Breaking Barriers: Veremark CEO Dives into HR Tech Challenges

In this episode of hrtech.sg’s Tech Talks, Sriram Iyer sits down with Daniel Callaghan, the founder and CEO of VereMark, a fast-growing global player in pre-employment screening and blockchain identification. Daniel shares insights into Veremark’s journey, recent Series A funding, and its focus on revolutionizing the talent acquisition tech space. They discuss the challenges faced by clients in the current market, the resistance to investing in HR tech, and the importance of building a strong business case with tangible benefits. Tune in now!

Discussion Topics: Veremark CEO Dives into HR Tech Challenges

• What is Veremark doing?
• Key challenges that client are facing right now
• Why do organisations hesitate to invest in HR?
• How to ensure that HR teams are tech-savvy?
• Closing

Transcript: Veremark CEO Dives into HR Tech Challenges

Sriram Iyer: Hello all and welcome to HR Tech Talks, where we talk to subject matter experts on all aspects of the realm of HR technology. Today, I am extremely delighted to host Daniel Callaghan, founder and CEO of VereMark. VereMark is actually a fast growing Global player in the pre employment screening and blockchain identification market.

He launched the startup in 2019 and has since then grown it into a Series A funded firm. They recently raised 8.5 million in a Series A equity round. In fact, they had also raised about 2. 8 million as part of the seed round last year. Today we’re going to be talking about the evolving trends in the talent acquisition tech space with Daniel. Thanks again for joining us, Daniel.

Daniel Callaghan: Thank you for having me. Great to reconnect.

Sriram Iyer: Perfect. And congratulations on the recent fundraise. That indeed is a milestone in Veremark’s journey.

Daniel Callaghan: But as you say, I mean, it’s just a milestone, not the destination. So, a long way to go with lots more hard work to come.

Sriram Iyer: So that’s where we start off. So where are the funds getting invested? Is it for expanding into newer markets or for the creation of new service offerings?

What is Veremark doing?

Daniel Callaghan: So as you said, VereMark is a global pre employment screening business. That is to say that we help companies do the necessary checks on people who are going to join their team, even make sure they have the right level of integrity or the right or that they’re not in breach of any regulatory requirements, such things as education, employment, academic, criminal credit checks. We’re able to offer across 150 countries and really provide a seamless and high quality digital experience. Because of that, we were able to raise the funds and we’ve been able to consistently win business.

And so we’re certainly the fastest growing business in our sector across APAC. For sure. For us, the ongoing investment will really continue into doing lots more of the same, and it’s really doubling down on the product. We have a unique view of how the world and people’s own verified data should be accessible and be shared.

And that’s where the blockchain angle comes in from a digital credentials perspective. But equally, we massively believe in really trying to take customer service and customer excellence to another level. And by customers, we equally hold in mind the various stakeholders, which are both the employment agency or the employer and the candidates. And we really want that experience to be as, as easy and frictionless and efficient as possible so everyone gets the best outcome.

The whole core of the investment is really going to achieve that goal, whether that’s through investing in more technology or investing in more customer service teams. From a market perspective, we are already offering a global service, but for us, the key markets are really focused on some of the largest ones in APAC and Southeast Asia. And then again, it’s just about dominating that. Right. So we will own Or try to own the Singapore market. We will then try the Australian market or the UK market.

We don’t want to spread ourselves too thinly, you know, we’ll save that for, you know, for series B next year where we can really start to tackle the world. But for right now, you know, again, there’s a billion dollars spent in pre employment screening just in APAC alone. So it’s not like you have to go too far to be able to find an attractive market that, you know, that very much because again its superior technology and experience can easily capture some market share.

Sriram Iyer: Fantastic. I completely agree with you on the growth potential in Asia Pacific. But what are the key challenges in terms of market or talent challenges that your clients are facing right now?

Key challenges that client are facing right now

Daniel Callaghan: I think you know, as always, there’s a variety of challenges that they have, right? And so there are all these residual problems with COVID and the much hyped great resignation and people not wanting to come back to the office and therefore being forced to come back to the office, the exodus of staff or the levers and so forth. So, right now, a lot of companies are really faced with just this talent quandary of how do I get my people back engaged?

