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Introducing the Talent Gallery by Shortlist
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A new way to curate talent

Hiring — it’s both an art and a science.

While our assessments-driven approach at Shortlist definitely brings the science, we get that there’s an element of nuance when you’re building your team. Just like picking out a piece of art, reviewing candidates is all about balancing objective factors and that “special something.”

We’re excited to introduce the Talent Gallery by Shortlist, a new way to view and curate talent. In this easy-to-use hiring homebase, you can review candidates based on their performance, skills, and experience, while learning more about what makes them unique — perfectly combining the art and science of hiring.

We met with dozens of employers to observe how they review candidate data and learn which features should be included in the hiring dashboard of their dreams. A huge thanks to each of these partners who helped to shape this product!

To get started, request a demo — or keep reading for some highlights of the Gallery.

Here’s what’s in store

  • Your hiring homebase: When you enter the Gallery, you’ll see an overview of every job you have running with Shortlist, along with key stats on each job and helpful links and tips about the Shortlist process.
  • Getting started: Your dashboard for each job shows you exactly what you need to do next to keep the hiring process moving. Here you get a sense of how many candidates are in each stage. You can easily share your Job Description across channels right from your Talent Gallery if you want more candidates in your funnel!
  • Sort and filter to easily compare candidates: By far our most-requested feature! See your list of candidates with all their details and sort by the factors that matter most to you.
  • Go beyond the CV: In the Talent Gallery you can learn much about each candidate! Review assessment performance, read Shortlist’s notes about the candidate, and more.

See for yourself!

We’d be delighted to show you around the Gallery — sign up for a demo here. You can experience the Talent Gallery for yourself during your next Shortlist engagement — get started today.

We’re excited for this next step in helping employers curate the team of their dreams! And there is WAY more to come. Have ideas? Get in touch with me at rachlovesideas@shortlist.net.

Happy hiring!

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Two tried and tested ways to recruit all-star teams
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Imagine you’re the coach of a basketball team (a dream that my high school self imagined all the time). How would you run your try-outs? Would you look at the list of other teams the athletes have played for, or awards they’ve received, or ask them about their aspirations to play professional basketball? Would you have them talk about a time they missed a shot and needed to bounce back?

Probably not. Most likely, you’d put them on the court and see how they play.

Sure, past experience and accolades matter, but resumes (in sports as in life) are rarely as good a predictor of performance as good old “show me what you can do.” The idea of selecting someone without gauging her or his performance seems nonsensical, but in the absence of a different framework, and with limited time to make decisions, this is actually how many small and growing businesses (SGBs) approach talent acquisition.

Hiring is hard

Startups around the world struggle with human capital. In fact, when Village Capital surveyed its portfolio of over 400 entrepreneurs, the respondents cited talent acquisition and retention as their number one barrier to growth, even higher than financing. And without following best practices, it can also be incredibly time-consuming: a report we published this year with FSD Kenya shows that for a single mid-level hire, Kenyan SMEs are spending around 18 hours screening CVs, and then 19 additional hours interviewing candidates — and if anything this number feels low!

I saw this dilemma firsthand while investing in fintech startups for Accion Venture Lab: Many organizations are so focused on raising financial capital that they are blindsided by the difficulty of running effective hiring processes, a necessity for scaling successfully. They would spend hours screening hundreds of CVs, interview some of the candidates (often selected based on university, brand name company experience, or personal connections), and make a decision based on who they liked the most. Not only is this method rife with bias, but it does little to predict who will perform best on the job.

What’s an SGB to do?

At Shortlist, we use competency-based assessments and structured interviews to hire high-performing, best-fit candidates for our clients (and also to build our own team). Aside from being tried and tested through our work with over 100 organizations, these methods are also backed up by countless studies, including this meta-analysis of over 80 years of research. Let’s take a closer look at these two approaches and how you can adopt them in your organization:

Assign work sample or competency-based assessments to test candidate ability: There are two ways to go about this: 1) Give candidates a sample assignment that mimics what they would do on the job (e.g., Excel exercise or social media drafts), and score their performance. Or, 2) Identify the core competencies needed to perform on the job (whether hard or soft skills) and create exercises that test them (e.g., present a fictional situation around reaching deadlines and ask applicants to prioritize actions, to assess for project management skills). At Shortlist, we use a mix of the two.

Here are some tips for implementing assessments at your organization:

  • Avoid making an exhaustive list of competencies and skills your ideal applicant would possess — instead, hone in on the top 3–4 that are absolutely critical.
  • Make sure you can objectively measure assessment performance — make a grading rubric, or create multiple-choice questions that have one right answer.
  • Implement this step (or at least part of this step) before an interview, not after. That way you’ll only spend valuable in-person time on pre-vetted candidates.

