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We’ve worked hard at Desana to try to create a fair hiring process that tests candidates on their skills and abilities, rather than relying on more subjective criteria that can open us up to bias.
It’s an ongoing process and we’re always trying to improve our systems. For the sake of transparency though, we thought it would be helpful to understand how things work behind the scenes.
Although it may vary based on the role, this is the typical hiring process at Desana.
We are aware that there are well-documented issues with relying too heavily on CVs. We use Willo for the first stage of our process so that we can assess candidates based on how they perform in short video calls, as well as written questions where relevant to the role. This should take candidates around 20 minutes to complete so hopefully is not too time consuming for any job seekers.
The video interview is a particularly important tool for roles which require candidates to come across as confident and engaging in video calls, like sales, account management and partnerships. It also allows us to assess candidates based on their potential, rather than their CV: some candidates may not have as much experience but would be able to do the role and seeing them in a real life scenario may gave them an opportunity they otherwise would not have had.
As an international employer, it can often be difficult coordinating interviews across different time zones. Willo allows you to complete your interview at a date and time that suits you and on any device, without having to wait to schedule an interview time that might be inconvenient. You will get unlimited retake opportunities for each question and you can practise your answer and make sure you are happy with it before you submit it. Having time to consider your answers and the opportunity to answer it again can really help put you at ease
Responses are scored by 2-3 scorers, which normally includes the head of the department and a member of the People team. We always use more than one scorer as it means we can get a more accurate number - for example, someone might be having a bad day and score harshly. To prevent scorers being influenced by each other, they are able to score without seeing each others’ scores.
We invite the highest scoring candidates to an interview.
In advance of the interview, we ask candidates to complete a take home task that they then talk through on the interview. Typically we ask them not to spend more than two hours on the task so we can get an accurate idea of how they would work in a time sensitive situation - and also because we are aware that people have lives to live outside of applying for roles with us!
The take home task gives us a really helpful insight into whether someone can do the job. It’s always based on situations that might be relevant to the role but - so that we aren’t at risk of stealing anyone’s hard work - we always come up with a different scenario to what the real life role would involve. In the past we’ve had tasks like recruiting for a cruise ship or coming up with a PR campaign around wearable technology for hedgehogs.
There is always more than one interviewer on the call to ensure that we get a more accurate impression of the candidate. We try to keep these interviewers consistent across all the first stage interviews for that role.
Throughout the interview, we take notes to reduce the influence of the peak-end rule where you remember the most memorable moment and the last thing a candidate said. As soon as the interview has ended, we jump on another call to discuss. To prevent groupthink from prevailing, we all score each of the answers and write up our impressions before anyone gives an opinion. Scorers can’t see each other’s scores. Once everyone is ready, we reveal the scores and discuss our impressions.
We normally put forward the single highest scoring candidate to the last stage but in some instances where we’ve had two equally high scoring candidates we might put forward both candidates.
This last stage of the process sounds the scariest but is actually the most relaxed. It’s a casual coffee with one or more of the founders and is an opportunity for candidates to understand the business and whether it would be a good fit for them, as much as it is for us to understand if they are a good fit for the business.
If they are unsuccessful, we make sure that they receive feedback about what went well and did not go as well. We know that people put a lot of effort into applications and it’s only right to respect that by giving them feedback.
If that goes well, we make them an offer based on our salary calculator. Hopefully they accept and another Desanian joins the team!