Transcript
Mark F.:
Welcome to PeopleTech, the podcast of the HCM Technology Report. I’m Mark Feffer.
Mark F.:
Last fall iCIMS unveiled its Internal Opportunity Marketplace. It connects employees to internal job opportunities and helps them build a long term career within their company. Essentially, iCIMS took its candidate experience and applied it to the employee experience and then added capabilities to improve retention and reduce what it calls mobility friction.
Mark F.:
My guest today is Mark Brandau, iCIMS Vice President of Portfolio Marketing. We’re going to talk about the thinking behind the marketplace, the impact of COVID on career paths for employees and retention for employers, and what changes in both are here to stay. All on this edition of PeopleTech.
Mark F.:
Hi Mark. Welcome. Thanks for coming in.
Mark F.:
So, Mark, iCIMS just finished its 2022 workforce report. Can you tell me, broadly speaking, what you found out?
Mark B.:
Yeah. Thanks Mark. A couple things. Because we really collect and analyze so much data across hiring trends. We were able to really come out with, I think, some interesting points. The first is everybody’s heard about… My gosh, we all talk about the great resignation reshuffle, whatever you want to call the thing. But, the truth is employees are looking to do things differently. And they’re moving and they’re trying to upgrade their careers and they’re looking at other options. And one of the things we found out was; yeah, you know what? That’s really no joke. 80% of companies said that workers leaving really impacted their business. I mean, that’s maybe not such a big surprise, but that’s eight out of ten validating. Saying, “Yeah, this is a major problem.”
Mark B.:
I think a couple other things we found is that the gap between talent supply and demand is completely growing. There was a 97 point gap between job openings and job applications that we saw. That’s the widest in the past two years that we’ve analyzed. So, I think that’s significant. The other things we started to see, just a couple more I’ll give you, is that I think we’ve all seen shades of this, but salaries are going to continue to increase. We’ve had sea level leaders indicate that they plan to increase salaries, on average, about 7% this year to incentivize retention. And then I think one of the last things, again, that we saw just to validate, is that the notion of the flexible workforce in terms of where people are working. That’s here to stay. That’s not going anywhere. We saw that in the responses, in terms of flexible work schedules and offering remote work options. Those things are some of the highlights we saw across the board.
Mark F.:
iCIMS being iCIMS, a solutions provider in the talent acquisition space, what does all this mean for you guys? Is it affecting your product development or your product roadmap? Or your sales? Or what are you thinking?
Mark B.:
Sure. So, to be pretty transparent about this, we’re fortunate in one regard, but I want to make it very clear, iCIMS, like a lot of great companies, isn’t immune to these things. Right? So sure. We’ve experienced some people coming and going. To be very candid, very clear. But, I will tell you that we’ve also experienced phenomenal growth because we have become a very good destination, I think, employer for a lot of people. A lot of people that, both from a selling side and the opportunity for sales people, as well as really on the technology side and the innovations we’re providing and how we’re going to market and doing some very innovative things. So, we’ve been very fortunate to continue to grow through the pandemic with both our customers and our employees. But, I think we’ve been fortunate in that regard, unlike maybe some other employers.
Mark F.:
You know, it’s interesting, in a lot of the interviews I’ve been doing recently, when I ask someone about the market or competitive landscape, they end up talking about what’s going on at their company in terms of hiring, in terms of… Not new products or anything, but they talk about the company. Why is that? Why are executives going there now? I’ve never seen it before?
Mark B.:
Oh, I think that the importance of, and this is going to sound overly simplifying… But it may be. But, I think the importance of talent through the pandemic, in terms of caring for them. Where they’re working? How they’re working? Are they okay? Are they healthy? And now emerging from the pandemic with the great resignation and their desires around remote work and the importance of a more diverse, equitable workforce. We talked about compensation as a part of that and equality for that. But, I think these things are all front and center.
Mark B.:
And I think that organizations now recognize, and leaders now recognize, that they have to treat employees like customers. Like they would treat customers or frankly, better. Right? I think historically there’s the view that, “Oh, executives in a company you got to spend a lot of time with customers. That’s where the business is.” But I think there’s now a… And maybe it took the pandemic. Right? Maybe it took the pandemic to rattle the cages to say, “The time you’re spending with customers is important, but you have to spend as much time, if not more, on making sure your employees are ready to go and are engaged and committed.” Because that’s what’s going to make or break their business. So, I think that’s why you’re seeing that. I think it’s pandemic was an inflection point for these things.
