We met with Jacky Hazan, Founder and CEO of Intervyo, an Israeli startup that aims to automate the interview process for businesses. Hazan was in Hong Kong for the inaugural RISE conference taking place July 31–August 1, and he spent some time with us to tell us about Intervyo’s recruiting solution and the technology behind it.

THE RECRUITING PROBLEM

According to Intervyo, the average time to hire a new employee for companies globally is over 45 days. The reason is that companies have to go through the recurring funnel, which means they have to screen resumes and conduct phone and in-person interviews before they can place an offer to eventually hire a new employee. In addition, the process is not perfect, and sometimes companies end up hiring the wrong person. In fact, Intervyo claims that half of the time, new hires underperform. All of the above make recruiting a costly process for businesses. Many companies have tried to solve the recruiting problem by employing staffing agencies, but Intervyo points out that 87% of companies across the globe conclude that recruiters lack the tools needed to hire the most suitable candidates for the job. As a result, the problem persists.

INTERVYO’S SOLUTION

Intervyo has married data analytics with psychology to come up with a solution that aims to save companies time and money by shortening the recruiting process and improving its accuracy. The solution is an automated interview simulation system that replaces the need for recruiters to conduct first-round interviews.

HOW IT WORKS

Job candidates undergo an interview remotely using their personal computer. During the interview, they answer prerecorded video questions and interact with the recorded image of a real interviewer on the screen. In the background, Intervyo’s system analyzes the candidate’s verbal answers, vocal intonation and facial gestures to produce a real-time, 360-degree evaluation of the candidate. At the end of the interaction, the system generates a compatibility score that predicts the candidate’s job suitability. Intervyo is also working on a real-time analytics tool, which can be applied during virtual conference interviews, to provide recruiters with another evaluation metric in the form of a compatibility score at the end of the interview.

CURRENT STATUS

Intervyo is currently in the process of perfecting its predictive analytics technology, developing its system’s language capabilities beyond English and running pilot programs with companies in the financial industry. The team has struck a strategic partnership with IBM and participated in Google’s Launchpad program in France. The technology behind Intervyo’s solution is also pending patent protection.

WHAT WE THINK

The importance of data analytics is growing by the day. With ever-improving computer processing capabilities, a more powerful cloud and an amplified volume of data generated by the Internet of Things (IoT), analytical engines will become the backbone of many business models. Therefore, it’s natural that we see data analytics tools being applied to activities as distant from the digital world as interviewing. In the business world, the application of such technology could result in significant savings and improved performance, which means the market scalability Intervyo is looking at is immense. At the same time, when and how this application of technology will gain adoption is hard to gauge. We see challenges in the way people might respond to interacting with a computer-generated counterpart, especially in situations as important as job interviews. Still, we remain optimistic about the potential of the technology and look forward to seeing how Intervyo will progress over time.