What is your startup?
Covocate.com helps companies quickly and accurately identify the best job applicants for a given role. It does this by measuring the best predictors of employee engagement and productivity over time, including workstyle, motivators, and goals. The system enables companies to specify the qualities they’re looking for in a new hire, and receive a full report on compatibility for their cohort of applicants within 72 hours.
What was the inspiration behind your startup?
The hiring process generally sucks at the moment for both companies and job applicants because resumes, cover letters and even interviews are not a reliable way to measure what matters. All these methods encourage applicants to research companies and answer as close as possible to what the company wants to hear – but this results in suboptimal decisions over the longer term as people soon tire of roles that don’t suit them, and end up leaving – or worse, staying but remaining unengaged and unproductive.
Research shows that hiring candidates based on ‘fit’ is a better predictor of future performance than qualifications or even past work experience. It’s far easier to train for skills, than it is to change peoples’ inherent values and motivation. My system allows companies to quickly assess even large numbers of applicants, and make better investment decisions as a result.
What are your goals for the next month?
I am putting the finishing touches on my demo version at present and heading out for hardcore validation leading up to market launch hopefully early July.
Where do you expect your startup to be in 3 months time?
Provided I am able to demonstrate sufficient traction, I will be considering funding / investment options to build momentum and take this interstate and international as early as possible. There is also the option to start to diversify into industry specific variants for certain markets.
