BLOG ARTICLE

Interview: RecTech Media Talks Skills with HiringBranch CMO Live From Unleash

Published by
Chandal Nolasco da Silva
May 29, 2024
SUMMARY
Our CMO, Beth Thouin, had the opportunity to sit down with RecTech Media and talk all things skills-based hiring. Here’s how that conversation went...
Table of Contents

    The HiringBranch team returned to the Unleash Americas 2024 event for another amazing experience with our friends and colleagues. We’re talking custom jerseys for the Chad-Cheese crew, an insane amount of booth traffic, ice bars, a tear-jerking performance from legendary Magic Johnson, and so much more. 

    The Unleash Americas event brings together so many of our favourite industry faces and influencers. We were delighted to run into RecTech Media host, Chris Russell, recording interviews directly from the tradeshow floor - we haven't seen Chris since last August. Our CMO, Beth Thouin, had the opportunity to sit down with Chris and talk all things skills-based hiring. Here’s a look at how that conversation went or you can listen to the interview on our LinkedIn

    Interview Transcript

    Russell: I’m at the Startup Pavillion Floor at Unleash Vegas 2024, and I’m here at the HiringBranch booth with Beth Thouin, and she’s going to talk to us today about skills-based hiring, so how are you, Beth?

    Thouin: Good morning! I’m good, thanks, Chris.

    Russell: Good to hang out with you at the ice bar. Let’s talk about skills-based hiring. How do you define that for your client base? What’s the HiringBranch version of skills-based hiring?

    Thouin: So it can actually mean different things to different people because there are so many varied hiring processes out there. The main concept and theory is hiring candidates based on their skills first, versus their resume, experience, academia…that sort of thing. And it doesn’t necessarily have to be the only criteria for hiring a candidate but [it has to be] a leading criteria.

    Russell: Ok, so the resume is probably still going to exist in the future. Are there other ways we can move towards a skill-based process for companies?

    "skills data lives within any one of your many systems. What do those skills define? And then what insights do they provide for you"

    Thouin: Yes of course. UKG held a skills summit yesterday, and it was fantastic. They walked the HR practitioners through all the different processes deep dive to how to know where your skills data lives within any one of your many systems. What do those skills define? And then what insights do they provide for you to action on them – and there’s so many! So I’ll just widdle it down to one part of the lifecycle where skills can live and be actioned, which is with assessment, what HiringBranch does. Segue to a shameless plug (laughs)!

    Russell: Spoken like a true marketer.

    Thouin: Exactly! 

    So, a resume comes in, and it has a candidate’s claims for what they can do, what their experience is, and what their skills might be, and [the recruiter] they’re obviously trying to match them to the job they’re applying for. Where we come in is, we have an AI assessment that measures a candidate’s soft skills using free speech and free chat tasks…so to speak. So really it’s AI, communication skills, and soft skills being assessed with an open AI format. What that does then, is with a 99 accuracy, it can tell a hiring manager this candidate has this skill and this skill. Let’s say you’re hiring a salesperson, it can say this person has excellent negotiation, they’re able to build rapport very well, and they’re an excellent communicator, you should hire them. 

    Then those skills can be transferred into whatever system this employer is already using and then those skills can keep living on whether it’s for internal mobility, whether it’s for training, so having a source for skills is important. But also what our job is, and what we’re trying to help people do is really evaluate the skills and the proficiency, and to put a number or a data point to it so people can use it.

    Russell: Very good. So you have a study of 5000 candidates and you reveal your top three findings. Walk us through that if you could?

    Thouin: Absolutely. So we took 5000 candidates who were hired through HiringBranch, and then we looked at the performance of these candidates and correlated it back to their skills. Imagine how insightful that could be when they understand what skills led to what performance! So that’s what we did. 

    "the top quartile of skilled folks were also in the top quartile of performance four months after being hired."

    Then, we looked at the folks who had the top skills in specific roles – where did they land in terms of performance? And of course, the top quartile of skilled folks were also in the top quartile of performance four months after being hired. So it makes sense. 

    Russell: HiringBranch works.

    Thouin: Exactly, exactly, exactly!

    The other wild insight was on attrition. So for every top candidate hired in a customer service role (there were many roles we looked at but let’s just look at customer service), for every top-skilled candidate hired 27 bottom-skilled candidates attrited after four months. Meaning they’re all skilled, everyone that’s hired can do the job, but there’s top and bottom and so the insight there is how can we hire more top people? So we get in more top people, and then of course how can we take those medium folks and level them up to the same proficiency as everyone else.

    Russell: Very good Beth. Hiringbranch.com, thanks for your time!

    Thouin: Thank you!

    Image Credits

    Feature Image: Via RecTech Media on LinkedIn

    Image 1: Property of HiringBranch. Not to be reproduced without permission.

    Read More Blogs
    View all
    Read report
    Read report
    Read report
    Read report
    Read report
    Read report
    Read report
    High-Volume Recruitment
    Contact Center
    Best Practices

    Getting Through the Contact Center’s High-Volume Season with Ease

    Read report
    Read report
    Read report
    Read report
    Read report
    Read report
    Read report
    Read report
    Read report
    Contact Center
    High-Volume Recruitment

    Addressing Call Center Turnover Rate

    Read report
    Contact Center
    High-Volume Recruitment
    Best Practices

    Average Attrition Rates and How To Improve Them in High-Volume Roles

    Read report
    Read report
    Read report
    Read report
    Read report
    Talent Acquisition
    Artificial Intelligence

    6 Quick-Read Stats About AI and Talent Acquisition

    Read report
    Assessments
    Talent Acquisition

    Candidates Speak Up About Assessments

    Read report
    Artificial Intelligence
    Digital Transformation

    Adding AI to Your HR Tech Stack: Build, Buy or Partner?

