How We Hire at Deel by Dan Westgarth
The hiring process, especially when it comes to tech, is rarely done well. It’s honestly mind-boggling, given tech companies are the ones with unlimited access to software designed to make the process seamless.
It’s never been easier for applicants to find positions due to increased unfettered access to professional social platforms along with sophisticated job market ad-tech. As a result, increased candidate flow has shifted a company’s focus to data and operational efficiency. However, the candidate experience hasn’t kept up. Instead, it’s rapidly deteriorating.
Candidate experience matters. Potential hires are real people who will use their experiences to form views on the company, its products, and its people. Word of mouth conversations resulting from the hiring process is often more vital than the general user experience.
At Deel, we approach the candidate experience a bit differently. First, it starts with a meaningful job description that succinctly summarizes the company mission, explicitly states the expectations for the role, and lists qualification parameters. Candidates revisit and reference job descriptions several times, so we took the time iterating on a structure to make them digestible and ensure they accurately reflect the culture at Deel.
We want to make sure prospective hires know how we think about them. To us, it’s essential to illustrate what people mean to the team and the hiring process we use through proactive messaging. Most importantly, we set expectations by giving clear timelines around each step of the process and what purpose it serves. The steps are data-centric and created to maximize operational efficiency for the candidate and hiring manager.
Internally, we have set service level agreements between our hiring stakeholders. What does this mean? Well, it means that we measure the time between each action in the hiring process and ensure promises get kept. Doing this helps manage and ensure candidates aren’t left hanging or have an unpleasant experience outside of our expectations set.
One of the critical results of the hiring function at Deel isn’t just bringing on great people. It’s turning all applicants into advocates through a well thought out process that manages prospective hire’s expectations and shows candidate appreciation.
Dan
Senior Copywriter, Tyler Bradley, edited this piece. You can follow him on Twitter @tylerfbradley (or not).
