TalentTechLab_Trend_Report_Q2-2015

Talent Tech LabsTalent Tech Trends Q2 2015

Contents

LETTER FROM THE DIRECTOR

Top Tech Trends That Are Driving Talent Acquisition Technology in Q2 2015.

TALENT ACQUISITION TECHNOLOGY ECOSYSTEM Q2 2015

The updated Ecosystem offers an enhanced landscape for the crowded talent acquisition technology space.

VERTICAL HIGHLIGHT: REFERRAL TECHNOLOGY

George LaRocque presents why employers across the globe are taking a fresh look at referral technology.

REFERRAL TECHNOLOGY: COMPANY HIGHLIGHT

Understanding changes in employee referral technology through the innovations at RolePoint.

THE FUTURE OF RECRUITING

Danielle Monaghan, Head of TA, Amazon Consumer Division, talks about opportunities to improve hiring and

recruiting through technology.

THE FUTURE OF WORK

Futurist Jacob Morgan takes a closer look into the top five trends impacting talent acquisition right now.

INVESTOR HIGHLIGHT: RANDSTAD INNOVATION FUND

Insight into what strategic investors consider before making investments in early-stage companies.

ACHIEVING SUCCESS WHEN IMPLEMENTING DISRUPTIVE TECHNOLOGY

Rolf Kleiner & Cindy Gier discuss the importance of operationalizing innovation within your organization

to fully achieve ROI.

TOP TALENT ACQUISITION STORIES OF Q2 2015

Breaking down the latest headlines making the biggest impact in talent acquisition technology.

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Letter from the Director

We were amazed by the responses received on our inaugural trends report. With this second edition, our

aim is to continually provide you with the latest and most relevant information about talent acquisition

technology to help you make better investment, development and workflow decisions.

To that end, we have connected with talent acquisition practitioners, strategic investors, industry thought

leaders, talent acquisition startup founders, and staffing company executives to generate insights that

reflect multiple points of view, plus provide a unique perspective on industry mega trends and how they

will affect talent acquisition in the next six to 18 months.

There has been a significant amount of activity in the space: new companies launching, recent startups

experiencing explosive growth, consolidations of platforms and point solutions, and more partnership

formations than we can count. As you read through our trends report, you’ll get a more detailed overview

of what’s been happening. Keep an eye out in particular for the top trends we’ve identified from Q2 2015:

• First off, there are (finally) technologies that can effectively unlock the power of all our networks, aka

referral platforms. There is incredible potential for solutions that combine functionality to enable people to

efficiently harness their networks and an effective rewards system that incentivizes individuals to do so.

• Next, everyone gives a lot of lip service to “big data,” but we’re seeing a lot of innovative companies

leverage big data effectively to optimize sourcing processes and matching algorithms. Data can be

generated from an individual’s social exhaust, job application, assessment responses, and a whole variety

of other methods. Our money is on companies that can integrate these data sources and machine learning

to generate predictive analytics solutions.

• Last, but certainly not least, we continue to stay interested in marketplaces that enable the freelancer

economy. As Jacob Morgan elaborates on in his piece, it’s really a seller’s (of a skill) market—we are excited

to see how this space evolves.

You can read more about these trends, along with several others from our expert contributors in the

following pages.

Thank you for your ongoing input, feedback, and engagement and we look forward to hearing from you

soon. Happy reading!

Whether you’re looking to demo a product, identify investment opportunities, or network with thought

leaders in the field, we’d love to learn more about what you do and why you’re passionate about Talent

Acquisition. Find more details at www.talenttechlabs.com or reach out to us at

[email protected].

Welcome to the second edition of Talent Tech Trends.

J. Kestenbaum

Jonathan Kestenbaum,

Executive Director

Talent Tech Labs

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Ecosystem

In our last publication, we explained how and why the Talent

Acquisition Technology Ecosystem was created. We reached

our initial goal with the first iteration of the Ecosystem: reduce

clutter and create a landscape for the talent acquisition

technology space. But the Ecosystem is something that will

continually evolve as new innovations propel our industry

forward. We are pleased to share the second iteration of our

Ecosystem infographic.

Staying on top of the latest changes.

Talent acquisition technology continues to be a dense, crowded

space. Our initial plans included updates to the Ecosystem every

six months; however, change is coming at an increasingly rapid

pace. To keep up with the increasing rate of change in the

industry, we will now update the Ecosystem every three months.

That means more, targeted access to information that can help

you better focus your investments and energies.

