Jonathan Dale is the VP of Marketing at Phenom, a global HR technology company and provider of the AI-powered SaaS platform called Talent Experience Management. Prior to Phenom, he worked 18 years in the mobile and security industry as a marketing leader for IBM and Fiberlink MaaS360 (acquired by IBM in 2013).

In this exclusive conversation with People Matters, Dale talks about upping the hiring process and talent experience with tech, maintaining a healthy talent ecosystem, why lack of centralization remains a big workplace challenge today and what investors today are looking for in HR Tech startups.

From 100 person companies to companies with tens of thousands of people, majority of employees are working remotely. How do you see the current business landscape and the evolving role of HR in enabling employees to stay productive amid all this chaos?

It’s more important than ever for companies to be engaging their employees through virtual channels.

It’s easy for enterprises to fall into a stagnation trap in this remote working environment, reducing spend on talent development while waiting for an economic rebound. We would strongly recommend against this course, as the negative consequences would last beyond the pandemic.

Jobs will come back, and unfulfilled employees will seek a change of scenery. 

Managers and HR teams can demonstrate their commitment to employee growth with investments in talent experience. New experience platforms are powered by AI, which helps spot high-ceiling skills in employees and determines where those skills best fit within the company. On the front-end, employees are recommended opportunities for internal mobility and even specific projects. On the back-end, managers can identify proficiency gaps, tailoring employees’ training and development regimens as they build well-rounded, cross-functional teams. 

What are the areas HR and talent leaders should focus on right now? How do you see the larger HR tech landscape today?

In today’s talent acquisition environment, recruiters have never been more shorthanded with so many jobs to fill. One of HR technology’s greatest functions for talent leaders is to reduce time-consuming administrative tasks, like interview scheduling and initial application screening. As a result, recruiters can engage more meaningfully with candidates and coordinate more efficiently with hiring managers. 

Behind the scenes, AI is playing a crucial role in the execution of logistical functions and data analysis. Talent experience platforms build on learnings from billions of data points to ensure best-fit candidates move furthest along in the hiring process. A comprehensive assessment of trends across roles, enterprises, and industries is always difficult, but doing it right makes all the difference. Coming out of the pandemic, we see the HR tech landscape consolidating. AI will lead the way by increasing productivity for recruiters and HR teams.

How has the impact of the COVID-19 been on your business? How are you sailing through tough times? What has been your greatest challenge so far? Can you share some of your biggest learnings and experiences from the ongoing crisis with our readers?

COVID-19 has been a weight on the shoulders of every business, but Phenom has gained too much momentum to slow down now. We just acquired our first company, My Ally, as we execute on our growth strategy of constant innovation. My Ally is a silicon valley-based HR technology company known for its expertise in automation. With their sophisticated conversational AI, we’ll continue enabling organizations to deliver the world’s best talent experiences.

We’re also continuing to hire in the US and around the world. Our headcount has increased to over 700 employees, and we continue to expand our footprint overseas with the opening of our European headquarters in Rotterdam, Netherlands. We’ve announced several recent partnerships and we have new product enhancements in the pipeline that we’ll be announcing in the coming months, as well. 

No one expected the world to change as it did this year, and businesses’ agility was put to the test.

The pandemic may have shifted the way people think about talent experiences, but talent experiences are no less critical to the success of companies.

We’ve had to highlight our platform in a way that better meets this unprecedented moment. This was definitely a challenge that required tact and speed, but we feel like our message is resonating.

What are the key areas of HR function where you have seen maximum tech implementations in the last few months, and in which categories are you seeing the greatest levels of innovation from the service provider side?

Many enterprises have turned to augmenting the employee experience in the wake of COVID. AI can shed light on skills that neither employees nor their managers recognize at first glance. As many companies are still in the midst of hiring freezes, employee versatility has become a premium quality. And again, HR technology can rapidly increase productivity for recruiters, who interact with more people than anyone throughout the talent lifecycle. They need to build meaningful relationships with candidates, communicate decisive information to hiring managers, and nourish a culture of employee development. With newfound time, recruiters can focus more closely on maintaining a healthy talent ecosystem.

Given your expertise in HR tech, can you share some of the most common workplace challenges that global companies are now trying to solve with technology?

I think lack of centralization is one of the bigger workplace challenges today, and the sudden shift to remote working hasn’t made it easier. We’re all using so many applications throughout the day — many for overlapping functions. In the process of jumping back and forth, time and information are falling through the cracks. It’s important to evaluate integrations that synchronize talent management with other daily rituals. Until recently, talent acquisition and growth had often played out in-person, but key integrations with highly trafficked communications channels are increasing candidate conversion and HR efficiencies. Despite the onset of remote working, it’s still possible for recruiters, managers, employees, and candidates to come to know each other as if they’re in the same room.

How do you see the investment in HR tech space? What do investors look for before investing in startups like yours?

HR tech has become very attractive to investors as technology has evolved from a nice perk to critical for building the best talent.

Investors want to see healthy growth, constant innovation, and differentiators within the market. Startups need to carve out a category that they can own. 

An experience-oriented approach to leveraging AI can change how enterprises build and manage teams. AI can provide insights rooted in billions of data points, reducing churn and enabling companies to hire best-fit candidates faster. Perseverance and relative success during the pandemic also demonstrate to investors that companies can thrive in both up and down cycles. Investors also buy into startups that map out a clear path to their vision.

What do you think will be the biggest workplace struggle going into the future? What do you predict for workplace trends and HR tech in the next 5-10 years?

I think we’re already starting to see companies of all sizes invest in global workforces. HR technology is developing rapidly, but in the short term, I can see there being some growing pains. Expanding geographic access to talent will really push recruiters’ bandwidth to the limit, so AI will become more important than ever. Global employees will offer a wider range of skills and understanding of new markets, but as virtual talent management becomes more prevalent, recruiters and hiring managers may initially struggle to hire candidates whose intangibles match well with their teams and company culture. Onboarding could prove to be difficult, too, as exposing new employees to different arms of the company is harder to do over Zoom than it is in an office. Technology must influence a well-rounded experience, and I feel strongly that HR tech will have that global reach soon.