HRhino Solves Hiring Dilemma at Neo Financial
Authors:
Pavey Gill’s Medium Username: @enti674.pg.13
Paulina Rocha’s Medium Username: @rochagpaulina
Nate Spasiuk’s Medium Username: @nathan.s108
Mariah Wilson’s Medium Username: @mariah-wilson
Intro
Neo Financial is a Calgary-based startup in the fintech space that aims to bring some much-needed innovation to the Canadian banking industry. In recent months, the company has undergone a rapid expansion with over 500 new positions filled. While this growth represents an exciting time for the young company, it has also unmasked some underlying issues in its hiring processes.
The high volume of job applications that Neo has received has led to miscommunication among the HR team. Furthermore, Neo has been unable to provide reliable statistics about standard organizational demographics such as race, gender, and education. There has been a lack of coordination about the handling of job applications, which has led to some candidates being missed altogether. In addition to being highly unprofessional, these weaknesses have strategic implications as the company may be missing out on valuable talent which is crucial for a start-up competing in the cutthroat banking industry.
As such, Neo has hired our consulting team, HRhino, to alleviate these problems. We have been tasked with creating a technological solution for Neo that will address these issues. Because of the wide-ranging nature of these issues, we deemed it critical to specify the scope of our work at the onset of this project. While we would love to be able to solve all the problems that Neo is facing, it would not be feasible for us to do so considering time and technology constraints.
For the scope of our project, we focused on improving Neo’s hiring practices. We reason that any organization is a group of people. Therefore, the success of the organization is directly dependent on the quality of its people. If we can implement a technological solution that will improve the competency of new hires for Neo, the company’s chances of success will skyrocket.
Diagnosis
Before we could make any improvements to the company’s hiring practices, we had to identify assess Neo’s current state. One obvious area for improvement that we found was the application page on the company’s website. Applications on this site were super easy to submit — too easy. How can that possibly be a problem? Well, as a growing company that already has dozens of available job postings, making the application process very easy for candidates results in an extremely large number of applications. Then, each of these applications needs to be sorted and considered by Neo’s HR team. Because applying is so easy, many of these applications will come from candidates that do not truly want the job or are not qualified for it! Ultimately, this results in an increased workload for Neo’s HR team without adding any value for the additional effort required to comb through these applications.
Another major flaw that we identified is the application receipt confirmation email that the company sends to applicants. You know how every time you apply to a job, you get an email saying “Thank you for your application to [the company that you applied to]! We will be in touch shortly.”? Pretty standard, right? Well, take a look at the email you get when you apply to a job posting on Neo’s site:
Um…who is Harvest Builders? I thought I just applied to Neo! Of course, if you had done your homework, you would know that Harvest Builders is closely affiliated with Neo and that is why the confirmation email looks the way it does. In our eyes, however, this shows another easily correctable misstep in Neo’s application process. Applicants should receive clear confirmation emails from Neo.
Solution
After identifying these problems, we knew we would have to develop an alternate website for Neo applicants. However, none of us are web developers. Luckily, because it is 2021, it is quite easy to make a website using readily available online tools. For our website, we used Wix, which a user-friendly website builder. To start, we created an attractive landing site that showed the available positions and allowed users to choose which one they wanted to apply to.
After users select which posting they want to apply to, they are redirected to a page where they begin their online application journey. On this page, the job description is shown so that candidates know exactly what they are applying for. At the bottom of the page, applicants start their application by entering their basic information.
After hitting “Next,” the user is redirected to the subsequent portion of the application process — a competency test. This is one of our major innovations to the current job application process. One way to easily reduce the number of and increase the quality of candidates is to use an objective competency test. Less motivated users will be discouraged from following through with the application. The applicants that do take the time to complete the test can be sorted based on their performance. Objective measures — like standardized test scores — are stronger indicators of future job performance than more subjective measures like how well a candidate’s cover letter is received (Moore, 2017).
The questions that are asked during a competency test can be specifically tailored to each job posting. For example, the question’s that a financial analyst applicant is asked may relate to the time value of money. A software developer may be asked to choose the output of a short piece of code. And if you are curious about a candidate’s movie literacy, you can ask what the perfect date is (Hint: It’s April 25th).
The implementation of a competency test to job applications would be easy, cheap, and highly valuable for Neo. Being able to objectively evaluate candidates would benefit the company immensely when making decisions about who to interview and who to hire. Overall, it would strengthen the strategic positioning of the company as Neo hires more competent and deserving individuals.
