Spotlight: Succeeding with Recruiting Solutions in 2023

I’ve seen a bunch of cool updates to recruiting and TA tech the last few weeks. In light of this, I’ve been motivated to curate a list with some of the highlights in recruiting tools for 2023 to help you deliver a better candidate experience while rationalizing your HR tech investment.

The past twelve months have been volatile for the labor market. From the COVID hiring boom to the gradual rationalization of labor demand across industries, you wouldn’t be wrong to assume that we’re amid a recession.

However, the latest Bureau of Labor Statistics data paints a vastly different picture. The US economy added a whopping 517,000 jobs in January 2023, beating market estimates. The unemployment rate fell to the lowest level since May 1969.

While we witnessed massive layoffs across tech, industries like hospitality and leisure, government, business services, and healthcare, amongst others, added a significant number of jobs.

At a time when organizations are exploring new ways to unlock growth, talent acquisition (TA) can play a pivotal role in enabling businesses to navigate an increasingly unpredictable economic environment.

Focusing on the strategic side of talent acquisition brings enormous benefits to businesses, especially when talent teams are not consumed with tactical hiring activities. With the new talent available for hire, organizations can access a larger pool of qualified candidates. In addition, prioritizing TA during this time can help organizations develop their competitive advantage when it comes to improving the hiring experience – for both candidates and recruiters.

As TA takes on a more strategic role within organizations, it’s a great time to assess your recruiting technology stack to determine if your technology, processes, and people are ready to meet your organization’s near-future and longer-term talent needs.

From the technology demos and success stories that have been shared with me, here are my takeaways on some of the solutions making an impact in 2023.

The Modern Recruitment Technology Ecosystem

Today’s recruiting technology ecosystem is much more diverse, and with good reason. A decade back, it wouldn’t be surprising to see an organization relying on a single-suite solution to orchestrate its entire hiring process. Your typical HRIS or HCM would tackle everything from sourcing to offer management, albeit with limited functionalities and customizability.

Fast forward a few years, and we see an explosion of best-of-breed solutions designed to address specific needs at different stages of the recruitment funnel. There has been a massive shift in how organizations think about leveraging and managing such solutions.

So, top-of-the-funnel (TOFU) activities go beyond the capabilities of a traditional ATS. For instance, there’s programmatic job advertising, with players like Joveo bringing data science and behavioral advertising to enable organizations to reach a much larger pool of qualified candidates. Similarly, we see players like Qualifi, GoodTime, and Metaview delivering better interview experiences (mid-funnel) for both candidates and recruiters.

The thought of developing a future-proof recruitment stack can be daunting but it doesn’t have to be. Despite the large vendor ecosystem out there, identifying a good fit comes down to clarity in what you seek to achieve with your point solutions.

We’ve deconstructed the hiring funnel to examine how some vendors in 2023 are addressing a number of the biggest challenges in talent acquisition.

Top-of-the-Funnel (TOFU)

As the skills landscape continues to evolve, sourcing and recruitment marketing remain key priorities for organizations. A new study by Mercer found that 98% of companies still report significant skills gaps. While HR and TA look at new ways to address the growing skills divide, a large section (37%)  believe skills acquisition through hiring is the best way forward.

Here are some of the companies you should have on your radar if you’re looking to bolster your TOFU capabilities:

• PitchMe: The solution offers a great way to supercharge your candidate database, automatically updating candidate profiles in your existing database, allowing you to operationalize your candidate data like never before. Pitchme scans over 35 digital sources to update work experience, contact information, and enrich candidate profiles with verified skills missing from their resumes. It also suggests new candidates from outside of your current database.
  Why consider it? Save on valuable time by automating database enrichment and saving the hiring budget purchasing new candidates.
• Fetcher: A platform that addresses both – top and mid funnel recruiting needs by delivering candidates right to recruiters’ inboxes and offering a host of candidate relationship management (CRM) features to help you improve engagement with sourced candidates. Fetcher takes a unique approach to identifying great-fit candidates by steering away from traditional databases and using talent intelligence and matching to curate batches of qualified candidates based on requisition criteria. You can also use it to automate email follow-ups and interview scheduling.
  Why consider it? A fresh approach to sourcing and focus on DEI metrics makes it a powerful tool for organizations looking to match with candidates in high-competition industries.
• Datapeople: Simplifies job posting by automating compliance requirements for pay transparency by location and offering real time recommendations for job descriptions using language analytics. Datapeople also features an intuitive recruiting dashboard that offers insight into your job description language and content. The solution “humanizes” candidate outreach and supports your DEI efforts right from the start, i.e., job descriptions.
  Why consider it? The easiest way to audit recruiting content for job descriptions and outreach for better DEI and conversions. Also offers integrations with all major ATS.
• Brazen: A virtual career events platform for organizations hiring from both college and non-college alternatives. Brazen also offers a host of candidate engagement features and microsites designed to provide experiential/interactive communication to drive candidates down the recruiting funnel.
  Why consider it? Brazen provides a seamless engagement experience – allowing recruiters to transition from text-based chat to voice and video, all in a branded environment. The platform also offers comprehensive event tools – covering everything from event promotions to an analytics dashboard for measuring event performance.
• Retrain: Match the right people to the right roles with Retain’s intelligent candidate profiling. The solution helps you discover candidates’ skills and aptitudes and connect them to suitable roles in your organization while reducing bias. Retrain’s responsible AI supports your DEI goals by breaking down candidate profiles into skills while masking titles, degrees, or other factors that can introduce potential bias.
  Why consider it? Leverage talent intelligence to bridge your skills gap and support your DEI efforts.
• Paradox: A mobile-first, conversational recruiting platform that automates screening and scheduling. Paradox’s AI assistant, Olivia, is an intuitive conversational interface that reduces application drop-off rates by making applications as easy as texting.
  Why consider it? Job application flow has remained virtually unchanged since the early job boards. Olivia makes applying to jobs a lot more engaging and easy.
• JobSync: A platform for recruitment marketing that automates the integration of ATS’s and job sites. The solution helps connect all parts of a TA tech stack. It also removes friction by simplifying the application process to create a better candidate experience.
  Why consider it? Integrate the application process from the job site to ATS to save time and increase ROI.
• PandoLogic: A recruiting marketing and conversational AI platform that does everything from job advertising to candidate experience and analysis. It simplifies the hiring process by automatically posting jobs to recruitment sites, search engines, and social media. Its AI-enabled talent acquisition platform helps get job postings in front of more qualified candidates.
  Why consider it? Save time leveraging candidate data while reducing bias, and continuously redefine hiring strategy based on your needs

