Fall conference season is fast approaching, and you know what that means: It’s time to figure out which HR tech vendors you need to make face time with.
Of course, your HR tech BFFs here at #WorkTrends have you covered. In this special episode we talk to leaders from nine of the hottest HR tech companies to get the scoop on the problems they’re targeting and the solutions they’re offering. Our interviews were recorded in March at the HR Transform conference in Las Vegas.
We’ve got excerpts from our conversations below, but this is an episode you don’t want to miss. Subscribe so you never miss an episode.
Cloverleaf
Organizing and managing teams is a lot of work, and even great managers sometimes need a little help making sure their team is the best it can be. Cloverleaf provides a variety of tools to bring teams closer together and help them reach their full potential, including for assessments. But the fact that you’re not locked into specific tools is a point of pride for Cloverleaf. “We’re assessment agnostics,” marketing manager Devon Barnhard says.
Forefront
Workplaces are increasingly going to look more like the demographics of the U.S., and Forefront aims to help us get there by disrupting traditional diversity training. Co-founders Josuel Plasencia and Yulkendy Valdez have started a company that harnesses the power of AI to create a more customized, effective training for organizations. “The workforce is going to get more multigenerational, multiracial, multi-ethnic and multi-gender. So how do you bring them together?” Valdez says. “It should be a lot of fun. … Diversity doesn’t have to be this scary topic.”
Hired
Technology has been a boon for recruiters, but candidates could use a lift too! Enter Hired, a talent platform designed to empower candidates. “Hired is basically a job board in reverse,” says Tim Yandel, Hired’s North American vice president of sales. Candidates can create a profile and work with a talent advocate to get advice and coaching. The company provides the same services to companies that use its platform, helping them identify pain points in their processes. In other words, it’s creating both a better candidate experience and a better experience for the recruiter.
Honeit
The phone screening is making a comeback, thanks to the team at Honeit. It provides a variety of automated tech and tools to help recruiters focus more on the conversations they’re having on the phone, and less on taking notes or coordinating logistics. “We fundamentally believe that conversation still counts,” says Nick Livingston, Honeit’s CEO and co-founder.
Journeyfront
We don’t always hire the right person, and learning from your mistakes can be difficult. Journeyfront wants to provide a solution for this. It offers hiring software that CEO and co-founder Daniel Ash describes as “closed-loop,” meaning it connects analytics from the hiring process to actual job performance, creating more actionable intelligence for recruiters. Ash says the platform is suitable for any position, but he particularly recommends it for high-volume hiring. “You’re collecting so much data on these roles you’re hiring for again and again,” he says. “Using a system like Journeyfront, you can really zero in really fast on what’s working and what’s not, just due to the sheer volume of those roles.”
Karat
Organizations need quality software engineers, but they rarely have time for good first-round technical interviews that help identify great people. That’s where Karat comes in. It provides the technical know-how and logistics for these interviews so the hiring organization’s candidate experience doesn’t suffer. “We come in to bring fairness and consistency to the first-round technical interview, all while providing an amazing candidate experience that those candidates will write home about,” says Sheilin Herrick, marketing leader at Karat.
Pana
Coordinating corporate travel can be burdensome, particularly when it comes to recruiting. But Pana seeks to make it easier to bring candidates to you. Organizations that use Pana don’t have to ask candidates to front money for flights or hotels, saving on expenses for candidates and time for travel coordinators. “Generally coordinators’ involvement with inviting a guest through Pana is about a minute and a half,” says Alex Borden, Pana’s director of sales. The company also provides a 24/7 concierge service for travelers using the platform to ease the burden for stressed-out travelers.
TheLighthouse
We all need job advice, particularly early in our careers. Of course, plenty of people can give you job advice, but who knows if it’s any good? TheLighthouse seeks to solve that by connecting millennial professionals with industry insiders for actionable one-on-one conversations to help further careers. “We want to make sure everyone, no matter what their network looks like, has a network that they can go to to get career advice that’s personalized to them,” says founder and CEO Courtney Brand.
Welnys
Wellness programs aren’t always the easiest initiatives for organizations to implement, but Welnys aims to help. It streamlines the process for hiring vendors, meaning organizations only get one invoice instead of dealing with numerous services. “We have over a thousand vendors on the platform,” says founder and CEO Heather Waibel. “We handle all the customer service aspects.” The company also provides speakers and workshops, along with mental health programming.
