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Questions to Ask During a Merger or Acquisition

colleagues shaking hands

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Blog Talent Acquisition Strategies

The Forgotten Workforce: New Research on the Hourly Candidate

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

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

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

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

The average rating on Glassdoor is 3.4.

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

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

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

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New Research: Pre-Hire Assessments

Digital Transformation in Talent Acquisition
Digital Transformation in Talent Acquisition

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

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

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

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

The Goals:

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

The Strategy:

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

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

The Results:

P&G was able to achieve the following results:

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

Shorten the interview process by ~2.5 months

Cost savings of 80% per assessment

Enhance candidate experience by reducing time needed

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

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iCIMS INFLUENCE Event: Esurance Competes for Tech Talent

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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A Love Letter to Startups

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

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

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

I wasn’t wrong.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Blog Talent Acquisition Strategies

iCIMS Announces a New Framework for Talent Acquisition

The talent acquisition technology market has experienced significant transformation over the past few years with new products, providers, categories and startups. It is an exciting time to be in the recruitment industry but at the same time, it can feel incredibly overwhelming as companies try to understand what a modern technology stack should include. Furthermore, a lot of organizations are stuck with the technology they have today and aren’t able to switch off systems that aren’t meeting their needs.

Models have been created to show the breadth of products companies need to include in end-to-end talent acquisition, but most don’t align with the priorities or strategies that talent acquisition leaders have in place. And, many of the providers tend to overcomplicate an already complex market.

iCIMS is one provider that is committed to helping meet clients’ needs within the talent acquisition market. It has announced a new framework that helps to simplify the market with a new product portfolio for customers to invest in solutions that they need at the stage that they need them. The portfolio includes three suites: recruitment marketing suite, advanced communications suite and a hiring suite (after a candidate applies for a job). These suites can be integrated with other applicant tracking and HR systems.

The Recruitment Marketing Suite: By definition, recruitment marketing includes the activities and strategies to nurture and engage with talent before they apply for a job. According to Aptitude Research, 70% of companies are investing in recruitment marketing this year yet, only 2% of companies are using all of the functionality that their provider offers. Recruitment marketing needs to be simplified. iCIMS customers can leverage recruitment marketing capabilities through dynamic career sites with iCIMS Attract, and through a CRM (what iCIMS is calling its Nurture product). These capabilities were made possible through the Jibe acquisition iCIMS made earlier this year.

The Communication Suite: 1 in 2 companies still use email as their primary form of communication with candidates and 62% of candidates never receive any communication from employers. iCIMS is helping companies improve this through “live communication” with iCIMS TextRecruit which includes chat, text and social media messenger and iCIMS ARI (Automated Recruiter Interface) which uses artificial intelligence to automate repetitive, high-volume tasks like candidate screening and interview scheduling.  

The Hiring Suite: This suite of solutions includes recruiting, offer and pre-onboard. This suite includes the ATS capabilities as well as communication and compliance that needs to happen with employees before they join an organization. Aptitude Research found that the growth of the ATS market remains strong at 10% with companies looking to invest in true partners.

With several acquisitions over the past few years including TextRecruit and Jibe, iCIMS is providing clarity about its offerings and flexibility around how companies can adopt technology solutions to meet unique needs. It simplifies the talent acquisition technology market and makes it feel more manageable to companies that are confused with where to begin. These suites are supported by a unified platform with access to a marketplace of hundreds of providers that integrate with these core suites.

 

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New Research: Talent Acquisition Buyer’s Guide for the SMB Market

George LaRocque and I have been busy this past month research trends in how SMB organizations evaluate and select talent acquisition technology. While so much focus has been on the enterprise market, SMB organizations, in many cases, are rethinking their tech stack and focusing on innovation. And…they have great options. That Talent Acquisition Buyer’s Guide for the SMB Market sponsored by Verified First and JazzHR, published last week and we are sharing some of the key findings on a webinar tomorrow. Below is an overview of what we plan to cover:

 The talent acquisition technology landscape continues to evolve every year with new providers entering the market and traditional providers expanding their offerings. Evaluating and selecting the right technology partner is becoming increasingly complex as companies try to navigate this new landscape. Additionally, business leaders are putting more pressure on talent acquisition to make strategic decisions and demonstrate the value of their investments.  According to Aptitude Research’s 2019 Talent Acquisition survey, companies are using up to 20 different technology solutions and only 38% of SMB companies are measuring the ROI of their investments.

SMB organizations face a unique set of challenges when evaluating technology solutions and finding a partner has become challenging for many smaller organizations that do not always know what options they have available in talent acquisition. Small to mid-sized companies are rethinking the way they identify and attract talent in order to align more closely with business objectives. They are shifting their priorities and investing in technology that will improve quality of hires, recruitment efficiencies as well as the candidate experience. And, more importantly, they realize they do not need to sacrifice one for the other. According to Aptitude Research’ 2019 Talent Acquisition study, nearly 70% of SMB organizations invest in technology that is up to date with consumer technology and 80% of SMB organizations want solutions that will help to improve the candidate experience.

