Yardenne Assa, CEO, and Co-Founder of Unboxable tells us how the company is a hiring prediction technology platform that enables employers to hire high-quality talent who will thrive.
Tell us about you, your career, and how you founded the company?
Yardenne Assa: I’m co-founder of Unboxable, an HR technology that drives smarter decision-making for those in the hiring position. I have nearly 15 years of experience as a VC founder and entrepreneur for impact startups with a focus on democratizing industries. I’ve worked in several areas, from e-learning initiatives to emerging markets in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Doing what I can to change people’s lives has been my life’s work. I’m a daughter of entrepreneurs and a wife of an entrepreneur, so you could say I’ve been fully immersed in the value-driven business.
In addition to our data-driven talent matching and codeless Job Simulators, Unboxable also offers an exceptional resume builder feature.
Unboxable was born from a desire to fix the broken protocol between Talent and companies, which was something I had experienced first-hand as a job seeker and as an employer. It felt just as impossible for me to show my skills, abilities, spirit, traits, potential, and more on a static CV. When I was hiring, it was just as difficult to extract that kind of valuable information from a CV.
Back in 2019, I met my co-founder, Stephie Knopel, at an event hosted by the female entrepreneur community DoubleYou. Something clicked between us when we shared our similar experiences and frustrations. We knew that the market needed a technology that could accurately predict a match between Talent and employers.
Tell us more about your platform/technology. What makes your company unique?
Yardenne Assa: Many HR tech companies out there make promises that their tech is the one to win the “war on Talent” with. What makes Unboxable unique is that we use data to predict talent matches based on compatibility and skills. We are driven to answer the question: Will the candidate thrive?
It’s our belief that Talent can offer companies much more than what’s on their resume. We extract just the most important bits from the resume and then ask a series of leading questions to surface their hidden abilities and skills. The data points are then analyzed in context to the direct supervisor’s work style, enabling us to predict just how compatible this working relationship will be. We have discovered that the higher the compatibility, the higher the output and success, and are forecasting successful Talent matches with 93% accuracy.
Our codeless Job Simulators are another unique part of Unboxable (this is our candidate screening, company bio, and job description all in one). The Job Simulators are designed to showcase a candidate’s skills and abilities, as well as their communication styles. This last part is what’s really interesting because that’s the data we use to make contextual forecasts in relation to the job and supervisor.
We’re the only ones on the market that can surface this quality of information and support excellent hiring decisions.
How does your platform help match the right talent to hiring managers?
Yardenne Assa: Unboxable makes it possible for employers to predict compatibility just as precisely as they can predict eligibility and qualifications. We’re providing immense value by predicting matches with 93% accuracy and accelerating new hires 6x faster, which is unheard of in the market right now.
We do this by analyzing data on a candidate’s work history, skills, and work style. We uncover many layers of their potential and abilities, and then we put all that information into the context of the job and their direct manager. This allows us to know just how qualified they are and just how well they will thrive in that work environment with that specific supervisor. Knowing these two factors gives us the power to predict successful Talent matches with 93% accuracy.
Additionally, Unboxable predicts how compatible the Talent will be with their direct supervisor and gives useful advice to hiring managers for fostering successful working relationships. To know all this information, hiring managers are equipped with a Talent Forecast. This is the final analysis of the data surfaced from a finished Job Simulator and a deep dive into a candidate’s skills, eligibility, and qualifications.
Of all the sections, the Workstyle Forecasting is considered the most valuable by our customers. This predicts how compatible the candidate is with the supervisor and gives suggestions for fostering a high-functioning work relationship based on excellent communications, and in return, boosts productivity.
Just like in love, a match has to do with the relationship between two people. Companies should care about how a candidate is going to unfold with them. We’re bringing this value to hiring managers: Predicting exceptional Talent matches with relevant and skilled candidates who will thrive on the job.
What are the current trends in the HR/Talent Acquisition industry, and how fast does it change?
Yardenne Assa: The hiring industry has experienced an influx of hiring tech in recent years. 75% of companies now use an applicant tracking system (ATS) which was uncommon a decade ago.
A trend that is rightfully gaining popularity is companies offering an engaging candidate experience, and we know there’s demand for this thanks to the shape of talent experiencing our simulators. Not only is the ‘spray and pray’ CV methodology outdated and ineffective, companies who use it fail to stand out in the crowd.
L&D has risen in importance for the unboxable workforce. Companies that offer real growth opportunities and career progression are attracting unboxable Talent.
And Covid-19 accelerated the demand for an improved work/life balance; employers without a flexible work model who enforce office-only work will miss out on their True Fit match.
Who is the target audience of Unboxable?
Yardenne Assa: We’re seeing great success for high-growth companies from all sectors, specifically those that are forward-thinking and unafraid of using predictive data to complement their processes and intuition. They receive a high volume of resumes, and it has been time-consuming and costly to uncover the relevant ones. They want to explore new Talent pools.
Part of the success lies in our speed. We can reverse the hiring funnel and deliver only relevant candidates, so they don’t have to sift through (mostly irrelevant) CVs. We then provide the information in a streamlined way so they can understand the candidate quickly, make a smart decision, and take the next steps. When they do decide to interview a candidate, the Talent Forecast provides them with so much information that the first interview feels like the fourth.
On the flip side, these companies are delighted to be offering a great candidate experience. The Job Simulators deliver a real “wow” factor that candidates love, as they’re able to show their skills and reflexes in an authentic way. So any brand that desires an eye-catching and engaging candidate experience would be an ideal audience for us, too.
How do you see the future of Unboxable?
Yardenne Assa: The industry’s attempt to standardize hiring ended up putting candidates in a corner. It forces people to tick off boxes and exclude other useful skills or work experiences. Today, the Talent workforce is investing in all kinds of L&D and acquiring new skills rapidly. They’re becoming more and more unboxable, and the usual hiring process doesn’t consider all that.
I see Unboxable driving true equity and democratizing the process. The method of CV sending is riddled with unconscious bias (like education pedigree) and favors the top 15% of Talent (who are just great at writing CVs, by the way).
We’re trying to solve the hiring problem in a very deep, insightful way. I feel privileged to help candidates be seen. About 30% of candidates who are hired through the Job Simulator are people who wouldn’t have been considered using traditional hiring methods because their resume wasn’t up to par.
I believe that Unboxable will set the global standard for hiring and matching Talent with roles they’re truly compatible with.
It will remain a priority for us to continue building a technology that fuels smart hiring and career decisions so that everybody can enjoy their work and thrive with their coworkers and managers. I’m starting to see the whole market respond to the notion that Talent is undefined, different shapes that can’t be measured by job title or label. They’re unboxable, and that’s exciting.
What are the next steps for the company and your final thoughts?
Yardenne Assa: Some startups are born to recognize and solve a pain point of a specific audience, while some solely operate for profit. Only a select few truly want to disrupt industries that are stuck using traditional processes. We are one of these few: we came to disrupt. Unboxable rearranges the deck, correcting a hiring injustice that has existed for too long. Our next steps will be entering the US market full throttle and helping many employers hire the best, most compatible, and relevant candidates. Watch this space.
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