Modern Hire is a virtual, hiring platform that covers the entire hiring process from scientifically validated, pre-hire assessments, and virtual job simulations, all the way to providing live video interviewing technology and on demand video text or phone interview solutions. Interview is with Jay Miller their Chief Marketing Officer.
TRANSCRIPT
Jay Miller:
This is Jay Miller, CMO of Modern Hire, and I'm next on the RecTech podcast.
Chris Russell:
All right everyone, welcome to the only podcast that helps employers and recruiters connect with more candidates through technology inspired conversations. If you want to know about the latest tools and tactics for finding talent online, this is your show. Today's episode is a vendor edition.
Chris Russell:
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Chris Russell:
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Chris Russell:
All right, so Modern Hire is a virtual, interfacing platform that covers the entire hiring process from scientifically validated, pre-hire assessments, and virtual job simulations, all the way to providing live video interviewing technology and on demand video text or phone interview solutions.
Chris Russell:
Joining me today to talk about the platform and what's happening in the industry is their CMO, Jay Miller. Jay, welcome to the show. It's great to have you.
Jay Miller:
Hey, yeah. Great Chris, great to be with you today. Looking forward to the conversation.
Chris Russell:
Same here. We haven't connected yet, but I'm curious Jay, 2020's been a challenging year for HR tech companies in the space, especially from a marketing perspective. I'm curious how you guys have changed the way you market the product in a time like this.
Jay Miller:
Yeah, it's definitely been an interesting year, to say the least. One of the first things we did was we recognized that hiring was going to be transformed by the pandemic, and the flip in candidates versus the number of positions definitely came to be. One of the things that we realized too, the combination of science and technology for Modern Hire was actually well positioned for the new reality of how hirings get done, and so we've really doubled down on our emphasis of what great science and technology can do to help both with recruiter efficiency, candidate experience, as well as just making sure the best people get the right jobs.
Chris Russell:
Yeah, very cool. How's remote work going for you and the team? What's it been like this year?
Jay Miller:
Yeah, it's been a bit of adjustment. The good news on our side is, about a third of our organization was remote going into COVID, so we had a good percentage of our employees around the world who were home office, or remote environments. We've been able to leverage their expertise and how they go about things, to transition that into the rest of the organization, and how functionally operations happen, whether it be meetings, work discussions, collaboration sessions, brainstorming sessions, or just any kind of collaborative work needs to get done. Yeah, it's been an adjustment, but luckily for us, we had a leg up going in.
Chris Russell:
Nice, nice. You guys are the artists formally known as Montage. You merged with Shaker last year and rebranded into Modern Hire, for the audience. Were you part of that rebrand, and I'm curious also, if you could maybe give us a peak inside that process in terms of what that was like by merging and also rebranding too.
Jay Miller:
Yeah, you bet. Now we've added Sonru to our family as well.
Chris Russell:
Oh Sonru too, right.
Jay Miller:
Yeah, that's right. We're the combination of three entities, brought those together, yep. Was here when the rebranding happened, really proud of the work that went into researching, analyzing, discussing, debating, and having the dialog around what the new organization would be called, and the unified organization would be called as Modern Hire, and I think we landed in a really good place. It immediately, first of all people know what we do by our name.
Chris Russell:
Yeah.
Jay Miller:
It immediately positions us as the thought leaders in this space, in the middle of the funnel space that we play in. Yeah, it was a great process, a lot of research, both with customers as well as with market in general. A diligent process, well executed, and the roll out was pretty seamless. Obviously, with the Sonru acquisition this year, and adding their clients and geographies into our family, that roll out continues.
Chris Russell:
I like companies that name themselves after what they do, so I appreciate the Modern Hire name itself. Was that a part of the strategy going into it? I'm also curious, what was the second choice, if that one, if Modern Hire was not the name, what was the second name that was also being floated around?
Jay Miller:
Yeah, I'm not going to say. That's a great question, and we'll save that for another time. I'm not going to get into the number twos and the number threes, but there definitely were other options. I would say, yes being able to very clearly articulate, by your name, and what you do, and what you're about, I think it's important in the branding and the brand strategy, and I would also say, in terms of the second and third, they were distant seconds and thirds, so Modern Hire really, clearly rose to the top for us, very early in the process.
Chris Russell:
Nice. Did you have to ... Did someone own the domain? Did you have to go buy it or was it available, just curious?
Jay Miller:
There was a group that did have that combination, and we did have to go buy it, but fortunately for us it was relatively easy to get in the game of domain acquisition.
Chris Russell:
That's good. I'm always curious how people get their domains, so fascinating topic. Jay, I want to ask you about video interviewing. What is the ... It's been around for a number of years now. My last job was five years ago in TA, and I used it back then. What is the current state of video interviewing? How would you describe it right now?
Jay Miller:
I would say it's ... Whereas you might, for the last decade, you might have said, "This is the year for video interviewing. This is the year for video interviewing."
Chris Russell:
Right.
