getTalent, a candidate experience software company based in San Francisco, has emerged from stealth mode to reveal their talent pipeline product for businesses. getTalent helps companies develop a potential applicant pool by allowing users to connect and engage with companies that they would potentially like to work for, even if there are no current job listings. Think of it as deal flow, for employees. The company has raised $2.6 million from investors including SuccessFactors, which acquired Jobs2Web earlier this year. “We are elated to have had SuccessFactors validate both our business model, specifically, and the candidates experience market, generally,” said Abraham Shafi, getTalent’s CEO. Shafi and his team are entering an industry that traditionally has clunky user experience design. Building software for the human resources industry is not sexy. While building social commerce platforms and mobile geolocation services is hot right now, anyone who has had the displeasure of using HR software purchased by their company’s IT department knows that the industry needs user-friendly software. getTalent’s talent pipeline software is both beautiful and easy to use thanks to the team’s dedication to applying modern technologies like mobile and social to the talent acquisition process. getTalent provides an out-of-the-box software solution, including the ability to place a “join our talent community” button on any site where a company might place a Facebook or Twitter follow button. According to Shafi, the goal is to help everyone land their dream job. The problem is that it is hard to know when the company that you would kill to work for is hiring. “People take the job that is most available for them. It’s not your dream job but it is tangential. You may even have 5 – 6 dream jobs, but there is no way to maintain personal relationships with these companies”. getTalent solves that problem by providing a way for companies and talent to keep in touch, even when the talent is currently employed and the company is not currently hiring. The idea is that the company will already have a vast pool of interested talent to pull from when a job does open up. The key is constant engagement. With the current hiring crisis in technology, it’s harder than ever to attract top developers and designers. “We wanted to build a talent community. If I’m looking for a job, I want a company to send things that keep me interested in working at the company”. Workers are more transient than ever before. No one expects to stay at a job for 10 or even 5 years anymore. getTalent can be used by everyone from top level technology companies to brick and mortar retailers. getTalent already boasts customers like Viacom, Hearst Media, Kaiser, Box, and Hulu after only 2 months in stealth mode. Each company is using the technology in different ways. As Shafi puts it, “we are like the garden for these companies. We provide the tools and the space, and companies can decide on their own how to grow their talent communities”. Viacom for example posted a QR code at conferences and at the MTV Music Video Awards for people to scan and follow them on getTalent. Viacom can then message these new followers when jobs become available. getTalent is an ambitious undertaking, but there is a clear need for this software in the market. Now that SuccessFactors has given getTalent a stamp of approval, it will be interesting to see how this technology diffuses into the HR industry.
