Employ, Inc. is adding VONQ’s AI screening technology to JazzHR and Lever, bringing a new top-of-funnel screening workflow into two of its recruiting platforms.
In an interview, Dara Brenner, chief product officer at Employ, said the intent is to help recruiters spend less time sorting through application volume and more time with the candidates who merit a closer look. “The most important thing that we can do for a recruiter is find a way to have them focused on that human connection because at the end of the day, that is the one thing that AI can’t do.”
Lever went live with the integration in early May, followed by JazzHR on June 17.
Candidates are told upfront that they are interacting with an AI agent. In VONQ CEO Ritu Mohanka’s view, AI in hiring damages trust when it is hidden or when systems appear to make decisions without explanation. “Transparency is the starting point,” she said. “What breaks that trust is when it’s hidden or when it pretends to be human.”
The process starts with an AI chat interaction that asks role-specific questions to fill gaps between a candidate’s resume and the job requirements. Candidates can then move into a voice-based screening conversation that asks more situational and skills-based questions.
Mohanka described the approach as “screen in not screen out,” arguing that the goal is not simply to reduce applicant volume but to surface candidates whose abilities may not be obvious from a resume.
Recruiters receive a dossier designed to show not only how a candidate scored, but why. “The recruiter doesn’t just get a score,” Mohanka said. “They get a candidate dossier for what each person said, how it maps to the actual job description and that role criteria and why they ranked, why they were ranked where they were ranked.”
The integration will be offered as an add-on. Brenner said customers can enable the capability at the customer level, then decide which individual jobs should use AI screening. A company might use it for a high-volume role, for example, while leaving it off for a lower-volume or more specialized search.
Asked how VONQ differs from other screening products, Mohanka pointed to the company’s language coverage, saying its AI screening has been tested across 50 languages, with voice screening available in 15. “When you get to voice, people really want to speak in their own native language,” she said.
Mohanka also emphasized the reasoning behind the rankings. She said the system creates a structured record showing how each candidate was assessed against the role criteria, a design choice she connected to growing scrutiny of AI in hiring. “You can’t just say the algorithm decided,” she said. “You need to be able to show the reasoning.”
