Kendra Cato Talks Staffing Technology

Kendra Cato is Director of Strategic Partnerships at Advance Partners, a funding and strategic services company for the staffing industry…Today we’ll talk about how technology is transforming today’s staffing agencies.

• What is your role at Advance Partners? You worked for bullhorn?

• State of staffing….how are staffing owners feeling

• What are the biggest tech trends transforming the staffing industry and how?

• What challenges and opportunities does AI automation bring to the staffing industry?

• How do firms navigate the complexities of DE&I staffing in today’s environment? 

• How do AI-driven tools and data analytics support inclusive hiring and diverse talent pipelines?

• How can smaller staffing firms differentiate themselves to drive growth?

• How is technology enhancing – or not enhancing – relationship-building among recruiters, candidates and clients.

• How do u stay on top of staffing industry?

• Fav AI tool?

• You’ve had an interesting career path. What are some of the most important lessons you’ve learned along the way? How are they being applied in your work in the staffing industry?

Kirby Cole Talks Recruiting & Technology

Kirby Cole is the Vice President, of Talent Acquisition and Doctor Services for St Louis based Eyecare Partners… they operate a national network of eye care locations that provide vision care services. The company employs over 8700 people.

TOPICS DISCUSSED ON THE PODCATS

1. Its a new year, what are your hiring plans for 2025? (what kind of jobs and how many hires)

2. Whats your biggest hiring challenge right now?

3. Biggest TA win in 2024?

4. Describe your HR tech stack

5. What’s one thing from a tech standpoint you want to address this year?

6. Seeing a lot of AI resumes?

7. If I asked you to describe your employer brand what would you say?

8. Most memorable candidate story from 2024?

9. Best part about your job?

Erin Generated 1.1 Million Referrals in 2024

A new white paper from ERIN showcases how employees across industries engage with referral programs through mobile, email, and social platforms. 

The data provides actionable insights to enhance enterprise recruitment strategies, emphasizing mobile optimization, recognition programs, and tailored engagement tools.

TOPICS IN THE POD

1. Is this the first time you've published this data? Its almost like a report on your entire business…

2. What were ERIN's key 2024 data points that served as the basis for the white paper findings?

3. What did you learn are the top methods of engagement with employee referrals? Email, social, text, device type?  

4. What is the success rate of leveraging ERIN, in terms of candidate responses, # of hires, referral payouts, and other key metrics?

5. Talk us through the average employee user experience with ERIN, based on what this white paper revealed about how they're engaging with the platform.

6. The white paper addresses how various industries and countries respond to employee referrals. Talk us through those findings.

7. What's your message to companies that haven't yet bought into the idea of leaning heavier on employee referrals as part of their recruitment process? 

8. Where can we find Erin in 25 (conferences)?

Twill Wants You to Refer Tech Talent (and get paid)

Twill, a next-generation talent platform that connects companies with vetted tech professionals through peer recommendations, has raised $1.4M in pre-seed funding  we’ll talk to their CEO Michelle Volberg about what’s next.

TOPICS INCLUDE:

Whats your background and tell us more about the origin story of Twill?

1. Tech hiring has taken a hit the past two years, do you see that as a hindrance or opportunity?

2. How does the platform work for both candidate and employer? (walk us thu the user experience)

3. Can you walk us through how you validate the expertise of the professionals in your network? What metrics or criteria do you use?

4. What industries or roles have you found this model works particularly well for?

5. When did you launch? Any success stories? Can you share some specific examples where your model has led to particularly successful placements that might have been missed through traditional recruiting channels? 

6. Looking ahead 5 years, how do you see the recruiting landscape evolving? What role do you envision Twill playing in that future?

7. Whats Twills biggest challenge right now?

8. Whats the plan now that you have funding?

HiringBranch CEO Talks Latest Funding Round

HiringBranch offers an AI voice and chat soft skills assessment platform.  Co-Founder and CEO Stephane Rivard confidently predicts AI will soon replace interviews and they just landed 5 million canadian dollars to prove it. This latest funding will help the company expand globally into Latin America, Asia, and the UK.

TOPICS INCLUDE:

1. Give us a quick history of HiringBranch? When did you start and why

2. What problem is HiringBranch solving for? How are you different from competitors?

3. Why do you believe interviews are going away? Why is this new hiring method better than traditional resumes and interviews?

4. There is a lot of conversation around AI and bias in the hiring process. How does HiringBranch debunk claims that AI is biased? Do you believe AI can actually improve the quality of a hire?

5. I hear you coined the term "Soft Skill AI." What is Soft Skills AI? Why is it important to measure soft skills in the hiring process?

