Game changers 2016

Welcome to the third annual showcase of Recruiter magazine’s Game Changers, featuring five products with the power and potential to radically alter the way we recruit. Sue Weekes looks at what’s behind them
Mon, 22 Feb 2016

FROM MARCH's RECRUITER MAGAZINE

Welcome to the third annual showcase of Recruiter magazine’s Game Changers, featuring five products with the power and potential to radically alter the way we recruit. Sue Weekes looks at what’s behind them 

It’s no surprise that big data, artificial intelligence and machine learning all feature in this year’s line-up, demonstrating how these technologies are embedding themselves in recruitment products. Our chosen products all perform different tasks but, significantly, have one thing in common: their accessible front-ends hide extremely clever algorithms that behind the scenes are liberating recruiters to do something that was previously unachievable or extremely difficult to do. And that is precisely what technology should do.


Clustree

What it does

Clustree uses real-life career histories to help recruiters make better hiring decisions. It has analysed 40m existing career pathways from all over the world and around 100 industries, with the information coming from a range of websites that gather public data on employees. 

Based on the information, its algorithm identifies a shortlist of the best candidates for a particular position in a recruiter’s internal database. It doesn’t just work for recruitment and internal mobility; the data from the pathways also informs decision-making in succession planning and compensation and benefits. The software can also help with retention by identifying high-risk positions. 

How it came about

Two years ago, Bénédicte de Raphélis Soissan, chief executive and founder of Clustree, was working at a small consulting firm and wanted to evolve her career but didn’t know what she could, should or wanted to do. So she personally analysed 500 profiles of professionals with similar characteristics to hers. She felt recruitment and HR had become too reliant on simply cloning existing processes, and they should be looking at the ‘reality’ of how people move through their careers. She also wanted people to be inspired by the career achievements of those who they could see had either attended the same school as themselves or worked at the same company.  

How does it change the game? 

It’s not just the amount of data that Clustree draws from that makes it such a powerful tool — it is its relevance to recruiters and candidates. If the future is about data-based decision-making, recruiters will want this tool in their armoury. ◯


Includeed

What it does

Includeed provides employers with insight into the effectiveness of their diversity and inclusion (D&I) policies and practices. Crucially, it also tells them what poor performance in this area could be costing them. The platform has formulated ‘best practice’ criteria based on information aggregated from more than 70,000 global professionals surveyed at more than 1,000 companies and in 75 countries. 

To assess D&I in an organisation, those from all levels (including the C-suite, managers and employees) complete an online survey and obtain an ‘inclusive score’ (a 30% score would mean 30% of the aggregated ‘best practice’ criteria are being successfully implemented). Includeed’s algorithms then use this score to calculate the potential losses from an HR, procurement, sales and legal standpoint. For instance, research finds one factor taken into account for an HR loss is that organisations, which don’t have inclusion, have 33% higher staff turnover. The software can also calculate an organisation’s return on investment on its D&I efforts.

How it came about

After six years of working on D&I in Switzerland, founder and CEO Sandrine Cina and her colleagues realised a more comprehensive solution was needed. She says she was aware that a lot of data and best practice existed in this area with studies and research by universities, consultancies and other organisations. Yet nowhere was this information aggregated. Also, at conferences she regularly heard D&I professionals wanting real calculations of losses and costs. Includeed is currently in its pilot programme.

How does it change the game? 

Organisations that fail to build diverse workforces now have nowhere to hide. Includeed provides a highly accessible way for individual companies to look inward and measure their progress in this area. And while other D&I platforms tend to focus on one or two areas of diversity, such as increasing the number of women or ethnic minorities, Includeed takes into account the seven diversity dimensions of age, gender, ethnicity/origin, physical challenges and disability, psychological challenges, sexual orientation and religion. The cost analysis means D&I will get the ear of the board — but the message also needs to reach frontline recruiters. ◯


Rare Contextual Recruitment System (CRS)

What it does

Rare’s system allows true talent to come to the surface regardless of background. The software behind the system makes use of two measures: academic outperformance (how well a person has outperformed others in their cohort) and disadvantage (factors such as whether a person had free school meals and whether they are the first person to go to university in their family). Some of this information is collected from the candidates themselves, if they consent, while other information comes from Rare’s own bespoke databases. Two candidates may have done equally well at A level but the system will flag up that one outperformed fellow students, and a recruiter can see their personal context. This then provides a recruiter with additional information so they can decide whether or not to interview a candidate.

How it came about

CRS was launched last September by specialist diversity firm Rare Recruitment, founded by Raphael Mokades. In 2013, international law firm Clifford Chance sponsored the research report, ‘Social Mobility and Graduate Recruitment’, which analysed the admissions processes of the top 30 universities, all of which use contextual data. Rare realised the evidence base for using contextualisation in university admissions was strong, and went back more than a decade to analyse how these same processes might be applied to graduate recruitment. Having established that contextual data could be of significant benefit to graduate recruiters, Rare set up the Contextual Recruitment Working Group. A number of organisations including King’s College London, University of Oxford, University of Cambridge, BCG, Civil Service Fast Stream, Slaughter & May and Barclays provided input into the algorithms behind CRS.

