Startups of disruption: employment and human resources

This series from Inventures seeks to feature the most innovative, industry-shaking startups from today’s tech scene.

If ever there were industries primed for disruption, employment and human resources would have to somewhere near the top of the list. There are so many elements of each industry which require unnecessary manual work: from payrolls to referrals to recruiting to training and management processes. Automation and artificially intelligent solutions are on their way to make the lives of workers in these industries a whole lot more efficient. Without further ado, let’s take a look at some of the most interesting and promising tech startups working in the employment and human resource spaces:

First off the blocks is Final Stage from the United Kingdom. The team believe they have created the world’s first “talent sharing platform”. It works through organizations inviting shortlisted candidates who missed out on job offers to a larger network of employers on the hunt for quality workers. This means that rather than rejection from the one job they interviewed for, the promising and pre-vetted candidates can be referred to other companies within the same industry. The team, who launched their platform in May, already have involvement from Capgemini, Bloomberg, Grant Thornton and Balfour Beatty.

Next is another UK company in Hibob. This all-in-one, cloud-based human resources and benefits platform offers businesses an easier way to engage and manage their workforce. The London operation, which was founded in 2015, concentrates on a variety of human resources processes and workflows. For example, the platform can help to advise and inform workers on everything from benefits to pension plans while allowing workers to use a mobile app to stay up to date. The platform collates rich data for the company to then access and use in decision-making. The concept has gained plenty of interest – including $25 million in funding and an expansion into foreign markets.

Over to Germany and Productive Mobile is devising ways to make people more efficient. The Berlin-based application aims to revolutionize the way workers approach manual tasks. Their solution seeks to tailor how enterprise software workflows are built, optimized and automated. Through the integration of different applications and softwares, the system makes people more productive through simplifying and automating those manual tasks. Productive Mobile connects easily with existing IT infrastructure and any application or workflow, which can also be used to automate tasks or run applications in the background. The startup has already garnered plenty of interest, raising about  €3.4 million in seed funding.

Rounding out the European contingent is Hackajob. The UK startup has created an online marketplace that specializes in the hiring of software engineers and developers who have already proven their ability in specific domains. Founded by university friends Razvan Creanga and Mark Chaffey in 2014, the business was born after the founders realized the faulty recruitment process faced by developers and engineers in the IT space. The platform has just secured £5m ($6.7m) in funding to further expand globally, with an initial launch in major developer-focused cities in Europe and a US launch planned for 2019.

One company across the Atlantic also to consider is Talentify. The Florida-based startup also hones in on the process behind high-volume recruitment, believing there is a more scalable way to find candidates. The Talentify platform acts as a bridge between talent acquisition and talent management by connecting ideally matched profiles. Their first product Flux focuses on hourly employment: a platform which automatically attracts, screens, and schedules high-volume hourly candidates for interviews with hiring managers. The company has so far garnered interest from outfits like Cielo, the world’s leading strategic Recruitment Process Outsourcing partner, as well as about $500,000 over two funding rounds.

These are but four in a strong field of startups seeking to shake-up the employment and human resources sectors. Time will tell what the workplace of tomorrow looks like, but no doubt there is room for increased efficiencies when it comes to hiring workers and keeping them happy.

Disclosure: This article includes a client of an Espacio portfolio company.