Start doing structured interviews: Studies show that judgments made in the first 20 seconds of a job interview can predict the outcome; interviewers often spend the rest of the meeting asking leading questions and interpreting answers in a way that confirms their initial hypothesis about the candidates. A great way to overcome these subconscious biases is the structured interview method, which keeps interviews consistent, predictive, and fair. These are the key elements of a structured interview:

  • Every candidate who is interviewed is asked the same set of questions, regardless of the interviewer, and interviewers agree in advance what they are looking for in a good answer.
  • Questions are explicitly linked to key competencies required to do the job, avoiding common “getting to know you” questions that perpetuate biases.
  • A standard rating scale is used by interviewers to grade candidate answers.

Why does this matter?

Getting hiring right is important for all organizations, but is especially true for SGBs. Let’s go back to the basketball example. With only five team members on the court at once, every player counts. Similarly, in a startup or small organization, every new hire is critical to building on your momentum and solidifying your team culture. On a macro level, looking past pedigree and refocusing on potential is the first step towards a world where everyone gets a shot at fulfilling professional experiences.

I hope this was a helpful starting point for you to reframe your hiring practices and find your next all-star! For more hiring tips and resources, visit our blog and follow us on Twitter.

Paul Breloff is the CEO and co-founder of Shortlist, which helps growing enterprises in India and East Africa hire based on skills and potential, rather than pedigree.

Looking to build your own all-star team? Let Shortlist help you; we offer a wide range of recruitment solutions that help companies build great teams.

Build your all star team with Shortlist

Past blogs in this series on hiring:

https://medium.com/village-capital/why-raising-talent-is-just-as-important-as-raising-money-e8a3c3d095b0

 

https://medium.com/village-capital/why-raising-talent-is-just-as-important-as-raising-money-e8a3c3d095b0

 

https://medium.com/village-capital/why-raising-talent-is-just-as-important-as-raising-money-e8a3c3d095b0

Upcoming blogs:

  • Martha D. Karimi and Manuela Müller, Founders, Edge Consulting — Onboarding, setting up for success in a resource constrained environment
  • Lyndsey Vandament, Kerry Nasidai and Sarah Ngima, Head of Talent Practice, Open Capital Advisors — Where do you want to be in 5 years? Leveraging SGB-tailored talent tools.
  • Rebecca Harrison, CEO and Co-Founder, African Management Initiative — Moving from entrepreneur and hustler to manager and leader: How to embed the management practices that will support your business at scale
  • Caroline Gertsch, Director, Amani Institute — Is your team performing to the best of its potential?
  • Ayla Schlosser, CEO and Co-Founder, Resonate — How can you use storytelling to drive results?
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To Be or Not To Be (a Social Enterprise)
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I really enjoyed a recent piece by Daniel Pianko, co-founder and Managing Director at education-focused venture fund University Ventures, one of our investors. In it, he discusses the tricky no-win decision faced by would-be impact investors:

Make the impact argument to potential limited partners (the groups that invest in venture and private equity funds), and risk being pigeon-holed into a tiny fraction of capital reserved for impact investments. Make the case on returns only, and lose out on the small pool of limited partners eager to anchor impact funds.

Instead, Daniel hopes we all can move past the bifurcated lexicon of social vs. commercial enterprise. (And he’s certainly not the only one; see here for another example…) After all, Daniel believes that the companies out there solving the world’s biggest challenges should end up creating above-market returns for funds, regardless of whether they’re called “impact investments” or not. In UV’s case, this means investing to accelerate positive trends in education and employment pathways, and measuring success in terms of metrics like learning and career outcomes.

I think this is right on. This kind of thesis-led investing is the right way to build a fund — and the right way to build a business.

I couldn’t help but recognize a choice similar to Daniel’s when a company like ours decides whether to identify as a “social enterprise” or not. I feel a certain tension, knowing that for many people the term social enterprise has become code for loss making and non-commercial. That sucks!

When I first discovered the concept of social enterprise in law school, working on a startup bank that aspired to double-bottom line returns, I was inspired. At the time, the existence of a band of people and a coterie of companies aspiring to do well while doing good was thrilling and stoked career aspirations to channel the power of business to solve important global problems.

At Shortlist, I feel like we’re doing just that.

We are guided by our mission to unlock professional potential, to create a level playing field where everyone can be considered for opportunities on the basis of merit, not pedigree, and to help companies build the best teams they can. This feels important and worthwhile, and if we succeed with this we think we will also succeed financially in a big way.

So I hate it when labels like “social enterprise” get reduced to an impact vs. commercial dichotomy. Instead, for me, the label social enterprise should signify a values commitment and a thesis on how to build a successful, money-making business.

We want to wear on our sleeve our commitment to mission, not over or instead of profit, but as a multiplying force of our profit.