Changes to the Ecosystem.

The latest Ecosystem iteration includes an overlay of 13 macro

company categories. The categories include: Candidate

Relationship Management, Employer Branding, Individual

Career Management, Job Advertising, Referral Tools, Social

Networks & Search, Assessment Tools, Interview Process,

Matching Technology, Online Staffing, Applicant Tracking

Systems, Recommendation and Reference, Freelancer Management

Systems / Vendor Management Systems. Across these 13 macro

categories, which are indicated by color on this most recent

iteration of the Ecosystem, there are 28 sub-verticals that provide a

further level of granularity on a talent acquisition company’s core,

leading or initial solution. The sub-verticals are largely consistent

with the categories on the initial Ecosystem but in some cases the

names have been updated to better reflect the groupings of

companies. Within the Ecosystem, we’ve also changed the word

‘Interview’ to ‘Engage’ to be more relevant to the respective

marketplaces.

As innovation in the talent acquisition space continues to move our

industry forward, we will continue to add new categories, new

companies and new data sources. Talent Tech Labs highlights

companies and technologies based on two criteria: the first is

innovation, which we have defined as a unique value proposition, a

strong and innovative client base and/or being well-funded. The

second criterion is influence. The companies and technologies

depicted in our Ecosystem must be influential. We measure

influence based on sustained client traction and market/thought

leadership. Using this methodology, the companies in the

Ecosystem provide an at-a-glance overview of leading companies

per category, the trends impacting our industry, and the influence

they will have on businesses, and of course, talent.

Does your company belong in the ecosystem? Send your

information to [email protected]

Talent Acquisition TechnologyEcosystem Update

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Download the ecosystem here!

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The Top Priority forEffective Recruiting Leaders

George LaRocque is recognized as one of the top

HR influencers and global thought leaders. He

founded InfluenceHR, which is the industry’s first

ever marketing symposium focused on helping HR

Technology companies more effectively engage the

HR Buyer. Connect with George on Twitter at

@glarocque.

Corporate talent acquisition is one of the

fastest-changing HR segments. Candidate

behavior and technology used to find and engage

candidates are changing at break-neck speed. It

can be a challenge to keep up on the trends,

technologies and approaches to sourcing,

recruiting and engaging candidates—even for

industry analysts.

In the midst of all of that change, one constant

shines as a beacon for both recruiting leaders and

recruiting technologists alike: employee referrals

are the best source of hires. Commitment to an

effective employee referral strategy and program,

as well as supporting technologies, remains one of

the most important priorities for talent acquisition.

Here are five reasons employers of all sizes are

implementing and/or re-thinking employee

referral programs:

Vertical Highlight: Referral Technology

1. Source of Quality CandidatesEmployee referrals are up to 14 times more likely to be hired than candidates

from other sources. They also stay employed at the hiring firm up to 46% longer

than employees that came from other sources.

2. Source of HireEmployee referrals outpace the closest source of hire by nearly 2:1. Employee

referrals are also hired 55% faster than other sources.

3. Internal MobilityCompanies are filling nearly 42% of their open positions internally. The effort to

communicate open positions to employees is, by definition, the first point of

engagement for both generating employee referrals and internal moves.

4. Employer Brand AdvocacyEmployers are increasingly realizing that mobilization of employment brand

advocates is a powerful force in competing for talent both locally and globally.

Employee referral programs empower the workforce to communicate and share

the benefits of working for and with their employers.

5. Increased Performance of Freelance HiringAs the on-demand economy continues to grow significantly, the demand for

freelance workers is growing exponentially. Research shows that referrals can

also accelerate freelance hiring, leading to faster acquisition and better

performance among freelance workers.

2014 CareerXRoads Source of Hire Report

Jobvite index

Internet Trends 2015 - Code Conference

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While employee referrals are the best source of quality hires,

finding an easy, efficient way to promote, capture, track and

manage employee referrals is arguably the best source of hiring

headaches.

That is the challenge that united RolePoint Co-Founders Kes

Thygesen and Christopher Le Breton when they discovered that

there was no real system or intelligence behind internal employee

recommendations.

On the recruitment side, referrals were recorded on spreadsheets

and a lot slipped through the cracks. On the internal marketing

side, recruiters couldn’t communicate effectively with employees.

Understanding the need for something better, Kes and Christopher

founded RolePoint to revolutionize sourcing with an employee

referral platform that allows organizations to capitalize on their

best source of high-quality talent.

Talent Tech Labs asked RolePoint to share its insights on how

technology enables effective employee referral systems.

