HR Becomes Intelligent, Artificially | Dr. Gaurav Hirey

Dr. Gaurav Hirey, Founder & CEO, GoEvals outlines how the platform uses scientifically validated tools across employee lifecycle and deliver real time analytical reports o make informed decisions

 What are the solutions and services around HR that are available in the GoEvals portfolio?

GoEvals is a tech start-up. We started in December 2019. We focus on creating innovative digital solutions for people management. We focus mainly on three areas:

• Candidate selection that revolves around selecting candidates for recruitment.
• Employee satisfaction and sensing, which is all about how the employee is feeling.
• Organizational performance and success, that focuses on management 360 degree feedback.

Right now we are live with the GoEvals selection tools. We have 9 tools across the whole employee life cycle and currently we are live with three of the GoEvals selection tools and the three tools are:

• The GoEvals video interview platform.
• A compatibility index platform, it is a competency testing platform which allows recruiters set an assessment test by which they can evaluate the candidate’s skills and capabilities.
• The third tool is the candidate on boarding and reference check. This tool eliminates all the ground work that is required in the on boarding process.

How can knowledge base and insights work for the sensing and performance tools?

In the selection tool, we have tested over 1000 of candidates. So we already have a knowledge based on the 3 selection tools. For the sensing and the performance tools, according to me the sensing tool is where essentially a knowledge base is required. Depending on the organization, sensing will be based on the organization’s environment and ecosystem and then give insight so this knowledge base will be created as you use the platform.

Does that mean the solutions are more dependent on a vertical based ecosystem and how much customization is needed as a result?

We are a SaaS based organization, so we do not offer customisation. However the tool is built is such a way that you can customise them yourself. All the solutions that are in the market today are system based so you can ask then to be customised by a certain cost. We believe that this is a wrong approach you have to be compatible with this new age where you need everything now. We created this platform in such a way where there is a certain level of flexibility for you to customise the platform on your own.

There needs to be knowledge vertically and when there is data, we can create benchmarks vertically. At this time the platform will not have all the information available as we are just starting off, but we will reach a stage when we will provide predictive analysis form the data available which is capture during the pandemic. By the end of the year there should be enough data in the platform to start predictive analysis.

How do the GoEvals solutions integrate with job portals or other recruitments engines or apps used by large organizations?

We have anticipated this as many companies are using their own APIs so they have their own portals. We are offering an open API which is the best way to solve this. So they will be able to integrate their data into the platforms using the open API. We wanted to keep it simple and provide them an open API as after all it is their data so they can use the open API and integrate that into their system.

Beyond the recruitment process, how would your solutions help in other HR functionalities like evaluation, assessments among others?

We are focusing on performance management, 360 degree feedback, succession planning. We have covered the performance aspect of it and also the employee satisfaction and sensing aspect which is helping mangers asses the mood of the employee and also intelligently provide nudges to the manager to take action if the platform senses that some employees are not meeting the standard parameters that are needed.

Can the GoEvals tools integrate with the ERP solutions in organizations?

We are already in talks with one of the big HR ERP companies and they want to offer GoEvals as an add-on to their clients. We are hoping that those conversation will be done by the end of the year. If all goes right then we will be working alongside one of the big giants in the area.

Can GoEvals then get acquired by this large HR ERP giant?

It is too early for us to comment on this as we are just starting our journey. We are inspired by the word simple, we want to build our platform in such a way that it is very simple for people to use it and even more simple for people to adopt it. We want to democratise the human resource function.

Will the solutions be relevant for both employers and employees?

Currently we are a B2B platform, and we are not looking at the B2C aspect where the tools are concerned because we believe the employer will have to guide these tools. Currently we are working on an add-on to GoEvals platform which is focused on employee learning and development. So the goal of that platform will be to help employee do their current roles better. This is a gap where there is no platform that helps employee do their current work better. As a part of GoEvals and a part of our performance module, we will be providing a learning and development aspect which at some stage we look at it becoming a B2C.

