Interview With CEO

Revolutionizing the world of remote hires, ellow.io has entered the market with a bang. Combining the power of AI and human intervention in the hiring process, the platform is set to remove the barriers associated with remote hires. Ahead of the launch, Jyothis Joseph shares his views and how ellow will impact the current market. 

What’s in store for ellow.io? 

The future of work is boundaryless. ellow is focused on becoming the go-to marketplace that will enable businesses to find and hire remote talent on contract at the same time. Talent can now seek a job in any firm in the world, not just the ones in their neighborhood. This creates a win-win for both. The three important parameters of ellow are intelligent vetting, speed of hiring, and scalable quality control.We see ourselves as opportunity enablers for people wherever they may be located. 

What is the market like for remote hires? 

Remote hiring has always been existent but on the down-low. This has been due to preference for resources sitting next to each other and inability to hire, training and retaining talent remotely due to differences in culture, etc. However, the coronavirus pandemic has different plans. It pushed firms to adapt in a short period, and a lot of work moved remotely. 

Having worked in this way for over a year now, most firms have realized the benefits of having a hybrid approach to resourcing and are now investing heavily in a remote work future. A Kentik survey reported that 47% of the respondents felt “more productive” while working from home during the pandemic than pre-pandemic times. So we see this market has a bright future. 

How do you think ellow.io will disrupt the hiring process in this market?

It is reported that companies lose almost 89% of potential candidates due to the prolonged screening process. One of the biggest challenges of hiring, which is even more in remote hiring, is assessing the candidates. The current approach takes processing and interviewing up to 10 candidates to make one offer. This becomes even more challenging when hiring remotely from locations like India, Latin America, Europe, etc. 

What ellow does is pre-vet the candidates based on the candidates’ skills and experience using a 4-stage human plus AI process that checks for communication, technical skills, etc. We match the candidates with the job profile using over 80 parameters, ensuring the right candidate fit. 

Both the above means that our customers can close positions with a max of one or two interviews instead of an average of 10 in the past. This is a huge cost and time savings for our customers.

What is the pricing like? 

ellow charges only for the resources matched at the moment. This helps our customers try ellow in a risk-free mode. For high-volume customers, we offer a fixed platform fee lowering their per traction cost. 

How is ellow.io different from LinkedIn jobs or Upwork?

While Linkedin and Upwork have a large database, the entire selection process, matching is still rudimentary — companies must do the process themselves. Although anybody can create a profile in Upwork, there is no screening process to evaluate the skills. Similarly, we see the number of relevant applications to a Linkedin Job posting to be on the lower side.

That’s where ellow comes into play. 

ellow gives a list of pre-vetted candidates who also match the requirements a customer is looking for. For instance, if a customer needs a full stack developer with Node and React skills and has experience building payment solutions using AWS cloud. Within a budget range, ellow can identify the right resource who fits all the criteria and provide options who can join within a week. 

This powerful combination of vetting with profile match makes us different from other portals, which largely focus on volume. We truly believe in quality over quantity. 

How do you think talent will benefit from ellow.io? 

ellow is a platform for global talent to access jobs anywhere in the world.

Our motto has been Talent is Universal. Opportunities are not. We bring opportunities to talent. 

Several ellow.io resources directly work with Silicon Valley firms today, which was not possible even a few years ago. This helps open up possibilities for talent. 

In terms of rewards, we are committed to giving a sizable percentage to the candidates which is difficult in an IT services company.

What kind of advantages does ellow.io offer freelancers? 

Even very good freelance talent is facing it difficult to find a project in Upwork or Fiver because the competition is very high. ellow creates alternative opportunities for all resources, whether they are currently freelancers or not. We believe freelancers can find jobs from anywhere globally and do not need to limit themselves by geography. 

ellow creates ongoing year-long engagement for talent and not just one-time gigs. From a compensation perspective, ellow freelancers can aspire to earn 50 to 100% more than their current pay in India.  

According to g2.com, 36% of HR professionals blame insufficient technology for their inability to automate and better organize onboarding programs. What does ellow.io offer to companies?

ellow.io helps companies reduce their overall time and cost spent on recruitment, onboarding thereby improving their time-to-market for their products and services. We achieve this by creating a holistic platform that acts as a 360-degree hiring solution. From contracting tools, time tracking, payments, etc., ellow offers tools to manage the entire remote contracting process.

What is down the road for ellow.io? 

While ellow has started its operations in India and the US, we aspire to expand operations across several continents, including Europe, Latam, Africa, and the Asia Pacific. Like our brand, we do not bind ourselves to location. We want to build a truly global brand that can provide talent from anywhere in the world and connect talent to opportunities from any part of the world.

To know more about the platform, visit ellow.io.