Promoting transparency in communication

Employees today communicate more openly and rely on

technology to do it with greater ease than ever before. With the

rising use of enterprise collaboration tools and the growth of every

employee’s personal and professional networks, referral platforms

that can take advantage of these trends open up opportunities to

strengthen the quantity and quality of employee referrals.

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Adding transparency to the process by ensuring that

communication is a two-way street is critical to this endeavor.

One of the biggest problems with referral programs has

always been the “black hole” that swallows referrals, rarely

acknowledging the initial referral and even less frequently

providing any type of follow up to the employee about the

results. Worse yet is the potential damage that comes from an

employer that ignores the referred candidate, calling into

question the credibility of the referring employee. People

understand the tremendous value to employers found in

referrals, and a lack of transparency into the process and

minimal or nonexistent communications from employers can

cause negative repercussions that can spread well beyond a

single employee. Leveraging technology helps companies

track referrals back to employees to provide a better

experience so they refer even more.

Leveraging Technology to Harness the

Power of Employee Referral Networks

Referral Technology: Company Highlight

Referral Technology: Company Highlight (continued)

Providing ease of access to the referral platform

on all devices

Innovative companies know how important it is to have

mobile-accessible platforms. Employees want immediate

access to information and resources, wherever they are, at

any time of day or night. Providing them with the ability to

initiate and track a referral on their mobile devices allows an

employer to capture referrals when it is most convenient to

the employee, whether the referral originates through an

online or an in-person connection.

Managing data by integrating referral

technology solutions

A major problem facing many HR departments is the

inability of multiple technologies and tools to interact and

“speak” with each other. Logging into multiple systems,

multiple times per day is inconvenient and inefficient.

Integrating referral technology, plus other recruitment,

engagement and hiring solutions in a single platform, such

as an applicant tracking system, streamlines where

candidates apply and recruiters spend their time, thereby

enhancing both recruiter productivity and candidate

experience. RolePoint, for example, is using critical data

gathered by its integrated solutions to better understand

how users interact with the system and how it can be

continually improved.

As employee networks and the huge amounts of available

data grow, so will the demand for a powerful referral

technology solution. RolePoint is focused on interpreting

that data to continue to create best-in-breed referral

technology solutions.

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The Future of Recruiting

Danielle Monaghan is currently the Head of Talent Acquisition for

the Consumer-Division of Amazon.

Recruiters today are burdened with an incredible amount of

non-value added work, like scheduling phone interviews, keying

candidates into multiple systems, building reports for hiring

managers, managing unqualified referrals, creating update mails

to candidates, creating the offer letter and managing the signature

process, start date and onboarding. In my observation most

companies close fewer than 7 in 10 offers, and there is a direct

correlation here between burdened recruiters and disengaged

candidates. Many recruiters simply don’t have the time to engage

deeply with candidates and understand their hot buttons—and

ultimately, what it would take to close. In addition, hundreds of

thousands of jobs go unfilled each year because recruiters, hiring

managers and interview teams simply cannot keep up with hiring

demand.

With great challenge, comes great opportunity.

While we have seen some interesting developments over the past

10 years, the overall state of technology to support strategic talent

acquisition is dismal. This creates some great opportunities to

disrupt traditional recruiting by introducing technology as integral

to the process, freeing up recruiters to assess and cultivate talent

and therefore make more placements.

It has been very exciting to see the latest technology offerings,

particularly around sourcing solutions and candidate generation.

Helping make the match between candidate and company is a huge

value-add for talent acquisition teams, especially in critical hiring

areas such as tech, sales, finance, supply chain and marketing,

particularly with a diversity focus. But this is not the only area of

opportunity; there is a strong need for pre-assessment products,

whether code screening or structured pre-interviews, so that

recruiters and interview teams can spend time with those

candidates most likely to receive and accept an offer.

Getting technical to accelerate the hiring process.

Good recruiters are seen as talent advisors by their clients because

they know the availability of top talent, by job family and by

geography. Unfortunately, there so few recruiters who have this

knowledge and talent network, and searches are often conducted

blindly. Imagine technology that will map talent availability by

current company, previous company, job title(s), location,

geography and school(s) attended. Using this heat map, a recruiter

and hiring manager can make some quick decisions on an optimal

search strategy and penetrate that market quickly, cutting weeks

and even months off a tricky search.

How talent acquisition technology will create stronger candidate relationships with the right candidates.

