The Coronavirus pushed the old-established boundaries on many fronts, giving birth to more diversified, sophisticated, and specialized technologies—and hence new job titles.
This means recruiters are feeling more overwhelmed than ever, especially as streamlined hiring processes and the breakdown of geographical boundaries thanks to the advancement of technology and the remote work revolution have intensified the competition for talent acquisition.
Add to this the fact that in the U.S. alone 82% of employers are planning to hire this year as companies look forward to further reopening of the economy after a year of record-breaking job losses and unemployment due to pandemic-induced lockdowns.
“Recruiters today have more demands on them than ever before, particularly in technical recruitment. There are more technologies, types of roles and positions, and companies than have ever existed, and it’s incredibly complicated to keep track of all of this,” Arjun Lall, co-founder at Hireflow, told The Sociable in an interview.
On top of all this, hiring managers are setting stricter qualification requirements as tech jobs become more specialized and there is more work than ever with all the various software and platforms recruiters have to use, he said.
Appreciative of how invaluable an asset recruiters are for companies and the job market in general, his company is harnessing the power of artificial intelligence to help them cut through all the complexity and clutter and focus on what truly matters.
“Our goal at Hireflow is to simplify the life of a recruiter through bringing together AI sourcing, workflow automation, and CRM data,” Arjun said, adding that their all-in-one platform also allows recruiters to track diversity metrics that assist them in achieving their diversity, equity, and inclusion targets.
Outbound recruiting
Hireflow, a portfolio company of TheVentureCity, is a firm advocate of the value of data-driven insights and focuses on outbound recruiting, which involves proactively and selectively scouting for candidates with specific skills, experiences, and knowledge.
“We believe the best candidates are already employed. It’s all about reaching out to them with the right opportunity at the right time,” Arjun said.
Arjun Lall, co-founder of Hireflow (Image credit: LinkedIn)
According to him, an outbound strategy helps recruiters target the most qualified talent from diverse backgrounds and scale the volume up or down depending on how full the candidate pipeline is. “It’s the one channel where more effort consistently yields more results.”
He added that all individuals should have equal access to opportunities that they might be qualified for as opposed to opportunities at fast-growing companies reserved for individuals in a known geographic, demographic, or social group or “clique”.
“That’s why it is critical that outbound recruiting exist as an easy-to-use channel to allow companies to take their message about potential opportunities to candidates.”
Free price point
The co-founder of Hireflow says one main feature that makes them stand out from the pack is their “forever free” price point with affordable plans.
“There seem to be many full-service recruiting agencies with a very high price point, some moderately priced software tools that require enterprise contracts, and a lot of small, single-purpose tools available at a low price point.”
But Hireflow offers a plethora of capabilities in a freemium self-serve package, Arjun explained, adding that both individual recruiters and hiring companies of all sizes can get value out of their platform. “No demos, credit cards, or contracts are needed to get started.”
In his opinion, another distinctive feature is that Hireflow enables users to “source on their own, rely on our AI, or use a combination of them.”
Image credit: Hireflow
Diversity metrics
Arjun is also very proud of the function that equips recruiters with the tools, data, and insights necessary to track and measure diversity at the top of their funnel.
“Manual categorization is time-consuming and error-prone, and it’s difficult to keep track of each candidate while staying compliant,” he said, adding that Hireflow uses machine learning AI to automatically categorize candidates into several diversity groups—including Female, Underrepresented Minority, LGBTQIA, and Veteran.
Users can use this information to generate reports for their managers and executives to show progress on diversity and inclusion, Arjun commented.
“Additionally, Hireflow helps users diagnose bias in message bodies and subject lines by showing if certain messages cause a disproportionately lower response rate from diversity groups than non-diversity groups.”
Image credit: Hireflow
User privacy
On how they are addressing potential user privacy concerns, Arjun said they protect user data using two-factor authentication, TLS encryption, and secure access tokens.
Users can also opt out of receiving messages or being contacted by companies at any time—either permanently or for a specific period of time, he added.
“We never sell user information to third parties for any reason and have rigorous security and audit procedures in place to prevent unauthorized access to their data, including annual audits from Google.”
Common misconceptions
Asked about the main misconceptions about AI-powered recruiting, Hireflow’s co-founder said users may think AI will find their ideal candidate right away “but our goal is to use big data and predictive analytics to find candidates that are more likely than average to be a good fit.”
It is also important to bear in mind that choosing where to work is not simply a “logic problem”, he said.
Arjun sees very bright prospects for the recruitment industry as their company is noticing a boom in hiring across different sectors.
“Around 80% of the companies we work with paused hiring for most of 2020. But now that offices are reopening and tech is continuing to show strength, companies are hiring at a rapid pace to make up lost ground.
The co-founder of Hireflow believes a future is taking shape where recruiters spend all their time on what matters most such as building genuine relationships with candidates and hiring managers while “AI and other innovative technologies take care of everything else.”
Disclaimer: This article mentions a client of an Espacio portfolio company.
