Tiara Talent Tech Star Awards Winners

TIARA TALENT TECH STAR AWARDS

WINNER SPOTLIGHT

SOLUTIONS FOR OUR TIMES

Alex Evans, MD of TALiNT Partners, explains why the TIARA Talent Tech Star Awards are an important market barometer of innovation and the evolving needs of employers and recruiters

The 50 finalists shortlisted in 13 TIARA Talent Tech Star Awards categories this year represent the sector’s highest potential start-ups, fast growing scale-ups and top performing talent tech giants –collectively employing nearly 12,000 people and generating total sales of almost £3.3bn in 2022.

They also spotlight the most in-demand solutions to meet the challenges and opportunities of a talent industry adapting to new ways of working and recruiting.

As the pace of digital transformation in HR and Recruitment has intensified, we have not only seen the accelerated adoption of talent tech but providers helping clients of all shapes and sizes to maximise their solutions, achieve a greater ROI, and accelerate the evolution of the sector.

These champions of change have all demonstrated lasting impact, not only in their support of clients but candidates and consultants as well.

An ever-growing contingent workforce is being driven by employers looking for more agile talent solutions and workers looking for greater flexibility and higher pay. Smaller recruiters are tapping into this trend to offer project RPO and MSP light, with talent tech enabling them to scale delivery and level the playing field – at home and abroad.

With an estimated 2.55m people out of the UK workforce due to long-term health conditions (or NHS waiting lists), and 20% of the working age population economically inactive, both recruiters and employers are still adapting to talent and skill shortages.

There has never been a greater need, or demand, for accurate labour market data and solutions for all aspects of the candidate experience and employee journey.

This year’s shortlist paints a vibrant picture of the Talent Tech landscape - with fit for purpose solutions delivering meaningful impact where it’s really needed.

With some great David and Goliath stories and challengers versus established giants, it was difficult for our judges to choose winners from such strong shortlists and even harder to choose a Champion of Champions from 13 very strong contenders.

One of the big winners this year was Sonovate, who won the Contractor Solution of the Year and Fast Growth Award for solving the problem of funding for recruiters and pay for contractors. Talos360 won the Best Talent Tech Company to Work For and the Talent Tech Leader of the Year for its CEO Janette Martin, showing the importance of practicing what you preach in WorkTech.

Unifrog was named Recruitment Marketing Solution of the Year and also took the TIARA crown as Champion of Champions. Judges praised Unifrog as the perfect example of a purpose led solution, a B-Corp that is reducing NEETs and supporting disadvantaged students whilst providing a new source of emerging talent for employers.

Purpose underpins all of the best solutions. Our mission for the TIARAs is to inspire innovation and change by showcasing the best. We hope you find our winner profiles inspirational – and that they inspire more of the best to enter next year.

Pixid VMS offers a fast and agile implementation process, allowing organizations to go live within a month. Their plug-and-play technology, along with dedicated account managers, ensures swift project execution. For example, a rail sector project was approved on February 17, 2020, and successfully launched on March 22, 2020.

Pixid VMS collaborates closely with their sales, project management, and client account management teams to provide coordinated support to staffing agencies and MSPs. They assist with RFIs and guide clients through the entire sales process. As a transaction-based model, Pixid VMS benefits when clients successfully utilise their VMS software on an ongoing basis.

With a focus on technical excellence and ISO 27001 data-security certification, Pixid VMS ensures compliance and secure data management. Their industry-leading technology guarantees reliability, supported by features like a free mobile app, multi-factor authentication, and access level control for enhanced service and security across devices.

Pixid has experienced significant growth, expanding their presence from France to become the largest European-owned recruitment technology business. Group turnover doubled in the last four years, with Pixid technology being used in 39

The Workforce Solution of the Year

countries worldwide, including the USA, Canada, Japan, and most EU countries. Their impressive client retention is driven by referrals and organic growth.

Pixid’s primary goal is to simplify workflows for recruiters, agencies, and MSPs, enhancing visibility, governance, and efficiency in contingent workforce hiring. Their state-of-the-art technology and customer service empower staffing companies to provide compliant, effective, and satisfied contingent workforces. Pixid’s strategic approaches include a partnership philosophy, an entrepreneurial spirit, technical excellence, and a commitment to professional equality, reflected in their high Professional Equality Index score of 93 in 2020.

