Kathleen Paige Yu, CEO at Rumarocket talks about the significance and impact of ML on the efficiency of talent acquisition processes.

1. Tell us about your role in Rumarocket?
I’m the CEO and Chief Data Scientist of Rumarocket. My role involves developing the long term strategy of the company and aligning data science and machine learning technologies around this strategic vision. It sounds like a lot of corporate speak jumbled together, but simply put (with a pirate reference :D): I define the direction of the boat, and what kind of cargo and cannons we’ll bring along the trip.

2. Can you tell us about your journey into this market?
The company started out as my final year thesis project when I was in college. I had a close friend who had to drop out of school because she couldn’t pay her fees anymore and she told me about how challenging the job search experience was for her, and how none of the companies would hire her because of her CV. It got me thinking, “How much that’s in a person’s CV actually translates to their on the job performance?” This question led me down a rabbit hole of data, leading me to discover that there was actually a big gap in most companies’ talent management processes. I realized that many companies didn’t have a clear idea of what to look for when finding talent, especially when it came to intangible things like values and attitude. So I developed an artificial intelligence focused on solving this problem, specifically: identifying the personality factors (beyond CV qualifications) that actually translated to better performance and talent longevity in an organization.

3. How do you think technology is changing the HR Sector?
With the onset of the pandemic, more and more organizations are now realizing the importance of developing and implementing technologies around the HR Sector. We’ve seen an increase in popularity for collaboration tools like Slack and Microsoft Teams, as well as online video conferencing solutions like Zoom and Google Meet. But there’s something still missing. As more teams are increasingly put on a work from home schedule, many managers today are faced with the challenge of keeping their teams productive and engaged without physical contact. There’s been an increased demand for mixed reality solutions and A.I. driven services that can enable teams to better interact, motivate, and engage each other in an increasingly uncertain business environment.

4. How according to you digitization is empowering the hiring process?

Digitalization has made the distribution of talent more equitable.

Recruitment managers from Google can now hire from a globalized pool of high-level talent, instead of just recruiting individuals from Silicon Valley (as an example). This means that there’s an increasing sense of equality of opportunity in the recruitment process, and it presents an exciting opportunity for many companies to expand their horizons globally.

5. What is the impact of quality hiring on future success of the business?
The quality of an organization’s people determines the quality of an organization. And the best companies make time and effort to understand what makes their people great. That’s why hiring is important, but even more than just hiring anyone: understanding the right mix of talent and personality that can facilitate success inside an organization.

6. What is the significance of data mining for employment decision making practices of firms?
Data facilitates better decision-making. With data, key employment decision-makers are empowered with the tools and perspective that they would need to better analyze and make critical decisions around people challenges inside an organisation.

7. How can Machine Learning have an effect on the retention rates of the companies?
Machine Learning is a tool that enables companies to make predictions or build personalization around their data and people processes. Making better predictions enables companies to prepare for future challenges, while creating personalization around their people processes ensures that companies can create unique career growth experiences for their talent. When it comes to retention, machine learning can enable companies to identify individuals (particularly high performers) who have a higher chance of leaving, and ensure that managers are able to take the steps to head this off. In a study of organisations in the Philippines, we compared manager’s predictions of talent attrition with exit interview reasons provided by employees when leaving the company and found that managers were only able to accurately predict attrition less than 2% of the time. Great talent is lost every day because of this, and having machine learning plugged in actually helps reduce the uncertainties and inefficiencies in this process.

8. Can you explain to us in detail about the workflow of Rumarocket solution?
Rumarocket combines behavioral science and machine learning to help managers nudge their teams to more productive, motivating and engaging habits and activities. Compatible with both Slack and Microsoft teams, our app enables managers to send personalised motivations and engagements for each of their team members, and the machine learning functionality enables the app to learn which kinds of nudges work well with which person–delivering a unique motivation and engagement experience for each employee.

9. How do you prepare for an AI-centric World?

Be open-minded to new innovations and technologies. Learn what you can, and always remember that it’s better to be a life-long learner than a narrow-minded expert.

At the end of the day, A.I. is merely a tool that we use to solve challenges in different and unique ways. Understanding and working with the technology enables you to better understand what kind of challenges and problems can be easily solved by this technology, this tool: it’s an advantage that talent in today’s market can’t take for granted.

10. Can you tell us about your team and how they support you?
We are very lucky to have an extremely talented and supportive team of self-starter developers, innovative operations leads, and creative data scientists. We’ve been running lean for a long time and are thankful for the culture of trust and support we’ve built with our team over the last three years. It’s given us the opportunity to accomplish very unique and exciting things, innovate quickly on our existing products and keep improving on what we do day by day.

11. What movie inspires you the most?
The scene in the Shawshank Redemption where Andy finally escapes from the prison and is able to look up at the sky and feel the rain on his skin. It reminds me a lot about my start-up journey and how many things can seem challenging and overwhelming in the moment, but looking back on the struggles I’ve been through over the years: I wouldn’t trade that experience for anything.

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