HR Tech Quick Hits: Workday, Phenom team up; banks face IT talent shortage

Partnerships and Deals

HCM platform provider Namely merged with both Vensure Employer Services and PrismHR. VES and PrismHR, both HCM providers to small and medium-sized businesses in the U.S., recently merged. “The addition of Namely’s product and service offerings will accelerate the momentum being created by the combination of Vensure and PrismHR,” said Namely CEO Larry Dunivan.

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Finding job candidates on college campuses just got more automated with the news that university recruiting solution provider Phenom now integrates with Workday’s Recruiting module. Workday’s talent acquisition application aims to help organizations manage their recruiting lifecycle in a single system, and Phenom’s AI and automated tools will enhance that experience, according to a press statement. “By using Phenom’s integration with Workday Recruiting, university recruiters can hire early-career talent faster and help strengthen their organization,” said Saumil Gandhi, head of global client delivery for Phenom.



Employee experience and talent retention company ReturnSafe has changed its name to WorkEQ. This new name will be officially announced at next week’s HR Technology Conference. Founded in the early days of the pandemic, the newly-renamed WorkEQ offers hybrid work management tools, employee engagement and worker well-being. “Though these are still early days in the post-pandemic world, work-life balance or the work-life equation is top of mind for most employees,” co-founder and CEO Jikku Venkat said in explaining the new name. “The pandemic has markedly shifted this balance. HR leaders are recognizing this and taking the necessary steps to adapt their culture and operations to this new way of working.”

Talent acquisition company Beamery unveiled Universal Skills Platform and AI Talent Match, a pair of AI-powered tools designed to help HR leaders leverage talent data to better assess skills within their organizations. Universal Skills simplifies and unifies confusing and conflicting skills taxonomies across HCM data to provide a single, skills-based language, according to a press statement. AI Talent Match aims to automate and improve recruiter efficiency by aligning job titles and assessing the relevancy of associated skills, according to the company.

Funding News

Hybrid-team security provider SessionGuardian raised $3 million in funding. The company provides identity access control and authentication to hybrid work teams and will use the funds for product development and sales growth. “Our team is doubling down on product enhancements and sales for our browser-based and virtual machine security solutions,” said Jordan Ellington, founder and CEO of SessionGuardian.

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HR Tech Number

Despite news of layoffs in the tech sector, 49% of C-suite and human capital leaders in the banking, financial services and insurance industries report a scarcity of talent with IT skills. The 2022 Talent Trends Banking and Financial Services Sector report, conducted by Randstad SourceRight, found that 80% of respondents believe that providing flexible working schedules and arrangements is an effective way to address talent shortages, but only 38% report using this strategy. Also, 79% of the leaders say they are investing more in analytics to better attract and engage with talent.


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People Moves

Kelly Hoppesch, Wedge
Kelly Hoppesch, head of sales and customer success for Wedge

Recruiting tech company Wedge has added Kelly Hoppesch as head of sales and customer success. Before joining Wedge, Hoppesch helped to grow revenue at LinkedIn, Glassdoor and CareerBuilder. Most recently, she advised Comparably, a workplace culture and corporate brand reputation platform provider. “Kelly has an amazing understanding of our industry, the problems Wedge solves, the companies we support and the relationships we’re looking to build,” said Matt Baxter, CEO of Wedge.

Leave management and accommodations platform AbsenceSoft named Mark Schiff as its new CEO. Schiff previously was president of Gordian, a facilities and construction solutions provider, which he joined after its acquisition of Sightlines, where he also was CEO.

Podcast Pearls of Wisdom

HR Happy Hour Host Steve Boese interviews Paychex’s Alison Stevens for a sneak preview of the upcoming HR Technology Conference. In this episode, Stevens shares the latest data from the Paychex Pulse of HR Report and how firms are tackling stress and burnout, the latest options for remote and hybrid work options and how to stay on top of compliance as it evolves. Listen here.

HR Tech Conference Spotlight

You can judge a conference by its roster of speakers and the 2022 HR Technology Conference delivers in spades. The conference and expo feature insights from HR leaders from such mega organizations as Intel Corp., The Dallas Mavericks, Paramount Global, Dick’s Sporting Goods, Dolby, Unilever, Bank of America and many more. Register here.

Phil Albinus
Phil Albinus
Phil Albinus is the former HR Tech Editor for HRE. He has been covering personal and business technology for 25 years and has served as editor and executive editor for a number of financial services, trading technology and employee benefits titles. He is a graduate of SUNY New Paltz and lives in the Hudson Valley with his audiologist wife and three adult children.