Cielo Inc.
Brookfield
Innovation: High Volume Recruitment Process Outsourcing
Founder: Sue Marks
Large seasonal operations, such as a theme park before the summer season or a retailer before the holiday rush, face a distinct challenge: the need to hire thousands of quality employees quickly.
The pace of traditional hiring protocol – sifting through resumes, evaluating skillsets, scheduling interviews and following up on good prospects – can sometimes prove too sluggish for high-volume hiring.
And for a job seeker, the hunt for an hourly gig can be equally cumbersome.
“Typically, a candidate might see an ad, then click on the ad, and that will send them to a different system, where they’ll have to create a username and password,” said Adam Godson, vice president of global technology solutions at Brookfield-based Cielo Inc. “They will fill out a long application, and then they will wait. Some person will review their stuff to see if they’re qualified, maybe call them for an interview, then they’ll play phone tag for three to five days. The whole process can take multiple weeks.”
Cielo says it can bring that time down to seven minutes.
The Brookfield-based company recently launched High Volume RPO (Recruitment Process Outsourcing), a solution that uses mobile technology and intelligent automation to steer applicants through the job application process more efficiently.
“We saw there was an opportunity to use technology in an innovative way to help people and companies with hourly hiring,” Godson said. “We could see the pieces of technology that existed, but were not interconnected enough to really be effective.”
The High Volume RPO solution is integrated into an employer’s job ads online. When a mobile user clicks on a posting, it takes the person through the Cielo-developed application process that can be completed within seven minutes.
Cielo specifically targets not only job sites, but also consumer sites like Snapchat to reach people who aren’t necessarily looking for a job. It reflects the changing nature of work and a growing interest in side hustles, Godson said.
“We see fresh audiences in (websites) where people aren’t necessarily thinking about jobs,” he said. “Work used to be 40 hours at one job and now, for many people, it’s putting together flexible work options.”
Through the High Volume RPO process, applicants are prompted to answer questions about their employment history and complete two assessments – a condensed version of the DiSC profile and an emotional intelligence assessment.
In lieu of an initial phone interview, the platform also allows for an audio interview process, in which applicants record answers to interview questions and the audio files are analyzed using voice analysis software to determine their tone and emotion.
All of that data is condensed into a candidate’s match score, rated on a scale of 1 to 10. Those who score 8 and above are automatically scheduled for an interview with the hiring manager within three days. Those scoring between 6 and 8 undergo a human review process.
Candidates are texted a reminder 24 hours before their interview is scheduled and they can text back, with the system using natural language processing to confirm the appointment.
“We’re trying to automate as much of the early process – the part from the initial match to the actual interview – so we maximize the personal contact at the interview,” Godson said. “We’re trying to reduce the friction that exists in the early part of the process.”
Still, human touches are sprinkled in throughout the tech-driven process. In addition to a text confirmation, the candidate receives a phone call reminder.
“Through our data, we’ve learned things that are inherently human,” Godson said. “We have an outgoing call made to every candidate before the interview to say ‘Hey, we’re really looking forward to you coming. Do you have any questions about your interview tomorrow?’ We’ve done quite a bit of testing and found that we get higher interview show rates when we call people with people, compared to just using technology.”
