MoBerries created a networking platform that offers equal opportunities for candidates of all backgrounds, and here’s why they believe efforts of inclusion are the responsibility of all HR professionals.

Harvard University psychologist Mahzarin Banaji suggests that “we behave in ways that are not known to our own conscious awareness, that we are being driven to act in certain ways not because we are explicitly prejudiced, but because we may carry in our heads the thumbprint of the culture.”

One of the driving principles at MoBerries is to proactively tackle bias, particularly implicit bias, in HR. A recent study by the Ascend Foundation found that “white men and white women in five major Silicon Valley firms were 154 percent more likely to become executives than their Asian counterparts.” Racial bias is just one example of the type of prejudice that negatively impacts all levels of the hiring hierarchy, from internships to C-level management. As such, it’s imperative to business success that companies and employees work against bias in the workplace, especially when it comes to hiring practices.

At MoBerries, our team shares the vision of creating an accessible job market for everyone. Launching MoBerries in new markets like Southeast Asia was a crucial first step in making this dream a reality, but our inspiration for creating a level playing field is rooted in our personal experience seeing disadvantaged people work hard to prove themselves and fight for equal access to opportunities.

Learning from Experiences

Victoria’s Secret model-turned-programmer Lyndsey Scott recently made headlines when she spoke out against internet critics who belittled her accomplishments as a computer programmer. In addition to her role as Lead iOS software engineer at RallyBound, Lyndsey is also a highly active contributor on the computer programming website Stack Overflow, and previously held the top spot for most iOS question answered on the platform.

“The whole reason I started answering questions on Stack Overflow and writing tutorials in the first place was because I was struggling to have companies take me seriously,” said Lyndsey.

Lyndsey’s bout with internet haters reveals that even the most talented professionals face biases if they are in the minority. What’s more, research consistently reports that “a team with diverse backgrounds has diverse ideas and approaches to problem-solving.” Hiring diverse candidates sounds like a no-brainer for companies, right? Yet, the struggle for women, people of color, and other minorities in STEM jobs shows no signs of slowing.

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Winning the war for talent is not solely about attracting the best candidates on paper, but learning how to capitalize on people’s strengths, and good managers understand that talented individuals can take non-traditional paths—like Lyndsey Scott—on their career journeys.

Though we worked together for only a short time, Nasir Zubairi was an important mentor for both me and my partner, Lucio. After observing our existing business strategies, Nasir refined our sales pitches and follow-ups to be more impactful and engaging. He also proactively changed our hiring strategies for sales positions, allowing us to build a team of complementary personalities for our different team functions that affect how we run our business to this day.

It is our job as HR professionals to create opportunities of inclusion that facilitate business success and have positive impact on people’s lives. MoBerries salutes companies like 70 Million Jobs, which offers opportunities to individuals with conviction histories. The company claims that its candidates boast higher-than-average employee retention rates and provides tax incentives for employers.

Another company inspiring social change is MoBerries partner CodeDoor, a network that transforms underdog candidates into sought-after professionals by offering high-level coding courses to underrepresented groups in the tech industry.   

We must endorse and support creative solutions from companies like CodeDoor and 70 Million Jobs to win the war for talent. With countless groups being excluded from jobs in tech due to implicit biases and outdated recruitment practices, these groups need a new status quo.

For many underserved groups, limited work options can lead to increased criminal activity and poverty. The top reasons that many teens join gangs include:

• Lack of jobs
• Poverty compounded by social isolation
• Early academic failure and lack of school attachment

Creating a more inclusive job market is one of the easiest ways to address these problems and provide minorities opportunities for future success. At MoBerries, we look for people who want to work, develop, and improve by asking questions like: Do people show up? Do they accomplish their assigned tasks? Do they work well with others?

Are Non-Biased Robots the Solution?

Of the myriad articles and tips on how to minimize or avoid biases in HR, most repeat the same types of advice; namely, accept the fact that you might have a cognitive bias and fight it. As Banaji suggests, humans struggle to turn a blind eye towards race, gender, or physical appearance, but if we want to create truly inclusive workplaces we need to look for new solutions. Here is where AI holds promise for the future.

A common criticism of AI in the hiring process is the likelihood that it reproduces human biases by detecting patterns of underrepresentation and copying them, keeping underserved groups in the minority. The MoBerries platform is unique in that it can evaluate bias trends on a macro (company) and micro (candidate) level. MoBerries leverages AI sourcing to connect active job seekers and employers, judging candidate suitability by multiple criteria—not only a resume or CV. MoBerries also evaluates the candidate’s fit according to the job description and role responsibilities, as well as the employer’s interactions and feedback with the candidate. These data are then benchmarked against other employers in the network to determine their validity.

