iHire

The quest for qualified talent has become an uphill battle. With millions of job openings and a widening skills gap, employers are struggling to acquire and retain top talent. That hill is getting steeper, as millennials and Gen Zers—with new sets of wants, needs, and skills—explore the workforce in hopes of finding their dream career. Yet HR resources are not evolving fast enough to address the nuances of today’s competitive job market, putting pressure on busy hiring managers.

Embracing a candidate-centric approach to recruiting, Maryland-based iHire is helping businesses tackle these challenges by bridging the gap between employers and job seekers. “Our technology platform, comprising 56 industry-specific talent communities, connects employers with five-times more qualified talent whose resumes match their required skill sets,” said Steve Flook, iHire’s president and CEO. “It’s quality over quantity.”

However, iHire is much more than a job board or candidate database. The company provides an extensive portfolio of hiring tools and resources for employers and job seekers alike. For example, iHire’s flexible Job Slots allow employers to easily update and swap ads in and out, while Resume Search provides access to a database of millions of active and passive candidates—supporting employers’ immediate hiring needs and helping them build their talent pipelines.

One of iHire’s most popular tools is its Job Wrap workflow automation solution, which captures job ads from employers’ websites and automatically posts them to the appropriate iHire communities.

“The employer provides us with an XML feed or a career site URL, and we take care of the rest,” Flook noted. “Essentially, we eliminate the task of posting the same ad to numerous sites, one by one, and ensure the employer receives a pool of industry-focused candidates.”

For job seekers, iHire’s iMatch candidate matching solution uses advanced logic to aggregate job ads from across the web, assign them to the right iHire niche communities, and deliver relevant opportunities directly to candidates. The algorithm is always learning from candidates’ behavior and site activity, providing job seekers with the most pertinent employment leads. Other tools include iScore, which scores resumes against a job posting’s requirements, and Resume Review, which intuitively identifies common resume mistakes. Candidates can also work with iHire’s certified resume writers for even more personalized resume optimization.

Along with its sharp industry focus, iHire’s knack for innovation makes its solutions stand out in a competitive marketplace. “We apply design thinking to our solution development process, where we focus first on users’ challenges and determine how technology can address them,” Flook said. “Additionally, we use the Agile development methodology, allowing us to be iterative and collaborative in evolving our solutions. Because of this approach, we typically deliver five or six new features across our platform every month.”

Despite its technology prowess, iHire never loses sight of what matters most: the customer. The company offers live customer service and support—providing a human “touch” that users appreciate, according to Flook. This commitment to personalized service reflects iHire’s philosophy on today’s workforce, where technologies like AI are rendering many traditional jobs obsolete and leveling the playing field between small and large companies.

“Anyone can use technology to improve the way they do business, whether that involves simplifying talent acquisition or automating a task,” Flook concluded. “People are your most valuable asset, which is why finding, hiring and retaining talent is more important than ever. That makes what we do— connecting employers with qualified candidates—much more meaningful.”