How does it change the game? 

Quite simply, it makes the recruitment process fairer. While most likely to be applauded for levelling the playing field for disadvantaged candidates — and quite rightly so — any system that brings a new layer of objectivity has to be held aloft. Even if a person hasn’t come from a disadvantaged background, finding out they significantly outperformed their peer group is an extremely valuable piece of information for a recruiter. Although tailored for graduate hiring and undergraduate work placements, its algorithms have wider applications and could considerably level more recruitment playing fields out there. ◯


Connectifier

What it does

Like other people aggregators, Connectifier cleverly indexes information from social and professional networks across the web and brings them together in one place. Already, it has managed to collate 400m candidate profiles. It claims to provide email and phone numbers with many of its profiles, which it reckons drives its response rate up two to four times higher than LinkedIn’s InMail. The system is 100% software driven with almost no manual intervention required. It will display and rank candidates that it believes are the best fit for a role and provides a number of different ways to contact people. One version of the software features an auto-search browser plug-in (Connectifier Sidebar) that pops up when viewing profiles on a site such as GitHub or LinkedIn to show additional profile information including email addresses and phone numbers. 

How it came about

Connectifier’s founders John Jersin and Ben McCann were engineers at Google, where they realised that whenever a team was short-staffed, and Google’s recruiters couldn’t fill a position fast enough, that team would have a very hard time meeting their goals that quarter. They concluded that if one of the most dynamic and successful companies in the world faced these challenges, surely others did as well and set about developing a product. As well as Jersin and McCann, the team draws from talent from the likes of Amazon, Berkeley National Lab, Microsoft Research, NASA and Stanford University. Founded in 2013, Connectifier publicly launched last year.

How does it change the game? 

Connectifier is one of several products that is democratising the sourcing process but it is doing so on a scale and speed that will concern its rivals and delight those trying to search out talent. It is being compared to LinkedIn but gives a far more holistic view of candidates and in just a few years has already equalled it in terms of number of profiles (400m). And given the great software minds behind it, there could be far more to come.


Beamery

What it does? 

On the surface, Beamery is a clever CRM (candidate relationship management) system that helps recruiters build a rich relationship with a candidate before and during the recruitment process. What elevates it is the artificial intelligence and machine learning behind it that offers recruiters a high level of automation to build a customised experience for the candidates in their database. For instance, using the information it holds on the candidate, it can automate the creation of a highly personalised email in seconds (and 10 customised emails can be sent to 10 different candidates who are shortlisted for the same role). It synchronises social, professional and email data for particular candidates so a recruiter has plenty of context on which to base conversations/contact with an individual. As a recruitment marketing platform, it allows recruiters to easily create micro sites and landing pages for specific roles and campaigns while its analytics focus on engagement, allowing a recruiter to see when and if the candidate has opened an email or visited a landing page.

How it came about

Beamery began as a garage project by Abakar Saidov, Sultan Saidov and Mike Paterson who previously worked in the corporate world. In their roles they were responsible for building teams and mentoring but were frustrated with what they saw as the bureaucracy and ineffectiveness of corporate hiring. They launched their first recruitment platform Seed Jobs but Beamery was an ongoing project focused more on artificial intelligence and machine learning, and the two merged in 2014. 

How does it change the game? 

Beamery’s view is that an individual is not a candidate or a customer, but both. It is a marketing platform built from the ground up for recruitment and shows that automation may remove some of the human aspects of the recruitment process. However, this should mean the interaction with the candidate is far richer and meaningful. 

  • Want to comment on this story? The Comment box is at the bottom of the page. Sorry for the glitch but just scroll right down and share your opinions!

COLIN COTTELL

Microsoft teams up with SThree to improve operations

SThree, the leading STEM-specialist staffing group, has announced a collaboration with Microsoft that is intended to power its industry-leading Technology Improvement Programme.

Contracts 26 March 2024

NEW TO THE MARKET: 25-30 MARCH 2024

This week’s new launches include: ID Crypt Global, Indeed, N2S.Global, Quesam, Talmix

New to Market 26 March 2024

Businesses must use AI in ‘all its formats’ says Martin-Fagg

UK businesses need to use technology such as AI to increase productivity, emphasise a ‘customer first’ attitude and grow by increasing market share.

22 March 2024

HeadFirst and Impellam groups join forces

HeadFirst Group and Impellam Group have joined forces to become one of the world’s leading STEM talent and managed service providers.

Contracts 22 March 2024
Top