    Read report
    Talent Acquisition
    Best Practices

    Untangling Quality of Hire

    Read report
    Read report
    Events
    High-Volume Recruitment
    Artificial Intelligence

    Top 7 Moments in Our Summer Podcast Tour

    Read report
    Talent Acquisition
    High-Volume Recruitment

    The History of Interviews According to Kevin Wheeler

    Read report
    Read report
    Read report
    Assessments
    High-Volume Recruitment

    Proving That Multiple Choice Assessments Suck

    Read report
    Read report
    Read report
    Read report
    Artificial Intelligence
    High-Volume Recruitment
    Digital Transformation

    How is Artificial Intelligence Changing the Recruiting Process?

    Read report
    Read report
    High-Volume Recruitment
    Assessments
    Digital Transformation

    The No-Interview Hiring Model is Changing Talent Acquisition Forever

    Read report
    Read report
    Read report
    Artificial Intelligence
    Contact Center
    Customer Service
    Digital Transformation

    Do Your Call Center Agents Accurately Represent Your Brand Personality?

    Read report
    Assessments
    High-Volume Recruitment

    The Essential Guide To Pre-Hiring Assessments

    Read report
    Assessments
    Customer Service
    Digital Transformation
    High-Volume Recruitment

    How To Hire For Great Communication Skills Without Interviewing?

    Read report
    Artificial Intelligence
    Contact Center
    Customer Service
    Digital Transformation

    Are Bots The Key To Providing Outstanding Customer Support?

    Read report
    Assessments
    Contact Center
    High-Volume Recruitment

    Finding Candidates in the Digital Age with New Hire Assessments

    Read report
    Read report
    Read report
    Contact Center
    Digital Transformation
    High-Volume Recruitment

    How Do Virtual Contract Recruiters Help Companies Hire Fast And Accurately?

    Read report
    Contact Center
    Customer Service
    High-Volume Recruitment

    A Guide To Hiring And Managing Frontline Employees

    Read report
    Artificial Intelligence
    Contact Center
    Digital Transformation
    High-Volume Recruitment

    How To Scale Recruitment With A Virtual Recruiter: Accurate, Quick, and Performance-Based

    Read report
    Read report
    Read report
    Contact Center
    Customer Service
    High-Volume Recruitment
    Sales

    How To Guide: 3 Essential Steps For Hiring A Quality Frontline Employee

    Read report
    Artificial Intelligence
    Contact Center
    High-Volume Recruitment

    5 Ideas To Transform Your Contact Center

    Read report
    Read report
    Read report
    Contact Center
    Customer Service
    High-Volume Recruitment

    How To Hire Top Talent Remotely?

    Read report
    Read report
    Contact Center
    Customer Service
    High-Volume Recruitment

    How To Tackle 7 Common Contact Center Issues

    Read report
    Assessments
    Digital Transformation

    The Modern Workplace Demands Soft Skills

    Read report
    Contact Center
    Customer Service
    Digital Transformation
    High-Volume Recruitment

    Top 5 Things You Need to Know About Customer Support

    Read report
    Read report
    Read report
    Read report
    Artificial Intelligence
    Digital Transformation
    High-Volume Recruitment

    Case Study - The advantages of using AI for assessing voice and chat candidates

    Read report
    Read report
    Read report
    Read report
    Read report
    Artificial Intelligence
    Assessments
    Contact Center
    Digital Transformation
    High-Volume Recruitment

    High-volume recruitment is time-heavy and expensive - 3 tips to help

    Read report
    Read report
    Digital Transformation
    High-Volume Recruitment

    How to interview 20,000 people a year

    Read report
    Read report

    Does SHL guarantee a performance improvement?

    We do. Gone are the days of guessing skills in an interview. Rely on technology to do it for you with 99% accuracy and boost your hire quality, guaranteed.

    Some of our happy customers

    Try an assessment today!

    Get a sample assessment sent to your inbox and experience the HiringBranch difference yourself.
    Thank you for requesting a sample HiringBranch assessment
    We are verifying your information and will send you a link to test drive HiringBranch soon!

    If you are a candidate (and not an employer), kindly note that you will not receive a sample assessment. We invite you to visit our Help Center for candidate related questions and answers.
    Oops! Something went wrong while submitting the form.

    Try an assessment today!

    Get a sample assessment sent to your inbox and experience the HiringBranch difference yourself.
    Thank you for requesting a sample HiringBranch assessment
    We are verifying your information and will send you a link to test drive HiringBranch soon!

    If you are a candidate (and not an employer), kindly note that you will not receive a sample assessment. We invite you to visit our Help Center for candidate related questions and answers.
    Oops! Something went wrong while submitting the form.
    Test drive a HiringBranch assessment

    Try an assessment today

    Get a sample assessment sent to your inbox and experience the HiringBranch difference yourself.
    Thank you for requesting a sample HiringBranch assessment
    We are verifying your information and will send you a link to test drive HiringBranch soon!

    If you are a candidate (and not an employer), kindly note that you will not receive a sample assessment. We invite you to visit our Help Center for candidate related questions and answers.
    Oops! Something went wrong while submitting the form.