Judges’ comments: Judges praised Pixid for their agile solution, their collaborative approach to servicing clients and their innovative plans to sustain growth and future proof the business.

FINALISTS

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Sonovate is a leading player in the global contingent workforce market, providing innovative solutions to address the challenges faced by contractors and freelancers. With the contractor market estimated market to be worth $5.4 trillion, Sonovate’s 100% invoice funding sets it apart from competitors who typically offer only 60% to 90% funding. This, along with the removal of concentration limits, enables growing recruitment firms to thrive, ensuring contractors are paid on time and employers can secure top talent.

Agencies that choose Sonovate as their first funder experience three times faster growth than the industry average. For example, the Independent Resourcing Consultancy expanded its talent pool by increasing contractual roles with the help of Sonovate. CEO Lewis Greene highlighted the importance of their support in managing cash flow, allowing the consultancy to focus on building client relationships.

Their streamlined management of payslips, cash flow, and timesheets has received positive feedback from contractors like Kevin Stevens, who praised its user-friendly timesheet system. Their solutions become even more critical as businesses grapple with rising costs, a demand for flexibility, and a talent shortage.

With over £4 billion in total lending and a year-on-year revenue growth rate of

The Contractor Solution of the Year

over 51% as of December 2022, Sonovate has made a significant impact. More than 40,000 freelancers and contractors have received full and timely payments through Sonovate, ensuring financial stability.

Sonovate’s vision is to be the funding platform for the future of work, revolutionising the recruitment industry with tech-driven financing. Internally, Sonovate upholds a value-driven culture, promotes diversity, and engages with the community through charity programs and initiatives. Sonovate’s innovative solutions and commitment to excellence make it a deserving candidate for recognition in the awards.

Judges’ comments: Judges praised Sonovate for meeting an important need in the market, with an innovative solution that captures the breadth of contingent workers and enables SMEs to grow their business while ensuring their workers get paid on time.

Diversely has revolutionised inclusive recruitment by offering a fully flexible and accessible approach to achieve measurable diversity and inclusion (D&I) success. Their platform, integrated with Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) or as a standalone solution, has made a significant impact on hiring processes through partnerships with recruitment firm in the data and insights sector.

The recruitment firm faced challenges such as incomplete D&I sections in major RFPs and limited tracking of diversity metrics, resulting in missed opportunities and a lack of industry benchmarks. Their outreach efforts lacked bias assessment, and reliance on generic job boards limited access to diverse talent. Moreover, standard evaluation methods often led to non-diverse shortlists.

Implementing Diversely’s platform and integrating it with Bullhorn transformed their partner’s recruitment practices. They achieved targeted outreach to underrepresented talent, ensuring inclusive job ads and communications. As a result, the diversity of shortlists increased by 70%, data coverage expanded by up to 90%, and they successfully secured new business opportunities.

Recognising their progress, they received the Level 2 Diversely Inclusive Employer certification. Diversely has thrived in the crowded D&I market,

The DE&I Solution of the Year

penetrating key markets and excelling in high-level Third-Party Risk Management (TPRM) processes within just 18 months.

They raised US$550k in 2021, launched their full-suite D&I platform, and built a LinkedIn community of 60k members. Winning 16 clients across industries like advertising, IT services, education, and venture capital, we secured multi-year contracts exceeding US$3m.

With a team of 10 across the UK, US, Europe, Middle East, Africa, and Asia, Diversley strives to replicate their successes with similar clients and through partnerships with organisations like Allegis, Access Group, and Randstad.

Their vision is to level the global playing field for all applicants are committed to inclusivity, transparency, and progress. Through their platform, they offer scalable and results-driven solutions to increase inclusion in hiring. Additionally, Diversley’s free resources, events, and community called The D&Igest contribute to raising awareness and guiding improvements in D&I.

Judges’ comments: Judges praised Diversely for their solution which is clearly driven by thought leaders who truly understand the challenges for employers and recruiters, built with a specific DE&I purpose with impactful tech to enable a positive change.

FINALISTS

This Award recognises a solution that has best enabled employers and / or recruitment companies to improve diversity, equity & inclusion in the talent acquisition process.