This webinar will help organizations answer the following questions:

–        What is the current state of the talent acquisition technology landscape?

–        Who are buyers for talent acquisition technology at SMB organizations?

–        How can buyers gain the support of senior executives in their organization?

–        What is the key criteria for selecting talent acquisition technology?

–        What internal and external questions should companies ask before selecting talent acquisition technology?

 I hope you can join us!

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Blog Talent Acquisition Strategies

Google Hire: What Went Wrong?

“We’ve made the difficult decision to sunset Hire by Google on September 1, 2020. While Hire has been successful, we’re focusing our resources on other products in the Google Cloud portfolio.”

If you work in talent acquisition, you probably heard the news. Google Hire (once considered “the future of the ATS market”) is shutting down. It comes as a surprise since just last year it was the most popular topic in the ATS industry among thought leaders, competitors, and companies. If anyone could disrupt the talent acquisition market, it had to be Google. The plan was to gain momentum in the SMB market and then eventually move up to the enterprise market. It seemed to be working, and enterprise companies seemed very interested. But two years later, the company decided to sunset the brand and got out of the ATS business.

Before we focus on what went wrong, it is important to start with what went right.

What Made Google Hire Great?

In 2017, Google launched its Hire product and gained immediate attention as being THE de-facto ATS for small companies, inevitably replacing providers like Lever and Workable customers. Its main differentiator was efficiency. Companies could “Hire Faster with Google,” and it was able to prove this through various case studies and ROI examples. Lola reported that they could hire talent in seven days, and Trader Interactive was able to save recruiters five hours a week of administrative work. In a time when showing the value of tech is becoming harder and harder, Google Hire seemed to figure it out. And it wasn’t just efficiency that Google did well. It was also interview scheduling, candidate profile, and analytics. It integrated with the Google Suite of products. It was simple, and based on a candidate-centric model.

So, What Went Wrong?

Although Google’s decision to exit the ATS market may seem sudden, the wheels seemed to come off the bus earlier this year. A few things stand out:

-Google has a long history of killing products, including products that appeared to be successful. Some people call it the Google graveyard. Over the past few years, it has shut down Google Hangouts, Google Trips, Google +, Google Allo, Google Notification Widget (called Mr. Jingles), Google Goggles, and Google Weather. And these are just a few examples. Google Hire now joins this list.

– Bogomil Balkansky, who was the VP of product for Google Hire and connected to most people in the industry, seemed to go on some type of sabbatical last year. Sabbaticals happen especially at companies like Google, and his reasons may have been personal but taking time off when a product is gaining so much traction is unusual.

-Most of Google Hire’s clients appeared to be in the tech market. While having clients at innovative companies is exciting; anyone that has sold tech to tech knows that it is hard work and challenging to scale.

– Google for Jobs started to raise some concerns. Over the past two years, Google has faced over $9 billion in anti-trust fines and Google for Jobs is now under fire for claims that it is unfairly pushing users to its services and away from other third-party sites.

What Happens Next?

Now that the future of the ATS market looks a little different, what can companies expect over the next year?

Current Customers: Google is extending contracts up to a year for current clients. Customers will have a year to figure out where they want to go next.

Competition: The ATS market has always been competitive, but Google’s announcement has added fuel to the fire. Providers like Workable and RecruiterBox are aggressively going after these Google Hire customers. HireHive posted this message on Twitter: “Google Hire is shutting down. Well, at HireHive we’re not planning on ‘sunsetting’ our platform, ever. And we’re offering every Google Hire customer a free account for six months.”

LinkedIn: Last year, LinkedIn announced it plans to develop an ATS for small companies. Google’s exit could allow LinkedIn to gain market share and establish itself as a leader in the ATS space.

Above all else, the Google Hire story highlights the tremendous opportunity providers have in the SMB market. Too often, providers try to move upmarket, chasing large deals and customers. But, what they forget is that SMB companies want to change and either has no system or a homegrown product. Providers that stay committed to this market can achieve significant growth.

 

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Blog Talent Acquisition Strategies

New Research: Digital Transformation in Talent Acquisition

Eightfold AI: What’s Next?
Eightfold AI: What’s Next?

