Following its phenomenal success in transforming hiring for some of Australia’s biggest retail brands, Sapia.ai is excited to grow its share of the US market in 2023 with the appointment of Russell Mikowski as President, Americas.
Mikowski brings a significant depth of knowledge around the HR tech ecosystem, having previously served as the head of sales for both iCIMS and Symphony Talent. “I can’t wait to show people what Sapia is capable of,” Mikowski said. “This technology is going to revolutionize talent acquisition.” Sapia addresses commonly occurring pain points like cost-per-hire, time-to-fill, and hiring accuracy in an unbiased manner and in a way that no other product on the market can – at a time when recession-proofing recruiting process is top-of-mind for many North American businesses.
The increasing focus on skills-based hiring (something resumes are of little help with) has tilted HR tech’s brightest spotlight towards products that can effectively screen and assess applicants’ likelihood to perform well in a given role.
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Sapia is a chat-based interview that candidates complete on their phone. It uses AI to analyze text from the chat to uncover a candidate’s suitability for a job, giving everyone who desires one the opportunity to get a first interview and delivering personalized feedback about their strengths and weaknesses (not only to the hiring team, but also to the candidate). That’s right – with Sapia, there’s no “black hole” – every candidate who takes the chat interview gets feedback. This is especially valuable in the retail world where job applicants are also buyers and a poor candidate experience could reduce their brand loyalty as consumers.
People are being blown away by Open AI’s ChatGPT and the way it answers general knowledge questions in such a human-like and accurate manner. This is the “new frontier of AI.” Sapia utilizes similar technology to give recruiters and hiring managers an accurate understanding of the “person behind the resume.” Even amongst those who don’t get the job that they’ve applied for, 96.7% of candidates report that they find Sapia’s feedback useful.
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Sapia’s average candidate happiness score is 8.8/10 – and there’s minimal variability across gender and race indicating that the experience is inclusive and not strongly preferred by one group over another. Candidates that reported a disability or EASL have even higher than the average candidate happiness scores! “Sapia is thinking about AI and its implications in a very different way from most other HR tech providers by applying it through a human lens that is both ethical and beneficial to the world,” Mikowski said. It does this all while creating as little friction as possible for both candidates and hiring managers. And, by ethically utilizing AI, Sapia removes the likelihood that human bias for or against particular races, ethnicities, genders, ages, sexual orientations, or different abilities will creep in during the applicant screening process.
“Having worked in HR Tech for over fifteen years I can say that it’s hard to come across products that actually deliver on the promises they make,” Mikowski said. “Every company in this space markets their offering as having a positive impact on DE&I, but the actual results are often negligible. Sapia’s product and mission are making a truly meaningful contribution to equitable hiring, and we’re just scratching the surface!”
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