To access the candidate database, we created another tool that was integrated with the website that we developed. We decided to create a mobile app because of how ubiquitous smartphones have become in our lives. We can shop, bank, and communicate from our phones — why not hire? Studies have shown that there has been a significant increase in the number of people that use smartphones for work (Deloitte, 2018). To take advantage of this trend, we created a mobile app using Glide for Neo’s HR team to use when deciding which candidates to interview.
Similar to Wix, Glide is a user-friendly platform for creating simple apps. The information that is shown on the Glide app is gleaned from a connection with Google Sheets. This was instrumental in our decision to use Glide. We knew that if we could connect the entries on the application on the Wix site to Google Sheets, then we could connect these entries from Google Sheets to the Glide app interface. We started by choosing a pre-built template on Glide for our app which we customized to suit our needs.
For our app, which we aptly named HRhino, we only included tabs for “Candidates” and “Positions.” In contrast with the application website, simplicity on the HRhino app was paramount. This was because of design thinking principles that we incorporated into our app development. We created several versions of the app with different layouts that we gave to our family members to test out. Their feedback consistently favored fewer tabs, so we decided to simplify the app design as much as possible by only including two tabs.
To create the desired functionality, we used Zapier to connect the entries on the Wix form with the Google Sheets file that was linked to the app. Essentially, every time an application was submitted, a new row has added a worksheet on the Google Sheets file. This row contained the basic information entered by the candidate along with their answers to the competency test questions.
While making this connection was straightforward, the calculation of the competency test score was challenging. We wanted this calculation to be useful on the Glide app. Specifically, we wanted to add a feature that allowed candidates to be sorted based on their competency test score. This would allow Neo’s HR team to easily identify the most qualified candidates so they could move further in the recruitment process. To accomplish this, we had to link the answers that candidates chose to a worksheet that would calculate scores. Then, these scores and the candidates’ original entries were all compiled into the worksheet that was linked to the “Candidates” tab on the app interface.
The “Candidates” tab shows each applicant separated by which job posting they applied for. This centralized database will alleviate the disorganization that Neo is currently facing with job applications. A filter can be applied using the button in the top right corner. This filter allows candidates to be sorted based on their score on the competency test. This feature is intended to make it extremely easy for users of the app to identify strong applicants so they can reach the later stages of recruitment, such as having an interview scheduled.
The HRhino app will also improve communication among team members by allowing Neo’s HR team to leave notes for each application. After choosing a specific applicant, HR employees can leave notes that will ensure that the hiring team is on the same page about the status and merit of the applicant. Pressing the “checkmark” icon in the bottom right corner officially marks the application as having been viewed by a member of the HR team. This will ensure that all candidates’ applications are considered while eliminating the possibility of redundant application reviews. Furthermore, the candidate will receive an automated email that informs them that their application has been viewed. This serves to decrease information asymmetry between applicants and hirers while also giving candidates confidence that their application is being given fair consideration. The “document” button above the “checkmark” button in the bottom right corner can be clicked to easily view the applicant’s resume.
The “Positions” tab displays Neo’s current job postings. Each posting shows the number of applicants for that position. This will allow the team to keep track of how many applications they have received for each posting which can help them decide when postings need to be marketed heavier to draw more attention from job seekers and when postings need to be taken down. Clicking each position shows the applicants for that position. Similar to the “Candidates” tab, these applicants are sorted by their score on the competency test.
Overall, the goal of the HRhino is to enable Neo’s HR team to easily manage job applications at their fingertips. The app has a user-centric interface that is attractive and easy to navigate. By integrating this app into Neo’s current hiring practices, the company can ensure that it keeps all applications organized and considers each applicant fairly. In addition to boosting the professionalism of the company’s hiring practices, we are confident that our technology solutions will also form the basis of competitive advantage for Neo. By implementing a competency test that distinguishes stronger applicants, Neo is more likely to hire competent individuals that are well-suited for their roles. Ultimately, the individuals that Neo hires today will be responsible for its success in the future.
We invite you to visit our application website and our app using the links below!
Website link: https://mariahwilson747.wixsite.com/my-site
App link: https://level-addition-3637.glideapp.io/
References
Deloitte. (2018). Global mobile consumer survey | Results for Switzerland. Deloitte. https://www2.deloitte.com/ch/en/pages/technology-media-and-telecommunications/articles/global-mobile-consumer-survey.html
Moore, D. A. (2017). How to improve the accuracy and reduce the cost of personnel selection. California Management Review, 60(1), 8–17. https://doi.org/10.1177/0008125617725288
