an impressive two days focused on the trends impacting HR Technology and the future of work, including skills, AI, and talent intelligence. One theme that stood out was the need to embrace change. With the shifts in the labor market and economic uncertainty, companies need to innovate and rethink traditional processes and technology. Companies at this event were asking the tough questions, finding a better way, and creating agile workforce strategies that harness skills and the power of AI.

Eightfold has set the pace for change and transformation in HR Tech. Its skills-based approach gives companies a complete view of talent while empowering individuals to control their career paths. Its platform includes solutions across talent acquisition, talent management, and contingent workforce management (Flex). These pillars are built on a talent intelligence platform which includes a skills matrix, explainable AI, and talent insights. And last week, Eightfold launched its Skills-Based Talent Planning- allowing companies to stay prepared and agile in determining short and long-term talent needs.

With over 1B profiles, 1M skills, and 1M titles, Eightfold has access to more data and intelligence than most of its competitors. Here are my top takeaways from Cultivate.

A Skills-Based Approach to Talent is Not Optional: Every company attending this conference was focused on a skills-based approach to talent. Skills are not a passing trend. It is the number one conversation happening in HR Technology today, and organizations that adopt a skills-first approach will be included. CEO Ashutosh Garg kicked off the event by discussing how skills and the power of AI are changing the nature of work. A skills-based approach can help connect talent to the right opportunities, personalize the experience, and provide more visibility into the workforce’s capabilities. Employers benefit from improved efficiency and stronger talent pools, while individuals benefit from greater opportunities to control their career paths. Skills provide a roadmap for the future and a bridge between talent acquisition and talent management. Aptitude Research found that companies that invest in skills development are:

● Twice as likely to improve retention

● Twenty-eight percent (28%) more likely to improve DEI initiatives

Skill-Based Talent Planning: One of the most exciting takeaways from the event was the announcement of Eightfold’s Skills-Based Talent Planning. This product was heavily influenced by customer input and direction and aimed to give companies the data and action they needed to plan. Many companies do not have visibility into talent, and workforce planning uses Excel spreadsheets once a year. As a result, decisions are made rapidly without any data or insights, often resulting in losing quality talent, layoffs, and missed opportunities. A skills-based approach to strategic workforce planning allows business leaders to understand how macro trends impact the needs of their organization. Eightfold feeds this insight into its Talent Acquisition, Talent Management, and Talent Flex solutions, allowing organizations to execute skills-based talent strategies at scale. Our latest study on strategic workforce planning found that although 85% of companies are investing the same or increasing their investment, only 14% take a strategic, long-term approach to their workforce planning initiatives. A skills-based approach is a game changer. It goes beyond providing insights and gives companies an action plan. Some of the benefits and differentiators include:

Scenario planning for the time required for skills and proficiency to develop in existing and emerging areas;
Redesign roles for the future and plan for how organizations should evolve over time;
Capture progress and fully execute on a coordinated talent plan by integrating with Eightfold Talent Acquisition, Career Hub, and the entire Talent Intelligence Platform.

Companies Need to Consider Providers with a Strong Commitment to Responsible AI: Companies invest in AI in talent acquisition and management, but not all AI providers are the same. Companies must consider ethical AI as they evaluate providers and understand if products operate transparently, are backed by explanations, describe the methodology, and frequently publish data. In addition, responsible AI builds confidence with employers and candidates who want to understand how their data is used. Scott Sumner with the Defense Innovation Unit under the Department of Defense (DoD) shared how responsible AI was an important consideration when evaluating Eightfold as the provider for its GigEagle program. GigEagle using Eightfold’s AI matching will increase DoD’s ability to effectively leverage its abundance of talent currently locked into supporting singular units. In addition, GigEagle will focus on staffing short-term “gig” project needs, ranging from four hours to several months, many of which can be staffed remotely.

Partnerships are Helping to Drive Change: Eightfold and its clients are not operating in a vacuum. They are part of a larger ecosystem that drives change and transformation in how companies recruit and retain talent. Partners that include Deloitte, EY, and Magnit are partnering with Eightfold to provide a skills strategy for clients to ensure they are changing their mindset and optimizing their technology investments.