Mid-Funnel (MOFU)

Candidate engagement and interviews typically dominate mid-funnel recruitment efforts. Over the past two years, this segment has witnessed a massive transformation in the way MOFU activities are carried out. The pandemic accelerated the shift to a digital-first interviewing experience and the rise of communication automation. Vendors have been adding intelligent layers to their candidate engagement and CRM platforms to drive personalized messaging. However, CX as a whole is still evolving and many organizations are yet to begin thinking about engagement as a strategic candidate acquisition enabler. A 2022 report found that nearly 53% of candidates abandoned the recruiting process because of poor communication from the employer.

On the interviews and assessment front, there have been interesting developments since the move to digital. Overall, organizations reported a 44% increase in the number of interviews from 2018 to 2021. A part of this spike could be attributed to the fact that organizations added custom interview stages to their recruitment processes (for technical and leadership positions). On the other hand, the total time spent with prospective hires in the interview process fell 14% during the same time period. While organizations are able to operationalize their interview feedback faster, the candidate journey is a lot more non-linear. This signals an ongoing evolution in the way talent teams interact with candidates through the hiring funnel.

Vendors making moves in 2023 include (but are not limited to):

• Shine Interview: The platform offers one-way and live interviewing capabilities in addition to video introductions. It can facilitate candidate attraction and interview scheduling as well. Shine Interview helps you seamlessly add highlights and notes to interviews, making cross-team and cross-organizational collaboration seamless.
  Why consider it? Create a single unified view of the candidate from the initial attraction phase to interviewing in a shareable digital profile.
• Pillar: An interview intelligence platform, Pillar helps you speed up the hiring process by transcribing interviews for easy collaboration. The platform also offers interviewer coaching and question recommendations based on job profiles. However, the standout feature is the platform’s ability to let interviewers curate highlights, post-interview recaps to responses, cutting the failure rate in half. In addition, the offering allows for side-by-side candidate comparison to combat regency bias.
  Why consider it? Pillar’s AI-generated skills based highlight reels make hiring more objective and the question guidance feature helps you weed out any bias from the interviewing process to improve your DEI outcomes.
• Fama: The company takes a novel approach to helping organizations build a more productive and tolerant workforce by helping them identify problematic behavior before it becomes a problem. Fama offers background screening focused on uncovering intolerant behavior on social media. Its compliant and consent-based screening empowers organizations and hiring teams to make a more informed decision when hiring. With a marked increase in the use of social media post COVID-19, and an associated increase in participation online on topics such as racial justice, politics, and gender equity, Fama can help you mitigate risks associated with incivility, ostracism, bullying, and harassment in the workplace. The product also takes out the possibility of introducing bias that comes with manual screening.
  Why consider it? Discrimination is expensive. In addition to potential legal costs, the cost to replace employees can be anywhere from one-half to two times their salary. For organizations looking to build a healthy and productive culture, identifying and addressing intolerance at the hiring stage could save hundreds of thousands of dollars.
• Glider: The skills intelligence platform helps organizations assess talent quality across multiple stages – screening, assessments, and interviews, via AI chatbots and proctoring. It offers both technical and non-technical skill assessment features making it a potent tool for businesses across industries.
  Why consider it? Save valuable SME time by automating phone screening with Glider’s AI-guided phone conversations.
• SourceWhale: A solution that brings consumer-grade personalization to talent acquisition, SourceWhale offers hyper-personalization to engage and drive candidates down the recruiting funnel. Its handy chrome extension allows you to pull in personalized content mid-sequence and edit variables on the fly, allowing recruiters to create a white-glove experience for candidates. SourceWhale also features reporting and automation along with ATS integrations, making it one of the easiest “bolt-on” candidate experience solutions out there.
  Why consider it? Drive personalization at scale with content. Leverage A/B testing, gamification, and DEI analytics to improve your recruiting outcomes.
• Calendly: A scheduling automation tool that helps reduce time to hire and improve employee productivity. The solution can help teams coordinate multi-step interviews with various formats in a singular location. It also manages interviewer workload, attributes and time-zone to build balanced schedules.
  Why consider it? Increase your candidate pipeline while reducing the time it takes to fill a position. Also decreases interviewer burnout by managing the work across an entire team.
