Podcast: Yello’s Dan Bartfield on Early Recruiting, DEI and Technology

Yello Reporting

We talk with the co-founder of Yello about early-stage recruiting, DEI and technology’s role in it all, on this edition of PeopleTech.

Transcript

Mark:

Welcome to PeopleTech, the podcast of the HCM Technology Report. I’m Mark Feffer.

Mark:

My guest today is Dan Bartfield, the co-founder of Yello. Their talent acquisition platform helps because customers deliver personalized experiences to every candidate, encourages collaboration among recruiters and offers critical metrics along the way. We’re going to talk about early state recruiting, DEI and technologies’ enrollment at all on this addition of People Tech.

Mark:

Dan, thanks for being here. To set the table as it were, could you briefly tell me about Yello?

Dan:

Sure. Yello empowers efficient and equitable hiring for all recruiters and early career candidates. How do we do that? We offer an end-to-end platform focused exclusively on early talent. Which includes workflows, interview scheduling, virtual and in-person event recruiting modules, as well as a DEI database with millions upon millions of candidates. And all of it’s wrapped around our analytics and reporting.

Mark:

So last year you acquired WayUp. And I’m curious about what was the thinking behind that.

Dan:

At Yello, we saw real need in the market to incorporate a true end to end platform. So not only software, but also candidates. As well as our clients have been demanding this or asking us this for a long time. They want to be able to go into one place, use the software and as well as have access to millions, and millions of candidates. What made WayUp even better and more special was the fact they had a focus in DEI. And that is the number one reason why companies today have early talent groups, is to help fill their DEI goals.

Mark:

Have you seen growth? I mean, are employers becoming more attuned to it? Are more of them recognizing that this is something they have to address?

Dan:

Definitely. So you’ve heard about it for years, Mark. But now, companies really have to no longer just talk about it. They have to also walk the walk, as we say. With the murder of George Floyd, it has really brought the attention of diversity and DEI to the forefront. It’s something at Yello and at WayUp, we’ve been talking about for years and really pushing our clients towards. But now we’re actually really seeing action.

Mark:

DEI is just one challenge, I mean, it’s a big challenge. But employers face a whole lot of challenges today, you got employees leaving and you don’t have enough candidates. And desire to increase the diversity of their pipelines. So what’s all this look like on the ground?

Dan:

I mean, you said it right there. Now early talent’s a little bit different than general recruiting. Early talent, there’s no shortage of candidates applying to jobs. Where they run into issues is that the qualified candidates. So what the pandemic did is it went from more of a physical approach to recruiting to a virtual approach. And what we saw was when our early talent candidates are supposed to be watching lectures or doing this, instead they’re on their computers applying to jobs. So the influx was dramatic, they had a lot of candidates actually applying, but it wasn’t always the right candidates. And our clients really focused on candidate experience, so they had to make sure they had to get through all the candidates to make sure they give them a good experience.

Dan:

So it wasn’t a lack of actual candidates applying. It was the lack of actual qualified candidates they were looking for. Then you throw diversity goals on top of that and other aspects of what the pandemic created. That’s where the real challenge happened for our clients.

Mark:

I always wonder, going back to diversity, does technology really help diversity recruiting efforts at any stage? Early talent, later talent.

Dan:

I think it does. And when you look at Yello software, our job at Yello is not to replace the recruiter. Our job is to actually, hey, we’re going to help you be more efficient in what you do. So we try to take away all that manual paper pushing, all that manual work and throw automation in those aspects. And allowing the recruiter to actually do their job and actually recruit. And that’s what they were hired for. And our data shows that over 80% of candidates accept the job, it’s because of the relationship they had with the recruiter. So if the recruiter is too busy pushing paper, they’re unable to actually connect and actually give the candidate what the company’s about and their company culture.

Dan:

As well as we’re seeing software use when we talk about recruiting in a virtual sense. So anyone who knows early talent before the pandemic, it was very physical. You had to go on campus, you had to do career fairs, you had to do different types of events. But with software today, you’re able to expand your scope and go further because you can use different types software to email, to do virtual events. And really find smaller universities and colleges you probably never would’ve gone to.

Mark:

The pandemic seems to be easing a little bit, at least. On the other hand, there’s a war starting in Europe. So if you look out over the rest of 2022, what do you think business is going to be like for Yello? And how are you going to address things?

Dan:

Yeah. So Yello is sitting in a really good spot, because we offer both virtual, as well as physical recruiting options. So as we look at where the pandemic has gone and where it’s kind of easing today, and we’re going to another face, we at Yello, offer the ability if you want to go on campus, which by the way the students want you to go on campus. We offer the modules you need to be successful there. But if you’re still hesitant to go on campus or you want to expand your search, we also the ability to go virtual with our DEI database. We believe at Yello, companies are going to be the most successful that offer a combination of both physical and virtual type recruiting process in order to meet your recruiting goals.

Mark:

Dan, thanks very much.

Dan:

Oh, thanks for having me, Mark. I had a great time.

Mark:

My guest today has been Dan Bartfield, the co-founder of Yello. 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 at www.hcmtechnologyreport.com. I’m Mark Feffer.

Image: Yello

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