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As part of the sourcing strategy, a simple search, with complex

machine learning algorithms underlying it, is launched, which then

searches profiles and resumes on the web and in the CRM and ATS,

ranking the profiles against hires who have been successful at the

company in the same job families. Only the cream of the crop rise

to the top and the recruiter focuses on a small, qualified subset of

prospects to rapidly select finalists. Online assessments and video

interviewing assist with prescreening, and the most qualified

candidates are invited to interview in person. Even more

exciting—assessments and video interviews are so highly calibrated

and validated that candidates who score high enough are

presented with an offer, sight unseen.

Sound unlikely? It is not—this is the future of recruiting, especially

for volume hiring roles, and a handful of innovative companies are

already doing this.

What talent acquisition technology would you like to see?

When a few TA friends from companies such as Microsoft, Google,

GE and Humana were asked what technology they would like to

see built or developed further, the general feedback included

wanting:

1. Intelligent and predictive search capabilities matched to

the job and the resume

2. Improved electronic interviewing integrated with

existing systems

3. Deep analytics and reporting capabilities

4. Referral optimization

The Future of Recruiting (continued)

5. Workforce planning tied to financial modeling so that models

(such as charge-backs) can be automated across multiple

geographies

6. Crowdsourcing compensation data

7. Crowdsourcing recruiting firms and candidates

There is great interest in a robust, fully-integrated dashboard

enabling recruiting managers to view (and review) their recruiters

and recruiting coordinators against goals such as interviews

scheduled, candidate satisfaction, hiring goals, diversity, close rate,

level and complexity of jobs, participation in projects and any other

goals set for team success. Automated interviewer pre briefs,

capturing and tracking interview feedback, and debriefs are also

highly ranked.

The wish list is long, but the common theme from talent acquisition

leaders is end-to-end automation with human interaction only where

it matters most. Get rid of unnecessary human failure points, drive a

tight, high-quality process and provide candidates with the right

information and superior experience in a very timely manner,

enabling companies to hire more, great people, faster. Plus, provide

reporting and analytics capabilites that enable status updates, and

more importantly, predictive analytics.

For entrepreneurs, they need to continue to innovate and disrupt in

this space while making sure products can scale up and scale

globally. Target audiences (small, medium, large and multinational)

need to be defined and researched according to needs. In doing all of

this, you may be surprised what other opportunities you will uncover.

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The Future Of Work

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Five Talent Management Trends that

Should Be on Your Radar

Jacob Morgan is an author, speaker and futurist. His most recent book is

The Future of Work published by Wiley. You can subscribe to his weekly

newsletter on the future of work or get access to his blog, podcast, video

series, and social channels by visiting TheFutureOrganization.com.

The talent acquisition industry is going through a very exciting evolution

and there are new trends popping up just about every day. It can be hard

to keep up, so here’s a list of the five most exciting and impactful trends

right now.

1. The Freelancer Economy

The general assumption for many years was that people needed to work

for organizations. In other words, employment at a large organization

was the only way to live since we all have bills to pay and families to

support. Today’s professionals have a number of self-employment

options that would have been inconceivable even a decade ago. Whether

it’s driving for Uber or Lyft, becoming a freelancer on Upwork (formerly

Elance-Odesk), raising money on Indiegogo or Kickstarter or selling

products directly to consumers through Etsy, today’s professionals can

choose their own paths. As Daniel Pink said, “Talented people need

organizations less than organizations need talented people.”

Combined with new technologies and sites such as LinkedIn, the

freelancer economy is making it easy for employers to find and recruit

candidates from competitors. The freelancer economy is helping to

create a war for talent unlike any talent war we’ve seen. Organizations

must learn to embrace the freelancer economy by tapping into the

on-demand workforce. The idea of long-term employment is dead.

2. Collaboration Technologies

Today’s employees want and need to connect with information (and

each other) anywhere, anytime and on any device. Internal social

networks have become a necessity for organizations that want to

connect its employees. I like to think of these platforms as a “central

nervous system” of the organization. As organizations become more

distributed around the world, it becomes even more crucial to make

sure everyone can stay on the same page. Organizations are recruiting

from all corners of the earth, regardless of where the company itself

might be headquartered. Without collaboration technologies, this type

of organization could not survive. In fact, many important organizational

themes such as flexible work, transparency, improving communication

and collaboration are not possible without technologies that enable

these behaviors. Collaboration technologies are an absolute must.

3. Creating employee experiences

Office conversations are getting personal—moving from questions such as

“what do you do” to “how do you feel?” and “how do you do it?”

