Google enters HR Tech with Google Hire

Yes, Google has recently launched its Google Hire product currently for G-Suite customers who have fewer than 1000 employees and are in the US. However, we reckon this will soon hit Indian shores. 

So what is Google Hire all about – well simply put it’s a recruitment management software which would help companies not only do most features of an Applicant tracking system (ATS) but also other aspects like candidate nurturing & discovery.

A look at the web page of Google Hire & it’s very clear that it’s focused on solving the problem of recruitment by making the whole process simple & intuitive just like most other Google products. 

Google’s entry here is no surprise as we had talked about big technology companies & what they were working on with respect to HR Tech in this article earlier. Google's entry in the lower-end of the recruitment tech-market clearly shows they understand this space and thus, Google offering will be very competitive. They are in this market to dominate it clearly. 

Let’s see why Google might have decided to add ATS capabilities. ATS is fast becoming a commodity, most organizations when looking to use HR Tech will look at ATS features as the activity of searching, interviewing & selecting suitable candidates happens in all organizations. While specialized players in the ATS market exist, all have been forced to offer solutions which integrate with Social Media sites like Facebook and LinkedIn. In smaller organizations where hiring budgets are lower the dependence on internet (aka Google search) and social media sites are high. Google has very clearly addressed this need with their solution. By combining the ATS functionality with the “power of Google Search” they have given a powerful tool and hopefully help companies improve their hiring efficiency. 

Take a closer look at some of the features and Google has clearly added it own touches. Given the fact that this company runs the world’s most sought after recruitment process it was expected that build the product around what they do internally. 

For example, simple features like – Each interviewer will be able to see other interviewer’s feedback only when they have submitted their own. Google Hire claims this will help avoid group think and bias. Such a simple thing built very nicely into the product. Take another one for example where when you type  “Front End Engineer” the Google search engine within Hire will know what you mean, clearly re-emphasizing its understanding of how search is done & what people want when they are searching for something.  And lastly the analytics, once again an example of what Google does inside finding its way into its product outside.  

Based on what is available to view of this product at this stage I think this is clearly a big disturbance in the market and companies like Indeed, Jobvite, Oracle Taleo and Greenhouse will have a lot to think about how do they tackle this aspect. They have some time on hand, as currently this will work seamlessly for companies that are using GSuite and it’s not clear how this will work if clients use different systems like MS Outlook for their email communications. 

Google seems to be building a suite of recruitment technology products, with its earlier announced Cloud Jobs API. The API started a speculation that Google might start a job board but looks like they have decided to take the ATS integrated candidate search route. Google also seems to have learned from earlier failed attempts at solving the industry problems via Google Base in mid-2000. All 3 big technology companies seem to bet big on the HR Tech space & we would continue to see increased interest and action from all of them. 

The integrated nature of Google’s solution is a key feature and we reckon that Microsoft will soon look to do something similar with their MS Office Suite + LinkedIn. With an integrated solution, Google is looking to take the guess work and simplify the technology for its user. After all, HR does not have to break their head in figuring out how Google Adwords work, they should simply be presented with information to help them make decisions based on available budgets. 

In the end, all we can say is, the future of HR Tech just got even more exciting.