5 Quick Questions for Sherpass Founder Sander
Nothing like being able to put a face to our Sherpass backstory, right? We met with Sander Lesage, founder of Sherpass, who takes you through his years of experience as an MBA graduate and Enterprise Architect. A journey that brought him to where he stands today: at the forefront of talent management innovation.
Can you tell us a bit more about your background and experience, Sander?
I joined the IT and Business Consulting company Tobania in 2014 as a consultant in solution & enterprise architectures. The primary objective of my work within various IT projects was to align business processes with enterprise software. In 2019, to be precise, I also acquired the necessary HR affinity, as I contributed to the team that was optimising recruitment and staffing processes and conducted market research on it as part of my MBA thesis “Innovating Recruitment Efficiency.”
“The user interface of Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) systems often lacks the experience that recruiters, CSMs, and HR Business Partners desire. We therefore conducted in-depth research.”
How did Sherpass arise?
Well, from the results of my research. It dawned on me that many existing ATS systems are too heavy, unwieldy, suffer too much overhead, and often contain many outdated data. As a result, end-users are not eager to work with those systems and help themselves with Excel spreadsheets instead.
Existing ATS platforms offer many features for entering and maintaining recruitment and staffing-related data. As a database, the system delivered on its promises. However, the user interfaces do not provide the experience desired by recruiters, CSMs, HR Business Partners, and back-office staff members.
We conducted in-depth research and talked to various users, including the contracting, finance, and sales departments. Even while candidates are not direct users of an ATS system, they are indirectly involved in the processes maintained in the ATS. So, we investigated their experiences as well. The information and pain points that we gathered from this, we subsequently employed as a source to further develop Sherpass.
So, Sherpass was preceded by extensive research?
Absolutely, Sherpass ID, the mobile application for talents, was created in a co-creation with 30 candidates who had just completed their job interviews. We researched how they had experienced the recruitment process. So, the app was developed to make the candidate experience as smooth as possible. After all, to be honest, the application process does cause much stress, doesn’t it? Applicants often have to wait too long in ignorance.
And Sherpass ID is, of course, inseparably linked to Sherpass Manager?
Yes, with Sherpass ID, we want to simplify the job search process for candidates and track their evolving interests after they get hired. It is about helping someone find their next best job and continuously guiding them towards their future goals. Therefore, staffing companies should be able to make the process as smooth and transparent as possible. Often a CV lacks essential information to propose a job that meets a candidate’s expectations. By enriching the historical data upon it (e.g. existing competencies, experiences, and studies) with a value and ambition assessment, a company will only then be able to determine what the candidate is really aiming for. A CV describes someone’s past, but this doesn’t necessarily reflect what someone looks for in the future. We hit two birds with one stone by connecting Sherpass ID with Sherpass Manager Candidates experience a delightful process, and companies keep their database up-to-date.
“With Sherpass, talents can truly display their own identity, which enables companies to really get to know and retain them.”
What are your further ambitions with Sherpass?
The CV has basically been around since World War II. There have been many digital equivalents in the meantime, but for example, LinkedIn has never really been able to surpass it. By contrast, with Sherpass, talents can truly display their identity, current, and future interests, enabling companies to get to know and retain them. We aim to continue to innovate this entire talent tracking process in a technology-driven, but human-oriented way.
Do you have additional Sherpass questions for Sander? Be sure to book a free demo or contact him via:
sander.lesage@sherpass.app