Wethos Unbiased Hiring Systems

MY ROLE:
COO / hiring manager, overall solutions architect - organizing people, process, and executing documents to reach project goals.

PROJECT BACKGROUND:

Within 3 years we had expanded and contracted in team size due to fluctuating needs, build strategy, and ultimately our own hiring decisions. [From June 2019 until I left in October 2019] We were planning to make key hires across sales, marketing, product, and account management, taking our team from 12 to 17.

These folks would not only need to execute, but some also managing their own teams. This required an aligned sense of not only who would add to our team culture and overall product success, but how.

We needed to continue executing day-to-day tasks while pushing a steady pipeline of qualified candidates through an interview process.

CHALLENGE:

Bring the fuller team together to align on, “who are we looking for?” As well, create a process that allows the right candidates to move through the pipeline without disrupting day-to-day operations.

RESEARCH:

Typically hiring is outsourced. Through trial and error with recruiters and hiring platforms, we learned that not one was up to our standards for diverse candidacy. I asked hiring partners to ensure that recommended candidates looked more like the U.S. population.

Not only would we need to align on team needs for key hires, identify candidates, and setup the interview process - with newly diverse pipelines reducing unseen and internalized bias was also critical. Consistent questions would need to be asked for fair and equal comparison across candidates.

TACTICS & WORKFLOW:

Assess team needs, beyond title - what do we need this new role to execute on the day-to-day? How will they contribute to overall goals? Who will they collaborate with vs. report to?

2. Write questions that would showcase the attributes we are looking for (and not looking for) in potential candidates

3. Collaborate on job description, eliminating questions that typically reduce diverse candidacy like a long list of mandatory requirements, gendered-coded words, and jargon.

4. Setup a document that would provide clarity on the pipeline

RESULTS:

6 hires including 1 promotion: Director of New Business, Director of Marketing, Director of Customer Experience, Designer, UX, Operations Manager

All hires above surpassed 7 months since hire (and as of 2/28, all still employed by Wethos)