5 Questions for Cnect's Andre Boulais

I've known Andre Boulais for more than 10 years. He's a veteran of the HR tech space having spent time at vendors like Entelo, Silkroad and Jobvite. Now he has a new role as the CRO at a new hiring software called Cnect.

Give us a history of your career in the HR tech space?

I’ve had the great fortune to spend my entire career as an executive and senior leader in areas that I love: talent acquisition and technology. I spent the first decade leading global talent acquisition teams for companies like Salesforce where I was the head of global Sourcing and in charge of our global WorkTech spend. In that role we used a variety of SaaS solutions and my teams piloted and power-used the Jobvite CRM: Jobvite Engage to power our sourcing efforts. 

I had the great fortune to then make the transition as a senior Professional Services and Customer Success leader for Jobvite as employee #100 (and the first in Indiana). After helping grow the company 4x and oversee a 40+ person team based in Indiana, we acquired Canvas, RolePoint and Telemetry and I spent a year working with our executive team to bring the companies together before leaving to take an executive leadership role at Entelo overseeing Customer Success. Our team’s success there led to a successful acquisition by SilkRoad where I spent a year bringing those companies together. 

My passion for technology and talent acquisition has allowed me to be global speaker on best practices and latest trends in our space. I’ve had the great fortune to be a speaker and featured in: SHRM, SourceCon, DisruptHR, HR Daily, Talent Board, SRSC, ERE and the RecTechies podcast.

You recently joined Cnect, what's the focus of your new role?

As Cnect’s Chief Revenue Officer, I’ll be joining an accomplished executive team overseeing the Sales, Customer Success and Marketing arena’s for the Cnect solution.  It’s an incredibly exciting opportunity to announce to the world a product that’s revolutionizing the modern hiring process. In all my years in our space this is the first time I’ve seen a product this is 100% referenceable. The response in the first month has been overwhelming especially after last week’s webinar on key hiring trends (link here). 

How has your previous experience prepared you for this new role?

I feel uniquely qualified for my new role at Cnect due to my blended background as a recruiting and technology executive.  As someone who’s been a senior leader and a WorkTech buyer in multiple roles as mentioned above, my perspective as a former buyer and user allows me to rethink the way most companies in our space do business. I’ve always embraced a culture of making every customer a reference customer and I believe you can’t do that be simply being another WorkTech vendor. To do that you need to truly be a partner with your customers and tie their biggest recruiting milestones to what your software solves for.  

I’ve also seen how challenging the job market has become and the increased frustration candidates have being treated more like a number than the unique individual they are. Ironically, the past few years have seen thousands of talent acquisition professionals impacted by layoffs and for the first time experience the same frustration candidates have been experiencing. One of the biggest reasons I joined Cnect was that it’s the first modern hiring platform I’ve seen that treats the candidate experience as importantly as the customer experience.

Why are you excited about working at Cnect?

I’m excited to be at the forefront of the next evolution in the modern hiring process. I love that our CEO, Michael Nadeau, who started his career as a recruiter, spent four years building a world-class product before taking it to market. I’ve seen first-hand what happens when a product is launched before it’s ready so it’s refreshing to see so much care do into the a product that’s transforming the way companies hire and elevating the candidate experience in a way that I’ve never seen before.

How would people describe your management style?

That’s a great question, Chris.  I’ve had the great fortune to coach and manage an amazing group of professionals on multiple continents and I think the word that would come to mind would be: builder. I’m a firm believer that the best leaders build and develop future leaders. 

 That’s one of the key lessons I took away from Scott Dorsey and Marc Benioff at ExactTarget/Salesforce and have embraced during my career. It’s been an incredible reward to see so many former employees now in senior leadership roles. Seeing someone grow from sourcer to CHRO or professional services consultant to Vice President of Customer Success makes me equally happy as any of the measurable results. 

 PS. I’m currently hiring an Account Executive if you know someone great!

And he'd like to provide everyone in the talent acquisition community that’s been impacted by layoffs a free Cnect jobseeker profile.  

Use this link. This will allow you the ability to:

•  Leverage Cnect to manage all of their applications to open jobs in one place
• Create a unique digital profile (“the last resume they will every build”)
• Record multiple, “First Impression” videos to capture their unique story
• Ability to upload multiple resumes
• Ability to upload various certifications
• The ability to share their digital profile via a link
• Can be shared via email, text or across LinkedIn

Want to be featured? Email us info@hrtechjob.com