The team at MoBerries is committed to our promise to help you break into and thrive in the job market regardless of your race, gender, age, or economic background. We are proud to do our part alongside other companies, thought-leaders, and executives who pledge to change the way we interact with—and hire—all types of talent.

Perception is reality. It is our responsibility to shape it.

You’ve already heard the buzz around Berlin’s venture capital swarm. Now meet one of the fastest movers in the hive.

MoBerries is a Berlin-based HR AI technology company, founded in 2015. CEO Terence Hielscher developed the idea while working for one of both Europe and Southeast Asia’s predominant Venture Funds, having observed the value in establishing a shared talent pool for their portfolio network. After only six months, over 50 portfolio companies were actively sharing and referring candidates within the network. Together with his best friend from University, Mo Moubarak, and a trusted colleague from within the Venture Capital Fund that built StudiVZ, Andre Zayarni, MoBerries introduced itself to the German market.

Why is your product a necessary tool for any SmartRecruiters customer?

The fact that you are using SmartRecruiters means that your company is in a state of growth. MoBerries is today’s largest shared-talent platform and a new candidate sourcing channel for SR customers with over 10,000 weekly candidate referrals. The partner network consists of leading DAX and digital companies, as well as venture capital funds.

Briefly, on the back of a cocktail napkin, how does your product work?

MoBerries sources actively searching candidates to be placed in open positions in real time.

What does your product do that can’t be replicated?

The network effect. Every partner company contributes to an exclusive candidate pool, enabling partners to access quality applicants when they need them most. Over 10,000 referred and active candidates join the platform each week. Profiling candidates and companies alike helps drive matches based on a reinforced learning approach, derived from live interactions on the platform. The AI further uses neural network methodologies to source faster, by taking into account your feedback in order to identify the perfect company/candidate match.  This is especially helpful for non-traditional roles where not all candidates have the prerequisite skills clearly represented in their CV.

How does your product help make the hiring process as easy as possible?

Traditional recruitment consists of three steps: Posting a position to job boards, screening candidates, and hiring the most suitable one. MoBerries eliminates the first two steps for its partners, and our platform identifies where talent can best unlock their potential based on predictive models centered around their interactions within the job market. Essentially, we are a scalable sports agent leveraging a technology to get people where they need to go, as fast as possible.

At what stage of growth are you, and where is that relative to how big you want to be?

MoBerries is rapidly expanding, already working with leading DAX companies, VC funds, and the majority of digital companies in Germany, as well as other European countries. Next step for us: Expansion to the US. We are driven by the mission to be the world’s leading shared talent platform.

How does your product compliment the SmartRecruiters TAS – philosophically and technologically?

SmartRecruiters and MoBerries share the same values, which are reflected in our talent acquisition (TA) strategies. Both of us see the market as an ecosystem within which we need to adapt. We are in the business of people, and people, as well as the greater marketplace, are in a constant state of change. To be able to keep up, sourcing tools & applicant tracking systems (ATS) alike need to be flexible and able to evolve to meet new market norms.  

Offering a smart and effective solution is not merely about finding candidates a dream job, but how technology can help them build their dream career. To ensure integrity, both solutions work in parallel towards a transparent, honest and feedback driven marketplace.

What led you to partner with SmartRecruiters?

HR is becoming more and more consolidated, and the best providers find ways to come together to form a recruiting stack. A company should be about how to integrate these various services seamlessly and provide the most robust HR experience. As a sourcing channel, we integrated because SmartRecruiters is all about the managing of talent and efforts of a company partner whereas we are about the analysis and optimization of talent sourcing. Not to sound cliche, but it really is all about people.

How long did it take to become integrated into the SR marketplace, and what were the obstacles or adjustments in that process?

From all the integrations we’ve run, this was one of the easiest. It took approximately 60 days.

What were some benefits of partnering with SR?

The main benefit is the consolidation of two tools for the end customers. By integrating our systems we provide a more seamless experience to hiring managers.

How long would it take for the average existing SR user to implement and take full advantage of your product?

The integration only takes seconds. You will have to be a member of MoBerries in order to take advantage of this integration and connect both accounts. For anyone interested in trying MoBerries we encourage you to reach out to us and your SR account manager. Once contacted you simply click a button under your MoBerries integration tab within your dashboard and you are ready to get started.

What do you see as the future of Talent Acquisition and how do you fit into it?

As the recruitment market starts to move at a more rapid pace, the onset of AI-based technologies are intended to work alongside humans in order to enable HR managers to focus their attention on the element of better marketing their firm and lasering in on the best fitting talent.

HR managers are becoming more like sports agents, understanding the importance of constantly reinventing the way they market their team, culture & vision. A technology stack allows them to focus on what they do best, and that is selling the brand to perspectives.

We want our B2B partners to hire faster by focusing their efforts on selling to the most suitable talent. We continue to build our technology stack around creating value for all parties, which in the end allows us to offer a smart and efficient online platform.