HireVue’s new CEO: Hiring is at ‘an inflection point’, it’s time to embrace skills and unlock potential

2024 is a big year for HireVue – this year the hiring tech giant will celebrate its 20^th anniversary.

It’ll mark this impressive milestone under new leadership. Back in January, Jeremy Friedman took over the CEO job at HireVue from Anthony Reynolds.

Now that Friedman is more than two months into the top role, and has had time to settle in, UNLEASH decided it was time to sit down with him and get the inside track.

In this European exclusive, Friedman shares why HireVue was the right fit for him (and vice versa), his insights into the state of play of the HR topics of the moment: hiring, skills and AI, plus his future plans for the hiring tech giant.

Why Friedman and HireVue are the perfect fit

Friedman tells UNLEASH that he spent more than a decade in the education tech sector – he was the co-founder and CEO of Schoology (later acquired by PowerSchool).

Schoology was all about “unlocking potential for students, and that meant finding ways to help teachers and educators see students [as] more than a letter grade”, shares Friedman.

This has real synergy with HireVue’s revamped mission to connect talent to opportunity and to unlock potential for everyone.

“This is a mission-driven business and I am a mission oriented person” – that’s why Friedman and HireVue are the perfect fit.

“Almost my entire career has been around using technology to help unlock potential.”

Skills, AI and the future of hiring

HireVue’s newly redefined mission of unlocking potential for all was part of its wider launch of a new HR tech category in 2023.

The new category is called ‘human potential intelligence’; UNLEASH had the exclusive on this launch, which came about in the months after HireVue closed its acquisition of Modern Hire.

The concept here is to move away from reactive hiring that relies on resumes and applications, and towards being proactive and looking at candidates’ skills and future potential.

For Friedman, the hiring landscape is at “an inflection point”. “If you think about the college freshman today, they’re going to graduate in a world where the jobs they’re looking for don’t exist yet”.

“The world we’re living in is one that needs to be focused on skills and competencies.”

If companies can achieve “a match between skills and requirements…that drives higher retention. Those people are happier in their jobs, they feel more fulfilled, they have clear understandings of growth paths, so that’s a win for everyone”.

The good news is that HR leaders seem to be on board.

HireVue’s 2024 Global Talent Report found that 96% of talent leaders are looking at current and future skills when making hiring decisions, and more than one in three are no longer just looking at resumes.

Of course, a big challenge is in actually “finding and identifying…the skills that a person has, and how does that relate to employer needs”, Friedman tells UNLEASH.

This is where technology, and specifically AI comes in, to help match people and their skills to the right roles and companies.

“There is a lot of technology in the market,” but, for Friedman, HireVue stands out for a few reasons.

First of all, “we have so much experience working with companies of all sizes” and across the globe, plus HireVue is not just about reducing the time to hire, and bringing speed and scale, but “quality and fairness” are top of mind.

This focus on trust and fairness, according to Friedman, “is often missed when people think about AI or technology”.

In addition, science is a core part of HireVue’s hiring approach (and central to why it bought Modern Hire last year).

Friedman shares: “We have dedicated IO psychologists on the team, and a large number of them are working alongside companies to help understand what are the roles you’re hiring for, what are the competencies that are required to be successful in that role?”

2024 and beyond at HireVue

With 2024 marking such a milestone for HireVue, UNLEASH was keen to find out Friedman’s plans for the hiring tech giant in the near and long-term future.

Talking specifically about acquisitions, Friedman shared: “With any company, there’s always an element of what’s the best way to grow, and where do you focus you initiatives to help accomplish your goals”.

“It is about focusing on the big picture. We have to be constantly evaluating where the market is going, where is it heading, what role do we want to play in that, and, most importantly, how do the areas that we invest our scarce resources in align with our vision and mission of connecting talent to opportunity?”

Ultimately, Friedman sees this as an exciting time for HireVue, as well as the wider hiring tech industry, to really solve those customer hiring challenges.

Friedman is thrilled to get the chance to meet some existing (and future) customers and partners face-to-face at UNLEASH America 2024 in Las Vegas in May.

The plan is to continue to “look at new ways to innovate alongside them to connect talent to opportunity”.

HireVue is a headline sponsor of UNLEASH America 2024. HireVue’s Chief Science Officer Dr Mike Hudy and Chief Data Scientist Dr Lindsey Zuloaga will both be speaking at the show in Las Vegas, 7-9 May 2024. It’s not too late to grab your ticket.