Bank offers HR applications, Facebook expands recruiting service
Demand for HR applications is driving new offerings. Facebook is expanding its recruiting services, and a large Midwestern bank offers a full-service HR suite.
The market for HR services is expanding in new ways, as illustrated by two recent announcements. First National Bank of Omaha, the largest privately owned bank in the U.S., is now also a full-service HR applications vendor. And Facebook is making its recruiter services global.
First National Bank, which has $21 billion in assets and 5,000 employees, recently announced an agreement with Paycor to offer an HR applications suite to its business customers.
Banks have long offered their customers payroll-processing services that keep them compliant with state and federal rules. But First National's business customers will now have access to Paycor's HR applications, including recruiting, hiring, onboarding services, learning management, reporting and analytics, among others.
The bank's agreement with Paycor may represent part of a trend to meet the demand from SMBs for more HR suite services, said Cliff Stevenson, an analyst at Brandon Hall Group, a human capital management research and analyst firm in Delray Beach, Fla.
A suite of HR applications for SMBs
"I think it really does signal the beginning of a more expanded HR technology landscape for companies that just didn't have access to it before," Stevenson said.
Stevenson said he sees this offering as a move to a "more open marketplace," where even smaller firms "have access to really top-level offerings and really see the power of all-in-one suites."
Bank customers aren't obligated to get their HR applications through the bank. The customer can use all the HR services or one or two of them, said Russ Oatman, senior vice president at First National Bank of Omaha in Nebraska.
"We have over 13,000 customers that will have potential of utilizing this service," Oatman said. It's also a new revenue source for the bank, he said.
Facebook expands its recruiting services
Separately, Facebook said it is expanding the ability of employers to post jobs directly on Facebook to more than 40 countries. This may help make Facebook more of competitor with Google Hire and LinkedIn.
Facebook recruiting capabilities now include interview scheduling, automated reminders and alerts. Businesses can create job postings directly from their Facebook page. For job seekers, Facebook will populate a job application with data from their profile page.
[Facebook is] helping businesses capture talent where they live, and we live in social media today.
Sahil Sahnico-founder of AllyO
Additionally, according to Facebook, once a job seeker finishes applying, a Messenger conversation with the employer can begin. What Facebook didn't say in this announcement is how sophisticated its Messenger technology will be.
"The strategic direction is exactly right for them," said Sahil Sahni, co-founder of AllyO, an AI-powered virtual recruiting assistant startup in Sunnyvale, Calif. AllyO's funders include Google, Bain Capital Ventures and Randstad, a recruiting firm.
Facebook is "helping businesses capture talent where they live, and we live in social media today," Sahni said.
Sahni said Facebook hasn't revealed its automated interaction technology, but its Messenger approach is "super complementary" to automated interactions.
Automated interactions will make sense with Facebook, Sahni said. The goal of a business is to make money, and not "talk with 500 applicants at Facebook that just flooded my inbox," he said.
