The TAtech Conference in fabulous Las Vegas is just weeks away. The HR Gazette are proud media partners of the event, which promises to promote crosstalk and understanding between recruiters and the companies that provide their tools and technology.
Peter Weddle and the Association for Talent Acquisition Solutions team have produced an impressive line-up of speakers including including Paul Falcone (Best selling author and HR senior executive), Jessica Miller-Merrill, (HR & Recruiting Evangelist), David Bernstein (VP, Brightfield Strategies), Tony Lee (Editorial VP, SHRM), Mike Durney (President & CEO, DHI Group), Steven Rothberg (President, College Recruiter), Ryan Christoi (Managing Partner, KRT Marketing) and many more!
Here’s our exclusive interview with Ane Ohm who will be presenting a fireside chat and a session called Optimizing the Recruiter’s Experience.
Editor: Please tell us about yourself – your career history up to and including your current role
AO: The power of recruiting has been a consistent theme throughout my career, whether it was leading a large division of a mutual fund company, starting the operations for what is now one of the world’s largest RPO providers, or my current role of leading a recruitment technology company. While I started my career in public accounting, it was at Strong Investments that I took several career “left turns” that have proved invaluable over time.
I ran the marketing services team of writers, designers, and print coordinators. During this time, I led the redesign of our customer statements (sent to 750,000 households), which ended up winning industry awards.
I led a division of 7 departments and 230 people. The largest division processed customer transactions. This is where I first learned the real power of great recruiting: just by changing who and how we hired, we reduced the time it took for someone to get up to speed from 6 months down to 4 weeks.
When I joined Pinstripe (now Cielo), I was employee #6 and led the design, implementation, and management of client programs. We grew to 150 employees within 4 years.
I then joined HarQen because I saw the power of being able to quickly identify top talent as a benefit to both candidates and recruiters. When the founder needed to step back from leading the company, I became CEO in 2013. At HarQen, the entire team is passionate about doing what’s right for candidates and recruiters. We have a model that integrates consulting services into technology, ensuring that our clients receive maximum benefit while using our tools.
Editor: Why did you decide to be a speaker at the TAtech Conference & Expo?
AO: The idea of focusing on optimizing the recruiter’s experience came from a conversation that Peter and I had in early 2013. Candidate experience was becoming increasingly important and we talked about how it’s going to be difficult to really transform the candidate experience when recruiters’ jobs are difficult and technology is cobbled together, not quite meeting their needs.
When Peter offered me the opportunity to talk more about what it means to Optimize the Recruiter Experience, I jumped at it. It’s something that we think about a lot at HarQen and I’m happy to share those learnings and insights with leaders at TA Tech.
Editor: What will you be speaking about at the TAtech Conference & Expo?
AO: One of my fears about Optimizing the Recruiter Experience is that it can be taken as “happy talk.” It could be like early wellness programs, which often consisted of a pre-packaged monthly newsletter. For talent acquisition leaders, as well as leaders of talent acquisition technologies, optimizing the recruiter experience is really tough and is generally ignored. It requires taking a deep dive into the real needs of the recruiter and delivering solutions that reduces administration and allows recruiters to spend their time on what matters: building relationships with hiring managers and (great) candidates.
My ultimate goal is that recruiting technologies allow even the most average recruiters to become super stars, because technology makes them so efficient, responsive, and helps them effectively prioritize their day.
Editor: How will your session help promote dialogue and understanding between TA technology companies and their customers?
When we talk about recruiting, we are generally talking about where recruiters find candidates, their methodologies for screening those candidates, and then what’s important through the selection process. This is good and important to know, but there isn’t as much industry conversation about where technology should go to transform the recruiting job itself. My session is about starting that dialogue.
Editor: How does the TAtech Conference & Expo provide you with a platform to talk about Talent, HR and tech in new ways?
AO: The point of TA technology is to simplify, automate, track, and identify connections. For the most part, recruiting technologies have automated what was once a paper process – and in doing so, have provided real value. Our next step is to transform recruiting beyond that traditional paper process, into something that’s focused around the next best interaction, whether that’s text, phone, video, or in-person conversation. Recruiting is so important to each organization – if we can get to the point that the average recruiter works like a superstar, imagine the benefit to the workplace.
Editor: Please share 2 or 3 social media ‘influencers’ in HR and Talent space who you follow and tell us why.
AO: I read Tim Sackett’s blog post every day. He says what he thinks and I love his blunt perspective. Innovative thought comes from thinking outside the box. Sometimes he’s blasted for it and sometimes I disagree vigorously with him, but I always learn something.
Matt Charney’s Snark Attack blog is always a good one (I really respect a lot of the Fistful of Talent writers). I lean toward the sarcastic and again, he doesn’t allow us to get too comfortable.
Nick Corcodilos writes Ask the Headhunter. He actually tends to be very anti-technology because he sees what it has done in the wrong hands. His articles keep me honest about what we’re trying to do (hoooo boy, does he hate video intervewing!) and helps me make sure we’re really improving things, not just doing what we think is cool.
Editor: Can you provide two or three examples of online Talent solutions which you love and tell us why?
AO: Wow, this is tougher than it should be. Honestly, it’s rarely about the technology. I get excited when I see the user actually leverage technology to do the right thing for the candidate and recruiter. We have some clients who are brilliant at this and, in return, they see exceptional results.
Editor: Which other speakers are you looking forward to meeting at the TAtech Conference & Expo and why?
AO: Alex Murphy – A frequent topic of conversation is what will happen to our workforce with the continued expansion of robots. I look forward to hearing Alex’s take on this.
Tim Sackett – He and I have conversed a few times, but we’ve never met in person. I look forward to that and hearing his perspective on buying TA technology.
David Bernstein – he’s a fellow data nerd and I look forward to hearing his perspective on how recruiting metrics can drive recruiting excellence.
Editor: Finally.. if you could be a superhero, which superhero would you be and why?
AO: Hmmm, that’s a tough one. I’m not someone who wants to just rush in and save someone from jumping off the top of a building. I want to find out why he was there and fix the problem. The closest I can think of is Ironman – at least he runs a company and he does make things. He’s also sarcastic, I like that!
About Ane Ohm
Ane Ohm is an accomplished professional with more than 15 years of experience in operations, finance, accounting, marketing, and human resources. Problem-solver with the flexibility, creativity, and analytical skills to anticipate issues and resolve them proactively. Hands-on, collaborative leader with demonstrated ability to impact enterprise bottom line and improve performance through expert alignment of resources with corporate objectives.
Ane is currently Chief Executive Officer at HarQen, an award-winning, Intelligent Hypervoice platform which enables conversations to be captured, enriched, organized and shared – improving collaboration and adding an entirely new layer of business intelligence to existing data management systems.