• Add your business news
  • Privacy Statement
  • Cookie Policy
Recruitmenttech.com
  • Home
  • Latest
  • Subscribe to the email update
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Latest
  • Subscribe to the email update
No Result
View All Result
Recruitmenttech.com
No Result
View All Result
Home Interview

Exclusive interview with George LaRocque (WorkTech): ‘COVID is an accelerator, not a creator of tech trends’

September 8, 2022
in Interview
Reading Time: 4 mins read
49
Share on LinkedInShare on FacebookShare on TwitterShare on WhatsappShare via email

With WorkTech, George LaRocque has been on the forefront of analysing and advising on the exploding market of work technology. ‘COVID is not a creator of work tech trends, it’s an accelerator’, he told Recruitment Tech’s Martijn Hemminga in an exclusive video interview.

A focus on work

WorkTech’s what is quite singular in the sense that the company aims to help HR leaders that use and buy HR technology and HR tech providers to understand each other. Founded by George LaRocque in 2009, the company has excelled at helping employers understand the trends that are impacting their workforce today and in the future.

“The distinguishing factor is that WorkTech really represents a focus on work”, LaRocque explains in an interview with Recruitment Tech’s Martijn Hemminga at Recfest. “Think of it exclusively on work, and on not a top-down sort of command and control. So it’s all about HR, and the systems that distinguish themselves as work tech. Whether it’s hiring work tech or HR work tech that are more inclusive, more collaborative and more focused on the internal team experience and employee and candidate experiences.”

‘Work tech is outperforming the market’

Every quarter, WorkTech tracks the number of investments in the work tech sphere and publishes its global venture capital update for its members. Since COVID, the investments within the world of work technology have skyrocketed. In Q2 alone, global work tech investment neared $5 billion, which made it the fourth-largest quarter on record for work tech VC investment. “The pace of global work tech VC investment remains brisk in spite of the current global economic conditions and a slowing of VC investment across other tech categories”, the report states. 

“We’ve already had the second-biggest year ever for tech in all time.”

“If you look at the investment VC investment in tech overall, it’s down by I’ve seen as much as 56% from Q1 to Q2 this year”, LaRocque says. “Work tech or HR tech is not down. We’ve had our record year in 2021 at about 18 billion. That was more than three times the biggest year before that. The first half of this year, we’re already over 9 billion approaching 10 billion. Now, we may have some challenges, but we’ve already had the second-biggest year ever for tech in all time.”

Source: WorkTech

‘COVID is not a creator, it is an accelerator’

“COVID, what it did create was a lot of a lot of pain, a lot of death, a lot of uncertainty”, LaRocque says. “And that uncertainty as it relates to the workforce drove a lot of innovation and accelerated a lot of the trends, like distributed remote work, video interviewing, different hiring tools and technologies that really put us where we would have been in ten years if it wasn’t for COVID.”

“After they got their arms around their business and where the business was, they shifted immediately to the employees.”

But the change isn’t just limited to technology, LaRocque says. “So a lot of the on what COVID also accelerated wasn’t just technology development, but that development was brought on because CEOs, the C-suite really stepped back during COVID. After they got their arms around their business and where the business was, they shifted immediately to the employees.”

“How are they doing? How can we support them? We still have a business to run. How are we going to hire? How are we going to onboard? And all of these focuses and things like wellbeing, they’re trends that are here to stay. And any technologies that are focused on those areas and driving business results, I think are going to continue to see growth, whether it’s revenue growth or investment growth.”

“I’ve yet to find a trend that wasn’t underway prior to COVID.”

“So I think the key takeaway is that COVID is not a creator. There’s a lot of hype in the market about new trends or new technologies based on the experience we’ve had for the last three years globally. But I’ve yet to find a trend that wasn’t underway prior to COVID. So what COVID is, or has been, is an accelerator. That’s that’s really how I view it.”

‘The new recruiter looks like a specialist’

As the market is changing and shifting, for better or for worse, the role of recruiters is naturally shifting alongside it. So what does the new recruiter look like? “We’ve been asking recruiters to do a lot of things to demonstrate a lot of skills that they’ve never had before”, LaRocque says. “So a skill such as being proficient with data, there are no data analysts that are recruiters that I’ve met who are now looking at marketing and branding.”

