Back in March, I reported the news that Hire by Google, an ATS offering from the search giant, was beta testing a candidate discovery tool for a select number of customers. The feature serves as an automated sourcing tool for employers to better leverage a current database of applicants when a new job is posted.
“Candidate discovery is an intuitive search capability that gives recruiters a head start by helping them quickly find a short list of past candidates who are a fit for new positions,” said Omar Eduardo Fernández, product manager for Hire by Google, back in March. “This saves recruiters time, because they can now easily identify and re-engage known candidates instead of spending time trying to find new ones.”
Today, Google takes off the training wheels and makes candidate discovery available to all customers, making it possible for sourcers and recruiters to search their candidate databases, across resumes and candidate profiles inside an individual Hire account, using Google’s search technology.
Additionally, it has added a few upgrades and revealed two beta testers, which are as follows:
- New features: Customers can now screen resumes with “smart keyword highlighting,” based on search criteria, and re-engage qualified candidates in bulk.
- Customer success: Both OpenLogix and Titmouse were beta testers for Hire’s candidate discovery. Google says they have both been able to quickly fill open roles at their companies by sourcing their own databases.
“Google Hire is a very powerful tool and we are still exploring ways to harness that power for our purposes,” says Sharon O’Donnell, HR director at Titmouse. “For example, we have a ‘General Submission’ section on the website where artists can submit their information if they don’t find a posted job that matches their skillset. That section now has more than 5,000 submissions, and growing rapidly, so we need a way to sift through it quickly. We have three locations, in LA, New York, and Vancouver, and candidate discovery has been an efficient tool we use to find artists by area of expertise and location.”
In a blog post, Hire says thousands of people have applied for jobs at both OpenLogix and Titmouse over the years, and noted that, until recently, many of these candidates have been untapped for open roles because there was no easy way to search for them. For OpenLogix in particular, Google says candidate discovery has helped the company quickly search its database of 30,000 prior candidates.
To do this, the new feature creates a prioritized list based on how well a candidate’s profile matches the title, job description and location. Once a list of potential candidates has been identified, those folks can be easily emailed with an introduction and an interview request.
Using candidate discovery, OpenLogix was able to fill one of its roles in 24 hours. This is compared an average time-to-hire that is traditionally four weeks long. A prior candidate had passed on an opportunity due to the job’s location, but accepted an offer for a new role with a better commute.
The new feature is similar to technology provided by start-ups like Crowded and applicant tracking solutions like Lever. LinkedIn has also released a similar solution, as have Uncommon and TextRecruit.
Of course, for someone like Google, candidate discovery seems like relatively low-hanging fruit. What I’m more interested in is something that helps Hire by Google customers source the entire internet and treat it like a private database. Barring a governmental roadblock, be on the lookout for this in 2019.