6. I hear you just received recent funding. What is the future of HiringBranch?

Jon Stross, Greenhouse Co-founder, Talks State of Job Hunting

The 2024 State of Job Hunting report, recently released by Greenhouse, a leading hiring platform, paints a challenging picture of the current job market. Despite nearly half of US workers actively seeking new opportunities, a significant portion experiences heightened anxiety due to a broken hiring system –we’ll talk about it next with co-founder Jon Stross

“The data highlights a troubling reality— the job market has become more soul-crushing than ever. Candidates are trapped in a cycle of despair and have no idea what’s going on. Hiring feels like a black box. It’s become a battlefield that job seekers have to cross – employers ghosting candidates, fake, spam, and scam jobs— and AI is only exacerbating it all,” says Jon Stross, President and Co-founder of Greenhouse.

Employer.com Sells for $450K to Recruiter.com

Jesse Tinsley is the CEO of Recriter.com, an OnDemand recruiting platform. But he also now leads BountyJobs, Before You Apply and the newly acquired  Employer.com.

TOPICS DISCUSSED

• You run like 5 different businesses…break down each one for us…

• How do you run all these businesses…how big is your team?

• You’ve acquired some of the most premium domain names in our industry…Talk about the value of having a premium domain name like recruiter.com and employer.com….what are the advantages?

• You spent $450k on Employer.com - what was that process like?

• What Are you building here? You've hinted at more acquisitions to come?

• 2024 has been a rough one for HR tech vendors…that didnt seem to scare you off doubling down?

• How big is your business today? self funded right?

• EOR space is very competitive

• Whats the future hold for you?

The Rise of AI Jobs

Veritone recently  released its analysis of Q3 aggregated U.S. Jobs Report,... the research is in conjunction with Aspen Tech Labs…one of the findings was a continued increase in AI jobs….here to talk about that is the GM of Veritone Hire Alex Fourlis.

TOPICS & DATA

1. New research has come out indicating a growing demand for AI-related jobs. Can you share some of the findings?

In Q3, there were 31,610 vacancies in artificial intelligence jobs, a 6.6% increase from Q2 2024 and a 37.5% increase over the past 12 months. 

2. Salaries for AI Jobs?

In Q3 2024, the median annual salary for AI-related roles was $31,803, 25% higher than for non-AI IT positions. For example, AI-focused software developers were offered an average salary of $166,358, compared to $140,400 for their non-AI counterparts, reflecting a premium of nearly 19% for AI expertise. Among the top 10 U.S. states with the highest number of AI roles, California, New York and Virginia stood out with the largest average salary gaps between AI and non-AI IT roles. The differences in these states were $37,242, $34,154, and $25,095, respectively.

2. Beyond software developers what other types of AI jobs are available?

4 What kind of AI jobs does Veritone have in house?

5 What's one AI tool out there that is interesting to you when it comes to hiring?

6. How is Veritone Hire leveraging AI these days?

7. AI is being baked into all kinds of hiring tools,(generative + matching) how will all these software companies differentiate themselves if they all have similar AI functionality?

Building a Recruiting First Culture - a CEO’s Perspective

Ready to build a recruiting powerhouse from the top down? Discover why recruitment isn’t just a process—it’s a fundamental pillar that shapes your organization’s success.

Audio Roundtable Takeaways:

• Recruiting is a core tenant of everything in your business. Learn how strategic recruitment can drive your business’s growth, innovation, and competitiveness.

• Blending Recruiting Seamlessly into Your Culture. From aligning recruitment goals with your core values to fostering a talent-centric environment, we’ll show you how to make recruitment an integral part of your organizational DNA.

• The Connection Between Recruiting and a People First Strategy. Learn how a people-centric approach to recruitment can elevate employee satisfaction, retention rates, and, ultimately, your bottom line.

• The Art of Attracting and Retaining Top Talent. Gain insights into what distinguishes exceptional leaders in attracting talent and what compels them to stay for the long haul.

Join the JobSync team as Gary Noke, President and CEO at Ninjio illuminates the path to building a thriving, talent-focused organization through his expertise and visionary leadership..

Indeed Flex Founder Talks Temp Staffing

Novo Constare is the current Chief Executive and Co-Founder of Indeed Flex. Novo is also the General Manager & Vice President of Staffing Solutions at the organization. Novo co-founded Syft a temp staffing marketplace in 2015 in London. Four years later, in the summer of 2019, Syft was acquired by Indeed and rebranded as Indeed Flex. 

TOPICS

• For those that dont know…. Explain what Indeed Flex is?

• Explain the user experience for the employer? How do they go about finding temporary work on the platform?

• Why should an employer use this over just posting on Indeed?

• Whats the typical cost to the employer?

• Is there a difference between temp staffing in the UK vs the U.S.

• You started as Syft back in 2015 take me back to those days why did you start it ?

• What was the biggest challenge you faced in the early days of Syft and how did you overcome that challenge?

• Same day hiring?

• What was it like when Indeed came calling and said we want to buy your business?

• Building a marketplace advice?

• Whats the future for Indeed Flex?