“And there are about nine other district roles that really sound like specialist roles, that have been heaped onto an organisation and its recruiters. So the new recruiter looks like a specialist. They look like a business partner who’s managing the hiring workflow and the overall process, but probably has either a marketing slant or a data slant or branding strengths that they bring to that role. That’s what the new recruiter would look like today.”

“It’s a new wave of hiring work tech that they’re implementing to support that.”

“I think depending on the size of your company and the size of your talent acquisition, the larger teams will have specialists. They’ll have a people operations function or a recruitment operations function. They might have a data analyst that’s available to them. They may have specialists for early careers and branding and marketing. While in a smaller organisation, you’ll have individuals who bring an additional skillset or develop additional skills. The trends that are driving the change are changing in the tech that these two teams are implementing. It’s a new wave of hiring work tech that they’re implementing to support that.”

Listen to the podcast

Tags: COVID-19George LaRocqueinvestmentsRecruitment TechnologyVCVenture Capitalwork technologyWorkTech

Receive a push message with a new article on Recruitmenttech.com.
You can unsubscribe at any time.

Unsubscribe
Previous Post

Tove Hernlund (Alva Labs): ‘Our slogan is: hire people, not CVs’

Next Post

Building versus buying: an applicant tracking system (ATS)

Jasper Spanjaart

Jasper Spanjaart

Related Posts

Rebecca Carr (SmartRecruiters): 'People need to be discovered faster in order to hire faster'
Interview

Rebecca Carr (SmartRecruiters): ‘People need to be discovered faster in order to hire faster’

by 1st Editor
August 28, 2024
Brando Benifei (European Commission): ‘Recruitment can be much less biased with AI’
Interview

Brando Benifei (European Commission): ‘Recruitment can be much less biased with AI’

by 1st Editor
May 21, 2024
How Germany's Talk'n'Job became a prize-winning start-up
Interview

How Talk’n’Job became one of Europe’s must-watch start-ups in recruitment

by 1st Editor
April 3, 2024
Yohan Zibi (EveryCheck): ‘We offer recruiters and companies assurance’
Interview

Yohan Zibi (EveryCheck): ‘We offer recruiters and companies assurance’

by Jasper Spanjaart
February 14, 2024
Belén Hein (Neurolytics): ‘We focus on finding the right environment for individuals’
Interview

Belén Hein (Neurolytics): ‘We focus on finding the right environment for individuals’

by Martijn Hemminga
December 6, 2023
Next Post
Building versus buying: an applicant tracking system (ATS)

Building versus buying: an applicant tracking system (ATS)

Newcastle-based recruitment tech firm Haystack looks to break into US with £500k investment

Newcastle-based recruitment tech firm Haystack looks to break into US with £500k investment

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Follow us on social

Events calendar

  • Artificial Intelligence and Computational Technologies
    • 17/11/2025
  • Cultural Studies, Humanities, and Social Studies
    • 09/09/2025
    • Dubai
  • Disrupting for Good: AI, Entrepreneurship, and Sustainable Circular Economy
    • 28/01/2026
  • all events
    • Contact
    • Privacy Statement
    • Cookie Policy

    © 2020-2021 Recruitment Tech Network | Europalaan 500 3526 KS UTRECHT, the Netherlands

    No Result
    View All Result
    • Home
    • Latest
    • Subscribe to the email update

    © 2020-2021 Recruitment Tech Network | Europalaan 500 3526 KS UTRECHT, the Netherlands

    Welcome Back!

    Login to your account below

    Forgotten Password?

    Retrieve your password

    Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

    Log In
    We use cookies on this site. Cookies are used, for example, to personalise content, offer video and social media tools and to analyse our website traffic (anonymously).
    Cookie settingsAccept all cookies
    Privacy & Cookies Policy

    Privacy Overview

    This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these cookies, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may have an effect on your browsing experience.
    Necessary
    Always Enabled

    Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.

    Non Necessary

    Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.

    Analytics

    Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website. These cookies help provide information on metrics the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc.

    Advertisement

    Advertisement cookies are used to provide visitors with relevant ads and marketing campaigns. These cookies track visitors across websites and collect information to provide customized ads.

    Save & Accept