What’s next – the rise of the people-first company
4 mins, 12 secs read time
2022 is a landmark year for Greenhouse. Not just because we were back to gather the brightest, most forward-thinking talent acquisition professionals in person and online for our flagship event, Greenhouse Open (although that’s a pretty big cause for celebration). It also happens to be our tenth anniversary. To commemorate both of these occasions, CEO and co-founder Daniel Chait delivered his keynote, The rise of the people-first company. If you missed it, don’t worry – we’ll cover the need-to-know highlights here.
Reflecting on our roots
“We started Greenhouse in 2012 with a very simple idea,” said Daniel. “Hiring is one of the most important and strategic things that any company does. At most companies it is a real struggle.”
Daniel and Greenhouse co-founder Jon Stross believe that structured hiring is the foundation of everything we do. And when Greenhouse can help companies add structure to their hiring and onboarding processes, we create a huge amount of value for our customers and for job seekers alike.
A few highlights from the past decade
To better understand the concept of the people-first company, Daniel took us through a quick recap of the past decade and the major transformations we’ve seen in the world of work and talent acquisition.
The shift from resources to humans
Businesses today are no longer defined by factories and physical goods. How companies win in today’s economy is by innovation, technology and people. Daniel shared, “Competitive advantage has moved away from physical capital to human capital, changing the relationship between employees and companies.”
The war for talent is over – talent has won
As part of this transformation, talent is prioritizing what’s important and exercising more choice and control over where and how they work. People now see the values of the organization they work for as part of their own identity. They can choose to work at companies that represent them. As a result, DE&I has played an ever-larger role in hiring and talent, with companies striving to respond to the ideals and values of their employees and to compete for a more diverse and global talent base. To really bring this point home, Daniel quoted the opening line of the Talent Makers book he co-wrote with Jon: “The war for talent is over. The talent won.”
Technology has transformed
Amidst these larger market forces, we also saw a tectonic shift take place as a result of the pandemic. With the move to remote work, work tech has taken on even more importance as the cubicles and offices of the physical office were replaced overnight with a constellation of digital collaboration tools. There’s been a shift from the mindset of “human resources” and HR tech that function as systems of record and compliance in favor of a future in which talent is business critical and technology is designed with the needs of all employees in mind. In response, HR tech has merged into a broader work tech that focuses on improving collaboration, employee experience and maximizing lifetime value.
Greenhouse’s growth journey
Throughout these past ten years, Greenhouse has been on our own growth journey, starting with Greenhouse Recruiting, which brought structured hiring to every customer.
We next launched Greenhouse Onboarding, the best way to follow through on the hard work of hiring, ensuring every new employee ramps up quickly.
In 2018 we launched Greenhouse Inclusion in partnership with Paradigm, bringing cutting-edge research and technology to the hard problems of bias and inclusivity in hiring.
Last year we introduced more ways for recruiters to identify and attract great talent with the Job Ad Market to make it easier for you to reach candidates and prospects in every corner of the talent market.
And now, we’re thrilled to announce Sourcing Automation to help our customers find, reach and engage top talent quickly and effectively, right inside Greenhouse.
Tying it all together
“When I co-founded Greenhouse ten years ago, very few companies practiced structured hiring,” said Daniel. But in the past month, nearly 7,000 Greenhouse customers processed over 10 million job applications. It’s not just a big number – behind each of those applications is a person striving to get their dream job and achieve their full potential at work.
Last week alone, our customers collected 300,000 scorecards. Daniel shared, “Each of those represents someone having an interview that was smarter, more action oriented and more effective. Not to mention fairer, more objective and more unbiased.” Our efforts are making a difference in families and lives all around the world. Thank you for being a part of our journey so far. We hope you’ll continue to grow with us.
Learn more about Greenhouse Recruiting and Sourcing Automation by connecting with a member of our team today.
Melissa Suzuno
is a freelance writer and former Content Marketing Manager at Greenhouse. Melissa previously built out the content marketing programs at Parklet (an onboarding and employee experience solution) and AfterCollege (a job search resource for recent grads), so she's made it a bit of a habit to help people get excited about and invested in their work. Find Melissa on Twitter and LinkedIn.