It is an exciting time to be in HR Tech!

Tags AI, HR Technology, skills, talent acquisition, workforce planning

Blog

New Research: Evolution of TA Tech

Post author By Madeline Laurano
Post date October 7, 2022

The talent acquisition technology landscape has shifted significantly with new providers and categories entering the market and AI seems to be the common denominator. Companies are using, on average, 10 or more providers to support everything from recruitment marketing to onboarding. The interest and investment in AI show no signs of stopping, and today’s companies have more options and opportunities than ever before. But navigating this landscape and truly understanding AI’s impact has become increasingly complex even for the most sophisticated buyers. Companies are not always clear what solutions to consider and what drives results.

Aptitude Research has identified three trends that are influencing the TA tech market today:

TA tech investment is increasing. As companies increased their investment in talent acquisition technology in 2022, 70% stated they will continue to invest the same or increase this investment during a recession.
Business leaders are more focused on TA tech. Over 50% of companies state that business leaders are more focused on TA tech this year than last. With multiple stakeholders involved in decision making, companies must think more strategically about investments.
AI is here to stay. We have moved past the early fears of AI and employers, recruiters, and candidates are embracing AI-driven solutions. One in two companies believe that AI will improve the candidate experience. Companies must carefully consider the role that AI plays in transforming the TA tech stack and which providers take an ethical approach to AI.

Ten years ago, the talent acquisition technology market was comprised of multiple providers offering clear products in defined categories, including background screening, job boards, applicant tracking systems, assessments, and onboarding. Today, the market has exploded with hundreds more providers and new vendors entering each month. Additionally, the lines have blurred – many offer several solutions in talent acquisition or have created new categories of technology, making the buyer’s decision more complicated.

Our latest research on the evolutions of TA tech highlighted the following key findings:

Quality is a priority. For the first time in two years, quality of hire is the number one driver in technology investments over efficiency for 70% of companies. While efficiency is still critical for companies looking to improve time to fill and recruiter productivity, quality will see a renewed focus over the next year.

Companies are increasing investment even during an economic downturn. Seventy percent (70%) of companies plan to continue to invest the same amount or increase their investment in TA tech even in the event of an economic downturn. With remote work and recruiter experience challenges over the past two years, the demand for technology has never been greater. Companies see the value during both strong and weak economies.

Companies have more solutions but are less happy with them. Over 60% of companies are using more solutions today than before COVID, yet only 11% of companies are satisfied with this technology. The buying behavior over the past two years and companies must be careful when evaluating providers and consider true partnerships. Many of these companies are finding it challenging to implement and adopt these systems.

DEI needs to be more of a priority. Diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) was a key driver in technology decisions two years ago. Today, companies identified efficiency, quality, and experience over reducing bias. Companies should not sacrifice reducing bias. The right technology can solve for multiple outcomes in talent acquisition.

Not all AI is the same. Every provider in talent acquisition seems to be tackling AI, but companies must carefully consider the quality of data and ethical AI. Companies must provide due diligence when evaluating providers.

Candidates are embracing AI. One in two companies believe that AI is improving the candidate experience. And, nearly half of companies in this study do not know when they should use AI to support talent acquisition. For many companies, humans are still doing tasks that can be supported through AI, including communication and screening.

The next year will create more challenges and opportunities in TA tech and companies must carefully consider evaluating providers. We are excited about upcoming research reports that include hourly hiring, conversational AI, and the CRM Index.

Tags AI, HR Technology, talent acquisition

Blog Talent Acquisition Technology

HR Technology Conference: Key Trends and Providers to Watch

Post author By Madeline Laurano
Post date October 6, 2021

The HR Technology market is not slowing down. Companies are increasing their budgets, providers are launching new products, and investors are looking for their next opportunity. But, the landscape has changed overnight, and keeping up with the latest trends is not easy. Last week’s HR Technology Conference brought this community back together to bring clarity on the key trends, celebrate a year of resilience, and plan for what’s next.

New providers, new categories, and new opportunities were all represented at this year’s event. It was enough to get even the most traditional of HR buyers excited about innovation.