Jay Miller:
Every year, and I think COVID has finally put us across that hump, where the world now talks in terms of virtual hiring. Virtual is how it's getting done, and so video interviewing is squarely at the center of that, as well as the science that we bring to the table through that process. This is the year of video interviewing, and we've seen, not only our existing clients adopt in various workloads and various job hiring processes, adopt more of our product, but we've definitely seen an uptake in the industry as a whole in terms of, "Hey, now we need, we have less recruiters. We're hiring virtually. We're not together. We're not in the office. How are we going to get the job done," and so they're looking at technologies like ours to facilitate that process.
Chris Russell:
Give me a sense of who's using it, and what they're using it for, in terms of jobs, things like that? Would you touch on that?
Jay Miller:
You bet. Some of the leading brands that we highlight in our storytelling are some of the names that I'm sure your listeners know well, Amazon, Walmart, HCA, Scripts, Spectrum, CVS, and some other major brands. In fact, one example I would use for you in terms of this year is what's going on with, in the entertainment space. We have Sea World as one of our clients, and with COVID they had to basically shut down their ... This was be the parks business part of what they do, and they shut down the parks with COVID. Now, as you go through the year and you think about, "Okay, what does it mean to reopen our parks? How do we re-staff up? Through that process, not only do we want to re-staff up, but we want to make sure that we have the best talent at each of our positions that meet with our clients, and the park experience."
Jay Miller:
They were really encouraged by what we were doing with the combination of science and technology to be able to facilitate that, not only virtual process, virtual hiring process and great candidate experience, but in an accelerated process. They went overnight from a park that was zero employees back, or maybe a few people onboard, but now we have to have thousands of people staffing the park. How do we basically turn the parks back on overnight?
Chris Russell:
Yep.
Jay Miller:
We were able to support them in that process.
Chris Russell:
Very cool. Are there any best practices out there that you could share in terms of HR teams implementing a technology like this, and also just using it on an ongoing basis? Any tips or advice you could share there?
Jay Miller:
You bet. There would be two things I would highlight right off the bat. First is you'd want to always think about process. Process is really important, and what are you trying to achieve through that process. Don't forget about, in the process analysis, as you think about what virtual hiring looks like for you, don't forget about the candidate experience, and obviously, the employee experience, and the others involved in the process, but certainly don't lose track of the candidate. Even though there may be more candidates than positions right now, candidate experience in terms of getting the best people for your roles, still matters.
Jay Miller:
The second thing I would highlight is don't forget about science. Science plays a key role in how you can do virtual hiring at scale, and very efficiently, and very effectively, and in a fair way, especially I would say highlighted in today's environment, but not something that's really new or should be considered new, but things like fairness, diversity, inclusion are all important aspects you should take care of as you think about your virtual hiring process going forward. Science plays a key role in that process.
Chris Russell:
Nice. I last used video interviewing technology about five years ago, my last corporate TA job, before I went to work for myself, Jay. I remember we were using [inaudible 00:11:03] at the time. Our higher ups had wanted to see if we could get our candidates to do a quick cover letter, sort of video, before they actually went through the process, so we started implementing it. What I found was that, this was the hospitality industry to set the scene a bit. We only got about 30% adoption out of it all. Not everyone wanted to do a video.
Chris Russell:
Talk to me about that adoption rate. Has it increased over the years since then? Are Millennials more likely to do a video versus a Boomer? Do you have any details around that kind of stuff?
Jay Miller:
Yeah, certainly the adoption rate has increased over the years, and as I was talking earlier, about inflection point with 2020 COVID, I think we've seen another jump in terms of the adoption rate this year as we've all gone virtual. Those of us in work settings are living in a virtual environment and on video every day. I think to your point, obviously there's a generation of folks that have grown up looking at their phones, and living on video in that environment. To that end, being mobile friendly and meeting the candidate where they're at is part of the process.
Jay Miller:
Our technology and our experience around that is certainly better now than it's ever been. That's facilitating that adoption. To your question about whether it's Millennials versus Boomers, I would say certainly there's a difference in adoption rates, but I would say across the board, regardless of the generational aspect, we're seeing increased adoption of these technologies.
Jay Miller:
One of the reasons, not only the mobile experience and the overall experience being so much better with today's tools and technologies, but the other thing we emphasize is transparency. We're very upfront with the person, the candidate, about what the process is going to be like, what they're going to have to go through, what's going to be expected of them, what information are they going to share, and why are they going to share it. The transparency and the upfront communication, as part of the experience, is critical to that adoption. That's been one of the secrets of our success.
Chris Russell:
Yeah, very cool. Could you describe, maybe take a minute and describe how the Modern Hire platform works, from a candidate experience standpoint, and the recruiter experience, as far as the video goes? Is it asynchronous or synchronous? Is it both?
Jay Miller:
Yep, you bet. In terms of the overall experience, the platform supports candidates where whatever type of environment they're looking for. If we're on mobile, or if we're on computer, we support those kinds of environments. For the recruiter, in terms of how they want to deliver that to the candidates, we support the on demand, or live environment. From an interviewing perspective, you can do that offline or live, in a live setting, so we support all of that.
