TecHR Interview with Terri Herrmann, VP of Marketing at Modern Hire

Could you tell us about your journey into HR Technology?

As a marketer, I’ve always been drawn to purpose-driven, mission-based organizations. With each leadership role I have taken on, I have always felt a connection to the people and purpose of the organization. My love for HR was born from spending nearly 13 years at ManpowerGroup, where our goal was to connect the potential of people with the ambition of businesses. HR technology seemed like the next logical step in my career since it combines my years of experience in understanding the HR buyer with the fast-paced, agile environment of a SaaS technology company.

What galvanized you to start at Modern Hire?

There was a lot to like about Modern Hire! It was (and still is) a company growing at a rate of 30% or more year-over-year. Our technology has a proven product-market fit, and our client base is comprised mainly of large, high-profile enterprises, so I felt that there was a unique opportunity to tell a powerful story in the market about how our technology has helped some of the world’s biggest, most respected brands with the most complex talent ecosystems solve their hiring challenges. I knew I wanted to lead the organization in telling that story and directly contribute to our growth. And, perhaps most importantly, the culture of the organization was the perfect fit for me!

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At Modern Hire, which Marketing and Sales Technologies tools do you currently use?

Because our clients are large enterprises, we take measures to market like an enterprise, too. Our MarTech stack continues to evolve as we look to become more targeted and personalized in our touchpoints with potential customers. Today, we use Salesforce and Marketo as the main engines to drive our Marketing outreach and understand our performance. We also leverage Analytics and Tracking tools, Marketing Automation, Tag Management, CRM, Campaign Management, Remarketing, Search Engine Marketing and Design tools to round out our Marketing and Sales efforts.

How does Modern Hire carve a niche for itself in the crowded HR Technology space?

The HR technology space is one of the fastest-growing and rapidly developing industries, driving more than $5 billion in projected investments in 2019 alone. That’s really exciting to be apart of, but does definitely present a unique Marketing challenge. Modern Hire stands out in this crowded space as the only comprehensive solution in the HR tech market that combines SaaS interviewing technology and workflow automation with deep expertise in AI, predictive analytics and hiring assessments.

In addition to being a crowded space, the HR technology market is also full of companies that have very similar-looking brand identities. To further stand out, Modern Hire recently underwent a rebrand that was grounded in the fact that simplicity is best. Being direct and transparent is something we really value as an organization and strive to do everyday within all aspects of our company – with our employees, with our clients, and most importantly, with our products.

Transparent, seamless candidate experience is vital in the hiring process for both candidates and recruiters, so it’s important that our products are simple and easy for all parties involved in the process. Modern Hire’s brand, logo, and colors reflect this simplicity, but also remind us of the values we strive to live and provide to our clients everyday.

Could you tell us about your Ideal Customer profiles? Which industries and markets have been the fastest to adopt technologies you currently offer?

Modern Hire’s ideal clients are leading global enterprises that understand the value and importance of a strong employer brand and candidate experience in their recruiting and hiring efforts. Our clients understand the critical need to meet the expectations of modern candidates by offering personalized, engaging and data-driven hiring experiences.

Though our clients operate in a variety of industries, we have seen the fastest adoption of our technologies in the Financial Services, Retail consumer packaged goods, Consumer brands, Healthcare, and Staffing industries.

Which other HR Tech platforms sync well with Modern Hire?

At Modern Hire, our platform is configurable with open API and has the ability to sync with just about any application and applicant tracking system platform.

Could you tell us more about your vision into growing revenue opportunities for HR Technology platforms?

As businesses continue to evolve, talent acquisition and HR teams are transforming, too. Our vision at Modern Hire for growing revenue opportunities for our platform is very client-centric. It’s built around the constant push to solve the problems and challenges our clients within the talent acquisition industry face on a daily basis.

With five different generations working side-by-side in today’s modern workplace, companies are faced with the challenge of factoring in a variety of different levels of understanding, knowledge and work styles around technology, making it difficult to evaluate which HR technology tools are the right fit for their wide range of needs. As a result, it’s imperative that corporations take into account their total talent acquisition needs and processes during this evaluation to ensure the tools they eventually adopt truly address their challenges and are the right fit for their hiring needs.

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Could you tell us more about the AI-side of HR Technology solutions?

HR technology solutions that leverage AI offer tremendous benefits to both recruiters and candidates that other technology-fueled tools don’t provide. For instance, AI-powered HR technology solutions offer bias control and real-time feedback, can predict candidate success on the job, have the ability to identify flight risks before it’s too late and much more.

At Modern Hire, we also understand that while there is a lot of excitement and positives around AI in HR and recruiting, there are also quite a few aspects of the technology that are unknown and unclear, both for recruiters and candidates. In order to be successful in leveraging AI in hiring, companies need to take a human-first approach to deployment and use. It’s imperative that HR teams take a glass-box approach to AI in the hiring process, meaning candidates have full transparency into every step of the interviewing and hiring process – including how AI is being used along the way.

At Modern Hire, we work with our clients to ensure that our approach to  AI solves their specific hiring challenges with specific, measurable results. To ensure that our AI solutions are benefitting not only companies but candidates as a whole, we establish ethical standards and create a fully transparent process – where both candidates and recruiters understand how and why the technology is being leveraged at all times.

How do you play a part in the Digital Transformation of such culture-driven organizations?

In the current landscape, talent acquisition and HR leaders agree that elevating and ensuring a positive candidate experience is the most important part of the hiring process. In fact, recent data from CandE proves this true, with 73% of companies saying that candidate experience is their #1 hiring priority this year. When the candidate experience is elevated, recruiters are able to attract and retain talent that have both the skillset and culture fit needed to be successful within and provide value to the organization.

Digital Transformation is vital to this process – especially when it comes to prioritizing the candidate experience. Recruiters are faced with time-consuming tasks everyday, including reading and reviewing resumes, coordinating back and forth with candidates to schedule interviews, and answering any and all questions that candidates may have about an open job position or an interview. At the surface level, integrating modern technologies like text-message recruiting and interviewing scheduling tools automate these tasks and in return, give recruiters the time back in their day to do the most important aspects of their job-creating real, genuine relationships with candidates.

When we take this a step further and look at HR teams that use deep learning and AI in their hiring processes, we start to see that companies are able to create, foster and maintain culture-driven organizations because of their ability to leverage our technology to make better, smarter and data-driven hiring decisions.

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Which start-ups in the tech industry interest you the most and why?

For one, I find companies that look at and analyze the different ways that work is being done – especially in today’s workforce with upwards of 5 generations in any given company – particularly fascinating. Additionally, companies that understand what motivates individuals to join and stay at their organization and foster ways to build the new generation of leaders and workers entering the workforce have really stuck out to me.

What technologies within AI and HR Technology are you interested in?

As a marketer in the HR Tech space, I’m especially drawn to companies that have compelling brand stories that highlight their mission and are on a mission to solve fundamental workplace challenges we’re all dealing with on a daily basis. In particular, MentorcliQ, a software that focuses on mentoring and 15Five, an employee engagement platform, are two companies that I personally admire.

What’s your smartest work-related shortcut or productivity hack?

One of the biggest things I’ve learned over the course of my career that has helped me grow as a leader is to always be fully engaged. Putting technology away is necessary to be fully engaged in critical conversations – both at work and at home. Focus yields productivity!

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