Q & A with CEO Paul Cook

The last few years have focused a tremendous amount of disruption in the workplace. Every week seemed to bring a new trend, from the Great Resignation, quiet quitting, labor hoarding, and most recently career cushioning. Recruiters and job seekers have experienced the highs and lows of this disruption and most are hoping for a more predictable and stable season ahead. 

We asked Paul Cook, Springboard’s founder and CEO, to weigh in on how he and his team are taking on these challenges.

What inspired you to found Springboard Technologies?

I helped build an HR technology company called TalentWise. There I learned a lot about the ecosystem, the challenges and the opportunity - in many ways TalentWise and Springboard are closely related. In fact, I’m working with some colleagues from TalentWise today. The challenge with so much of the software for HR is complexity and the lack of flexibility - sometimes those two things are at odds. I really want to build a powerful, elegant solution to improve the HR experience - and the best place to start is the most painful and most important process - recruiting.

Springboard was conceived during the pandemic, everyone was working remotely and fearful of contracting the virus. Today most of that isolation still exists and companies need to adapt to a new paradigm - employment is at a historic high and I would argue trust is at a historic low. Companies still need to recruit and retain great talent and to do that they need to build relationships and find the best candidate opportunity fit.

What is the biggest impact you think the Springboard platform will have for recruiters? For candidates? 

The short answer - I think we will ultimately help recruiters place candidates in optimal roles.  Our software will enable companies to quickly put better, more aligned candidates in roles where they will be happier and achieve better success.

How is Springboard going to reduce the time to hire new employees?

Companies should have a pool of candidates who they work with over time. Candidates they know a lot about, candidates they engage with over topics and at events, candidates who build a level of comfort with the company. When a new role becomes available, the first place the company should look is to that pool. A customer told us that if you get a new role and the first thing you do is begin sourcing at Linkedin or Indeed, you’ve already lost to the competition. Trying to bring in an unknown or newly met candidate is stacking the deck against you. It will take more time and resources and you will be unsure whether the company / candidate fit is there.

We think it’s better to put the work in upfront: learn about the candidates over time, gather data about candidates, what they want, what they value and what excites them about work. Show them who you are as a company - what are your values, how does an employee at your company succeed. Once you really understand a person, and see them as a person, not just a resume, the recruiting process is easier. A recruiter knows what opportunities work for which candidates, and employers know what they need to do to keep an employee engaged. More data points streamline a process that has grown too cumbersome.

Who is your ideal customer?

We are getting a lot of early traction with external recruitment agencies. TalentReach - our first customer - has been great in identifying pain points and highlighting ways we can add more value. I think we share a common DNA with many of the small to mid-sized recruitment agencies. They tend to be entrepreneurial, they understand the value immediately, they speak the same language, they know the daily grind of a transaction-driven process.  

External recruiters are agent - not principal - to the transaction and they have this added layer of complexity that internal recruiters don’t. Every conversation seems to highlight the same areas of frustration. These agencies are thirsty for efficiencies, for technology that can differentiate their agencies for the candidate and the customer.

I also understand that internal or corporate recruiters face many of the same challenges and they represent a big part of our market. I think we will find success with this sector as well, their struggle is largely the same: they have three great candidates but only one role available today and they watch good talent go to a competitor. They also face a somewhat different challenge - building brand while dealing with a mountain of inbound resumes. A bad experience for an inbound resume can reduce referral traffic or worse - get a negative review on an external site.

What do you think is the most important thing organizations can do to improve their recruiting or hiring process?

Organizations need to focus on building and maintaining relationships with candidates, employees and even alumni. That is the goal of Springboard: to give organizations a solution to create, build, and strengthen relationships and give candidates the ability to demonstrate who they are and what they want. Without a technology and process driven approach, it can be very labor-intensive, and has caused many organizations to go to a more “volume-oriented” recruiting process. This short-sighted method tries to make up for the lack of knowledge about what is important to candidates or employees by the sheer volume of resumes that have some matching keywords or skills. It makes people just a resume, not a person with unique strengths and priorities. This method is also expensive and inefficient. We believe that by building relationships and making connections with candidates and employees, an organization will thrive.

How will Springboard help recruiters in the current economic/hiring climate?

Despite the headlines of tech layoffs, we are still in a historically tight labor market - it’s a key driver to the inflationary economic environment. Unemployment for those who are over 25 and have at least a bachelor's degree is less than 2 percent. 

It is getting increasingly difficult for recruiters to pull good candidates out of LinkedIn. Recruiters are spending a ton of money trying to pull four or five good candidates into a hiring process where they hire only one. Those finalists were expensive, and those who aren’t selected are getting little feedback or ghosted. Springboard can help keep those finalists around for the next and potentially better opportunity.

We know that every generation/age group has very different expectations about the recruitment process and the nature of the employee/employer relationship itself. How will the Springboard platform address the wide range of employee needs?

This is one of the things we’re most excited about. It is something we’ve heard over and over again from recruiters. Boomers expect this, Gen Z expects that. We’re very proud that  Springboard is a multi-generational company. It’s great to be able to have that input in-house. It was very key for our platform to be able to tailor itself to meet candidates where they are and to address what is important to them. 

We have to recruit and compete for talent like everyone else. Our early team has been a magnet for talent - they have built strong relationships at previous career stops. Their former colleagues have reached out to find out more about our mission and vision. I think our pool of candidates will be very helpful in filling out our hiring needs for the next six months to a year - now it’s a function of keeping them engaged in our success as we wait for the right candidate / opportunity fit.  

Everyone says that a “one size fits all” approach doesn’t work. But few actually have a solution to address it. Springboard does. 

How important is corporate culture in 2023 and how does it impact recruiting? 

Corporate culture is absolutely critical to an organization’s long term success. I think previously that some leaders thought a great culture would happen organically, just by the fact that they had great people. But an organization is fluid, and culture has to be intentional, articulated and used as a touchpoint for decisions. Particularly after the pandemic, and during times of change, like we are experiencing now. The culture has to extend to recruiting - companies need to be thoughtful about the process of hiring - all of the touchpoints. They should let the candidate know what they value, how they behave. They should make sure their candidates are having a good experience. It is incredibly costly to chase away a candidate who would have been a great fit because your process is not a good reflection of your values. Similarly, it’s okay if a candidate self-selects out of a process, that they self-identify that they’re not a good fit.

Some organizations think building culture is the domain of the current employees. They really should be asking - does this process work with the organization we strive to be? Does it reflect  our corporate values and mission? If it does, you’re going to attract the right people for your organization, and they will be a good fit and stay longer. Knowing and acting on your corporate culture pre-hire will allow you to hire faster and better - and you’ll keep the people who will take your organization to the next level.