Introducing DeepHire

Matt McCombs, CMO of DeepHire, was recently able to interview Steven Gates about why he started DeepHire, why typical interviewing software never works for agencies, and how DeepHire can help agencies combine 3 steps of their process into one.

Feel free to scroll over the highlights below, or listen to the full podcast above!

Have any feedback? Leave us a chat message on the bottom right of your screen. I'd be happy to talk with you. – Matt

Highlights

5:30 - Why did you started DeepHire?

When my cofounder and I were graduating college, we both had training in software development. As a result, both of us put out over 500 applications to tech companies in Silicon Valley. After a few weeks, we had received 495 automated rejections emails, and 5 hand typed rejection emails.

This made me think... Why was hiring such a long and terrible process? It would be extremely impactful to send videos of myself to recruiters along with my resume. That way, hiring managers and recruiters would be able to judge technical fit from the resume, but also get a sense of culture fit.

So we built a one way video interviewing platform!

00:56 - What is one way video interviewing?

Well, two way video interviewing is what everyone is used to - using Skype, FaceTime or Zoom to video interview a candidate. Both parties had to schedule the interview time, show up, and connect face to face (or screen to screen).

One way video interviews are on-demand interviews. The recruiter comes up with a set of questions, sends them over to the candidate, and the candidate answers each question with a video recording on their own time. The results are then sent back to the recruiter for review.

The problem is that the most popular software is designed for in-house recruiting! These tools have features that agencies do not care about, but are a good fit for HR. As a result, most of the time when an agency pilots traditional tools the experiment flames out around the 90 day mark.

2:54 - What do agencies care about?

Agencies care about three things.

1. Getting candidates into roles in as little steps as possible
2. Delighting their clients as much as possible
3. Making sure their recruiters are excelling in their process

4:00 - How can a staffing agency combine 3 steps into one?

Proper one way interviewing software gives recruiters the opportunity to combine 3 steps of their recruiting process into one:

1. Engaging the candidate
2. Qualifying the candidate
3. Getting feedback + decision from client

This whole process usually takes at least a few days to complete (especially with high volume or slow clients). With one way interviewing, it can happen in hours. Using this method, the whole process can be reduced to just a few clicks and doesn't lose personalization.

But for any of these benefits to come to life, the 3 things agencies care about must be addressed in the software. Candidate friendly, compelling to clients, and recruiters must love using the tool.

4:40 - How do I make sure recruiters love using the tool?

Onboarding, training and activation are all included with DeepHire. If recruiters aren't using the tool, then nothing happens! (Literally. ) The investment is a waste, candidates are left confused, and clients want more.

Any new tool has to be trained on and integrated into the recruiting process, and our implementation team is world class:

1. 25 minute checkup and training calls are scheduled every 7-14 days
2. Core metrics are checked, and we do what we can to fix any problems
3. Integrations with the ATS recruiters used are commonly created

At the start, this implementation schedule is the only way to make sure recruiters feel confident and in control 100% of the time.

7:10 - How do I make sure candidates want to use DeepHire?

Just as important as training is making sure that candidates love the experience. If candidates don't enjoy the process, they will drop out of the recruiting process quickly (and worse, go to a competitor).

There are a few rules of thumb:

1. Engage candidates as quickly as possible
2. Make sure the interviews are mobile friendly
3. Offer 24/7 tech support to candidates

Because DeepHire is linked based, the links can be sent over SMS/Email/LinkedIn. Usually, SMS gets the fastest responses. Our software can help with engaging candidates literally minutes after they apply to a job or respond to a query.

Most candidates are browsing potential jobs on their smartphones. Keeping in mind that most candidates also like texting, it's natural that most candidates complete one way interviews on their smartphones. Having a mobile friendly interviewing process is very important. Requiring candidates to download phone apps, remember PINs or passwords, and sign up is not acceptable. The interviewing experience has to be a One Click experience.

Once candidates are into the interview, technical issues can pop up. Because of this, DeepHire has free 24/7 tech support for all candidates. A mix of AI + human touch makes sure that every candidate is cared for and given equal opportunity to put their best face forward.

We get feedback every day from candidates telling us how unique, fast and simple it was for them to complete an interview.

10:20 - How do I make sure hiring managers love the videos?

Similarly to candidates, clients have their own requirements. Clients want a one stop shop experience:

1. One click to view candidate videos
2. View videos and any other candidate information (resume, background check, personality assessment, etc)
3. Give feedback and decide on next step

We've heard stories of clients who respond within minutes of being sent short lists. It is not uncommon to hear of a client who went to the bathroom on their lunch break, viewed the videos, and left feedback! Having all the information possible in front of them makes it easy for clients to compare and contrast candidates, and ultimately leave feedback.

13:00 - How speed impacts an agencies bottom line.

The fastest staffing agency wins the most amount of the time. Furthermore, the staffing agency that can sustain being the fastest over the longest period of time will win most of the time! Candidates want to start working as quickly as possible, and clients want quality candidates to start working as quickly as possible.

13:35 - What success stories have you seen from customers?

Many people have given their success stories to us, and here are a few:

1. Early client was able to double their business in a few months
2. Saved staffing agency recruiters 23 hours per week
3. Allowed all-travel agency to interview candidates on the go

It is incredibly gratifying to see and hear these success stories come up daily. It is proof that our implementation team really is world class!

15:21 - How do you make sure candidate quality stays high?

It's hard to recover from a bad first impression. That's why we make it easy for recruiters to stay in control of the whole process, and act as the middle man before clients get to view any candidate videos. This lets recruiters keep candidate quality as high as possible! Recruiters effectively curate the candidate profiles before sharing with clients:

1. Review video answers
2. Choose to archive or keep videos answers
3. Add documents (resumes, background checks, write ups)

By curating candidate profiles, recruiters make sure that the candidates they present are the highest quality possible. Clients get a one stop shop experience, and candidates know that they are being shown in the most compelling light.

17:25 - What is the future for DeepHire?

We are wildly excited to keep developing DeepHire for the specific needs of agency recruiters.

1. Get candidates working as quickly as possible
2. Help recruiters be as efficient as possible
3. Allow clients to be confident in decisions

Future features will always fall under one of these three principles. Potential features include:

1. Automatically fill out paperwork for candidates
2. Allow recruiters to engage candidates minutes after job application
3. Let clients book interview times seamlessly with their favorite candidates

18:45 - For Executive Retained firms

Executive retained firms love using DeepHire because we help them:

1. Give candidates more depth by using video
2. Guide client decision making process
3. Add personal touch throughout the process

19:42 - What are you excited for?

We are excited to help more agencies and search firms upgrade their candidate and client experiences, be faster in the market, and ultimately make more placements smoothly!

If you are the owner of a staffing agency or search firm and want to see delight your candidates and clients, click here to book a demo. I'd be happy to walk you through the process and show what kind of results you can expect from our approach.