iCIMS raises the bar for candidate experience through Altru Labs acquisition
By: Virginia Backaitis
Tags: Recruiting, Future Of Work, Acquisition, Job Hunting

Take just one look at the career site on Box.com, click on one of the videos that pop up, and you’ll almost surely come away with the idea that the company is a great place to work. That’s because you’ll see Altru-powered video testimonials from nearly 50 of Box’s employees as they explain why their relationship with the company works. For one employee, Conor Sweeny, it’s because taking risks is encouraged. For Ritu Varma, it’s the pride of empowerment that comes with ownership of her work. And, for still another Boxer, Tiffany Stevenson, it’s the company’s values around diversity and inclusion as they materialize through employee hiring, belonging and thriving. If you run a corporate career site, these mobile videos create an experience you want to bring to potential recruits now.

So, it’s no wonder that this morning, iCIMS, the Talent Cloud company for recruiting, announced that it has acquired New York City- based Altru Labs. Altru’s mobile, video appc power the aforementioned employee influencer testimonials.

“Employer branding through employee storytelling is what’s next in recruiting,” Mike Wilczak, Chief Strategy Officer, iCIMS, told Digitizing Polaris. “Video is authentic and the right channel for this,” he added.

Altru Labs and co-founders Vincent Polidoro and Alykhan Rehmatullah

This is something that Alykhan Rehmatullah, CEO and co-founder of Altru Labs and cofounder and CTO Vincent Polidoro have known for some time. “Consumer brands have been using evangelists for a while. Talent acquisition providers are usually 3–4 years behind the trend,” said Rehmatullah. By founding Altru Labs and creating its technology well ahead of the curve, Altru, and now iCIMS, have something to offer that their competitors don’t: the technology needed to tell your employer brand story through the eyes of your employees.

It’s almost remiss not to ask why Altru’s founders would want to sell now. “We weren’t looking to be acquired,” said Rehmatullah, but when Wilczak approached them, they listened. “We have 100 clients, iCIMS has 4000,” said Rehmatulla , noting that with iCIMS’ strong reputation, momentum and reach they would not only be able to win the market sooner, but democratize the candidate experience as well. Not everyone has the ability to access their network and get the inside scoop on a potential employer; now, iCIMS, through the acquisition of Altru has the ability to change that for a large number of workers.

But why did iCIMS make this acquisition at this point in time?

“Video,” Ray Wang, CEO and co-founder of Constellation Research told Digitizing Polaris, “Video was on the rise before the pandemic and now it has exponentially grown.” But that’s not all. Wang added that today’s talent platform providers “must deliver on all channels and all models. Workers want consumer grade experiences and enterprises must deliver on those for solutions class hiring.”

What impact will this have on the lives of recruiters, we asked Holger Mueller, vice president and principal analyst at Constellation Research. “Video has replaced the traditional interview call — but that means employers need to counter the request for video interviews from candidates — and that’s where Altru comes in,” explained Mueller. It makes it makes it simple “to create video content, and, here, the winning testimonials of existing employees — for a better candidate experience and ultimate talent acquisition velocity,” he added.