Referoo revolutionises the reference and background checking process, providing a smart and secure alternative to manual methods. By automating the end-to-end reference checking process, Referoo significantly reduces turnaround time by approximately 90%. This streamlined approach allows references to be completed outside of business hours, without requiring staff overtime. The platform integrates seamlessly with leading ATS platforms, minimising the risk of data mishandling and errors.

Referoo’s automated system also reduces the administrative workload associated with background checks, enabling recruiters to focus on strategic tasks. Additionally, the platform offers features that align with recruiters’ preferences, such as phone and SMS reference options. The talent pooling module allows referees to express their interest in being contacted as candidates, helping recruiters build talent pipelines.

Since its establishment in 2018, Referoo has experienced rapid growth. In the 2021/22 Financial Year, the company doubled its sales from AUD 3 million to AUD 6 million. The headcount increased by 238%, and the customer churn rate remained below 0.1% per month. Referoo onboarded 345 new client organisations and expanded into new markets, establishing a global presence. Notably, the platform introduced an end-to-end Disclosure Barring Service (DBS) in partnership with Procius and HooYu, enhancing its reach in the UK.

The Compliance Solution of the Year

Looking ahead, Referoo projects doubling its sales to AUD 12 million in the 2022/23 Financial Year. The company’s mission remains unchanged—to deliver high-quality, compliant, and fast reference and background checks that streamline recruiters’ workflows. With an average of 45,000 references completed monthly, Referoo users benefit from a 10x quicker turnaround time compared to manual processing. The platform reduces time to complete reference checks by 90% and flags an average of 480 instances of potential fraud per month, ensuring user safety. Furthermore, Referoo’s integration with 24 ATS/HR management platforms simplifies data management for clients.

Referoo’s success stems from its co-founders Neil Rose and Chris Hunter, who identified the reference checking bottleneck and developed the solution. Today, with offices in the UK and Australia, Referoo has assisted over 1,130 organisations in achieving faster, more secure, and higher-quality references. By delivering a better way of working, Referoo empowers recruiters to allocate more time to client service while minimising manual tasks.

Judges’ comments: Judges praised Referoo for their agile, fast growing and innovative vetting solution which integrates with CRMs to enable an enhanced process for candidates and recruiters, whilst also saving time and money.

FINALISTS

This Award recognises a solution that has best enabled improvement in compliance for employers and / or recruitment companies.

Eli is experience-led onboarding technology that’s driven by engagement. Eli enables its national and global partners to deliver exceptional experiences every time, by creating a personalised and inclusive onboarding portal that perfectly balances compliance with engagement, forms with conversations and checklists with events. Eli is the enabler, driving process, monitoring tasks, building knowledge and creating communities – all of which sets new hires up for success.

The technology delivers real value for their clients too, enabling them to build a globally consistent experience that empowers line managers and reduces onboarding-related admin, through integration, automation and timely reminders (nudges) for everyone involved. This frees HR up to spend more time on the value add. Indeed, in their 2023 survey, 100% of clients agreed the technology had reduced admin.

Across all their clients Eli achieved a 93% engagement rate in 2022 and 96% of new hires rated their wellbeing as happy during the onboarding process. Feedback from the same audience, over 20,000 individual page ratings, ranked the Eli experience at 4.8 out of 5.

It’s MI like this (Eli monitors over 30 different engagement stats) that allows Eli’s clients to track success and drive continuous improvement. This, coupled with a tailored success plan

The Onboarding Solution of the Year

and a dedicated support team, ensures Eli delivers real ROI, whatever a client’s objectives.

Numerous long-term partners have reported reductions in early attrition, most notably a charity reporting a 9% reduction less than two years after launch; 94% of their new hires rating the inclusive experience Eli delivered as outstanding. Other clients highlighted more tangible business benefits, such as improvements in early productivity, line manager engagement and ownership (upwards of 90%) and large cost avoidances into the $millions.

A values-based business, Eli believes its people are just as important to their success – a belief shared by their clients it seems. In their 2023 client survey, 100% rated the support they received 5/5 stars. And, when asked how likely they were to recommend Eli to a friend, colleague or peer, Eli achieved a Net Promoter Score (NPS) of +50.

Judges’ comments: Judges praised Eli Onboarding for a solution that saves time and admin whilst enabling personalisation and improving the experience of candidates and new hires. Great examples and success metrics.

FINALISTS

This Award recognises a solution that has best enabled employers and / or recruitment companies to improve the onboarding and induction of permanent and contract staff.

