While business executives recognize the value artificial intelligence (AI) and analytics brings to the table, human resources (HR) is often overlooked, resulting in the department being a somewhat laggard when it comes to leveraging the new technology’s potential. However, there are companies that are helping enterprises leverage these new-age technologies through their hiring process.
Launched in 2017, Talview, an HR Tech startup based in San Jose, California, offers technologies such as Natural language processing (NLP), machine learning, computer vision and video analytics capabilities to help enterprises across the globe to speed up talent acquisition and retention. In an exclusive email interaction with CXOToday, Sanjoe Jose, founder of the AI-powered Instahiring platform, talks about transforming the talent acquisition process through AI/automation and how new-age technologies like video interviewing are speeding up talent management.
CXOToday: Tell us a little about Talview. What role does the company play in the HR Tech space?
Talview is the fastest way to hire for enterprise employers across the globe. Our Insta-hiring Platform empowers organizations by enabling “anytime, anywhere” remote processes, automating routine tasks, and reusing data across the hiring process. Our AI-enabled video interviewing and cognitive remote proctoring features, as well as our advanced assessment solutions, all leverage best-in-class NLP, Machine Learning, Computer Vision and Video Analytics capabilities.
Based on a lot of discussions with business heads, we found time-to-hire, candidate quality, and cost of hire are the key metrics that are truly defining value to the recruitment and HR functions within their organizations. Time-to-hire has a significant impact on other key hiring metrics like quality of hire, cost of hire, and candidate experience.
To give you an example, the best candidate is available in the market for only 10 days. The standard hiring process is around 45 days, meaning your ability to hire the best candidate is significantly limited and time-to-hire becomes very critical. The more time you spend in your funnel, the more resources you spend. We wanted to create a platform that would enable enterprises to take control of their recruiting process by taking control of this key metric.
Although automation is already underway, hiring mostly take place offline. We wanted to build a layer of digitization on top of the existing applicant tracking system to help enterprises to bring down time-to-hire drastically. That’s how Talview came to be. Now, we’re building a whole new category in HR Tech: The Instahiring experience. The focus is on helping large enterprises bring down time-to-hire drastically by creating a candidate experience similar to the ones for consumer experience.
CXOToday: How can HR practitioners use the trove of knowledge from technologies like AI and analytics to improve their recruitment decisions?
HR practitioners often spend time on mundane tasks which don’t always require manual intervention. For example, resume reviewing: With AI, resumes can screen and shortlist based on the job requirements, saving recruiters and HR professionals a ton of time. AI and analytics also help to make better decisions throughout the hiring funnel, which can reduce the hiring lag significantly. Reducing time-to-hire is essential while keeping the quality of the candidate. AI can help recruiters solve this challenge with in-depth insights like skills and competencies. Using our AI-Powered Video Interviewing tool, Talview Behavioral Insights, many customers are able to increase their quality of hire up to 50%. Based on the job requirements, Talview can measure competencies of the candidates while going through the psychometric assessment. AI can really help HR practitioners to be like real talent acquisition strategists and champions of candidate experience, ensuring that only the best candidates are joining their organization.
CXOToday: Can you tell us what ways you are simplifying hiring processes through video interviewing and assessments?
Video interviewing and assessments can simplify the hiring process, but you need the right framework and remote capabilities to make it more robust. The RAR framework, or Remote, Automate & Reuse, is helping organizations to make the hiring efficient and straightforward, leveraging your past hiring pipeline to build a rich talent pool.
The first pillar, Remote, allows organizations to complete all interviews and assessments remotely through video interviews and video-proctored assessments, saving candidates the time, money, and effort spent traveling to and from interviews. But more importantly, this helps employers gather as much information as possible, which can then be used to build information-rich talent pipelines.
The second pillar, Automate, takes care of many of the routine recruitment processes that are currently done manually, such as screening resumes and scheduling interviews. The platform works around the clock so candidates don’t have to wait to hear back from recruiters, and get their questions answered immediately. Again, unlike offline processes driven by humans, including automated transactions wherever possible will help the organization to capture a lot more data without manual data entry.
The last pillar, Reuse, is about how to use all the data collected to build talent pipelines. Reusing information makes life easier for both repeat candidates and the recruiters taking them through the process. As all application and interview data is recorded within an organization’s HR systems, when a candidate reapplies to work for an organization, they are fast-forwarded to the relevant stage and don’t have to go through the same assessments and interviews that they have already completed.
CXOToday: In what ways can video interviewing optimize candidate experience? Can you give an example?
Video Interviewing provides the flexibility for candidates to attend the interview anytime, anywhere, on any device. Today’s millennials are well-versed with smartphones and selfies, so the candidates won’t get stressed during the interview and they can sometimes even express themselves better, as well. Also, it provides an entirely new interview experience for the candidates.
CXOToday: What are the essential skills for HR leaders in the digital age?
HR leads should have both strategic thinking skills and also be willing to think outside the box to find long-term value, rather than short gains or cutting costs quickly. These leaders should be redefining employee and candidate experience with the latest technologies like augmented reality, virtual reality, chatbots, etc.
CXOToday: What plans does the company have in the next 12 months?
Talview’s product roadmap is envisioned to sustain our leadership as the fastest way to hire for enterprises. Driven by the philosophy of Instahiring Experience, we are continuing to invest in machine learning and AI to create faster hiring and higher-quality candidate experience.
As a business, we are currently aggressively expanding in the North American and APAC markets, including India. We plan to enter the European market by November this year; however, we are already working with many European customers, including ENEL and ESAM.
