Welcome to CPO Rising’s all-new feature, the Future of Work Influencer series, which will highlight innovative voices in the evolving world of work. This exciting new series will be a go-to spot for progressive thoughts on how technology, transformational thinking, and revolutionary ideas are changing how work gets done. Be sure to check out past articles in this series here.
This week’s all-new edition of the Future of Work Influencer series features a conversation with Gordon Burnes, Chief Marketing Officer of Bullhorn.
Christopher J. Dwyer: Gordon, thanks for joining us here as part of our “Future of Work Influencers” series. Tell us a little bit about yourself and how you got into this industry.
Gordon Burnes: Great to talk to you again! I’m the Chief Marketing Officer for Bullhorn. We create CRM software for staffing firms of all sizes across the world. I came to Bullhorn about five years ago to lead our marketing efforts. Before coming to Bullhorn, I was at IBM, running worldwide marketing for their Risk Analytics group.
CJD: Access to talent has certainly evolved over the past few years, especially considering the sharp rise in the utilization of digital and on-demand staffing sources. How do you feel these outlets are transforming how businesses think about their talent pools?
GB: That’s a good question. Contract or temporary work isn’t new to the staffing and recruiting industry, but online talent platforms have emerged as a more visible option in recent years. These self-service sites connect employers and jobseekers on-demand, and, depending on how staffing firms decide to view them, they could either be seen as a threat or an opportunity to the industry. One thing that we were curious about was whether these platforms were actually making it easier or harder to recruit qualified candidates, so we asked more than 2,000 staffing leaders this very question recently as part of our annual industry trends research. The results were pretty interesting: about 60% said they weren’t sure, and 26% said these platforms are making things easier. So, my takeaway on this is that the online platforms are growing market share versus permanent labor, instead of competing for the jobs that staffing firms fill. What might be interesting is for staffing firms to leverage the talent pools that are being aggregated on these platforms to fulfill demand that’s hard to fill.
CJD: You and I chatted nearly a year ago on the Contingent Workforce Weekly podcast about a variety of topics, including the impact of artificial intelligence (AI). One of the things you spoke of was the idea that, even though more and more enterprises would begin to adopt some elements of AI, the more “human” aspects would still be critically important. Do you still feel this way?
GB: Definitely. One of the biggest benefits of artificial intelligence and machine learning is that it can be deployed to automate time-consuming and routinized tasks and free people up to spend their time where they can create the most value for their businesses. In recruiting, that’s building relationships with candidates and clients. There’s huge value in automating administrative processes like screening, scheduling, and data entry, but artificial intelligence doesn’t have the empathy (yet!) people provide to others, which is critical when it comes to, say, convincing someone to take a particular job. Recruiters are selling people to jobs and jobs to people, and there’s still an art to that, especially at the higher end. It could be true that for jobs at the lower end of the pay scale, where availability and skill match are what drives a placement, the robots will take over, but you can’t delegate relationships to robots.
CJD: From the recruitment perspective, why is agility so crucial to how businesses manage the flow of how they find, engage, and hire new workers?
GB: Recruiters and their clients don’t have timing on their side in this candidate-driven market. Unemployment is historically low, the economy is in pretty good shape, and people have lots of options, so recruiters and their clients have to work incredibly quickly when it comes to finding and engaging qualified candidates. If they don’t, chances are those candidates are already speaking with other companies, and they could be off the market very fast. Recruiters need to always know when the top talent is ready for their next move, so they can keep them engaged and in the mix for the next gig.
CJD: Bullhorn has been one of the biggest Applicant Tracking System and Customer Relationship Management providers in the market for quite some time. What do you attribute your success to? And, how you sustain that in the years ahead?
GB: It’s a combination of being incredibly customer-centric, delivering innovative technology, and creating a strong ecosystem of customers and partners that is mutually reinforcing. Creating an incredible experience for all of our customers is why we’re in business, and we’re laser-focused on it in everything that we do. That doesn’t mean that the customer is always right, but it does mean that we’re very focused on making sure that our expectations are aligned with those of the customer. If they’re not, we’ll work it out. Our customers see a lot of value in the broader Bullhorn ecosystem, too. We have more than 150 pre-integrated technology partners, so customers have lots of options with how they go to market. We also have our fabulous Engage conferences, where the staffing industry gathers to discuss trends, tips, and strategies to grow their businesses. Our Boston conference hosts more than 1,100 people! I mentioned innovative technology, and at Engage, we host two sessions called “Vision for Innovation” and “Innovation Throwdown.” In “Vision for Innovation,” attendees can see what’s on our product roadmap for the year ahead. In “Innovation Throwdown,” they can see some of the really cool things our team has been working on; some of them are based on customer feedback, and some of them are based on the exciting new work our incredibly talented team has been developing. These are some of the most highly-anticipated sessions each year. Our customers have told us that they love the transparency, and they get excited to hear what’s on the horizon.
CJD: One of the interesting features of the Bullhorn platform that I find fascinating is your Pulse offering. Why do you think automation and intelligence around engagement is a critical item in recruitment?
GB: The more information you have about a candidate or client, the better you’ll be able to manage that relationship. The challenge is in capturing all the data from all the touchpoints about your candidate and client relationships, especially when you have team members involved. There’s no real way to do this, and to capture all the cues, without automation. Pulse literally captures all the interactions you have through email, phone, and text and logs this activity, so at any given point in time, you can see what the status is of the relationship: when is the last time you talked, what is the sentiment of the communication, what does the cadence of the communication tell you about the relationship trend, etc.? Given the high turnover in the industry, staffing leaders need this kind of system of record for the most important asset in their business: their relationships. Everyone in recruitment should be using something like this, otherwise you’re flying blind.
Learn more about Bullhorn by visiting www.bullhorn.com, and connect with Gordon on Twitter and LinkedIn.
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