Are the GoEvals tools applicable both for entry level and lateral recruitments?

At this moment the platform is built to cater to all levels. When we build the competence testing platform we ensure that we have the leadership competency included in the library of competency. At this moment this can be used across levels and the initial feedback from our clients is that they are using it across levels, 65-70% of the usage is for entry level and mid-level hiring but we have had clients who are using it for senior level hiring too.

How many clients are already on-board and what are their use cases?

We went live in October of 2020 and so far we have 23 clients who are currently using the platform and they are in all size and shapes. So we have start-ups, NSME companies, big conglomerates who are actually using it. In terms of use cases we have a client who is using our platform to do their campus recruitment. They are setting up the assessment test using the GoEvals competency platform and they have set up a video interview and what the GoEvals platform does is it gives you a link which you can share to anyone using any platform anyone with the link can take the test. So they have built and amplified that test and send to 300 students for their campus recruiting and select 20 of them.

Since the recruitment actions are not happening real time, how does the synchronization happen between the recruiter and the potential employee?

Let’s assume you and I are recruiting from three or four different colleges. As a recruiter, I have worked with you and decided a set of four question that you would like to ask for campussing. So, we create a video interview with those four questions and then decide that there will be four competencies.

Now what we do is we go to the GoEvals platform create the assessment test for four competencies which takes me maximum 10 minutes and in the interview question which takes another 5 minutes and at the end of 15 minutes I have the link and share the link with the three campuses. Now the students get the link and the minute they click the link it activates as it is time driven. Now within the next 15-20 minutes they have to answer the questions if they do not they platform itself will disqualify you and not take the response.

Between you and me we have decided to take entries for the next 48 hours. Now everyone is done with the test and the interview. Now the minute they submit it the platform notifies us. Now we can use our phone click the evaluation link and get the list of all the student who have taken the test and you can start evaluating them.

How can the automated system reconcile with the manual system especially when assessments from multiple recruitment panel can be very subjective?

Best thing is we both are evaluating the same candidate. The top 10 candidates come up organically without your or my imputes because it’s taking the average of the score given by me and you and making the top 10 so it is eliminating your and my bias. We have clients coming back to us and saying we have got the best recruits we have ever had using the platform because we have used science and data and no bias is involved.

How many recruitments have happened till date through these 23 clients?

In the last four months our data base have become double, there has been 11,000 candidates on the platform who have given the test. So in the last four months in a monthly basis we have been evaluating 1000 candidates.

Is the system language agnostic so that it can work for SMEs especially in smaller towns?

We had a client who wanted Bengali so we helped a client create a test in Bengali. So the system is completely agnostic and so far we do not see any problem as the Bengali test went very smoothly. On the video interviews it does not matter as basically if the question is typed in their local language they can read it and respond in any language they want. However they instructions are in English at this moment and that is something we are working on. We are going to offer 10 local languages by the middle of next year.

What will be the average cost incurred for deploying the GoEvals HR solution?

On an average our subscription costs Rs 10,000 a month. This is user based so in 10,000 rupees you can have 8-10 users using the platform and there is no cap on the number of video interviews, competency test that one does and I believe that is one of the best features of the platform.

How will the solution be deployed for organizations with multiple branches in different geographical locations?

It can be deployed anywhere, it depends on what work process structure you use. If you are one organisation with multiple location then we recommend to have one account rather than multiple accounts. But if there are different companies then we would recommend multiple accounts because it is a SaaS based thing and we have provided a merging of multiple entities. One entity one account and location is agnostic it does not matter.

Is there a possibility of the intelligence gathering about the candidate getting compromised?

Today the privacy laws are very clear we cannot be sharing data unless we have mentioned and seek permission. So at the moment that intelligence cannot be shared from one organisation to another organisation. The data that is generated by the organization is owned by the organization and not by GoEvals.

