An opportunity to evolve in a time of crisis
Hisayuki Idekoba COO, Executive Vice President, Director of the Board, and Head of HR Technology SBU
Recruit Group has been evolving its HR business strategy since it was founded 60 years ago in order to meet the changing needs of the HR industry. We've always considered it important to ask, "Isn't there a better way to do this?" And that's exactly what we're trying to answer through our HR Technology SBU, which uses technology to eliminate challenges in job searching and recruitment.
We made a full-scale entry into the HR technology field when we acquired Indeed
in 2012. Founded in 2004, Indeed uses aggregation technology to bring together job listings scattered across the Internet onto a single site, making the job search process more efficient. What was once a burdensome process is now an easy, efficient hiring system that's available in over 60 countries. In 2018, Recruit Group acquired Glassdoor, a company that provides information about working environments and salaries to give job seekers an inside look at prospective employers.
Together, Indeed and Glassdoor work toward a common goal: to make it easier for people to get jobs and for employers to recruit and hire talent. The widespread success of both companies speaks to the fact that they've made the process of connecting job seekers and employers much more efficient than it used to be. Just like how many of us can no longer remember what it was like to schedule time to meet with friends before the invention of cellphones, the days before online job searching are hazy. When you get so used to using one service, you start to forget how you did something before. And that's what we're hoping to achieve: we want to create products and services that are so useful and efficient that you forget how those tasks were done before. We're working hard to "Wow the World!" with true enterprise value.
Today, in the midst of a global crisis, when millions have lost their jobs, we have a responsibility to step up and help quickly match people who need a job now with companies that want to hire now-such as those in the retail and healthcare sectors. During such tough times, to identify the best path forwards I go back to the basics and ask, "What is most important right now?" As a leading HR company, our fundamental purpose is to help people find meaningful work. Our Virtual Hiring Events, which utilize advanced technology to enable job seeking and hiring to be carried out entirely online, have finally come into their own, embraced by employers who have traditionally expressed a reluctance to try new approaches. What until recently was an idea kept back for 'when the time is right,' is now an idea that perfectly meets current needs-the future is now.
There is still much to do as we pursue Recruit's mission to provide "Opportunities for Life." We must work hard to further simplify job seeking and hiring, to build convenient products and services that make people's lives easier, and to lead the HR technology industry into the future.