TecHRseries Interview with Dan Bartfield, (Co-founder) and Corey Ferengul (CEO) at Yello

HR leaders should firm up their plans for hiring early talent in a virtual setting; as the 2021 class prepares to graduate next spring, organizations need to have a game plan for recruiting students in lieu of the traditional campus career fair shares Dan Bartfield, (Co-founder) and Corey Ferengul (CEO) at Yello in this conversation with TecHRseries where they discuss ways for HR teams to use modern technology to engage more candidates, reduce time-to-hire and boost ROI. Catch the complete conversation:

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Tell us a little about yourselves!
What inspired the Yello platform? We’d love to hear about the journey and how the product evolved over the years.

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Dan: In my early days at Miami University, Jason Weingarten and I spotted a pain point – college student job searches were no easy task. This led us on the path to creating Yello. The team initially created a company that helped college students find jobs online but sold it in 2008.Yello (originally named Recsolu) was founded that same year to simplify the paper intensive process of student applications at career fairs. Rebranded in 2015, Yello allows the world’s leading brands to deliver personalized candidate experiences to every job seeker, resulting in quality hires and faster fills.

What are some of the upcoming enhancements / capabilities that users can look forward to?

We’re working on several innovations that we’re excited to roll out to the market, including:

• Helping companies recruit during COVID-19 through enhancement of our virtual recruiting solutions. Even before COVID-19, we were seeing more organizations rely on our virtual campus recruiting tools to promote and plan events. We plan to continue building upon our innovations in this area so organizations have the best modern solutions for sourcing, engaging and selecting candidates from afar.
• Expanding early talent pools with the new Yello sourcing marketplace. We recently announced strategic partnerships with leading talent acquisition technology partners to create the Yello Sourcing Marketplace, a diverse marketplace representing millions of early talent candidates. Employers can tailor their recruiting efforts with targeted candidate pools, such as STEM students, high school students, veterans and more. Our first partnerships include Symplicity, Tallo and Hiring America and we’ll continue to add relevant partners to our marketplace.
• Simplifying the time-intensive process of scheduling interviews. It often takes recruiters up to 2 hours to schedule interviews for a single candidate, from coordinating the team to managing changing schedules. Recruiters should spend their time with candidates, not on administration, so we created a solution that saves all sorts of time by centralizing information and schedules.
• Automated workflow enhancements to make recruiters more efficient. Recruiters are increasingly being asked to do more with less, and Yello wants to make their jobs easier. The key to that is using technology to automate processes with artificial intelligence and machine learning. Our new scheduling solution is an example of the benefits and we’re exploring additional areas like candidate matching, assessments and more.

How do you see today’s recruiting platforms changing and evolving to meet new needs of the talent marketplace?  

It’s really about centralizing more information, automating workflows and using artificial intelligence to help recruiters and hiring managers move faster to hire best-fit candidates. Candidate assessments, for example, offer a huge opportunity for automation and use of artificial intelligence to match candidates to jobs based on hiring criteria.   

We’re also seeing talent acquisition teams consolidate the number of tools they use. Recruiters don’t want to log into multiple systems to get their jobs done, so integrations and all-in-one hiring systems will be key to enhancing productivity.

On the job candidate side, recruiting platforms are evolving to become more high-touch. The use of technology is not a challenge because early talent is already using technology every day. However, recruiting platforms haven’t necessarily developed the high touch and personal part of the candidate experience. That’s where evolution is needed.

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As today’s talent market and workforce adjusts to the norms of the new normal, how are you seeing trends shift in hiring and talent acquisition?  

One major trend is the misconception that organizations have dramatically shrunk or paused hiring efforts for internship programs and entry-level positions, maybe even ending internship programs all together.  That isn’t the case — most of our clients are still hiring healthy classes of young talent and while internships may be shorter or virtual, they are still happening. Additionally, virtual campus recruiting events will be the new normal for the foreseeable future. At Yello, we’re seeing an increased demand in our virtual campus recruiting solution and expect this to continue.

What are some of the biggest thoughts or tips you’d share with companies looking to hire across the hierarchy during this new normal?

The biggest tip we have for organizations looking to hire is to become comfortable with video. With video being used to attract, interview and eventually onboard/work with employees, organizations need to be well-versed in video software. Early talent is very comfortable using video during their job search, and employers need to match this level of comfort.

While it’s been an odd year for the job market, right now there are lots of opportunities for employers to find quality talent. Students and soon-to-be grads are applying for many job openings and are looking more broadly for their entry into the workforce and organizations can take advantage of virtual tools to reach out to more candidates. However, that also means organizations will need to go above and beyond to stand out to candidates, as there are more employers talking to students on campus. Companies need to combine a high-tech, high-touch approach with the use of virtual recruiting tools to create a candidate experience that stands out from the crowd.

Similarly, what would you share when it comes to job seekers looking for new opportunities amid a pandemic?

Our advice for job seekers is to start your search early — be proactive and don’t wait until your senior year to find post-grad opportunities. College students should actively be seeking their own opportunities, while also getting advice from their career centers on the best opportunities for their skill sets. It’s important to do your own research and leverage alumni connections when applying for jobs.

Before we wrap up, we’d love to hear a little about the employee culture and experience you’re setting in place at Yello as a response to the Covid-19 pandemic?

At Yello, we’ve created a very transparent and flexible environment in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. We’ve been sharing as much information with our employees and customers as possible – from internal team updates to product releases and more. We’ve also cultivated a very flexible work environment as our employees continue to work remotely. We realize that working from home and sitting on Zoom calls can take a toll on someone’s well-being, so we’re being as flexible as possible with our employees during this time.

To keep our company culture strong, we’re trying to not lose sight of the small things that build camaraderie. We celebrate birthdays every Thursday on Slack and have done things like send care packages, held different variations of online socials and provided stipends for office equipment for homes. Our leadership team makes sure to listen to our employees and survey them regularly for feedback. An example of this is the team pointing out how hard it is to take time off, when you’re already at home rather than the office.  In response to that, we’re closing our virtual offices the week of Thanksgiving.

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