Roundup: Google Adds to Hire; Ultimate & Slack; NeoSpheres’ U.S. Version

HR Technology News Screens

A roundup of deals, product announcements and other news from the HCM technology community.

After months of beta use, Google rolled out its candidate discovery feature to all G Suite customers paying for Google Hire. At the same time, VentureBeat reported, the company unveiled new capabilities that allow users to screen resumes with “smart keyword highlighting” produced by their search terms and to re-engage selected candidates in bulk.

Symphony Talent will provide its clients with enhanced search capabilities driven by Google’s Cloud Talent Solution. The integration of Google’s features with Symphony clients’ career-site job content will improve search results for candidates by smoothing out descriptions, jargon, abbreviations, acronyms and misspellings. Machine learning will help result improve even further over time, the company said.

Ultimate Software teamed up with Slack to integrate workplace conversations and HR transactions. UltiPro users can now enter commands within Slack to take care of HR business such as viewing paychecks, searching the company directory, viewing employee contact information and approving or denying requests. Ultimate said the Slack app is designed to let users seamlessly interact with UltiPro without needing to enter a passcode or otherwise interrupt their work.

Paychex will acquire Oasis Outsourcing, the largest privately owned PEO in the U.S. and a well-known provider of HR outsourcing services. Paychex said the acquisition will enhance its position in HR outsourcing by leveraging its technology and providing new clients with access to Paychex’s services. When the deal closes, Paychex will serve more than 1.4 million worksite employees through HR outsourcing.

SAP partners now have free access to the company’s cloud platform for testing, demonstration and development licensing services. The company this open platform as a service will act as a single framework for partners to build and extend on existing SAP solutions.

NeoSpheres Group, a Paris-based technology-integration solution provider, launched a U.S. version of its platform called PeopleSpheres, is headquartered in New York. The company said it enables organizations to easily connect different HR systems using an Integration Platform as a Service approach.

Next Play launched its Ellen.ai, personalizes career and leadership development for enterprise employees. Working with Next Play’s SaaS application for encouraging mentorship relationships, Ellen exposes latent skills and helps users guide their development. The company calls it “a way for people to discover and exploit their superpowers.”

Espresa added a reward and recognition module to its employee programs automation platform. The new module allows HR and benefits teams to introduce new recognition programs or enhance existing ones that need a fresh look as they attempt to satisfy employee demand for personalized experiences. Using it, employers can update recognition programs in real time, customize workflows and approvals and record achievements for use in review and retention efforts.

Performance management solutions provider 15Five closed an $8.2 million Series A round, bringing its total capital raised to date to $11.9 million. The company will use the money to support product development and adding to its sales, marketing and product teams. The company said it expects to grow headcount by more than 100 percent during 2019, expanding from 34 employees at the start of 2018 to more than 100.

Skillsoft’s SumTotal Systems unit announced new features for its HCM suite that streamline configuration choices so customers can tailor user experience to meet different business needs. In addition, the company added new career development and career pathing functionality that helps employees highlight skills gaps and learn how to improve their performance and prepare for future roles.

Talent management software provider PageUp will integrate total compensation management technology by Curo. With the integration, joint customers will be able to streamline performance, salary and bonus reviews, as well as access analytics such as gender pay equity and remuneration reports.

CLARA analytics added a Medicare Set-Aside Arrangement feature to its platform that allows users to compile more detailed analyses of estimated medical costs for injured workers. The feature is fully integrated within CLARA’s claims product, which helps teams identify claims that are at risk for litigation or delays. The idea, CLARA said, is to help users save money by streamlining the MSA process, which often bogs down enough to incur significant expense.

WorkForceConnexion Recruiting Solutions acquired ConnecticsSearch Associates, a boutique executive search firm and developer of web-based candidate/position matching tool ApplicantAnalytics. Previously, WFX had licensed the technology as part of its digital platform.

Updated 8:55 a.m. with SAP news.

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