I was fortunate to meet with many providers, and a few themes stood out this year:

AI Matching and Talent Intelligence

It’s hard to find a conversation in TA tech that does not include AI matching. Every TA startup seems to be looking at this space, investors are interested, and companies want a better way to match candidates to jobs and jobs to candidates. Matching is the space to watch right now. ATS providers are enhancing their capabilities, but the two providers to watch are HiredScore and Eightfold. We found that 34% of companies stated that they are using some matching, and they are two times more likely to improve diverse sources and three times more likely to improve quality of hire.

HiredScore: One of the most impressive products and teams in talent acquisition today. HiredScore is committed to using ethical AI standards to help companies find and manage talent. In addition, it provides recruiters with a more efficient way to identify talent (both internal and external) and candidates with a fair and equitable hiring process.

Eightfold: Eightfold is a talent intelligence platform that includes talent acquisition, talent management, and talent flex (contingent workforce) solutions. It has grown significantly over the past year with 400 employees, 3 patents, and FedRAMP ready status.

Jobvite: Jobvite won an HR Top Product of the Year Award for its Zero Click Intelligent Sourcing. It automates sourcing efforts when a job requisition is first opened. The solution saves recruiters time while surfacing and activating qualified candidates from their CRM, Talemetry. Talemetry by Jobvite leverages AI-powered candidate matching to identify a list of top prospects found in a client’s CRM based on the requirements in the job description and reviewing previous hires from similar positions.

Assessments and Talent Intelligence

The assessment market is heating up again, and companies have better options today. Employee and candidate-friendly assessments that are still backed by science are the future of this market. It was exciting to see all of the assessment innovations at this year’s event. One provider that presented with Whirlpool was Plum. Plum empowers people to use their full potential at work. By looking at human potential data, they provide value to both recruitment and retention strategies. Its universal assessment is 25 minutes and supports the full talent lifecycle. As a result, Whirlpool experienced a 78% increase in the hiring of unrepresented minorities.

High-Volume Recruitment

Traditional recruitment technology and applicant tracking systems (ATS) are not designed for high-volume candidates. So, it is no surprise that 65% of high-volume recruitment needs are not satisfied with their current ATS. Most traditional ATS systems are designed for traditional corporate hiring and lack capabilities to support high-volume recruitment such as programmatic advertising, scheduling, or communication. High-volume recruitment technology must be simple, intuitive, and mobile-responsive. The fewer systems that companies need to manage, the better. Eighty-two percent (82%) of companies with high-volume hiring needs are increasing their investment in technology this year. Two providers to check out in high-volume are AMS Hourly and Fountain.

Hiring (Interview to Offer)

Hiring is one of the most critical and most neglected areas of talent acquisition. Companies invest significantly in recruitment marketing, sourcing, and ATS solutions but often ignore the experience and decision-making that begins during the interview and hiring process. Several companies are dedicated to creating a new category of hiring solutions. These providers offer innovative solutions in areas such as interviewing, assessments, measurement, and offer.

Wedge: Wedge provides on-demand video interviewing solutions to organizations in the SMB and mid-market. It offers seamless ATS integration, a simple experience, and a great team. It has invested in the product significantly over the past year with 12 new features.

HireVue: With its roots in digital interviewing, HireVue has evolved into a hiring experience platform with products and capabilities that include interviewing, assessments, conversational AI and communication (throughout the candidate lifecycle), and insights. It launched Builder this year, a product to support structured interviews and allow companies the flexibility to add their interview questions in this model. In addition, its Hiring Assistant (through the acquisition of AllyO) includes a recruiter assistant, scheduling assistant, and job search assistant. HireVue has also launched a text-to-apply feature and text-based assessments.

Compa: Compa was a favorite at this year’s event. A strong contender in the Pitchfest, Compa is transforming offer management by giving candidates more transparency around their offers and pay decisions. For any company struggling to find talent or hire talent because of pay, Compa is worth a look. It empowers HR and talent acquisition teams, to get smarter about the offer management process and connect with candidates in a more authentic way. Recruiters can use Compa at any stage in the talent acquisition process.

