Phenom, an applied AI company known for its Intelligent Talent Experience platform, has acquired Be Applied. This cognitive assessment solution validates skills at a large scale. The acquisition aims to speed up the shift to skills-first hiring. It allows organizations to screen and evaluate talent by real-world abilities, not just credentials. This change is transforming HR practices globally.
Integrating Be Applied’s adaptive assessments into Phenom’s AI hiring workflows helps companies validate skills during recruitment. This enables businesses to assess the skills of potential employees with full confidence. This approach also helps minimize biases in hiring, provide better candidate experiences, and make decisions faster.
Why Skills-First Hiring Matters – And Why Now
This acquisition is coming at a very critical juncture for HR leaders because research conducted by the World Economic Forum found that 63% of employers agree that skills shortages represent the biggest obstacle to business transformation over the next decade until 2030, whereas the capabilities of AI are dramatically reshaping the meaning of “qualified” employees—a KPMG AI Pulse Survey conducted found that employers are adapting their hiring practices by placing a premium on the skills that AI provides and will even pay a 15% salary premium to procure the best AI skills.
Traditional assessment tools — static, generic and disconnected from real job requirements — have long hindered enterprise efforts to operationalize skills-first strategies. Be Applied’s technology fills this gap with dynamic cognitive assessments. These assessments are tailored to job-specific skills across industries and experience levels. They provide fair, scalable, and defensible validation of candidate capabilities.
Now, tasks that needed manual screening or subjective evaluation can be automated and made objective. This gives hiring teams a centralized view of validated skills, improving both speed and quality in hiring decisions.
Impact on the HR Industry
Phenom’s acquisition of Be Applied marks a significant evolution in how HR teams operate, particularly in talent acquisition and workforce planning:
1. Operationalizing Skills-First Hiring at Scale
Embedding adaptive assessments in the candidate journey helps HR teams see beyond traditional qualifications. They can focus on real-world skills and potential. This approach helps organizations fill specialized roles faster. It also boosts confidence in candidate fit, tackling talent shortages and cutting time-to-hire.
2. Reducing Hiring Bias and Enhancing Fairness
Evidence-based cognitive assessments reduce unconscious bias. They focus on what candidates can do, not where they went to school or who they know. This supports diversity, equity and inclusion goals — a major priority for many talent leaders today.
3. Strengthening Talent Analytics and Workforce Intelligence
HR teams can see skills data throughout the talent lifecycle. This includes sourcing, screening, and employee development. With this real-time visibility, they can identify internal skills and gaps. This helps with smarter talent deployment, reskilling efforts, and succession planning.
4. Boosting Productivity and Candidate Experience
Because Be Applied’s assessments are embedded inline within the hiring flow — without redirecting candidates to external systems — the process remains smooth and intuitive. Recruiters can spend less time on manual screening and more time on strategic engagement with top talent.
Also Read: CapRelo Unveils CoreTech AI Platform to Modernize Global Relocation Services for HR Teams and Transferees
Broader Effects on Businesses
The move towards skills-first hiring facilitated by the acquisition has several strategic implications for businesses across industries:
Enhanced Quality of Hire: When an organization confirms its capabilities objectively, it increases the chances of hiring people who perform well in assigned roles.
Faster Workforce Agility is a great advantage for businesses. When changing markets present new challenges, the ones who can quickly recognize the potential of the workforce and deploy skilled resources will definitely gain the advantage.
Reduced Recruitment Costs: Mis-hires, which are hiring the wrong candidate to do the job, can cost an employer at least 30% of the first year’s salary, as the U.S. Department of Labor points out.
Stronger Employer Brand: In a similar vein, fair hiring practices that emphasize skills may, as a positive side effect, increasingly improve the strength of the employer brand, as these hiring methods could attract more suitable personnel in the future.
Conclusion: A Step Towards HR Modernization
Phenom‘s acquisition of Be Applied is in line with the existing industry trend towards data-driven, AI-driven HR practices that incorporate strategic priorities such as skills-based hiring, workforce intelligence, and holistic talent experiences. As the dynamics of work continue to shift, the acquisition will help the process of skills validation become mainstream at the hiring process, which is going to benefit both the HR industry as well as businesses.
