Today on The Weekly Dose I review the unique interview scheduling technology, Clara. Clara Labs uses an intelligent automation software platform and actual humans to ensure you get more interviews booked with the candidates you want.

What makes a great technology? It’s simplicity.

Scheduling an interview is overly tough. It’s a pain the ass, but it’s not intellectually difficult to figure out! Clara Labs figured out a way to take HR and Talent Acquisition out of the middle of this process, without candidates feeling like they’ve lost contact with your organization and/or your HR/TA Team.

I think most HR Tech companies on the market would call “Clara” A.I., but Clara Labs stays away from this popular jargon to not over complicate a very simplistic idea and process that everyone involved with scheduling interviews love – HR/TA, Candidates and Hiring Managers.

So, how does it work?

Basically, Clara works through your normal email communication channel. All you do is “CC” Clara in your email exchange, just like you would a Recruiting Operations/Admin-type person who would normally become your middle person to set this up.

Once you cc Clara, she takes over on both sides and schedules an interview with the candidate and the hiring manager. And does so using Natural Language Processes that makes everyone feel like it’s a real person doing the work.

You can simply say in the email:

“Hey! Tim, we would love to have you come in and meet with Mary and interview for the position. I”m going to have Clara set this up for us. Can’t wait to meet you in person!”

Clara then takes over and communicates back and forth with all parties finding a common time that works for everyone and even follows up as the meeting gets close to remind all parties.

Here’s where Clara is unique. If something happens that is out of the ordinary and the “Clara” can’t figure this out, a real human jumps into the process, as “Clara”, and takes over, so nothing ever falls through the cracks.

Sometimes setting up interviews gets complicated, or a candidate starts requesting or asking things during this process. It’s important for great candidate experience that these things are handled appropriately, and Clara Labs makes sure “a human is in the loop” when necessary!

I’m in love with simple tech that just works! Clara Labs actually used Clara to set up my demo and schedule a time with me and it really seemed like I was dealing with a real person and not a bot!

If your team is getting bogged down by being the ‘middle’ person in getting interviews set up, or if you’re the type of TA shop that has pushed this onto your hiring managers to set up, this is a great tool to help them! Before adding another person onto your Recruiting Ops team, this would be a great way to increase capacity on your team or pennies on the dollar!

Another great TA Tech you should be setting up a demo to see! If you are doing mass volume interviewing this would be a lifesaver!

The Weekly Dose – is a weekly series here at The Project to educate and inform everyone who stops by on a daily/weekly basis on some great recruiting and sourcing technologies that are on the market.  None of the companies who I highlight are paying me for this promotion.  There are so many really cool things going on in the tech space and I wanted to educate myself and share what I find.  If you want to be on The Weekly Dose – just send me a note – timsackett@comcast.net

Want help with your HR & TA Tech company – send me a message about my HR Tech Advisory Board experience.

Hey gang! On May 21st (this upcoming Monday) there is a free online virtual summit around change and innovation. I was invited to participate and you can hear my interview on thoughts around innovation in HR and Talent Acquisition, as well as, how I think we (HR and TA) should be change leaders in our organizations!

As a featured guest I’m able to share FREE passes to the Summit. I don’t think they really understood how many people read the blog! They said my free passes are unlimited by just clicking on the link – so Enjoy! I know there are a bunch of other great folks speaking as well around change and innovation so check them out!

Whether you are a leader who is experiencing a change in your organization, an HR professional who is dealing with change, or someone looking to reinvent how you show up every day, you may benefit from conversations with some of the brightest thinkers in Change and Innovation around the world.

The Summit provides tools, strategies, and concepts on how to best lead change and navigate the future of work.  Whether you’re leading a Fortune 500 organization or looking to reinvent yourself, this Summit is packed with insights and practices to promote innovative ideas and successfully implement change.

Click this link for your FREE Pass and be sure to catch my session!

The Change and Innovation Summit runs May 21st-25th and it’s on-demand, meaning you can come in any time during that week (if you’re signed up) and catch the sessions you want when you want since they will all be recorded.