Conversational AI

If you follow any of our research, then you know how passionate we are about conversational AI. Conversational AI is not as complex or complicated as organizations may think. It is already an integrated part of the consumer experience and personal lives through assistants like Siri, Alexa, and others. It offers the same value and assistance to talent acquisition, and HR and over 40% of enterprise companies are considering this investment this year. The future of conversational AI is not in a point solution but in a platform that improves the employer and employee/candidate experience. Two providers that are doing this well include Paradox and Socrates.

Paradox: Paradox is a leading conversational AI. It continues to be the favorite in this market with its strong product roadmap, exceptional customer support, and vision for the future of TA. While many of its competitors have been acquired this year, Paradox is expanding its use cases beyond talent acquisition and helping build awareness of this category of technology.

Socrates: Socrates is a provider helping to solve the challenges facing HR, IT, and Employees. I was genuinely impressed with this provider and its innovative approach to employee experience through a conversational methodology. It uses technologies such as text, enterprise chat solutions, intranet portals, and voice. Socrates.ai is not a bot toolkit or another point solution. Instead, it pulls all your HR and benefits information together into one simplified hub. It cleans and rewrites all content to make it more relevant for employees and integrates with every major HR and communication platform.

Employee Experience and Feedback

My friend, Tim Sackett, wrote about the number of coaching providers at this year’s event. I didn’t realize how big of a category this was becoming but considering the events of the past year, it makes sense. Companies need to be able to provide better coaching opportunities to leaders. Sounding Board is one provider I met with that has a growing network of over 200 coaches and AI-powered admin tools and centralized data insights to deliver coaching at scale.

The other big category in employee experience and candidate experience is feedback. We found that only 1 in 2 candidates receive feedback in the hiring process, and most employees only receive feedback once a year during the performance review.

Joyous: Joyous, founded by Michael Cardin (Sonar6), allows employees to own their feedback and experience. Joyous has a straightforward goal…to make life better at work. Through conversations and building a culture of psychological safety where everyone feels comfortable with getting and sharing feedback. The original vision of Joyous was to support Agile organizations, but every company can benefit from this type of collaboration and communication.

Programmatic Job Advertising

Programmatic buying has changed the face of job advertising. It has helped companies save costs, streamline job advertising, target the right candidates and maximize ROI. While traditional job advertising increases spend, programmatic reduces it. Once companies move to a programmatic model, they are unlikely to go back to a manual one. Programmatic was a HUGE topic of conversation last week, and it is exciting to see more awareness for this growing category of HR Tech. Providers like Appcast, Pandologic, and Vonq are leaders in the space and all had a presence at the event.

Internal Mobility

Companies can provide a fairer hiring process and make smarter hiring decisions to enrich upskilling and internal mobility. Companies can also identify skills gaps across the organization to plan and prepare for the future. As companies look closely at their hiring strategies for 2021 and beyond, skills-based hiring and internal mobility is a priority. Unfortunately, many providers offer basic capabilities in this area that include dedicated career sites and personalized communication to internal hires. Few providers go deeper with skills frameworks and career development. This webinar will include new research on skills-based hiring and internal mobility. It will address the challenges that companies face, the strategies they should consider, and the technology that enables success. Worqdrive was another Pitchfest favorite that is tackling internal mobility and retention.

One other provider taking an innovative approach to HR Tech is GraceBlocks. GraceBlocks is designed for talent operations professionals. It makes it easy to build and deploy systems that work for users including simple HRMS extensions and fully designed tracking systems.

It is an exciting time to be in HR Technology and I am looking forward to 2022!

Tags AI, assessments, Blog, employee experience, HR Technology, TA tech

Blog Talent Acquisition Strategies

Eightfold AI: What’s Next?

Post author By Madeline Laurano
Post date June 11, 2021

Eightfold AI: What’s Next?

Yesterday, Eightfold AI announced a $220M Series E funding doubling its valuation to over $2B. This Series E funding round is led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2 and includes investors from previous rounds, including General Catalyst, Capital One Ventures, Foundation Capital, IVP, and Lightspeed Venture Partners. Total funding raised to date by Eightfold AI is more than $410M, with more than $350M coming in the last several months.

