Google Hire – Where’s That Chat Bot?!

Back in April we published a blog on the 4 tools we absolutely really want to see in Google Hire and now following its official launch, we can’t help but feel a little underwhelmed.
Initial look suggests Hire is a sleek and easy Applicant Tracking System (ATS) to use. According to the product release announcement on their blog, it integrates seamlessly with existing Google Suite (G Suite) apps to enable recruiters to:

• Communicate with candidates in Gmail or Hire and your emails will sync automatically in both;
• Schedule interviews in Hire with visibility into an interviewer’s schedule from Calendar. Hire also automatically includes important details in Calendar invites, like contact information, the full interview schedule and what questions each interviewer should focus on;
• Track candidate pipeline in Hire, and then analyse and visualise the data in Sheets.

[bctt tweet=”#GoogleHire is here. But no chat bot or intelligent candidate recommendation engine?” username=”ATCevent”]
Recruiters using Hire can also choose to post their jobs on major job boards, such as Indeed or Glassdoor, and rely on Google’s analytics to track the efficiency of the listings. Discovering new candidates is also made easier with the power of Google search and there is no need for you to use Boolean strings at all.
Additionally, in recognising that recruiting is usually a team exercise, Hire stores all your notes in one place and syncs everything together so that everyone involve in the hiring process can easily access them. It also allows recruiters to view their colleagues’ feedback after they have submitted their own so as to avoid bias and group think.
It really all adds up to be quite the nifty tool to have in your recruitment armoury so why are we getting this slight sense of disappointment within us?

Well for one, the bells and whistles that we’d expected didn’t exactly materialise. Google Hire seems like a straightforward recruitment management software that helps small and medium businesses find, track and manage their candidates. It brings together an ATS and all the familiar G Suite communications applications (e.g. Gmail, Google Calendar) onto a single platform to enable businesses run more efficient hiring processes. There is no fancy chat bots or intelligent candidate recommendation engine that will totally rock your world.
Hire also seems to be not much different from its competitors, even though it is currently only available to its US-based G Suite customers with less than 1,000 employees. Taleo, LinkedIn, Indeed, Lever, Jobvite and Greenhouse are some of the common HR tech used by businesses today and they all have similar capabilities to Hire but less the compatibility issues. This certainly makes Hire less of an attractive proposition, on paper at least.
However, this doesn’t mean Hire is a total damper. Google has a massive edge over its rivals in terms of an unrivalled expertise in online search and investments in machine learning technologies. By combining the ATS functionality with the power of Google search and AI-based matching technology, Hire is one hell of a formidable recruitment tool that will give its competitors a certain run for their money.
[bctt tweet=”#Google stakes its place on both employer & employee sides of the recruitment space.” username=”ATCevent”]
Businesses might also appreciate the integrated nature of Google’s recruitment solution. With the introduction of Hire and launch of “Google for Job” back in May, the technology giant has effectively staked its place within both employer and employee sides of the recruitment space. Everything is in one place and this will certainly make it easier for businesses who are looking to streamline their operations.
With Google jumping into the recruitment space (again) and with both feet this time, it is shaping up to be an interesting period for everyone involved in recruitment and HR tech. What do you think about Hire and will you be using it when it launches internationally? Let us know!
Cover Image: Benny Marty / Shutterstock.com