Why a multiplying force?

  • Because we believe that our commitment to solve a big problem is what attracts and motivates the best and brightest — and we’re awed by the talented team we’ve assembled.
  • Because we believe that pursuing a positive vision of what’s possible is the best way to secure a broad base of support that goes beyond pure capitalists to include philanthropists, foundations, and governments.
  • Because we believe that many of the biggest problems facing humanity are also the hardest and impact the most humans, suggesting that the rewards can be massive for the folks that figure them out.
  • And because we believe that aiming for impact is the most personally motivating, and after all, Achievement = Talent x Motivation.

So at the end of the day, I believe that whether we call Shortlist a social enterprise will always matter less than our shared vision of the better world we’d like to help create.

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Talent Recruitment: How to crack the talent test
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By Paul Breloff & Shloka Nath

Running a social enterprise is hard, particularly when catering to “base of the pyramid” customers. Marketing to low-income customers, infrastructure and distribution challenges, razor-thin margins, raising money from investors — these challenges would test even the hardiest entrepreneur! Then, of course, there’s the major task of talent recruitment.

In other words, hiring and retaining great people. Although this challenge around talent recruitment is typically overlooked, it is probably the greatest factor driving the success or failure of the social enterprises we’ve worked with.

When Village Capital surveyed its portfolio of over 400 entrepreneurs in 2012, they cited talent acquisition and retention as their number one barrier to growth, easily surpassing financing. In 2015, a survey of C-suite executives by Bain & Company for Accion Venture Lab identified human resources as the biggest organisational need across 21 enterprises.

The challenge exists throughout the talent life cycle — from initial recruiting to training, ongoing development and retention — across hierarchies, from junior unskilled workers to senior executives. Unfortunately, it’s not a challenge that can be magically solved with more money.

Why are human capital challenges tougher for social enterprises?

Let’s be honest. Hiring and talent management is a challenge at all companies, but here’s why talent recruitment is far harder for social enterprises:

Mission, not just skills: Beyond finding skills and experience, most social enterprises also need to see a demonstrated passion for the organisation’s mission. For many, this shrinks a small talent pool into a puddle, making it even harder to find a fit.

Unknown brands: Most social enterprises are relatively young, small and little known beyond specialised circles. With less inbound interest in the company, it becomes more of a sales job than an HR one to convince candidates and, sometimes, their families, who might prefer they join more established organisations.

Talent doesn’t come cheap: As revealed by a 2012 Intellecap report, early-stage social enterprises cite low salaries as a key constraint to hiring and retention. Personally, we don’t believe there should be an inherent trade-off in compensation when choosing a career of meaning and impact, and it is encouraging to see this slowly changing. But, for now, social enterprises often pay a fraction of what talented people could be earning elsewhere.

It’s not an easy life: To top it all off, many social enterprises operate in remote areas with few creature comforts. Five-star hotels are traded in for village cots. Express trains and Uber make way for motorbikes and rickety rickshaws. High-speed internet and stable electricity are swapped for molasses-slow Wi-Fi and off-grid living. This is obviously not always the case (and for many this experience can be a draw), but some companies find it challenging to convince senior talent to take the plunge.

So, what do we do about talent recruitment?

Yes, talent recruitment at social enterprises is hard. The good news is there are many ways to make it better:

At a system level

  • Enmesh impact with education: We need more secondary and tertiary schools and institutions of higher education that present opportunities for students to learn about social enterprise and encourage the pursuit of careers of meaning and impact. This is happening increasingly, particularly at business schools globally, but classes and clubs on these topics at undergraduate universities are just emerging.
  • Create access to real experience: We must make it easier for students to get access to internships or projects to help ignite a career passion. This could be promoted by colleges, governments, investors or the companies themselves. Global impact investor Acumen Fund, for example, runs a programme to recruit fresh graduates into an apprentice scheme, giving exposure to grads while also reducing the cost and effort of recruiting and training new talent.
  • Make mid-career transitions possible: Support more programmes that help talented mid-career professionals transition from mainstream to impact, like Impact Business Leaders.

At a social enterprise level

  • Start early: Even when you’re not actively hiring, be on the lookout for great talent, particularly inbound inquiries from people acutely drawn to your mission and impact. Keep your talent recruitment pipeline of candidates warm and engaged so that when the time comes to bring on new folks, you already have a pool to start from.
  • Invest in employee referrals: Actively engage your existing team to probe their networks and bring in great people. Having employees who are brand ambassadors can be particularly effective for lower-level jobs that require community and local language knowledge.
  • Build a strong brand: Not only does having a strong employer brand increase the visibility of the social enterprise, it aids in employee retention. By strategically building strong credibility in the health sector, Aravind Eye Hospital routinely receives job applications from all over the world, despite the organisation’s strict policy of not advertising for job placements.
  • Mentorship and training: Your employees are your future leaders. Create effective training and mentorship programmes that can target specific skill development. A RippleWorks survey found that entrepreneurs as well as employees reported higher degrees of satisfaction with increased and frequent engagement with mentors.