Organizations are no longer in the business of providing jobs, they are in

the business of providing experiences to employees. These experiences are

not only shaped by the physical environment, but also by technologies that

employees use, the rules or processes they must follow, the managers they

report to and how they feel after interacting with your brand.

Creating a desirable employee experience is a critical task for every

organization today. This might include allowing for flexible work programs,

creating open office environments, getting rid of annual employee reviews

in favor of shorter and more frequent check-ins or opening up and sharing

information—these are just a few suggestions. The key here is to prioritize

employee experience just as much as customer experience. Ultimately, you

want to create an environment that invites your employees and provides

them with the support, flexibility and opportunity they need.

4. Big Data And Analytics For Hiring

The hiring and talent management process used to be completely

dependent on people and their opinions or biases. Today’s process

includes the integration of technology that reveals a wealth of knowledge

and insights about candidates and employees. From soft skill-revealing

games (similar to Angry Birds) to ranges of data that project potential

employee engagement or job satisfaction, data and analytics are integral

to a sound hiring strategy.

The big challenge for organizations is not how to create or aggregate this

data, but how to analyze and use it. Organizations must hire or partner with

the right people who understand data and how to extrapolate key insights.

This trend is only going to increase as we start to see other devices, such

as wearables, make their way inside organizations, creating an emerging

trend known as the “quantified workplace.”

5. Democratized Education And Training

Ever sit through one of those training programs? The ones where you

sit in a room and listen to someone give a lecture or present a 200-slide

PowerPoint? Chances are this course had to be booked weeks in

advance, was mandatory and you had to travel to attend it.

Not Anymore.

Employees aren’t relying solely on their employers to provide them with

the knowledge and training needed to reach their goals. Through sites

like Udemy and Coursera, employees can learn about any topic, at their

own pace, and can leverage this knowledge to find new work

opportunities. In this emerging context where every employee is both a

teacher and a student, recruitment and training processes are going to

become increasingly linked to help companies find and develop the

right talent.

As technology continues to create an enlightened and empowered

workforce, it’s up to hiring organizations to leverage those technologies

and create stronger, more engaged teams.

The Future Of Work (continued)

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Jacob is an author, speaker and futurist. His most recent book is The

Future of Work published by Wiley.You can subscribe to his weekly

newsletter on the future of work or get access to his blog, podcast, video

series, and social channels by visiting TheFutureOrganization.com.

Five Talent Acquisition Trends that Should Be on Your Radar

The talent acquisition industry is going through a very exciting evolution

and there are new trends popping up just about every day. It can be

hard to keep up, so here’s a list of the five most exciting and impactful

trends right now.

1. The Freelancer Economy

The general assumption for many years was that people needed to work

for organizations. In other words, employment at a large organization

was the only way to live since we all have bills to pay and families to

support. Today’s professionals have a number of self-employment

options that would have been inconceivable even a decade ago.

Whether it’s driving for Uber or Lyft, becoming a freelancer on Upwork

(formerly Elance-Odesk), raising money on Indiegogo or Kickstarter or

selling products directly to consumers through Etsy, today’s

professionals can choose their own paths. As Daniel Pink said, “Talented

people need organizations less than organizations need talented

people.”

Combined with new technologies and sites such as LinkedIn, the

freelancer economy is making it easy for employers to find and recruit

candidates from competitors. The freelancer economy is helping to

create a war for talent unlike any talent war we’ve seen. Organizations

must learn to embrace the freelancer economy by tapping into the

on-demand workforce. The idea of long-term employment is dead.

2. Collaboration Technologies

Today’s employees want and need to connect with information (and

each other) anywhere, anytime and on any device. Internal social

networks have become a necessity for organizations that want to

connect its employees. I like to think of these platforms as a “central

nervous system” of the organization. As organizations become more

distributed around the world, it becomes even more crucial to make

sure everyone can stay on the same page. Organizations are recruiting

from all corners of the earth, regardless of where the company itself

might be headquartered. Without collaboration technologies, this type

of organization could not survive. In fact, many important organizational

themes such as flexible work, transparency, improving communication

and collaboration are not possible without technologies that enable

these behaviors. Collaboration technologies are an absolute must.

3. Creating Employee Experiences

Office conversations are getting personal—moving from questions such as

“what do you do” to “how do you feel?” and “how do you do it?”

