Willis Towers Watson announced this week that it has hired the entire team from Hong Kong-based human capital analytics startup Jobable. Former Jobable CEO and co-founder Richard Hanson is now WTW's Global Head of Data Science for Talent & Rewards. COO and co-founder Luke Byrne has also joined WTW, although his new role is not yet confirmed. Both former Jobable leaders will remain based in Hong Kong.

Hanson and Byrne founded Jobable in 2014 as Hiring Screen, providing an automated resume sorting tool that later evolved into a full job search platform. Jobable has worked extensively with WTW prior to the team move, having developed the SkillsVue skill-based compensation modelling software and the WorkVue AI-driven job reinvention software for WTW.

Byrne said of the move: “We are tremendously proud of Jobable’s achievements over the past six years. Joining WTW is the perfect way for us to ensure that we can amplify the impact of our work going forward.”

Mark Reid, Global Leader, Work and Rewards at WTW said: “Throughout our partnership with Jobable, we experienced first-hand, their capabilities across data science, software design and development. The Jobable team often provided a valuable point of differentiation to our clients’ work. Whilst we have already shared numerous commercial successes together, the prospect of building on this proven track record, discovering new synergies and fully leveraging on Richard and his team’s expertise is truly a compelling one.”

The Jobable team brings an extensive list of expertise to WTW’s technology team, including Full Stack Software Development, Data Engineering, DevOps, Natural Language Processing, ETL, Topic Modeling, Word Embedding, Deep Learning, Predictive Analytics, Web Scraping, UX / UI Design and Rapid Prototyping.