However we have created certain benchmarks base on the test, so we are constantly testing people. For our competency testing we are offering three scale one is the score of the candidate in the test second is the average score of all the candidate for that position and company in the test and third is a global score which is of all the candidate. So we provide a reference point but cannot share the data of one company with the other.

Does the GoEvals solution perform a social media mapping to assess the nature of a candidate?

We are not doing this as privacy laws will come in. at this moment I am not saying that it is not possible to grab all that information as we all know that data is freely available in market but from a laws and compliances perspective it is something that organisation should not do as legally it is not permitted.

We do not have any way to integrated all the social media information in the platform at this stage. We definitely ask the candidate to share their LinkedIn profile link which is captured within the platform which will help the recruiter to look at the LinkedIn professional profile by clicking the link. So it’s basically for the ease of operating rather than analysing it which is voluntary it is not even mandatory.

As part of GoEvals plans of democratizing the HR process, how do you look at blue-collar recruitments?

We have one client who has a manufacturing unit and constantly keeps hiring. They are hiring in the sales area not generally on the shop floor. They are using the platform quite effectively and are happy with it. I don’t think there is a huge amount of recruitment in terms of numbers that happens on the manufacturing or on the shop floor. We can cater to that as the platform is ready for that. But at this moment I don’t see the platform being widely used for blur-collar hiring and organization will take up the platform if they are hiring one or two people a month.

What are the traction you see in PSU or government agency recruitments and the synergy with employment exchanges?

For us it is a broad thing we definitely want to work with the government that is why we offered the platform in local places that’s one of our key goals. We are not only looking at government were are also looking at job portals because a lot of candidates are there on the job portals. We are in talks with some of them see how we can collaborate, help people get the right jobs faster.

Do you have provisions to take care of recruitments for overseas markets?

We do work with international clients, we have couple of clients who are using GoEvals in the middle-east and we are also in conversation with a bank in US. For large scale hiring in foreign companies the thing about that is mobility VISA and mobility management is a separate platform itself. We have a partner Singapore company with whom we work for this kind of position and they manage that and we only offer the tools for selection.

What has been the story behind the genesis of GoEvals as a company?

Essentially GoEvals was created much earlier before we launched. For the last 12 years I have been focusing on implementing technology in the human resource function. What I noticed in the last 12 years was that a lot of HR people are not understanding the technology they are finding it confusing. This is because the way this technology is built around this function is very complex and confusing. I observed this in many senior HR people who are very good in the role were not able to implement the technology and thus they were not very successful in their careers. This is what gave birth to the idea of GoEvals. So we are inspired by this word simple.  So whatever we do has to be simple for then user because without that we would again go in a direction where technology is confusing and complex. What we have done is automated all the complex and confusing parts so that the HR people don’t have to spend time understanding the technology, they will just have to log on and use.

What about alliances with colleges and universities for entry level recruitments?

Not as an active revenue model but we would like to offer it to colleges and universities as we want to facilitate employment at this stage we want to make sure that if the employers are not able to reach the right talent  we give them a medium by which they can reach them. We are in conversation with three institutes at this point to use GoEvals for their campus recruitment.

What are the verticals from which your biggest clients come?

We have a large conglomerate in media companies, a big consumer group has come on board, a start-up which is in the child care industry, a pharma company from western India. We have a mix of verticals we also work with a technology company and do all their hiring. So we use all the three GoEvals platform to do the hiring for them.

What are going to be GoEvals’ key focus areas in 2021?

In 2021 the focus is absolutely clear for us, which is on product development we want to roll out all the nine tools by September 2021. That’s the main focus for us, second is international expansion we are in active conversation with partners in Malaysia, Thailand and Singapore, so we want to launch internationally in the middle-east and at least two countries in Asia. Third is of course client accusation as we are as good as the clients feel we are so want to keep adding clients, so our objective for 2021 is to have 100 clients by December of 2021 and we are on track for that.