This document is a sister document to our hiring principles aimed at providing clear guidelines on our hiring process.
It is imperative you familiarize yourself with its contents before you get involved in the recruitment process. If you need any assistance, never hesitate to reach out to @Julien.
Why does it matter?
We all have a role to play in ensuring the best candidate experience possible.
We define candidate experience as a combination of two main criteria:
- Quality: how informative, relevant, and meaningful our interactions with candidates are.
- Velocity: how fast we can carry out the end-to-end recruitment process from the application to the contract signature.
Roles and responsibilities
@Julien is responsible for the continuous improvement of the candidate experience. As such, she is the “process owner”.
Many of us are responsible for specific actions in an employee recruitment process. We will therefore be “step owners” responsible for the quality and velocity of a well-defined part of the overall process. For example, if you are tasked of carrying out first-round interviews, you are step owner of a series of first round interviews.
One tool: Workable
For all our recruitment needs, everything happens in Workable. If you take part in the recruitment process, it is essential you become proficient with the tool. The good news is that Workable is simple to use.
You must use all Workable native features, including
- Sending e-mails from Workable, not from outlook.
- Using e-mail templates.
- Using Workable’s self-scheduling links.(NOT calendarhero, Microsoft bookings, or any other scheduling tool).
- Using the detailed scorecard at each stage and filling it during — or immediately after the interview/case study.
The setup should be simple. If you need assistance, book a 30 minute 1:1 (in person) with Julien to finalize the setup.
For the self-scheduling links to work, you must configure in Workable your default availabilities, as well as keeping your Outlook calendar up to date with your days off, client meetings, and other time-boxed events. Don’t forget that keeping your Outlook calendar up to date is an elementary expectation for any Agilytic colleague.
The process: last contact has the lead
The last person in contact with a candidate is responsible for the velocity of the process. If a candidate is not taken care of in due time, it is their responsibility to ensure the next step is clearly allocated either to a colleague or the candidate. The reasonable period to do so is within the same working day.
Example: a candidate passes their first round interview. The next morning, you conduct a daily review of the recruitment pipelines. You seeks clarification through Workable’s commenting function what the next steps should be. It is essential you clarify the next best action before the end of the working day.
The candidate’s point of contact
Once the next step owner is confirmed, they oversee arranging the next meeting. NB: in workable it is possible to insert a colleague’s individual scheduling link.
Some automation
As we improve, we will use Workable’s automation features. Most of it will consist in triggering automated messages.
Feedback
You have been there before. You prepared your CV, drafted motivation letters, spent time reading our case studies. You visited us a few times, including one or several grueling case studies. The difference is, you got an offer. Other candidates went through the same process but weren't so fortunate.
We believe it is only fair to show a proportionate level of consideration to our candidates. If you have spoken with a candidate, feedback cannot be in writing.
In practice, this means:
Stage | Feedback |
CV screening
• Poor application
• No fit overall | An Email template is enough.
No explanation is required. |
First-round
• Red flags
• No fit with Agilytic | Phone/Teams feedback
Provide suggestions of career paths, companies/people you heard about who are hiring. |
Case studies
• Unsatisfactory case studies | Phone/Teams feedback
Explain clearly which parts of the case studies were not satisfactory and why, ideally with examples.
Provide suggestions of career paths, companies/people you heard about who are hiring.
If there is potential, invite the candidate to try again in 1 or 2 years. |
It is essential to provide feedback that will help the candidate do a better job in future applications, even if it is at a competitor. Kindness goes a long way, and you never know when you will meet this person again (sometimes they become your client).
Besides, we'd much rather be remembered by competitors as professional and courteous than ungrateful pricks.
Whatever happens, however, don't commit personally to finding the candidate a plan B or make any other promises you will not be able to keep!
360° feedback
We will also gradually introduce candidate feedback gathering, aiming for a “cNPS” (candidate Net Promoter Score) that will serve as a KPI for our candidate experience.