Workstream Blog

Who's Still Hiring in 2020 - A Bloomberg Interview

Written by Workstream | June 9, 2020

Workstream was recently in the news again, with Bloomberg's Emily Chang recently interviewing our co-founder and CEO on her daily show, Bloomberg Technology. Desmond shared his interpretation of the latest HR data, regarding recruiting trends and the shift to contactless hiring.

Workstream segment runs from 04:15 to 07:04.

Emily: Hey Abigail thanks so much. We're gonna speak with Slack CEO Stewart Butterfield in just a moment, but I do want to quickly hit on jobs and another company that's working to accelerate hiring for millions of unemployed folks across the country. Workstream is a hiring platform that works with over 5,000 managers to streamline the hiring process, companies like Chick-fil-A, Uber, Doordash and more. Joining me now on the phone is the co-founder and CEO of Workstream, Desmond Lim. So Desmond, what is the data telling you in terms of what the big employers are seeing? Who's hiring? Who's laying off? Where are things accelerating and slowing down? 

Desmond: Thank you so much, Emily. I surely see a trend over the past few days and weeks. There have been many restaurants, QSR trying to actually open up and you know, trying to actually hire fast. We see the trend in this, you know, healthcare, supermarkets, they have been strong for the past few weeks and months, and we see those actually carry on to grow. So I think as you can see from these news and trends, we do see that more and more businesses, companies, they are trying to open up in the past few days and weeks, and we think that trend will actually carry on to grow. 

Emily: What about though potentially a second wave of infections? What about what's going on with these protests which has, you know, left many businesses closed as they try to protect themselves? I mean, what about potential hiccups along the way to reopening?

Desmond: Yeah, that’s a really good thing to ask. Over the past few weeks, we have seen many of our current clients use our software to do this contactless hiring and actually screening, so we see more and more people trying to actually leverage video texting, trying to use tools that can actually help them to screen and actually hire people in a way that is safe and fast. We see more and more, you know, we see a trend of more and more businesses trying to set up a process workflow that can help to keep people safe, so we think that trend would actually carry on. People know that there could be this second wave or maybe even worse, third wave, but people know that they always have to keep things going so they are trying to change the way that they work, trying to change the way that they screen, hire people and source, and by trying to do that they are trying to use more video texting, trying to set up workflows that can keep dancing. 

Emily: Alright Desmond Lim, the CEO of Workstream, thank you so much for joining us obviously. We're going to continue to watch these jobs numbers and the trends within.