I have worked on some very exciting research projects over the past 15 years but our latest research on Digital Transformation in Talent Acquisition might be my favorite to date. Aptitude Research and Alexander Mann Solutions partnered together to create a report that would cover both the digital transformation roadmap as well as the digital transformation landscape. Below are some of the key highlights from the report (which is available now):

1. People are the Foundation of Success When it Comes to Transformation: Digital transformation is successful when companies are prepared and have the right support to ensure consistency and adoption. Too often, companies focus on the technology and ignore the role of change management and the impact of existing services to enable a successful digital strategy. The design of digital transformation has to have the user at its center. It takes strong leadership, planning and expertise to successfully implement real change, yet only 17% of companies in Aptitude Research’s study stated that senior leaders were confident in their current strategies to support digital journeys. Additionally, only 32% of companies have the internal resources they need and only 26% of organizations have the budget they need to support digital transformation (Aptitude Research, 2019 Talent Acquisition survey).

2. Companies Achieve Success When They Start Small: The greatest mistake organizations make with a digital transformation is starting out too big. Organizations should consider a focused approach with one or two areas of talent acquisition and even start within a single early adopter business unit. According to research conducted by McKinsey in 2018, only 16% of companies stated that digital transformation had successfully improved performance and 8 in 10 of organizations stated that digital transformation was too wide in scope. Organizations that are able to adopt agile project methodology, which has the user at its center, have a better chance of delivering a positive experience. Even more important than the initial project is ensuring that organizations have the budget and infrastructure to manage continual improvements, deliver incremental changes based on user feedback, and align business needs to a set of core design principles.

3. Brand is a Critical Component of a Digital Strategy: Digital transformation provides opportunities to show candidates and employees more about an organization and establish trust and partnerships. Yet, only 29% of companies believe that brand plays an important role in digital transformation (Aptitude Research, 2019 Talent Acquisition survey). When embracing digital technology, companies need to align their strategy with employer branding efforts and organizational culture, as well as consider the role of branding throughout the entire candidate’s journey from recruitment marketing to onboarding and new hire engagement. Consistency of messaging is critically important in a digital transformation.

4. Most Companies are at the Early Stages of Digital Transformation: Over 50% of companies in all regions said that they consider themselves to be in the early stages of digital transformation either just starting their journey or implementation process (Aptitude Research, 2019 Talent Acquisition survey). It is critical for these companies to develop a strategy to achieve success in adopting digital solutions. Industries that have the most mature digital transformation strategies in place include retail, technology and manufacturing according to Aptitude Research. Companies beginning the process should look at these industries for lessons learned and best practices. The true benefit and bi-product of digital is to enable relationships and human interactions.

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Blog Talent Acquisition Strategies

Shaker International Merges with Montage: Reshaping Talent Acquisition Technology

Today marks a significant shift in the talent acquisition technology landscape. Shaker International, a leading assessment provider, has merged with Montage, a leading provider of candidate interview and hiring solutions. The new company will be co-headquartered in Delafield, WI, and Cleveland, OH under the leadership of Kurt Heikkinen as CEO and Brian Stern as President. The merger is designed to enable organizations to make better decisions through the combination of science, data, and technology.

According to Aptitude Research’s 2019 Talent Acquisition survey, 58% of hiring managers stated that they don’t have the data they need to make decisions around talent. This announcement is helping to solve a critical need in the market.

The HCM market has undergone numerous mergers and acquisitions over the past decade. While some provide value to customers and prospects, others fall short. According to research by Harvard Business Review, the failure of mergers and acquisitions is  somewhere between 70% and 90%. A successful merger will require alignment of goals, a commitment to the customer, and a willingness to change the course when needed. Below are my early thoughts on what will make this merger successful and what customers can expect in the future.

–          Deep Understanding of the Partnership: In this case, the merger is based on mutual respect and a desire to expand both products and customer base. These providers do different things. So, they don’t have to manage conflicting interests or compete with each other internally. They have taken the time to truly understand each other’s businesses and share similar values and goals for the future.

–          Common Culture: Both Shaker and Montage are Midwestern companies that have sustained growth while innovating to meet the needs of the market. Montage has innovated through its scheduling and interview capabilities and Shaker through its predictive assessments and Virtual Job Tryout. After spending time with both companies over the past decade, I can say that this is a natural fit.

–          Similar Customer Base: Both providers target enterprise companies. The combined company has hundreds of customers and 47 of the Fortune 100. This combination will give these companies more options from a single provider.

–          Short-Term and Long-Term Goals: Establishing both short-term and long-term goals is a critical part of any merger. In the short-term, the providers will maintain separate brands, and the companies will remain intact with separate sales, customer support, and product teams. In the long-term, we can expect to see a holistic view of the company.

–          More Insights: Unlike acquisitions, mergers are successful when both providers thrive. This merger gives both companies better data and insights to help grow their products and support customers. The combined company has over 15 million candidates and enable over 1 million hires in over 20 languages in 200 countries and territories this year.

This merger is helping to reshape and reimagine how organizations hire. But, it also has the potential to change how organizations invest in technology. Companies can start to think less about filling a category and more about solving a business challenge. Over the next year, this combined company will need to adjust to changes along the way and carefully consider future branding and customer requests. We will keep you posted over the next few months.

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