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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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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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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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Employee Benefits: Your Greatest Recruiting Tool

This week, I attended the Health and Benefits Conference in Vegas where I participated in the Ideas and Innovators session. The event addresses topics such as wellness, benefits, and retirement, and I focused my discussion on how companies can turn their benefits programs into their greatest recruiting tool.

Talent acquisition has changed as the competition for talent increases. And while companies are increasing their investment in ways to attract and engage talent, they aren’t always asking the most basic question:

“What makes a candidate want to join our organization?”

The reality is candidates want what employees want. They don’t want free food, a game room, or weekly lunches with their managers. Beyond salary, most candidates want flexibility in their work options, opportunities for growth, and to be treated fairly. They want the basics.

In research we conducted last year, companies identified benefits as a top reason that candidates decide to join their organization. So, how can companies start to use their benefits programs as a way to attract talent? Below are a few suggestions:

–          Include benefits information on company career sites: Companies should include information about benefits programs on the career sites they use to attract candidates. This information needs to be visible to candidates when they are doing their research on a potential employer.

–          Empower employees to be champions of benefits programs: If your benefit programs are good, employees are going to want to talk about them with friends and former colleagues. They will help to drive employee referrals. If your benefits programs are not good, it might be time to start empowering employees with better solutions. These efforts will boost recruiting and retention strategies.

–          Create more options: Benefits programs should not be a one size fits all approach. Employees have different needs and different expectations from employers. When creating messaging around benefits programs, it will be helpful to show different options available to support employees including wellbeing programs, maternity leave, financial wellness, and retirement plans.

Sometimes the best way to attract talent, is to focus on the basics and solve for what candidates want. By improving benefits programs, companies are addressing both the needs of employees and the needs of candidates.

 

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The Modern Talent Acquisition Function: Roles and Responsibilities

As talent acquisition becomes more complex, the role of the recruiter and the recruiting function must evolve. Recruiters must juggle multiple hats to be successful. No longer just focused on relationship-building or administrative tasks, the modern recruiting function requires a new set of skills and competencies that often seem contradictory. Just take data analysis and relationship-building as one example. Talent acquisition professionals need to build long-term relationships with candidates, interpret data, sell and market their employer brand, and consider a more flexible workforce- all responsibilities that did not exist a decade. While these responsibilities present new opportunities for talent acquisition departments to align with business goals, it can also create confusion around what roles are critical for a modern talent acquisition department.

Aptitude’s latest research looks at the evolution of the global talent acquisition function and identifies several roles that are helping to influence strategies, technology decisions, and the candidate experience. Below are some of these roles and how they are shaping talent acquisition decision-making.

Candidate Experience Manager: The Candidate Experience Manager role is influencing decisions around recruitment marketing solutions and candidate communication tools. This role helps companies such as Thermo Fischer Scientific, Wayfair and Qualtrics create a candidate-centric talent acquisition strategy. Aptitude research found that 30% of companies in APAC have a Candidate Experience Manager role compared to 21% of companies in EMEA and 18% of companies in North America.

Digital Specialists: Some companies are adding digital specialists to support their digital transformation such as Delta Airlines and Verizon. This role can help with evaluating and adopting digital solutions that can improve efficiencies and the overall experience using mobile solutions, AI, automation and video. Aptitude research found that 6% of companies in APAC have a Digital Specialist role compared to 12% in EMEA and 8% in North America.

Data Scientists: Industries such as financial services are hiring data scientists to join their talent acquisition teams and help them leverage analytics. Data scientists can help to evaluate AI solutions and predictive analytics solutions. These roles at companies like Warner Brothers and Morgan Stanley can help talent acquisition use data to drive decisions and create more consistency between disparate solutions. Aptitude research found that 10% of companies in APAC have Data Scientists on their TA team compared to 13% in EMEA and 12% in North America.

There is no one size fits all for the modern talent acquisition department. Companies will have to decide what roles will help to drive efficiency on meet new expectations of the business and the candidates. We are covering this evolution in our upcoming digital transformation report.

 

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Startups in Silicon Valley: It is Time to Slow Down

I recently watched The Inventor: Out for Blood in Silicon Valley. The HBO Documentary which profiles Elizabeth Holmes and her blood-testing company, Theranos, is both horrifying and familiar. In 2014, Theranos was valued at $10 billion. Four years later, it was worth less than zero.

It is the story of a tech startup that pushes a product that hasn’t been properly (or scientifically) tested and manipulates every buyer and investor into believing something that does not exist. It is also the story of a tech startup that puts marketing and false advertising over the development of a viable product.

Sound familiar?

If you have spent any time in Silicon Valley or the tech world, Holmes’ story of fraud and deceit is not unique.  It just plays out on a much larger stage given Theranos’ growth, backing, and status. Many of the elements of this story are relevant to the HCM tech industry. We have all witnessed providers that have lost their integrity in the race to the top. Buyers today need to look beyond product capabilities and examine leadership, commitment to product and development, and transparency.

Below are a few quotes/themes from the movie that are relevant for some of the startups in our industry:

“We have to uphold a legacy in Silicon Valley of saving the world.”- The elitism that comes from Silicon Valley often undermines product strategy, customer support, and leadership style. Many leaders at startups get caught up in their egos that they forget to focus on building products that will work.

“We are part of something that is a revolution, and that will change our world.” I have heard this line from too many startups throughout my career. These blind statements damage both customer and employee loyalty. They give the false sense that these early startups know better than anyone else and shield them from any accountability.

“Data doesn’t sit in our mind as much as stories do. And even more important, stories have emotion and data does not.” – Many start-ups focus on their stories and messaging instead of the credibility of their products and data. Customers in many cases are buying a vision instead of a solution that will provide value.

“Getting results doesn’t mean it’s ready for primetime.”– Years ago, tech companies would spend years building and testing their products before they launched them. Today, it seems to happen overnight. A Stanford graduate or former Google employee will get an idea, and the next month, they start a talent acquisition company. Startups need to spend some time with customers and competitors to understand this market and what solutions will drive value.

“Honesty might cost them their jobs.” One of the most frightening aspects of the Theranos’ story is that employees that questioned the integrity of the company were fired. Collaboration needs to be an important part of a startup environment, and too often, early-stage companies shut down anything negative from their employees or customers. As a result, employees have little faith and confidence in these products.

For anyone that is buying new technology, investing in new technology, or just curious about HCM startups I highly recommend this movie. I think you will find many similarities between Theranos and many of the companies in this space.

 

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New Research: Quality of Hire

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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