Organizations are no longer in the business of providing jobs, they are in

the business of providing experiences to employees. These experiences are

not only shaped by the physical environment, but also by technologies that

employees use, the rules or processes they must follow, the managers they

report to and how they feel after interacting with your brand.

Creating a desirable employee experience is a critical task for every

organization today. This might include allowing for flexible work programs,

creating open office environments, getting rid of annual employee reviews

in favor of shorter and more frequent check-ins or opening up and sharing

information—these are just a few suggestions. The key here is to prioritize

employee experience just as much as customer experience. Ultimately, you

want to create an environment that invites your employees and provides

them with the support, flexibility and opportunity they need.

4. Big Data And Analytics For Hiring

The hiring and talent management process used to be completely

dependent on people and their opinions or biases. Today’s process

includes the integration of technology that reveals a wealth of knowledge

and insights about candidates and employees. From soft skill-revealing

games (similar to Angry Birds) to ranges of data that project potential

employee engagement or job satisfaction, data and analytics are integral

to a sound hiring strategy.

The big challenge for organizations is not how to create or aggregate this

data, but how to analyze and use it. Organizations must hire or partner with

the right people who understand data and how to extrapolate key insights.

This trend is only going to increase as we start to see other devices, such

as wearables, make their way inside organizations, creating an emerging

trend known as the “quantified workplace.”

5. Democratized Education And Training

Ever sit through one of those training programs? The ones where you

sit in a room and listen to someone give a lecture or present a 200-slide

PowerPoint? Chances are this course had to be booked weeks in

advance, was mandatory and you had to travel to attend it.

Not Anymore.

Employees aren’t relying solely on their employers to provide them with

the knowledge and training needed to reach their goals. Through sites

like Udemy and Coursera, employees can learn about any topic, at their

own pace, and can leverage this knowledge to find new work

opportunities. In this emerging context where every employee is both a

teacher and a student, recruitment and training processes are going to

become increasingly linked to help companies find and develop the

right talent.

As technology continues to create an enlightened and empowered

workforce, it’s up to hiring organizations to leverage those technologies

and create stronger, more engaged teams.

Investor Highlight: Randstad Innovation Fund

Taking a Closer Look at the Randstad Innovation Fund

TTL is constantly watching emerging industry leaders to gain insights

into where the industry is heading, and how others can learn from

their successes. TTL sat down and interviewed Ilonka Jankovich and

Paul Jacquin from the Randstad Innovation Fund (RIF). RIF has

recently garnered attention for its backing of some exciting new

companies, and so we asked RIF to share some strategic insights for

startups and other investors in the talent acquisition technology

space.

Q: Can you tell us a bit more about the Randstad Innovation Fund?

Randstad Innovation Fund (RIF) is the corporate venture fund of

Randstad. Randstad is the second largest HR provider in the world,

with revenues of US $21 billion and presence in 39 countries. The

corporate venture fund was established in early 2014 to accelerate

innovation within Randstad. Its focus is HR technology companies.

The size of the fund is €50 million and RIF typically invests in late

Seed or Series A.

Q: We’re sure you have identified some core criteria you use when

deciding which companies to consider. What do you look for?

As a strategic investor, one of the top criteria for us is finding

companies whose offerings have the right fit for Randstad Group. On

one hand, we seek technologies that can have an immediate impact

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Taking a Closer Look at theRandstad Innovation Fund

by improving our internal efficiency or enriching our client

offering. On the other hand, we also look strategically at

technologies or models that could be really disruptive. Labor

markets are changing quickly; demographics will lead to a

shortage of certain talents, new roles will emerge, talents will be

increasingly mobile and the distinction between employment

jobs and projects is blurring. We need to bring even more

transparency to our clients and candidates. We strive to create

better engagement and offer more data-driven solutions.

The management team is crucial for the success of a company.

We look at their track record and drive. There should also be

chemistry, not only with us personally, but also with the

Randstad culture (or more generally, the culture of the

respective investment firm).

Investor Highlight: Randstad Innovation Fund (continued)

A careful evaluation of the business plan is also essential. Is it

realistic? Entrepreneurs should challenge themselves, but the

assumptions should be correct and the goals achievable. We

dive deep into the business plan to understand drivers of the

business and discuss them with management to sharpen focus

and priorities.

Technology is key. If appropriate, we involve experts to assess

the technology and its viability. We also pilot solutions and

always get valuable feedback.

We do not invest in pre-revenue companies and always talk to

clients who are using the service or product or have churned.

This exercise gives us good insights in the strengths and

shortcomings of the product.

Q: What trends, solutions and ideas are you currently excited

about?

