EXCLUSIVE: HireVue wants to end rear view hiring

Hiring is fundamentally broken, Anthony Reynolds, HireVue’s CEO, tells UNLEASH.

The problem is that companies are still taking a rear view approach to hiring and HR.

This means employers are to focused on CVs, resumes, and what people have done in the past, but “companies can’t see what candidates are really capable of”: their potential, their skills and their competencies, HireVue’s chief customer officer Patrick Morrissey adds.

This creates a situation where hiring “starts with what the company wants, not what the candidate can do” – and this is not a very candidate-centric way to hire.

Historically, organizations might have been okay taking this approach because there were cycles of supply and demand – sometimes there would be a shortage, but sometimes there would be a glut of supply.

But now, Morrissey shares that this “shortage of candidates is going to be an ongoing problem – that’s the new normal, this is not a cyclical thing” – so companies cannot keep doing the same thing and expect different result to stand out in the war for talent.

These viewpoints are informed by HireVue’s conversations with its clients – following its acquisition of Modern Hire in May, the HR tech company now has 1150 customers globally, including 62 of the Fortune 100 – as well as its own survey of 3,000 global job seekers and workers.

HireVue’s research found that 43% of job seekers were frustrated by the manual nature of looking for a job, 33% struggled with inaccuracies in job descriptions and 41% were annoyed by the lack of feedback during the process.

‘Human Potential intelligence’ as the solution?

In an attempt to fix this and drive candidate centricity, and six months since its acquisition of its Modern Hire, HireVue has decided to launch the next evolution of hiring – a new category called ‘human potential intelligence’.

Reynolds explains: “The human aspect is that we’re big champions for the candidate”, and the use of AI is about “amplifying” what humans (both candidates and recruiters) are capable of; “the tech never makes the final decision”, adds Morrissey.

“The potential is about leaning forward and seeing what the candidate is capable of based on their skills and competencies. Intelligence talks to the foundation of science,” continues Reynolds.

“Frankly, there’s no-one in the industry that has invested as much as we have in [science]. We continue to work not only with thought leaders, but regulators and legislators on how do we create AI that benefits the candidate…and allows them to put their best foot forward,” he adds.

Ultimately, HireVue’s goal is to use science and technology – and not guesswork – to connect talent to opportunity.

This rethink is also great news for HR teams; according to Morrissey, it stops them being “second class citizens” in companies and transforms them into a strategic function that is really tapping into what the company needs, and finding the perfect talent fit.

“This is an opportunity to change the game, put them in control and make them a true partner to the other parts of the business,” Morrissey states.

As part of this wider ‘human potential intelligence’ category launch, HireVue has announced a new product called ‘Find My Fit’, which empowers job seekers to figure out their skills, and untapped potential, and then align that to opportunities in the market.

This flips traditional hiring, and candidate experience, on its head – and leverages AI to do so.

Morrissey explains that when candidates go on the website, they will be prompted to put in their preferences.

However, if they are unsure, then they can “take a quick assessment”, and it’ll provide feedback and help them find the best role for them using AI.

“It sends you down more personalized paths, instead of letting you figure it out” – it stops candidates getting stuck in the mud, and bogged down by manual, burdensome recruitment processes.

All of this is also positive for employers; it means only the right fit candidates are applying for their open roles.

The other good news, according to Reynolds, is HireVue and Modern Hire’s merger really plays to the pain he has been hearing from customers: “The consistent message we hear is: ‘We want to continue to invest in HR technologies, but we want to spend more with fewer vendors’.”

Plugging and playing boutique vendors is too expense and time consuming, HR leaders want their problems solved in a seamless way by one tool.

The future for HireVue

2023 has been a busy year for HireVue, but UNLEASH was keen to find out what’s next on the horizon?

“The [‘human potential intelligence’] category is part of our strategy going forward – it is fundamental to the company’s vision and values, who we are and how we show up every day to do our best work”, explains Reynolds.

While he acknowledges that other vendors are doing part of this category, he believes that no-one is as candidate centric as HireVue.

Morrissey echoes this: “We’re in the very early stages of a revolution in thinking about hiring”.

Next on the viewpoint is really merging talent acquisition and talent management, and “really reset the art of the possible” around HR and technology.

Watch this space.

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