On the one hand, remote work contracts are leveraged by social isolation measures. On the other, it seems that timing has never been better for HRTechs – startups mixing technology with human resources.
Remote work models such as work from home, regulated in Brazil in 2017, were already finding at HRTechs solutions to speed up the digital transformation of a key department for business success. But with the pandemic, this movement gained extra pace.
Right at the start of the social distancing measures, the recruitment and selection startup Revelo, for instance, launched its Revelo Remoto tool and saw over 95% of hirings and interviews taking place in a computer assisted manner, a demand that came from both clients and candidates. “We understand this movement as a trend that is here to stay and that is a priority for those looking for a new career,” says Lachlan de Crespigny, Revelo co-founder.
The largest HRtech in Latin America according to the company, Revelo connects candidates and vacancies on its recruitment and selection platform and has currently more than 14,000 clients in its portfolio including companies in the likes of Mercado Livre, XP Inc and B2W Digital. The startup gathered as much as BRL 90 million in investment rounds during 2019, a milestone that made Revelo the most invested company of its sector in Brazil.
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Revelo’s growth follows the fast pace of the human resources startups sector in the world. Global investment in so-called HRTechs grew 75% between 2017 and 2018, according to a survey by the American research firm CB Insights. US$ 16 billion has been injected into 2,918 businesses in the area since 2019.
Who has also surfed this wave was Gupy. In April, the Brazilian startup of recruitment and selection received an investment of BRL 40 million from the also Brazilian Oria Capital, to leverage operations and optimize its technology of fully digital recruiting processes. With a portfolio that includes companies such as Via Varejo, Renner, Ambev and Grupo Pão de Açúcar (GPA), Gupy launched, in early August, a new service called Gupy Admissão.
We were able to offer, on average, a 50% reduction in the opening and closing time of a vacancy, an 80% reduction in operational effort, in addition to improving turnover, always promoting the connection of the right person with the vacancy.
Guilherme Dias, CMO and co-founder at Gupy
To reduce turnover, Gupy bets on artificial intelligence created at home. As candidates apply for the vacancy, the AI Gaia orders them according to common affinities with those of the company. According to Gupy, more than 60% of those hired with the tool were in the top 10 positions ordered by Gaia.
Since its creation in 2015, the startup’s solution has analyzed more than 15 million resumes and completed more than 20,000 job openings in different industries.
“We launched the admission product, which makes the recruitment, selection and admission process completely online. In the first half of the year alone, we increased our customer base by 150% [year over year], while the number of hirings through the platform grew by five-fold,” reveals Guilherme Dias, CMO and cofounder of the startup. In June alone, Gupy registered 20,000 hirings within the system.
Dias reveals that, even before the pandemic, the HRTech was already preparing for the launch of Gupy Admissão, given the great demand for a tool that would automate the admission stage. “When we got to the admission process, which still involves a lot of paperwork today, in this moment of pandemic when many companies adopted the home-office regime, we saw that it was time to launch the product,” he says.
Through the solution, the new employee can photograph and send all documents of the process without leaving home. Through the platform, the company monitors the process and validates the documentation, which is automatically sent to the government agencies.
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“The contract signature is also done remotely, through an integration with ClickSign,” adds the executive. “This year, we want to learn a lot about how the two products work together. With the launch, we expect to at least triple our revenue in 2020.”
Even at this moment when many companies have returned, here at Gupy we saw that others also maintained the same attitude of keeping the whole team safe and at home. We saw that this demand has increased a lot on our platform and candidates have enjoyed this model.
Guilherme Dias, CMO and co-founder at Gupy
Revelo, Gupy and other recruitment and selection companies are part of a category that already accounts for 28.2% of the total number of HRTechs in Brazil, according to a report by the innovation platform Distrito.
The study, which mapped 373 industry startups in 2020, classifies companies into six categories: Development and talent management (160 startups); Recruitment and selection (105); HR Core – which comprises startups offering services such as compensation and benefits; Integrated solutions and worktime tracking management (95); Operations (Office Services – 7); HRMS (Human Resource Management System – 5) and Offboarding (1). The Brazilian sector is recent: 85.2% of HRTechs have emerged in the last 9 years.
We thought of a solution that offered end-to-end remote hiring, anywhere in the world. With Revelo Remoto, companies can save more than BRL 9 thousand with hiring tools and the selection process can be up to six times faster.
Lachlan de Crespigny, co-founder at Revelo
“The changes in the universe of work were already being discussed in a pre-pandemic scenario,” ponders Revelo’s exec. For him, everything was accelerated for the transition from a remote work routine. “I understand that this trend will continue, not only in Brazil, but worldwide. If it is not completely home-office, the hybrid format will also be adopted.”
Crespigny reveals that after the rise in distance hiring in February and March, 60% of admissions today follow the same format. “Remote positions keep coming up.”
Dias, from Gupy, says that recruitment and selection through artificial intelligence, which was already growing before the pandemic, took a leap. “After that, we know that even the most conservative companies are seeing the importance of having a more assertive tool that shows you the most qualified professionals for open positions.”
