Why Empty Cubicle is developing tech that verifies resumés

May 20, 2015

Note: This is Part 2 of a three-part series exploring companies that are addressing the future of work. Read Part 1.

The pressure to stand out among a sea of job applicants is growing every day. The stress is leading job seekers to stretch the truth on their resumés—and you can easily understand why when you look at the facts.

On average, 118 applicants apply to any given job, with only 2% of them actually scoring an interview. So what if you only ever used Photoshop once in high school? Go ahead and put it on your resumé under a bold headline that reads “Skills.”

Headaches for HR managers

Resumé embellishment isn’t new. For human resource managers, however, attempting to weed out candidates who may have made misleading claims on their applications can be overwhelming and tedious. While fibbing on a resumé might get you an interview, it doesn’t mean that you’re right for the job—and it certainly won’t help your cause if you’re ever found out.

INFOGRAPHIC: Did You Lie On Your Resume by Raj Kamalaich under CC BY 2.0 — Image credit: Did You Lie On Your Resumé? by Raj Kamal Aich under CC BY 2.0

Companies are beginning to take action to protect themselves from false claims that result in bad hires. It’s critical to get accurate information before hiring, training and integrating new employees into a company. It’s important not only for company productivity and morale, but also for a company’s bottom line.

By hiring the right person, a company can avoid:

missed sales opportunities;
strained client and employee relations;
potential legal issues; and
wasting resources on hiring and training.

Filtering for the best fit

One company that is working to alleviate this HR burden is Empty Cubicle. It is creating the world’s first verified human resource platform that facilitates the critical connection between individuals seeking new job opportunities and employers looking for independent talent.

Empty Cubicle works to comparatively analyze resumés using a software-as-a-service (SaaS) system. Its platform then ranks the verified candidates in order, ultimately helping managers to make more informed hiring decisions.

Q&A with Eric Riz, founder and CEO of Empty Cubicle

I had the opportunity to speak with Eric Riz, the founder and CEO of Empty Cubicle, to learn more about the platform.

Why did you create Empty Cubicle?

We started Empty Cubicle to fill a recognized gap in hiring: the opportunity to provide expedient, verified applicants classified and ranked against an organization’s specific needs. Nobody in business today sits back and waits. Everyone is mobile, everyone is diverse and, most importantly, everyone is proactive. However, when it comes to human resources, candidates and employers alike will wait months in order to find that perfect fit. It seems like everyone has a tool, but no one has a solution—and that’s where we come in.

How does your company verify the data on resumés?

Our proprietary platform uses components of machine learning and algorithmic software to recognize patterns in order to automate the intake and classification processes of resumés. For example, if a group of 10 people worked at the same place at the same time on the same project, it would be reasonable to expect that their 10 resumés would all contain similar information. This is the type of pattern that Empty Cubicle works to identify and validate. This information builds context and is added to our database once we have been able to validate the claim. Of course, I can’t go into much detail beyond this, but let’s just say that, if the information doesn’t add up, the authentication point system we use to rank candidates is appropriately influenced.

What do you think the future of work will be like?

There is no question that we’re in the midst of a huge business transformation with regard to technology and the future of work. Demands for big data are up as end users look to make decisions in the most friction-free ways possible. This is on top of the existing focus on having expedient, relevant and quick information on hand at all times. The future will be all about reinventing corporate productivity through business processes and using data to benefit and bolster organizations. We are looking forward to harnessing both of these factors through the deployment of Empty Cubicle. It’s all about getting that information into the hands of the person who needs it to make critical business decisions stronger, better and faster than their competition.

Empty Cubicle will be going live this September for information technology contractors in North America and will expand to full-time employees in the first quarter of 2016.