G-Suite Hire is Shutting Down in 2020

Google is one of the most innovative companies in the world. It introduced us to the globe's favorite search engine, offers one of the most incredible productivity suites on the market, and excels in artificial intelligence. However, when you're an innovator like Google, that often means that you end up experimenting with tools and ideas that don't always work out. 

Lately, we've seen the evidence of this in the form of numerous Google tools and features being sent to the G-Suite graveyard. Google Hangouts will bite the dust by 2020 too, unless the company changes its mind any time soon. Over the years, we've also seen the loss of things like Google Trips, Google Jump, Aero, and Google Correlate. You can find a complete list of some of the recently lost features on Google here.

Google Hire is just the latest feature to be "fired" from the G-Suite roadmap. Google disclosed at the end of August 2019 that it would be shutting down the job application tracking system that originally launched in 2017, once and for all. 

What Happened to Google Hire?

Hire is (or was) an integrated G-Suite tool intended to help small businesses and mid-size enterprises organize the recruitment process more effectively. If you've ever tried onboarding an employee in today's fast-paced world, then you'll know how difficult the HR procedure can be. The app tied in closely with other G-Suite apps like Google Calendar and Gmail, allowing people to schedule meetings and interviews more effectively. 

Google said that it built Hire to simplify the hiring process and make it easier for companies to onboard the talent they need in locations around the world. It even offered features that allowed businesses to access feedback about potential hires. However, although Google says that the feature has been successful, it clearly hasn't been popular enough for Google to want to keep it around. 

Hire originally appeared in the G-Suite when Google acquired the BeBop brand - a company that was designed by the VMWare founder, Diane Greene, who went on to act as CEO of Google Cloud for a short time. According to Google's support document, the team now plans to spend it's time and resources on investing in some of the many other Google Cloud offerings available as part of the GCP and G-Suite portfolio. There's definitely a lot of innovation to invest in there. 

When Will Google Hire Be Fired?

If you're currently using Google Hire to help you fill out your tech team, then you'll be pleased to know that Google isn't planning on getting rid of the product straight away. You do have a little bit of time before the service will bite the dust. According to the G-Suite team, the official end-date for support for this software is the 1st of September 2020, so you've got another year or so to accelerate your recruitment strategy. 

Until then, Google isn't planning on releasing any new features to the Hire experience - which probably isn't surprising. Additionally, Google noted that it's going to stop taking payments for new customers who want to subscribe to the system. You'll see no additional charges for the service on after your next bill has come. 

The good news is that even if there aren't any new features coming to Hire in its "sunset" period, you'll still get all the support that you need from the G-Suite team if anything goes wrong. If you've decided that you're just going to give up on Hire altogether now that it's being deleted, you can also terminate any contracts you have up and running from now, with absolutely no penalty. 

What Does This Mean for G-Suite Users?

While some people believe that the loss of yet another Google product is a bad sign for the cloud company, the truth is that it's probably just a sign that Google is continuing to innovate at record pace. When you're constantly experimenting with new ideas, it makes sense that you might need to shut down a few of the under-performers from time to time. 

All the shutdown of Hire means is that you're going to have to use a different service to help with your hiring process - which is sure to be a bit of a disappointment to some Google users.