Software to replace resumes for new hires

Author(s): Brad Spirrison Special to The Chicago Sun-Times   Date: January 25, 2010 Page: 26 Section: Financial
Business; Column

Even when the unemployment rate returns to the single digits, companies fortunate enough to be hiring will be overwhelmed with applicants. With so many variables to process, traditional methods to identify and screen prospective employees are becoming obsolete. "Resumes are an artifact of the industrial age," says Chuck Smith, president of Chicago-based NewHire. "The way candidates apply for jobs is much more complex than it used to be."

When Smith joined NewHire in 1988, the company (then known as NewOffice) focused strictly on temporary staffing services. After buying the business a decade ago, Smith began tinkering around with Internet-based software applications to automate various hiring processes. His wife and business partner, Leora Baumgarten, noticed that clients were sometimes more interested in the interactive screening process than in the temps themselves.

"It looked to me like an information management problem," said Baumgarten, who holds a PhD in biological sciences from the University of Chicago.

Added Smith, "The thing we are experts in is knowing a lot more about candidates than what their resumes say."

Recognizing an opportunity to expand the business beyond local staffing contracts, Smith and Baumgarten began licensing their software application to third-party clients in 2005. Today, companies in 35 states pay NewHire fixed and monthly licensing fees for services that include online applications and questionnaires, keyword-based search tools and background checks. NewHire's most popular offering is a 90-day job application (which comes with human services and support) that costs just under $2,000.

While Smith and Baumgarten acknowledge that working with a spouse can be "challenging," they prefer running a family-owned business rather than fighting it out with other candidates in the work force.

"Even in a recession, we are in charge of our own destiny," Smith said. "Nobody is going to fire us because things change."

TECH COCKTAIL GOES MOBILE

This next round of the popular TECH cocktail networking event series in Chicago comes with a mobile twist. On Thursday, MOBILE cocktail will hold its first event at the Touch interactive bar at 1622 W. Belmont. While TECH cocktail events since 2006 have brought together hundreds of virtual movers and shakers from all walks of Internet life in Chicago, MOBILE cocktail will focus on entrepreneurs, engineers and investors immersed in developing and marketing applications for the iPhone and Google Android platforms.

An associated blog complete with event information and mobile industry news and commentary by TECH cocktail founder and former AOL executive Frank Gruber can be found at mobile.techcocktail.com. In addition to the quarterly (or so) events in Chicago, TECH cocktail in recent years has expanded to hold events in Champaign, Boulder, and Washington D.C.

ENTREPRENEURIAL EDUCATION

This Friday, the Polsky Center of Entrepreneurship at the University of Chicago will host a conference on Exploring Entrepreneurship: Innovations in the Midwest Education Industry. The conference, which will focus on economic and entrepreneurial opportunities intrinsic to the Midwest, will feature a panel conversation focusing on investing in education innovation with venture capitalists from New World Ventures, OCA Ventures, and Sterling Partners. For more about the Gleacher Center event: www.chicago booth.edu/education.

Brad Spirrison is a local technology reporter and managing editor with Appolicious Inc. Follow him at twitter.com/spirrison.