A provider that most people didn’t know existed a few years ago is now the one we can’t stop talking about in the market. All eyes are on Eightfold to see where it is going and who it will compete with next year.

Eightfold is a talent intelligence platform that offers a comprehensive suite of talent acquisition, talent management, and talent analytics solutions. As companies look at skilling and upskilling their workforce, Eightfold provides deep insights across all talent includes employees, contingent workers, and candidates. It has expanded from an AI matching solution to an end-to-end talent platform in a short period. As a result, any conversation around HR technology today involves Eightfold in some way.

I have a few early thoughts on the recent announcement and Eightfold’s growing presence:

What does this mean for the market?

A New Look at Integrated Talent Management: Integrated Talent Management or ITM makes me cringe a little. As an analyst, I spent nearly a decade covering ITM and the benefits it brings to companies. While the idea makes sense, the reality is that most providers could not make this happen. Most providers fell short with numerous acquisitions (that were never integrated) and attempt to offer recruitment, performance management, succession planning, compensation, and learning. Eightfold’s approach is different. It is looking at using an AI-driven platform to help companies recruit, engage, and retain talent in a way that solves for what they need rather than check a box. In addition, having one provider for both pre-hire and post-hire solutions will look different under Eightfold.

TA Tech is Growing: It is a good time to be in TA Technology. This sentiment is the theme of this year. We found that 1 in 4 companies are increasing their investment in technology, and 34% of enterprise companies are using some AI matching capabilities. As companies increase their investment in technology, they will build out tech stacks that can improve efficiency, reduce bias, and enable better decision-making. And, they want to invest in one provider to do most of the work, which makes Eightfold an appealing option.

Talent Intelligence Is a Growing Category: Eightfold is helping to bring awareness to a newer area of HR technology- talent intelligence platforms. This latest round will create more visibility around what these solutions can do and how companies use them today. Eightfold’s position here will also help many of its competitors gain traction in the market.

What this means for the future of Eightfold?

Expanding Partnerships: This latest round of investment will help fuel research and development as well as partnerships with third-party providers. The ecosystem is complex, and many ATS providers have built out marketplaces to support clients. Eightfold is likely to move in a similar direction.

Moving into Contingent Workforce: One of Eightfold’s differentiators supports all talent, including contingent workers. As 1 in 2 companies look to replace their VMS and explore better options, doubling down on contingent workforce capabilities may prove to be a smart decision for Eightfold.

Replacing the ATS: I don’t think most companies aspire to be ATS providers, but with the valuation and investment, Eightfold will likely move in this direction to become the end-to-end recruitment platform and compete (and replace) many ATS providers. I don’t see this happening this year, but I think the ATS providers know this is possible in 2022. Eightfold already appears in many of the competitive CRM deals today.

It is unclear what Eightfold’s plans are for this latest round, but we can expect more research and development and possibly an acquisition or two. A $2B valuation puts tremendous pressure on this provider to acquire new customers and fulfill its product roadmap. Time will tell. I will post an update on any new developments in the next few weeks.

Tags AI, HR Technology, talent acquisition

Blog

Mathematical Curiosity and the Future Workforce

Post author By Madeline Laurano
Post date March 8, 2019

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.

Tags AI, analytics, reskilling workforce, workforce

Blog

It Is a Good Time to Be in HR Technology

Post author By Madeline Laurano
Post date February 13, 2018

Last week was a big week with some major announcements about investment in HCM. First, Workday announced a $250 million venture fund with investments to go into early and growth stage providers focused on topics such as AI, blockchain, and machine learning. This announcement not only demonstrates Workday’s growing leadership in all things HCM but it also enables startups to develop better products and expand their customer base. Less obvious announcements from last week include Gartner’s decision to sell its talent assessment business (through the acquisition of CEB – which acquired SHL) to private equity firm, Exponent, for $400 million. Not to mention, investment raised by Joveo ($5 million), gr8people ($8 million), and ZipRecruiter ($50 million). Investors recognize the opportunity and the demand for better solutions to attract, engage, and retain talent. And, it is a good time to be in HR Technology.