Marriott Harrison congratulates all the nominees and winners at the TIARA Talent Tech Star Awards.

MH are proud sponsors of the Talent Tech Customer Service Award.

Our business even as lawyers is essentially a people business and we are so pleased to be able to support The Talent Tech Customer Service category. We totally recognise and support the importance of client service and implementing solutions to make talent acquisition, management and development as positive and as streamlined as possible.”

The top tier London law firm specialising in technology and the recruitment sector and providing legal solutions across the whole staffing supply chain.

HireVue is honoured to be nominated for an esteemed award, recognising its culture of cross-functional learning and customer collaboration. The company’s commitment to continuous improvement and innovation has led to various initiatives that foster employee development and help organisations optimize their hiring processes.

One standout achievement is HireVue’s collaboration with Emirates, a company severely impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite facing a $6 billion annual loss and the need to reduce their workforce by 31%, Emirates successfully ramped up hiring to recruit 10,000 employees. By leveraging HireVue’s Video Interview and AI-driven Assessments, Emirates reinvented its hiring process, resulting in cost savings of 1.5m AED ($500k), a 50% reduction in time to hire, 350 saved recruiter days, and an enhanced candidate experience.

HireVue’s growth is evident in various measurable metrics. The company’s chatbot facilitated 46 million chats in 2021, increasing to 67 million in 2022, with a total of over 250 million to date. Similarly, the adoption of HireVue’s psychometric assessments by candidates saw consistent year-on-year growth, with over 8 million assessments delivered to date.

Video interviews conducted through HireVue’s platform surpassed 37 million, with milestones of 10 million, 20 million, and 30 million reached in May 2019, March 2021, and June 2022, respectively. This highlights the platform’s scalability and effectiveness.

The Marriott Harrison Talent Tech Customer Service Award

Additionally, HireVue’s Professional Services and Product teams delivered almost 20% more integration projects in 2022 compared to the previous year. This reflects the growing industry demand for automation and integration to streamline the candidate experience and provide recruiters with more time for high-value activities.

HireVue’s net customer retention dollar value consistently sits significantly above 100%, demonstrating that customers not only renew their contracts but also invest further in HireVue’s products and services. This trust reflects the company’s expertise in skills, behavioural science, automation, and AI, allowing organisations to swiftly fill roles with candidates possessing the necessary skills for today and the future.

In a challenging recruitment landscape marked by changing candidate expectations and a shortage of qualified talent, HireVue remains dedicated to connecting talent to opportunities. With its innovative solutions, HireVue empowers organisations to overcome these challenges and build agile talent pools. One such example is Just Eat, which used a blend of HireVue solutions as part of a transition to a skills-based talent management system, resulting in increased engagement, faster time to hire, and high candidate satisfaction.

Judges’ comments: Judges praised HireVue for its brilliant AI ethics, great bank of content and skills first approach to hiring, with very strong testimonials and metrics demonstrating impressive customer service.

FINALISTS

Stratigens software provides data-driven insights that empower clients to do faster, smarter workforce planning, resulting in improved operational performance. By leveraging advanced analytics and machine learning, they help clients make data led decisions about where to grow (or consolidate), who to hire from and the diversity of their workforce.

Arqiva, a client, faced challenges in hiring certain roles. Through Stratigens, they discovered that their job titles were not resonating with external candidates. Stratigens revealed a limited talent pool with all the required skills, explaining their reliance on contract workers. By eliminating one skill requirement, Arqiva expanded their talent pool by over 200%.

Stratigens training programmes and organisational culture ensure that team members deliver exceptional value to clients. Stratigens provides comprehensive tip sheets on leveraging talent intelligence and building a business case through ROI measurement.

For an FMCG client with a global presence, Stratigens helped them adapt their hiring needs to attract and retain talent profiles they had not previously considered. The platform differentiated between locations based on the supplyto-demand ratio for digital marketeers, aiding strategic decision-making.

Stratigens has achieved remarkable growth, with a 200% increase in revenue in the past year. The majority of revenue comes from software licenses, aligning

The Talent Tech Innovation Award (<30 Employees)

with their strategic goals. They have also secured significant funding for further expansion.

Client growth, retention (90%), and referrals have been strong indicators of their success. Stratigens has received prestigious awards, including recognition as a National Winner at the Tech Nation Rising Star Awards.