Jay Miller:
We support the scheduling and coordination of that automatically, so that you can speed up the process. We support automatic progression through the process with the recruiter or the hiring manager always in control of the decision, but us giving advice along the way on how that candidate could be expedited through the process, and just make sure that, as I mentioned a moment ago, about adoption and the communication aspect, making sure that it's very simple and clear to the, whether it be the candidate, whether it be the recruiter, whether it be the hiring manager, what information do I need to move to the next step? What is going to be expected of me at the next step, and guiding me through that process.
Chris Russell:
Yeah. Does the recruiter have to appear on video, or is that optional?
Jay Miller:
It is optional. It's definitely optional for the recruiter, and what we see though is when the recruiter does do a personal introduction, or welcome, or something along, it could be multiple videos along the hiring process, we do see an increased engagement from the candidates through that process.
Chris Russell:
Yeah, how about hiring managers, do you encourage your clients to have their hiring managers on video as well?
Jay Miller:
We do actually. It's always nice when, if a hiring manager is responsible for a role, or set of roles, for them to do some kind of welcome/overview of the role and what success might look like in the role, since they will be the person that the candidate will ultimately, works along side, reports to, or is engaged with most often on the day to day basis, it's always a really nice experience for the candidate to hear from them directly in that process.
Chris Russell:
Got you. You mentioned you acquired Sonru earlier in the show. They're based in Ireland, correct, I think it was?
Jay Miller:
That is correct. They're headquartered in Ireland and have presence in both Amia as well as Asia Pacific.
Chris Russell:
Yeah, is video interviewing, is the adoption rate greater or lessor in those countries versus the US?
Jay Miller:
I would say it's been equal. I wouldn't say it's greater or less. Yeah, I would say it's very similar to what it's been in North America. Maybe a little bit behind in specific countries versus other countries, but overall I would say it's very similar. Sonru got their start, their heritage really is in on demand video interviews, and that's where they've made their hay. Over 400 clients across Europe and Asia, and add that to the Modern Hire family, and then obviously all of the additional capabilities that the Modern Hire platform brings to those clients, in terms of live video, science, automation, scheduling, all of those things as part of the increased value proposition for those clients, as they continue to transform their virtual hiring process.
Chris Russell:
Very good. Jay, where is video interviewing in five years? How big of a footprint is it going to have inside of corporate America, and how will it evolve as well?
Jay Miller:
Yeah, that's a great question. I think we have seen the start of a transformation with video interviewing that gets to be more about letting the job itself guide the video interview. What would success look like for the candidate on the job, drive the actual interview and the video interview experience? I see the adoption continuing to increase as we go forward.
Jay Miller:
While we might, post COVID, we might settle back to a mixed level of in office versus remote, it's probably never going to be exactly the same as it was pre-COVID, so I expect video, virtual types of processes to continue to be adopted, and video interviewing specifically could be part of that, but I do expect the job itself to drive more of the process as we go into the future. Science will be the enabler to making sure that happens.
Jay Miller:
What am I actually going to be doing? What does success in this role look like? Let that drive the video interviewing process.
Chris Russell:
Yeah, very cool. Talking with Jay Miller, CMO of Modern Hire, the video interviewing company. Jay, last question, it's been a tough year for recruiters and vendors. Leave us with some positive words as we end the show here. What are you looking forward to in 2021? Give us something positive to takeaway.
Jay Miller:
You bet. One of the things that we're proud of is in the midst of COVID, we've actually seen a 57% increase in the adoption and utilization of our platform and our technologies. Encouraging words for recruiters is get familiar with capabilities like what Modern Hire brings to the table in terms of middle of the funnel, how you can transform that portion of the process outside of what you may be doing with your [inaudible 00:19:28] and tracking system, or any of the systems of record. How can I transform my actual hiring process? How can I make the experience better, not only for candidates of course, but also for the hiring managers and the other stakeholders within my company, involved in the process? How can I do more with less, because that's undoubtedly what most people are facing in terms of recruiters and talent acquisition experts.
Jay Miller:
In terms of candidates, I think that the world will get back to work. One of the things that we launched with right away, in the midst of COVID is, let's help the world get back to work, and I think we are going to see that. Maybe some jobs will look different in the future, but there is going to be work out there to be done, and it will be purposeful and meaningful work. You will be able to find it.
Jay Miller:
Technologies like what Modern Hire brings to the table are going to help you as a candidate connect with the work that matters to you, and help you and your families, and communities. I think the best is yet to come.
Chris Russell:
Well thank you, Jay. Appreciate those kind words, and those words of wisdom. Jay Miller, Modern Hire, ModernHire.com. Thanks for joining me today.
Jay Miller:
Thank you, Chris.
Chris Russell:
That will do it for this episode of the RecTech podcast. Be sure to follow us on the socials, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube via the at RecTech media handle. Thanks for listening. Remember everyone, always be recruiting.