Here are some of the areas where we see the most investment:

– Recruitment Marketing: Interest in the recruitment marketing space has not died down. Investors recognize that recruiting is evolving the same way marketing evolved several years ago. They are looking at solutions that offer one platform for engaging, nurturing, and connecting with talent before they ever apply for a job. Research we did last year found that 1 in 3 companies are increasing their spend on solutions that handle everything before someone applies for a job.

– AI: The topic of AI is pervasive in HCM. Yet, most companies are still confused by what AI is and how it can be used to solve talent management challenges. Companies are curious about the value of AI and what use cases they should consider. But with so many providers entering this space, it is challenging to know who to consider. Hopefully, some of the investment in AI will help to provide clarity around AI and differentiate some of these providers.

– Blockchain: The topic of blockchain is everywhere and not just because of the buzz around Bitcoin. Essentially, blockchain is a database that is not stored in just one central location but is everywhere- making the data easier to maintain. Sourcecon published a great article recently, where it explains Blockchain in this way: “Imagine a Google or Excel sheet you’ve shared with your recruiting team to track hiring activities. Your sheet updates automatically in real time, it’s asynchronous, and everyone has access to the ability to update it.”

– Employee Recognition: At one time, an area where investors seemed to tread lightly, the employee recognition market has really taken off. Investors recognize that employee recognition is the key driver of employee engagement and are looking at solutions that enable social recognition, feedback, and peer-to-peer interaction.

We will continue to watch the investment in this space are we are excited for the opportunity it presents providers and practitioners. Our friend, George LaRocque, does an exceptional job of covering the investment in this space. We also recommend checking out his research and publications on this market.

Tags AI, blockchain, employee recognition, HCM, HR Technology, recruitment marketing

Blog

Why iCIMS’ Acquisition of TextRecruit is a Big Deal

Post author By Madeline Laurano
Post date January 17, 2018

When you think about iCIMS, “risk taker” might not be the first thing that comes to mind. But the NJ-based provider has demonstrated its ability to push the envelope and drive change more than many of its Silicon Valley peers. And its recent acquisition of TextRecruit, the mobile recruiting platform, is no exception. Colin Day, CEO, has taken significant risks over the past 10 years, including turning down investors and potential acquisitions in favor of organic and consistent growth. iCIMS has taken risks with its messaging, marketplace, and products – including moving away from an integrated Talent Management suite in 2012 to refocus on strategic talent acquisition.

iCIMS understands that Talent Acquisition is complex enough to deserve its own suite of solutions and its own conversation. Its acquisition of TextRecruit continues this commitment to helping companies attract and recruit talent.

If you are unfamiliar with TextRecruit and wondering what this means for Talent Acquisition…here are a few reasons why we think this is a big deal:

Product Leadership: iCIMS is much more than just an ATS. By announcing that TextRecruit will continue to operate as a wholly-owned subsidiary, servicing and integrating with other systems based on their clients’ needs. It is expanding its customer base and leadership in Talent Acquisition.
Enterprise Market: iCIMS, like many other next generation Talent Acquisition systems, has been making a play to move up market. TextRecruit, with over 400 enterprise customers (including several existing iCIMS clients) gives iCIMS more credibility in the enterprise market.
Candidate Communication: According to research Aptitude Research Partners conducted in 2016, 47% of employees are not even opening their emails from HR departments. Companies need to find new ways to communicate with candidates via text, AI, and chat. TextRecruit will give iCIMS’ customers that option.
Market Consolidation: Consolidation is inevitable for Talent Acquisition. Companies are using too many providers to do too much of the same thing. iCIMS is the first provider to make a significant acquisition and setting the stage for end-to-end Talent Acquisition.

iCIMS’ strength is in its deep expertise in Talent Acquisition and its exceptional customer service. As it continues to move up market and expand with this new acquisition, maintaining strong customer satisfaction and high customer retention will be challenging but critical to its continued success. 2018 is already proving to be an interesting year in Talent Acquisition technology.

Tags AI, ATS, HR Technology, recruitment marketing, talent acquisition