How do I get them back in the office? How do I get them really excited about working for me, or how do we transition to make this new world of working a permanent feature in our operating model, I think that’s still taking up a huge amount of time for HR leaders and certainly for people and culture professionals who are, you know, really the champions for the employee rights and how they can get represented across the firm. 

Yeah, the second strand is obviously there continues also to be, you know, a very strong shortage of talent in certain sectors. We’ve seen, that everyone knows about the tech talent shortage. And how that is taking on you’ve heard stories about the airlines and therefore the chaos that’s caused around the world. That is obviously one because of the acceleration of new skills on the rapid demand versus what is a somewhat antiquated education system in terms of preparing people for the time.

But again, it’s also created by the societal shift in people changing or choosing how they want to work and becoming a growing number of independent entrepreneurs or people starting their own, being self employed, as opposed to having to go back to the corporate grind, if you will. And I think, you know, it’s those two sort of opposing forces around retention of my own staff, as well as, how do I acquire the new talent that, again, is going to be top of the agenda for a lot of people.

Underneath that, you’ve probably, then you’ve got some sub issues, right? Inflation’s going through the roof. How do we price that into salaries and reviews when we can’t do so without raising our prices to the end clients and therefore, you know, creating a vicious circle of unprofitability for the customers, for the clients, right? So, you know, it’s a really interesting dynamic for internal HR teams and talent acquisition teams at the moment, because there’s a lot, there’s a lot of tides against them.

Sriram Iyer: Sure. There are multiple issues to grapple with, as you rightly said, retention of talent and also acquisition of new talent, managing both is a huge challenge. And since you manage the workplace accelerator, one of the reasons cited by most companies that people are quitting is that because there are a lot of investors chasing these talented individuals to start up, right? And so they are actually quitting to become entrepreneurs.

And so there is a lot of pressure on HR teams to create an entrepreneurial culture within the organisation to retain these folks. So very valid points that you cited. One of the key aspects that we have found across the HR tech segment is that there is resistance, a hesitation to invest in HR tech solutions by enterprise clients. Why do organisations hesitate to invest in HR tech?

Why do organisations hesitate to invest in HR?

Daniel Callaghan: Yeah, I think it’s certainly cultural. I mean, it’s obviously not entirely systemic. The acceptance of HR tech is much more commonplace, in countries like America or the UK. Yeah, I think it comes down to a couple of components, right? It’s the perception of HR and then the understanding. Of how to frame the use case for HR tech. Unfortunately, there are many organisations still across the region that have an older school mindset as to what human resources, people management, and talent management are really about.

And, it’s often still very much confined to people and politics and payroll, right? And that’s not, certainly in today’s context it’s far expanded. There’s a real question therefore around when they bring in this technology, when it’s just another addition of costs, right? They don’t see talent as the strategic advantage that it could be. They don’t see talent management as the strategic advantage, they don’t see acquisition as the strategic differentiator that can ultimately drive those other tools as well. And as long as that main mindset means that everyone’s happy with the status quo, we’ll all just punch a ticket on a Friday to say we’ve clocked in and clocked out, right? It’s easy to do. 

Then you have the people who do understand that they want it and then the HR teams get enthusiastic about it. But it’s about how you quantify there for the benefit. How do you build out the business case? Can you show that by doing the engagement survey we can reduce retention by or rather increase retention by five percent?

And then, the final step of that calculation is. Well, that saves us X dollars in productivity or rehiring or lost brain power. And often the journey seems to stop. Oh, you know, that’s a cool tool. I’d like to use it when presenting it further up the hierarchy, if you will. Then it’s, the business case isn’t fully fetched out to really drive home. Actually, this is a penny saved is a penny earned. And this will not only increase productivity,  but would also overall save us a lot of money in terms of replacing a great team of people.

Sriram Iyer: There are a lot of reasons that clients usually cite on the perception of high costs of HR tech. In fact with the SaaS model rates have actually come down per head, right? And then you have the lack of digital skills of the HR teams and all of those. What I would really like to agree with you is this – the key reason that most HR teams have been citing is that they are unable to present a strong business case with dollars and cents، representing the business case to the leadership team. They have been talking only about the HR terms and the CFO and the CEO don’t understand anything apart from dollars and cents. So spot on, I think very well agree with you on that.

