Curated Intel from the Talent Tech Industry
April 11-16, 2022:
• Helping SMBs do background checks: Checkr expands customer base with GoodHire acquisition;
• Eating their own: Q1 acquisitions by startups of other startups is the highest in a decade;
• Swinging for the fences: Machine learning model can now predict ball player performance;
• Bearing bad news: Research finds that 74% of companies underperform when recruiting;
• Dishing out the talent: AI-enabled restaurant solution Landed grabs $7M in seed funding.
PLUS
• Get business info, make business contacts, do business deals – all in one place and all at one time at TAtech North America & The World Job Board Forum. Designed specifically for the companies that sell recruiting products and services to employers, it delivers the beef for bottom-line success. May 31-June 2 in Austin – don’t miss it!
Checkr announces acquisition of SMB-focused GoodHire
Checkr, a leading HR technology company powering the future of work, announced today that it has entered into an agreement to acquire Inflection, whose flagship brand GoodHire is a leader in background checks for small businesses. This is Checkr's largest acquisition to date, enhancing its leadership in the background check industry. The transaction closed in April 2022. This acquisition is a critical part of Checkr's expansion strategy in its fastest growing small-to-medium sized (SMB) business segment. GoodHire serves tens of thousands of customers in this segment. It was the first provider to offer a self-service background check solution, designed specifically for small businesses, featuring a 100% online experience, built-in compliance, an intuitive interface and excellent customer service. Companies of all sizes now expect digital tooling and a great candidate experience to win the war for talent — the kind delivered by innovative gig companies like Uber and Doordash. With this acquisition, Checkr is positioned to bring an innovative, best-in-class software platform to customers of all sizes - now including small businesses as well.
Startup-to-Startup acquisitions remain strong but public companies pull back
More startups bought other startups in Q1 2022 than in any other first quarter in the past decade, Crunchbase data of disclosed deals shows. At the same time, public companies appear to be pulling back on their acquisitions of startups as the equity markets remain volatile, though that could pick up again if macroeconomic conditions improve. The two trends indicate that the turmoil of the public markets haven’t quite hit the private markets yet, at least when it comes to M&A activity. There were 124 acquisitions of VC-backed companies based in the United States by other VC-backed companies in the first quarter of this year, up from 118 deals of that kind in the same period in 2021, Crunchbase data of disclosed deals shows. That’s the highest number of startup-to-startup acquisitions in the first quarter of the past decade.
Machine learning model could better measure baseball players' performance
In the movie "Moneyball," a young economics graduate and a cash-strapped Major League Baseball coach introduce a new way to evaluate baseball players' value. Their innovative idea to compute players' statistical data and salaries enabled the Oakland A's to recruit quality talent overlooked by other teams -- completely revitalizing the team without exceeding budget. New research at the Penn State College of Information Sciences and Technology could make a similar impact on the sport. The team has developed a machine learning model that could better measure baseball players' and teams' short- and long-term performance, compared to existing statistical analysis methods for the sport. Drawing on recent advances in natural language processing and computer vision, their approach would completely change, and could enhance, the way the state of a game and a player's impact on the game is measured.
Recruiting is harder than it looks: 74% of companies underperform
This week we launched our new global Talent Acquisition research (all about sourcing, recruiting, and attracting people) and the results are staggering. While nearly every company is trying to hire (the unemployment rate is below 3.6% and the economy is creating more than 400,000 new jobs each month), recruiting teams are not keeping up. In fact, our comprehensive research shows that only one in four companies are recruiting in an optimized way today. Yes, companies are comfortable with the “post and pray” model: buy a job ad, place your positions on Indeed, LinkedIn, or another job board, and promote your company’s pay, benefits, and fantastic work experience. Our research shows, however, that this is no longer enough. In a diverse world of workers, companies have to diversify their sourcing, create a holistic employment brand, prioritize internal mobility, simplify the candidate experience, and use AI and technology strategically.
Landed Secures $7 Million for Its AI-Enabled Recruitment Engine for Restaurants
Landed, which bills itself as the first end-to-end recruitment engine for restaurants and other hospitality industries, has raised a $7 million seed round of funding. The new round brings the total amount raised by the San Francisco-based startup to $8.4 million. The platform works such that blue collar workers download the mobile app and are guided through setting up their Landed profile, which includes short videos plus details on their work experience, location, shift availability, and job goals. Landed’s AI-based intelligent matching technology is designed to matches candidates to best fit jobs and employers near them. Hiring managers access the Landed Employer portal and input hiring goals and criteria across all locations. Landed then automates the end-to-end recruitment process with its intelligent matching and conversational AI technology: sourcing, vetting, engaging, setting up interviews with, and hiring top-notch candidates. This eliminates manual work for Hiring Managers, delivering dozens of hours of time savings each week while reportedly driving a 3.5x better hiring rate
Get Business Info, Make Business Contacts, Do Business Deals
Business info, contacts and deals – that’s what you’ll gain when you attend TAtech North America & The World Job Board Forum on May 31-June 2 in Austin. It’s the only conference totally dedicated to delivering those profit-making advantages for talent technology companies. So, whether you’re a job board or job marketplace, a recruitment marketing agency or conversational AI provider, a programmatic ad buying platform or candidate management system, it’s the one event you simply cannot afford to miss. Join us!