How To Identify And Retain Fantastic Talent with Desmond Lim of Workstream
What one can conceive and believe, one can achieve.
As a part of my HR Strategy Series, I’m talking to top experts in the field to teach prospects what hiring managers are actually looking for, while also supporting business leaders in their hiring and retention strategies. Today I had the pleasure of talking with Desmond Lim.
Desmond Lim is the Co-Founder and CEO of Workstream, an automated hiring platform for companies hiring hourly workers. He is a graduate of Harvard and MIT Media Lab, former Product Manager at WeChat, and investor at Dorm Room Fund. He is based in San Francisco and lived in Boston, London, and Singapore.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! First, please tell us what brought you to this specific career path?
My parents only ever finished 4th grade, so I witnessed the struggle that they faced as hourly workers at an early age. Then in college, I founded my first business, a Thai food restaurant, where I had to hire hourly workers. I got to witness how frustrating both sides of the hiring process can be, and I was determined to help both businesses and workers to find a solution.
Can you share the most interesting or funny story that happened to you since you started this career and what lesson you learned from that?
With Workstream, we use texting and automation to help companies hire quickly and efficiently. As part of the screening and interview process, we provide speedy follow-up and automation, which our customers generally love. However, clients have told us that when rejection templates are being sent to applicants, they wish the rejection text messages could be sent at a delayed rate instead of being sent instantaneously. The main concern here is that the quick rejection can seem like it came from an AI or bot because people don’t usually make decisions quite as quickly without Workstream.
Are you working on any exciting new projects at your company? How is this helping people?
One of our missions at Workstream is to continually improve our product. There is always room for growth and development in regards to the hiring process. While we’ve definitely…