Go check it out and let me know what you think. The virtual conference format has become popular in the past couple of years. It allows thousands of people access to some great information that previously they just couldn’t afford to travel to conferences, or couldn’t afford the time away from the office! For whatever reason, attending this ‘virtually’ becomes a great option for everyone!

This week I’m in New York City at the Greenhouse OPEN, the recruiting user conference put on by ATAP sponsor Greenhouse. This morning Greenhouse made a major product announcement of Greenhouse Inclusion. 

Greenhouse Inclusion is an add-on product to the Greenhouse ATS that will help organizations in their attempt to attract and recruit a more inclusive workforce. From Greenhouse’s VP of Marketing, Maia  Joshbachvivli:

“The problem is not that companies don’t mean well – many companies have good intentions but are facing challenges when trying to realize their visions. What we’ve seen is that companies often focus on a few targeted strategies, but struggle to incorporate inclusive behavior across the organization in a holistic and lasting way. Greenhouse Inclusion will create a level playing field for candidates of all backgrounds by giving employers the ability to operationalize and measure the behavior change needed to mitigate bias in all aspects of hiring.”

D&I hiring has been a major challenge for all organizations and Greenhouse set out to develop a technological solution that will directly impact inclusive hiring in a measurable way.

What I like about Greenhouse Inclusion: 

– Greenhouse ATS clients can now dig into their recruiting funnel and see exactly where inclusive hiring is an issue within their organization. What Greenhouse found in beta was that many organizations will find this is not a top of funnel issue. Greenhouse Inclusion will show exactly within the funnel where inclusive hiring is failing.

– Greenhouse Inclusion is configurable to blind information on resumes that organizations decide might hinder inclusive hiring. These include the ability to blind name, school, company, etc., based on protocols each organization can determine for themselves.

– Greenhouse Inclusion also discovered that successful inclusive hiring starts with ensuring all individuals follow through with your hiring process, so GH Inclusion places well timed ‘nudges’ to individuals to come back and complete the application process, ensuring you get more of the individuals you desire to increase your inclusive hiring.

Greenhouse Inclusion is currently being marketed as an add-on solution to current Greenhouse ATS customers. I really liked the ability to use your own data to determine where in the recruiting funnel your inclusion hiring was falling down, allowing your organization to make adjustments in real-time to your process to get candidates through your process.

This isn’t a marketing ploy by Greenhouse. Greenhouse partnered with the D&I experts at Paradigm and experts at Stanford and the University of Indiana to ensure they were developing a product that was scientifically based on the best practices of D&I hiring. From an ATS perspective, it’s really impressive what they’ve put together.

The reality is, we all care about D&I hiring. Where we struggle is actually making it happen. Greenhouse has put forth a real product that will actually help organization reach their goals to become more inclusive, and do it in a way where HR and your executive team will feel confident it was done the right way.

One of the biggest biases we have as leaders is ageism. If you’re 35 years old and running a department and you are looking to fill a position on your team that will be your righthand person, the last thing you’re looking for is a 55-year-old to fill that spot! That’s just me being real for a second.

You and I both know that 35-year-old hiring manager is looking for a 25 – 28 year old to fill that spot

That’s mainly because at 35 your still basically stupid. I was. You were. We think 35ish is the pinnacle of all knowledge, but it’s really when we just start learning for real.

So, we have this core issue to deal with in workplaces right now. Our leaders are mostly Millennial and GenX, and Millennial are increasing into these roles at a rapid rate. Because of the Boomers leaving in large amounts, there aren’t enough talented young workers to replace the knowledge gap that is being left. So, we are left grappling with what we think we want (youth) with what really need (experience!).

A recent study at the University of Minnesota found that employers need to add programs to focus on older workers:

The study argued that programs aimed at training workers won’t be enough to satisfy the state’s need for workers between 2020 and 2030. New policy directives and incentives may be needed, including offering pathways for baby boomers to delay retirement, drawing in workers from other states and supporting immigration from other countries