Founder Alison Ettridge has been honoured for her achievements in innovation and engineering and Stratigens has attracted global brands as clients, despite being in its early growth phase.

Their software provides organisations with a comprehensive view of the labour market, optimising talent, reducing costs, and promoting diversity and inclusivity. They prioritise transparency, integrity, and innovation in their solutions.

By equipping organisations with the necessary data, they serve as advocates for change in workforce decisionmaking. Their efforts have helped clients identify talent, locate hubs, and make strategic decisions based on comprehensive analysis.

Judges’ comments: Judges praised Stratigens for its thought leadership in talent intelligence with a global perspective on talent and skills, an impressive client portfolio and demonstrating how it is harnessing data and converting it into insight to effectively grow a clients’ talent pool.

SourceWhale is driven by a customer success philosophy that prioritises quick and effortless wins for its clients. The platform has garnered enthusiastic feedback from end-users, who praise its ability to save time, deliver a high return on investment (ROI), and provide exceptional results.

The SourceWhale team takes pride in offering a seamless onboarding experience, ensuring customers can quickly start realising value. G2 reviews highlight the platform’s fast onboarding process and the invaluable assistance provided by the SourceWhale Customer Success team.

The company fosters a culture of continuous learning and development, encouraging its Customer Success Managers (CSMs) to go above and beyond to help customers achieve their business objectives. SourceWhale’s customer coaching sessions prioritise consultative and outcome-driven approaches, providing market insights and trends to clients.

SourceWhale’s Customer Success function offers unparalleled account management, including seamless onboarding, proactive coaching, round-the-clock support, and outcome-driven business reviews. The aim is to ensure customers achieve a significant ROI, meeting their critical business goals.

With a current year-to-date CSAT score of 81 (outperforming the industry average of 77) and over 100 5-star reviews on G2 in the past 6 months alone, SourceWhale’s customers express high satisfaction with the platform.

The Talent Tech Innovation Award (30+ Employees)

Founded in 2020, SourceWhale initially focused on agencies and in-house teams in the UK. However, the company has since expanded internationally, with a team of 14 professionals in the US. Moving forward, SourceWhale aims to target mid-market and enterprise organisations, strengthen its thought leadership in the RecTech space, and drive digital transformation in the recruitment industry.

SourceWhale’s platform has fuelled unprecedented growth in the recruitment tech space, evidenced by its strong G2 reviews, increasing customer volume, and user count in both the UK and the US.

SourceWhale revolutionises the way recruiters work by streamlining processes and enabling personalised recruitment experiences for candidates and clients. The platform maximises efficiency and productivity through automation, resulting in reduced time and cost to hire, increased outreach activity, higher response rates, and improved diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts.

Overall, SourceWhale’s dedication to customer success and its innovative platform have positioned it as a leading player in the recruitment tech space, empowering recruiters to excel and achieve outstanding results.

Judges’ comments: Judges praised SourceWhale for an excellent entry that used great metrics and examples to show why customers and revenues are growing, with hackathons to keep improving and impactful innovation in how it automates around DE&I and NLP.

FINALISTS

Sonovate has emerged as a leading player in the recruitment industry by empowering businesses and streamlining processes. Its comprehensive platform simplifies setup, underwriting, payment processing, and financial management, ensuring worker satisfaction and client retention.

To drive revenue growth, Sonovate expanded its export funding capabilities, allowing customers to fund placements in 44 markets. Collaborations with Railsbank, Cross River, and HSBC facilitated seamless lending experiences across borders, ensuring faster payments and reconciliation.

In 2022, Sonovate onboarded 170+ new customers and became the top funder for smaller recruiters. By employing a consulting-led approach and offering easy funder-switching, the company tailored solutions to meet specific needs and captured accounts using other funders or self-funding.

Sonovate expanded its footprint into consultancies and online freelance marketplaces, leveraging partnerships for integration and referrals. This growth was supported by increased headcount in finance, credit control, sales, operations, marketing, and technology, enhancing its capabilities.

Financially, Sonovate provided businesses with £1.1 billion in finance in 2022, a 58% increase from the previous year. Lending in Q4 2022 reached £312 million, up 30% from the same period in

The Talent Tech Fast Growth Award

2021. Having surpassed £4 billion of funding since inception, Sonovate anticipates continued strong growth in the UK and entry into new markets.