Daniel Callaghan: And that’s equally the vendor’s fault, right? So it’s, you know, it’s our job,  it’s our counterparts in the industry’s job to, to help educate and provide those sorts of calculations and data points, to the various stakeholders in the buying process.

It is obviously an education process on both sides and one that ultimately just takes time. But, and you know, as you’ve seen I’m sure through the evolution, a significant rise in traffic that goes through hrtech.,sg that there is a growing interest. We know there’s a growing appetite for these sorts of solutions as the economy has become more buoyant and business is profitable. And they, the next generation of workers who come in are demanding a digital experience or digital onboarding experience. Very quickly companies will have to shift whether they like it or not.

Sriram Iyer: Fantastic. Incidentally, that was my next question in terms of how you help your client HR teams get buy-in from the leadership. I think you answered it by saying you really have to work with them to strengthen their business case. I mean, are there any other aspects where you work with them?

Daniel Callaghan: I think it’s just how do you remove friction along the way? So again, you know, at VereMark, we know there are three or four personas that we have to address throughout the larger account. And we know they all have very different values and interests. The CFO wants the dollars and cents. The IT security guy wants to know that you’re going to be data-compliant and not get him in trouble. And I think it’s about having the collateral or the sales enablement on the material to really, again, make sure that each of those can have those questions answered. As quickly as possible with as much credibility or accuracy and data proof behind it, evidence as possible.

Sriram Iyer: Okay. So which pushes us to the last question of the session, the key aspect is how do we ensure the HR teams become more data driven and tech savvy? So from your perspective of working with startups, and enterprises, what would be your suggestion or advice?

How to ensure that HR teams are tech-savvy?

Daniel Callaghan: The way VereMark approaches or the way I think we approach it is really by trying to build a broader awareness of the HR tech ecosystem. So as you mentioned, we also run the Workplace Accelerator, which is a global program dedicated to early stage HR tech ventures that also with it a global mentor network of HR leaders who then get exposed to those new ideas, who get exposed to the benefits of a business, and increase the level of curiosity for them all. And I think that’s that consistent education and realising that you know, works elsewhere and, you could do the same for your business.

You know, from the data-driven, again, I think it’s interesting to see that there’s a very large rise in people analytics tools out there now, right? There are a lot of tools now that are actually just building the data in, right, because we can’t expect HR to become mathematicians overnight. And it’s, I think, as the tools enable them to understand the different ways in which you can overlay these data points and understand actually what’s going on with an organisation, I think that muscle will naturally grow within the function, and people will start up again.

I don’t think we can send all the HR leaders back to school you know, to work it out. So again, it needs to be a bit more proactive on the vendor side to really help them unmask, run the box, and really take full advantage of the richness of the data that a lot of these tools are collecting.

Closing

Sriram Iyer: Fantastic. That’s a valid point. It’s really going to be difficult to train HR professionals, mid career HR professionals to become more data driven and tech savvy, but the products can be really enhanced to provide those features and it’s up to the HR tech providers to ensure that these features are communicated clearly to the HR team so that they are able to leverage it to the maximum.

Thank you very much for joining us in this session of  Tech Talks, Daniel, and congratulations again to you and to the VereMark team for the Series A Equity Round. Wishing you many more milestones in the years to come and hope to host you in another session of Tech Talks.

Daniel Callaghan: Thanks very much. Cheers. Cheers.

Our Guest: Daniel Callaghan

Daniel Callaghan is the CEO of Veremark and the Managing Partner at the Workplace Accelerator. Veremark is a category leader in the space of Career Credential Verification and Management. They enable companies around the world to hire with greater confidence and reduced risk through checking the integrity and data points of candidates claims during the hiring process. Based in Singapore for 3 years now, Daniel came here to run the corporate innovation and ventures arm for a global recruitment company across APAC before deciding to return to entrepreneurship. He has been in HR Tech for a decade now having set up his first venture straight out of business school.