With the effects of the COVID-19 outbreak slowly abating, hiring activities in India witnessed a significant rise, but not before leaving every sector and the way people work transformed one way or the other. Technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) and their constant development have accelerated the process of recruitment, onboarding and other organisational operations.
Particularly in the last two years, HR as a function has had to rethink the way they work to keep employee morale energetic and positive. And giving them a boost in their efforts are plenty of HR tech startups that have leveraged technology and innovation to redefine everything from recruitment to employee engagement. Many startups that were already in the market before the pandemic now find that their technology is especially beneficial in an increasingly uncertain, demanding and competitive market.
In today’s listicle, we look at a few startups that are working on making the hiring process smooth, quick, and cost-effective.
ZingHR
Founded by Prasad Rajappan in 2014, Mumbai-based HR tech startup helps organisations align their automation transitions with desired business outcomes while enhancing the employee experience.
The startup claims to adopt an employee-centric and mobile-first approach, covering the entire employee life cycle from recruitment to exit.
“At Zing HR, our efforts have been focused on driving an employee-centric approach while helping organisations leverage technology in order to meet their business objectives,” says Prasad.
It uses artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) on top of its tech stack and follows a cloud-based pay-per-use SaaS model.
“Robotic Interviews harness AI to assess the candidates through an automated interview process with no human intervention, capturing the behavioural data from the questions answered by the interviewees. Chatbots are trained based on the Q&As fed to them, so that they can be better equipped to tackle employee queries,” he adds.
In January 2022, the startup raised $10 million from Tata Capital Growth Fund II for geographic expansion, technology upgradation, and strengthening its outreach to the right talent.
StartupHR Toolkit
Founded in 2019 by Waqar Azmi, the Mumbai-based aims to ease all the hassles associated with the hiring process and boost the documentation process by offering a compiled list of more than 2,000 legally complimented and up-to-date documents in hand.
“StartupHR Toolkit is not only cost-effective; it’s a process that accentuates hiring. Today, more than 25,000+ organisations in India and abroad, including a mixed bag of HR professionals, entrepreneurs, startup founders, and management (CEO, Co-founders, CXOs), are using StartupHR Toolkit.” Waqar says.
The startup claims to have been instrumental in helping HR professionals save about two lakh man-hours and over $1 million in HR costs.
ZappyHire
Deepu Xavier and Jyothis KS founded Kochi-based startup in 2018 to help recruiters get a 360-degree view of the candidate in order to make informed decisions.
It automates the recruitment process by letting artificial intelligence (AI) take care of tasks such as identifying the right resume from the large corpus, scheduling, and pre-screening sessions, including video interviews.
The startup provides its services in three regions – Europe, India, and Southeast Asia, including Singapore. It helps companies ensure that the process is completed in less than 50 days.
“I was facing challenges in terms of recruitment while scaling the startup, while Deepu was facing similar issues while working at a large company. So, despite the size of the organisation, we found that the issues or challenges in the hiring process are more or less similar. Everyone understands that remote hiring is going to be the next important step that they need to adopt in their process,” says Jyothis.
ReferHire
ReferHire founders: Jaspreet Oberoi (left) and Rohit Tewari
Founded in 2016 by Rohit Tewari and Jaspreet Oberoi, Delhi-based HR tech startup is building efficiency and transparency in the entire process of hiring the right candidate.
It has a peer-to-peer platform that connects prospective candidates with companies that are keen to hire them.
“We want to create that smooth user experience and also enable them to reach out to the right person. The underlying part of technology of recommending one user to others in terms of jobs or companies are underpinned by AI,” says Rohit.
The startup claims that most of the users on the platform are professionals with more than eight years of experience across various segments.
The startup aims to create transparency and efficiency in the entire process of hiring the right candidate.
Hirect
Image: YS Design
Founded by Raj Das in 2018, California-based startup is a chat-based direct hiring platform for high-growth startups. It has a smart AI matching algorithm, direct chat, and verification that enables you to schedule an interview within 30 minutes.
Hirect is designed to make the hiring process instant, especially for startups and tech jobs. Currently, Hirect lists jobs in the top 10 cities in India, such as Bengaluru, Chennai, Gurugram, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Mumbai, Noida, Delhi, and Pune.
It also lists blue-collar jobs, including drivers, delivery staff, electricians, carpenters, beauticians, appliance repair technicians, cleaners, delivery staff, and security guards.
The app is available for free on the Google Play store and charges recruiters for posting hot jobs.