Sonovate fosters a value-driven culture, promoting inclusivity, open communication, and integrity. Teams enjoy flexible work arrangements, and the company emphasizes diversity through hiring and DEI programs.

Beyond its marketplace role, Sonovate engages with the community through charity programs. Employees actively select organizations to support, participating in events like a 5-day cycling challenge that raised over £5k in donations.

Sonovate’s innovative platform, financial achievements, customer-centric approach, and commitment to values and community make it a deserving candidate for recognition in the industry.

Judges’ comments: comments: Judges praised Sonovate for impressive growth on all fronts, with a great client base, clear innovation and diversification to support scale and a specialist solution enabling growth for the SME recruitment market.

FINALISTS

Connecting the talent ecosystem

We bring together a global network of leading employers and solution providers to enable them to make better talent and technology decisions.

At WorkLLama, their mission is to create an all-in-one ecosystem for talent acquisition and relationship management. Their comprehensive platform integrates talent marketing, applicant tracking, engagement, referral management, and more. WorkLLama enables clients to leverage their brand equity across various talent categories, fostering a strong talent brand and community. This approach leads to cost savings, improved hiring metrics, and enhanced candidate experience.

WorkLLama’s clients have experienced a remarkable 46% increase in net-new candidates. Their SEO-driven talent marketing platform keeps networks continuously engaged, connecting clients with high-quality talent actively seeking opportunities. Their achievements include reducing the time to engage referred candidates from two weeks to two days, resulting in a 900% increase in candidate quality and a significant 300% increase in referrals. They recently secured $50 million in investment funding to support their exponential growth and expand their presence globally.

WorkLLama has been selected as a preferred strategic partner by leading MSP/RPO providers such as Randstad Sourceright, CXC, Tapfin, SAP, and more. They have expanded into additional countries and gained new customers across industries like hospitality, healthcare, manufacturing, aerospace, technology, and life sciences. With a team of over 110 professionals, WorkLLama continues to grow and has

The Candidate Experience Solution of the Year

doubled its sales and profits over the past year.

Their vision is to help people find happiness in work. By treating talent like customers throughout their journey, WorkLLama delivers a seamless experience, resulting in faster time-tofill, cost reduction, and an improved user experience. They also prioritise diversity, equity, and inclusion (DE&I) initiatives, offering tailored marketing campaigns and referral programmes to achieve diversity goals. Strategic partnerships with organisations like The Ability People and Jobs for Humanity increase awareness and promote equitable inclusion for workers with disabilities.

WorkLLama’s success validates their product-market fit and the rapid digital transformation in talent acquisition. Their purpose-driven innovation prepares them for future growth, while their AI engine predicts job success, identifies learning opportunities, and addresses personal challenges. WorkLLama’s commitment to excellence and their data-driven approach make them a leading force in the talent acquisition landscape.

Judges’ comments: Judges praised WorkLLama for the global reach of their solution which provides a one stop shop for applications, shifts, referrals and much more, resulting in an impressive increase in pipeline of new candidates and significantly reducing the time to engage with referred candidates.

FINALISTS

Unifrog is a leading platform with the largest student reach of its kind, connecting over 1.5 million students and counting. Employers benefit from Unifrog’s comprehensive talent attraction and development solution, enabling centralised engagement efforts.

A successful partnership with Manchester Airport Group showcased historically challenging roles through careers library guides and co-created video campaigns on the Unifrog platform. This increased role awareness and encouraged student applications.

CMS experienced significant commercial benefits through targeted advertising campaigns for Year 12 students in Scotland, resulting in Unifrog students accounting for 24% of their work experience applications and a remarkable 104% increase in website traffic.

Unifrog, operating for over 10 years, now reaches over 1.5 million actively engaged students, with around 40,000 logins per day. Present in over 3,000 schools worldwide, including over half of UK secondary schools, Unifrog boasts a network of over 95,000 teachers, careers leaders, and 50,000 active parent users.

Partnered with over 50 UK employers across sectors since March 2022, Unifrog supports talent attraction and brand awareness. Notably, EY renewed their Unifrog partnership, moving all external

The Recruitment Marketing Solution of the Year

school leaver attraction and brand awareness to Unifrog, with two-thirds of their program applications now coming from Unifrog students.