Mark F.:
You also just came out with your… Or you just released your winter release. What’s the lead on that? What’s the most interesting or most important feature work that’s been done in it?
Mark B.:
Real simple. We have a lot of innovations in our releases and this is just a highlight. So, what I’m about to tell you is the highlight. We have several, several things in the winter release, but the major things we’re introducing the general availability. And this is something we launched and introduced into the market last year, at the end of last year at our annual Inspire customer event, but now, it’s generally available. It’s iCIMS Opportunity Marketplace. What’s an opportunity marketplace? Why is this important? Well, just following your last question. Really what the Opportunity Marketplace is, it allows for customers is really for them to reengage and connect with their employees internally. As you said, we’re known in the talent acquisition space pretty well. And we have phenomenal solutions when we think about recruiting external talent.
Mark B.:
And what we’re doing with our opportunity marketplace, is bringing the incredible experiences we have for external candidates internally for employees. So, what that means is, if an is thinking about another position, or as we talked about earlier with great resignation and upgrading their career or doing something different, this gives them the opportunity to go find and be alerted to and communicate with, hiring teams and talent acquisition professionals about maybe they’re next great opportunity inside their company.
Mark B.:
Historically, it’s been frankly easier, and this is cited a lot of places… Historically, it’s been a lot easier for someone as an employee to find a job outside their company than it is inside and we aim to change that. And that’s what we’re doing with the opportunity marketplace.
Mark B.:
Well, it’s a logical extension of the business, this internal market, internal jobs. I mean, it’s a lot like recruiting, it’s just [inaudible 00:09:13].
Mark B.:
It is. Yeah. That right. You’re really targeting internal employees instead of external candidates to a large extent. And I’ll be very clear. We’ve always been in this arena, if you will. We’ve always provided internal career sites. Right? Where you have an internal career site, it might be a place for employee to go to check a board. Right? To say, “Do I have positions? Are there things listed?” But what we’re doing with the marketplace is it goes a lot further. It’s no longer just a simple static career site. We’re leveraging AR. Right? In new ways to match and identify employee skills and match them to opportunities and recommend opportunities to them automatically.
Mark B.:
We’re applying things like our digital assistant, so they can have new levels of engagement and be alerted and ask questions about internal opportunities. Things like texting. Text engagement. Sounds crazy. Right? But when’s the last time you ever thought about getting a text alert or having a text conversation about a position internally? It doesn’t happen today. But we do that externally for candidates. So, why don’t we do that for employees? Why don’t they get the same great experience that an external candidate has? So, to answer your question, it’s just a little bit different audience and we’ve always provided some capability here around an internal career site, but we’re going a lot further with this.
Mark F.:
Did the pandemic impact your plans for this release? And is it [inaudible 00:10:52] or is it impacting your plans for future releases?
Mark B.:
In a weird way, it accelerated everything. So, the way I can say that is, and the reason I say that is because I say, and I alluded to this earlier about how we’ve been fortunate to go through the pandemic, but we’ve made several acquisitions of companies. And one of the companies we acquired was named Easy Recruit. It’s out of Paris, France, and they had some technology and capabilities that helped us accelerated our delivery of an opportunity marketplace. Some of the things they already had. So, that accelerated our roadmap and delivery of this. Further, to answer your question about slowing things down and my answer about accelerating is, customers talent and given where businesses are and their desire to grow, to transform, to reengage with talent and this great resignation, that’s accelerated our business. That what has occurred. So, we’ve had to accelerate everything and that’s what we’ve done. So, maybe it’s a little bit of right place, right time, but given what we are and what we do in the market. But we’ve accelerated through this greatly.
Mark F.:
Mark. Thanks very much.
Mark B.:
My pleasure. Thank you, always a pleasure Mark.
Mark F.:
My guest today has been Mark Brandau, the Vice President of Portfolio Marketing at iCIMS. And this has been PeopleTech, the podcast of the HCM Technology Report. We’re a publication of recruiting daily. We’re also a part of Evergreen podcasts to see all of their programs visit www.evergreenpodcasts.com. And to keep up with HR Technology, visit the HCM Technology Report every day. We’re the most trusted source of news in the HR tech industry. Find us @www.hcmtechnologyreport.com. I’m Mark Feffer.
Image: iCIMS
