Dive Brief:
- Job board giant Indeed has acquired the HR technology company Interviewed, according to a joint statement. Interviewed's top executives and all its other employees will join Indeed's staff under the acquisition. The cost of the sale wasn't revealed.
- Founded in San Francisco in 2015, Interviewed develops screening tools for language skills, programming tests, personality evaluations and other career-related areas. Interviewed's simulations allow employers insight into job candidates' unique qualifications and job readiness, and prospective candidates can learn what a typical day's experience would be to improve their job search.
- “Interviewed’s technology is a natural extension, allowing job seekers to demonstrate their skills, and enabling employers to quickly and easily identify the best candidates for their roles," Indeed president Chris Hyams said in the statement.
Dive Insight:
Indeed just joined a roster of big data sites in the recruiting arena. Its parent company, Recruit Holdings Inc., bought SimplyHired last year. Yahoo might have kick-started the trend by buying HotJobs in 2002, while big job boards gobbled up smaller ones.
Microsoft garnered attention after buying career giant LinkedIn for $26 billion last year. And Randstad Holdings might have acquired one of the biggest fish of all by netting Monster — which bought HotJobs from Yahoo in 2010 — for an unprecedented ​$429 million.
Mergers and acquisitions among job boards and recruiting sites were big in 2016, and it's possible that more will come. One key motivation is access to hiring data, which is used more extensively to evaluate job candidates. In buying LinkedIn, Microsoft gained access to the career site's massive user database. Jacques van den Broek, Randstad's CEO, said his company bought Monster to align its goals with the job board's sourcing and talent engagement resources.
Some observers have opined that besides providing job candidates with a better user experience, such acquisitions allow organizations to gain invaluable insight on how to engage with candidates more quickly and efficiently.
Depending on which companies come out on top based on quality and access to candidates, recruiters will need to review which platforms can provide the best and most cost-effective services.