There are a few things right now that we are particularly

excited about, including:

1. Analytics.

We make a distinction between workforce analytics and

candidate sourcing analytics. We are currently reviewing a

dozen companies active in this field. There is plenty of data.

The question is what kind of data do you really need to drive

your business? What is the right mix between conclusions from

data and human action, and what do you do with the

conclusions?

2. Candidate Engagement and Branding.

At both a personal and organizational level, candidate engagement

and branding are at the forefront. As the world has become

transparent, how can candidates and companies show who they are,

what they can offer and what they want.

3. Assessment.

There have been some tremendous advancements in the area of

assessment. Many tools are entering the market that assess

candidates through gaming, speech or text, to name a few. As several

leading contenders emerge, it will be interesting to see which are

successful.

Q: What makes a successful startup?

Success among talent acquisition technology startups often comes

down to several factors. Entrepreneurs who not only have a strong

vision but also strong commercial skills (or can attract people with

strong marketing/sales skills) have often performed better than

others. You can have a great idea, but if you do not know how to sell

it, you will not progress quickly enough. With analytics and in the

competitive landscape, we are seeing the emergence of leaders who

are analytical and more scientific in their approaches. Having the right

priorities and key drivers in your funnel from lead generation to

conversion and contract value is critical for early stage companies.

It is a challenge to build any company, so it makes an enormous

difference if there is a good team spirit, common belief or purpose

and enthusiasm for the company goal. The right spirit across the

organization is key for a successful company.

12

Achieving Success When Implementing Disruptive Technology

13

Rolf Kleiner is the principal at Renatus Partners, a consultancy

focused on helping organizations operationalize innovation efforts to

drive business growth. Prior to his current role, Rolf was SVP and

Chief Innovation Officer at Kelly Services, Inc. Cindy Gier is a partner

and organizational performance consultant with Renatus Partners.

Previously, Cindy was Global HR Director at General Motors.

Without innovation, today’s great ideas cannot turn into great

success stories. While we are seemingly surrounded by innovation at

every turn, some organizations continue to struggle with roadblocks

or a lack of innovation. The secret to finding success for your talent

acquisition technology implementation may just lie in taking a new

approach— one that operationalizes innovation.

Begin with the end users in mind

There is no shortage of horror stories around major technology

initiatives. In a sense, these initiatives can be considered innovation

projects with the potential for being highly disruptive. Disruptive

innovation, as defined by Clayton Christensen, is “a process by which

a product or service takes root initially in simple applications at the

bottom of a market and then relentlessly moves up market,

eventually displacing established competitors.”

Regardless of leadership, the most critical aspect in securing a

successful outcome for major change efforts is an inclusive

approach. Inclusion does not necessarily imply a truly democratic

process, but that all major stakeholders or end users affected by the

impending change have an active role in the technology selection

process. Logically, those asked to join the project team should be

selected for their respective departmental subject matter expertise.

A far more critical attribute to consider; however, is the stature,

respect and influence the selected individual has within his or her

own organization. Those on the selection team will ultimately serve

as the vanguard of change for the rest of the organization.

Operationalizing Innovation: It takes a community of champions

Once technology has been identified for the innovation project, the

technology selection team is expanded to a full project team and a project

plan is developed. Companies that are serious about innovation curate and

nurture a network of innovation focused resources who opt in and, as a

result, have innovation knowledge and activities that are directed to them in

addition to their day-to-day responsibilities. Creating, nurturing and

leveraging a multi-disciplined network of enterprise innovation champions is

a key success factor to implementing an innovation pilot affording

companies to:

1. Leverage their innovation knowledge and impact across large,

global organizations

2. Transform a company’s innovation passion into generating

value for the enterprise

3. Build a culture of innovation by instituting a community of

innovation champions to act as role models on “how” to innovate

Achieving Success When ImplementingDisruptive Technology (continued)

14

Dynamic change skills: the “secret sauce”

A Conference Board Council on Change Management article titled

“Taming the Change Tiger” identified an emerging new pattern in

change management with five guiding principles of how we need

to change the way we change:

1. Business is in a continuous state of change; therefore change

must become more agile, continuous and iterative.

2. Focus change management efforts on the new reality and

future state to accelerate progress.

3. Traditional communications are no longer sufficient, thereby

requiring dynamic, continual conversation and engagement.

4. Expand the circle of accountability for change. Change is

everyone’s responsibility.