Unifrog operates as a certified B Corporation and social enterprise, reinvesting profits to enhance the platform for students. Its deep integration within partner schools delivers tailored opportunities directly to students’ homepages, reducing the disadvantage gap based on factors like gender, region, and socio-economic background.

Recent research indicates a 74% reduction in students becoming NEET among Unifrog schools, estimated to have prevented 4,000 young people from becoming NEET last year. Employers play a key role in achieving these outcomes, and Unifrog offers targeted engagement opportunities and tailored solutions to address early careers teams’ challenges.

Judges’ comments: Judges praised Unifrog for clear evidence of purpose beyond profit, impressive reach and targeted campaigns to address an important economic challenge - reducing the number of young people not in education, employment or training.

FINALISTS

Human Capital Investment Banking

Janette Martin has helped create and sustain a deeply people-centric culture at Talos360. For example, the organisation has prioritised internal training and L&D which has in turn provided exceptional value to their clients. Further proof of Janette’s skilled leadership is the implementation of Pluralsight, an online training suite, that has enabled their tech team to access skills-based training continuously.

Under Janette’s leadership, Talos360’s objectives in 2023 include implementation of 11 additional integrations with their ATS, delivering four improvements based on customer feedback, and launching ten new features. These initiatives aim to enhance their capabilities, improve user experience, and expand their product offerings.

Thanks to constant innovation, a real feature under Janette’s leadership, Talos360’s tech suite roadmap has improved client operational performance, facilitating the advertisement of over 400,000 vacancies, enabling 74,000+ successful hires, and streamlining the candidate selection process with 1.5 million video interview and screening minutes. It’s also supported 13,000+ candidates in their job search and thanks to their DocuSign integration, they’ve validated 18,000+ contracts.

Customer service is also something Janette highly values and was self-evident in her submission. For example, her organisation tracks support tickets to promptly identify areas for improvement, ensuring optimal system benefits for clients. It’s telling too, that Talos360’S award-winning customer service team maintains a speed-to-serve rate of 4.9 out of 5. Furthermore, Talos Assist, their 24-hour on-demand support feature,

The Optima Talent Tech Leader of the Year

WINNER

Janette Martin

empowers clients to navigate their solutions effectively. For example, Talos Assist served 52,000 unique users, addressing 3,461 queries, with 2,434 video guide views and 3,648 successful searches. Indeed, positive client feedback, such as Nagel Langdons’ endorsement, reinforces its value.

As one of the fastest-growing tech businesses in the UK in 2022, the organisation received investment from LDC, positioning them for further growth. They achieved a total revenue growth of 41%, 87% growth in tech revenue, and a 42% growth rate in Q1 2023. Customer satisfaction remains high with a score of 8.1 out of 10, 93% customer retention, and a 56% increase in employee headcount.

Talos360 have always sought to provide a better way for businesses to attract, recruit, and retain top talent. And under Janette’s leadership the figures back up the business DNA: In 2022, Talos360 welcomed 148 new customers, and retained 93% of their clients thanks to their solutions, Talos ATS, Talos Engage, and Talos Attract, which all help to streamline processes and deliver an exceptional candidate experience.

Finally, what further impressed the judges was the diverse workforce Janette has fostered, with 47% women in their workforce and 63% in leadership positions.

As they disrupt the crowded HR tech market, the organisation continues to evolve, delivering innovative and people-focused talent solutions their customers love.

Judges’ comments: Judges praised Janette for the people-centric culture she has created and sustained, optimising outside investment to sustain growth and great client service.

FINALISTS

Adway

Bright Network

James Uffindell

Diversely

Helen McGuire & Hayley Bakker

Firefish Software

Wendy McDougall

Adrian McDonald Meet & Engage Ltd

Ali Hackett

Sonovate LTD

Damon Chapple & Richard Prime

Top Score

Phin Naughton

The M&A advisor of choice for HR Tech businesses globally.

The Venero Champion of Champions

Judges Award: This Award is debated and voted for by our panel of judges from the winners in each category and recognises a company whose solution exemplifies innovation, while also delivering particularly far-reaching value and impact.

Judges praised Unifrog for an innovative solution that is enhancing the life chances of the next generation of the workforce. Its B-Corp status and focus on reducing NEETs and supporting disadvantaged students proves its purpose beyond profit, with an impressive student reach and targeted ad campaigns making a big difference.