• Metaview: Makes interviewing more engaging for both interviewers and candidates. Metaview automates notetaking so interviewers can focus on high-quality conversations with candidates. It also offers AI-generated summaries of interviews. Solutions like these put the spotlight back on human interactions in an increasingly automated world. It enriches itself from other data sources like ATS to synthesize the highlights of the interview – making life easier for recruiters and hiring managers.
  Why consider it? Improve the quality and speed of your hiring process by uncovering insights into the rigor and consistency of your interviews.
• GoodTime: Simplify interview scheduling and bring down your time to hire with smart automation. GoodTime’s meeting optimization engine ensures candidates get matching times on their interviewers’ calendars as soon as they give their availability. It addresses common scheduling problems like manual emails and panel interview slot matching. It’s a great solution for companies with high-volume hiring needs as well as organizations with multiple interview stages for white-collar roles.
  Why consider it? Scale your interviewer pool with shadow training and develop new subject matter experts within your organization.
• Qualifi: Reduce candidate ghosting and scheduling conflicts with on-demand interviewing. Qualifi allows you to pre-record your interview questions that candidates can respond to and complete within 20 hours, making phone screening a breeze. In addition, a transcript is created which identifies keywords that match the role requirements. Pre-recorded interviews significantly bring down your time-to-hire.
  Why consider it? Qualifi’s interviewing platform allows you to bulk-send interviews to candidates, avoiding the back-and-forth burden of scheduling. Interviews are just a link or QR code away and can be reviewed like a podcast in 1.5 or 2x speed.
• HireMojo: A new product category within CRM, MojoHire offers a wide range of functionalities, from sourcing to hiring. The platform features a database of job descriptions and interview questions that are further matched to your requisition via AI to help you find the top candidates. MojoHire also identifies the best job posting channels for your open roles using predictive analytics and real-time behavioral data. Finally, automated screening allows recruiters to focus on high-value tasks rather than resume screening.
  Why consider it? Achieve more with your ATS by tapping into intelligent layers and talent rediscovery.

Bottom-of-the-Funnel (BOFU)

As the organizations continue to scrutinize their quality-of-hire, skill assessment platforms have become a staple in the selection stage for organizations. Post pandemic, technical assessments have become more immersive thanks to interactive experiences via problem-solving simulations and conversational intelligence. Vendors in this space are now expanding their capabilities to support more of the recruitment process from sourcing to selection, similar to what we’ve observed over the last two years in the video interviewing segment.

In addition to skills, behavioral assessment and psychological profiling remain relevant today despite scepticism from a scientific validation standpoint. However, we’ve observed a marked departure from game-based psychometric assessments to more holistic job simulation assessments that measure both behavioral and domain skills.

Some assessment solutions to watch out for in 2023:

• Filtered: A unique approach to technical assessments that does not rely on coding tests or screening. You can instead evaluate candidates with short, comprehensive job simulations that objectively assess the skills you are hiring for. Filtered can help you create real-world simulations tailored to a role and seniority level, while empowering candidates to explain their work.
  Why consider it? Make assessments more impactful and objective to predict candidate performance on the job.
• Highmatch: Mobile-first assessments that measure the success factors for on-the-job performance. Highmatch offers domain, personality, cognitive aptitude, and situational judgment assessments, making it a 360-degree assessment platform for organizations in all industries and of all sizes.
  Why consider it? Personalize assessment to the candidate and their experiences to get a complete view of their ability to succeed in a role.

Conclusion

Slowing growth and a highly competitive labor market make for an interesting paradox. And the recruiting technology ecosystem is rising to the occasion by developing solutions based on deep-domain expertise and leaning on talent intelligence. With more recruiting tools becoming ATS and HCM agnostic, TA teams have an opportunity to tap into a much larger solutions ecosystem with bespoke capabilities for each stage of the hiring funnel.

Going forward, TA teams will need even more education, support, and consulting expertise to navigate candidate expectations and achieve business goals in 2023. As all these challenges take form, we will be here to guide you.

We hope this resource helps you get started re-envisioning how you address your most pressing challenges with technology.

Authors

Ryan Leary

Ryan Leary helps create the processes, ideas and innovation that drives RecruitingDaily. He’s our in-house expert for anything related to sourcing, tools or technology. A lead generation and brand buzz building machine, he has built superior funnel systems for some of the industries top HR Tech and Recruitment brands. He is a veteran to the online community and a partner here at RecruitingDaily.