5. Adoption and internalized behavior change are the ultimate

measure of success of change management—don’t claim

success until the work outcomes demonstrate true business

integration and adoption.

Honing your change skills is the “secret sauce” to successfully

designing and implementing a disruptive innovation.

Pilot execution

Before you launch a wholesale redesign, starting with a pilot is an

effective and potentially less costly way to figure out what works

and what doesn’t for your organization. The construction and

execution of a successful pilot includes the following key

milestones:

1. Future state process workflow (integrated with an external

technology partner if applicable)

2. Sub-tasks necessary to enable work flow

3. Marketing plan

4. Communication plan (internal and external)

5. Internal change plan for those who will be impacted by pilot

6. Success metrics

7. Pre-launch requirements (User Acceptance Test and general

pre-launch tasks)

In innovation, time and resources are precious and cannot be

wasted on a non-viable innovation. A successful innovation pilot

implementation is not only defined by its performance metrics, but

by its key learnings as well, regardless of whether the pilot

succeeded or failed!

Top Talent Acquisition Stories Of Q2 2015

Can’t Miss Talent Acquisition Headlines

Chris Russell is the founder of CareerCloud.com and runs Talent

Acquisition for GoECart. His peers in the industry call him the “mad

scientist of online recruiting,” a badge he wears with pride.

This column highlights the most interesting updates, mergers, acquisitions,

financing and partnerships within the talent acquisition space. The

weather might be heating up, but have you lost track of the hottest talent

acquisition technology headlines? Here are the top 10.

Investments

Glassdoor Prepares For The Next Level

Glassdoor closes $70m funding round led by Google capital and Tiger

Global. The employee-driven reviews company is poised for big growth.

Tinder For Job Apps Enters The Scene

Switch, with $2 million in seed funding, is Tinder for jobs. Using a UI similar

to Tinder, Switch lets users anonymously search for jobs. Boasting nine of

the top 50 US employers on board.

Future Looks Bright For College Student Job Match Tech

Campus Job connecting college students with employers, raises $7.8

million in Series A. Nearly one year after launching a platform to connect

college students with local job opportunities, Campus Job has refined its

strategy.

Video Interviewing Goes Beyond Skype

Hirevue raises $45m to expand video interview platform its taking a

different approach to video interviewing, the service goes beyond

analyzing “what” candidates say, measuring things like pitch and word use

to paint a more in-depth picture of candidates.

Partnerships

eharmony Matches More Than Couples

2015 recruiting: The year of the blind date. eharmony takes on careers

with a new career-matching service, partnering with Simply Hired.

Mergers & acquisitions

Two Largest Freelance Sites Officially Become “One”

Elance-oDesk becomes ‘Upwork’ in push to build $10B in freelancer

revenues. The pairing of Elance and oDesk finally has a new name:

Upwork also includes a new freelance talent platform to match its

updated name.

More tools for college job seekers

AfterCollege acquires CollegeFeed to support recent grads hunting

for jobs. As the rush to cash in on the wealth of college job seekers

advances, job platform AfterCollege has acquired CollegeFeed, a

social network geared toward job-seeking college students.

Updates

Linkedin Makes Changes

Linkedin getting less friendly to developers. Here’s a friendly warning

to developers who use the Linkedin API: things are changing, and

you’ll have less access than ever.

Job Boards Get A New Look

Jobs2Careers debuts new interface ramping up hiring in Indeed’s

backyard of Austin, TX. With good reason – their new job board

interface is poised to make a big impact on the industry.

Happy Birthday Craigslist

Craigslist Turns 20, sets revenue record – But problems loom

candidate quality and other issues plague Craigslist as it hits a

milestone birthday.

15

Pilot execution

Before you launch a wholesale redesign, starting with a pilot is an

effective and potentially less costly way to figure out what works

and what doesn’t for your organization. The construction and

execution of a successful pilot includes the following key

milestones:

1. Future state process workflow (integrated with an external

technology partner if applicable)

2. Sub-tasks necessary to enable work flow

3. Marketing plan

4. Communication plan (internal and external)

5. Internal change plan for those who will be impacted by pilot

6. Success metrics

7. Pre-launch requirements (User Acceptance Test and general

pre-launch tasks)

In innovation, time and resources are precious and cannot be

wasted on a non-viable innovation. A successful innovation pilot

implementation is not only defined by its performance metrics, but

by its key learnings as well, regardless of whether the pilot

succeeded or failed!

Talent Tech Labs

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307 W. 38th St., (Suite 1301) NY, NY 10018

[email protected]