So where does this leave us? While money will always be a concern, human capital is often more important. Luckily, we believe there’s something to be done at all levels to drive talent recruitment and help bring that talent to the social enterprise space while supporting job seekers in finding dream jobs at impact businesses.

Perhaps social enterprises have the most to gain or lose in solving this, and we hope to see more social enterprises recognise the importance of getting their team and talent equation right.

We’ve seen many times at companies globally that to create something persuasive and extraordinary in the marketplace, one must often first create something persuasive and extraordinary in the workplace. This principle may hold even more strongly for social enterprises, who must create a unique kind of mission-driven soil to attract and grow a talent foundation for scale and impact. If we get this right, the chain reaction of impact will extend beyond the enterprise to customers, employees, and the world at large.

This article was originally published on India Development Review on September 20, 2017. You can access it here.

Co-author Shloka Nath is Director, Development and Publishing, Jnanapravaha Mumbai, India’s premier Cultural Institute for the Arts. Prior to this, Shloka co-founded and was Managing Partner, Sankhya Women Impact Funds.

 

Related Article: Talent acquisition trends 2019: Top seven in Kenya

 

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You’re a talented engineer — here are 5 reasons why you should join a startup
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My entire career has been in technology, at companies that range from startups (where I have been the founding member) to Fortune 50 corporations. One thing that remains the same regardless of company size is how essential talent is to execute your mission. At Shortlist, we’re always on the lookout for great engineers to join our tech team in Hyderabad.

I’m all too aware of the societal and professional pressures that might keep an engineer from joining a startup, including company branding (ideally most of the family should be aware of the company — especially during marriage proposals), job security to pay for home or car loans, pressure to be the breadwinner of the family, and many more. It’s frustrating to meet talented young engineers who are a great fit with our team but feel unable to take the leap — so if you’re an engineer, here are five reasons why you should join a startup:

Reason #1: Opportunity to work on cutting-edge technologies

At startups, the appetite for experimenting with new technologies is higher since innovation is at the heart of every startup. Most big companies are cautious of upgrading to newer technologies given their application impact and cost of training new employees.

At Shortlist, we launched one of our flagship products using Angular 2 JS before Google had even launched Angular 2 to production. Of course, we had our share of problems by choosing this risky route. But luckily, we had access to engineers from the Google team that developed Angular who worked alongside us to solve the bugs together. The experience and feeling of being ahead in the game when it comes to launching products using new technologies are fantastic.

Reason #2: Expedited skills growth

Every engineer will have a chance to wear multiple hats in a startup. Working at startups allows them to pursue their passion in many areas, rather than sticking to the limited job duties. Most engineers are usually involved in all phases of the SDLC making them an all-rounder helping them boost their career opportunities. For example, our lead engineer Sunny was introduced to Java and back-end technologies during the beginning of his career and continued for over seven years. Recently, he started contributing to AWS, found it interesting, and is now executing complex AWS projects which he says was only possible given our support of his growth.

Reason #3: Company branding can later become an asset

Some candidates whom I interviewed mentioned that they liked everything about Shortlist, especially our culture and tech stack, but couldn’t accept our offer because their family wasn’t aware of the company name. Startups aren’t known to the world until they become super successful like Facebook or WhatsApp. How many people heard about the 55 people WhatsApp before it was acquired by Facebook for 19 billion dollars? While not every startup hits it big, it can be a bet worth taking if you believe in the value of the product.

Reason #4: Product companies

Working at a product company is preferred by many engineers compared to working at a service-based company. For someone writing thousands of lines of code, it’s going to be a rewarding experience to see the impact of it in the real world on a regular basis. At product startups, engineers are involved early in the product vision, product roadmap and have an opportunity to contribute entrepreneurial ideas to the business. Engineers have an opportunity to learn a lot more beyond core software development by participating in business meetings, sales calls, user interviews, experimenting new technologies, building innovative solutions and more.

Reason #5: Make an impact — and get recognized for it

When you launch new features in a startup, the impact you make can be observed very quickly and easily. In a bigger company, the piece of code you contribute to may feel insignificant in the huge ocean of code contributed by hundreds of engineers. Passionate engineers get noticed in the early stages and are promoted quickly giving them a jumpstart to their career ladder. For example, Tilak joined us as a technical support engineer and grew to become a software developer in 6 months. Based on his performance and hard work, he was promoted to a lead role in another 9 months and is currently leading a team of engineers. This accelerated career growth can be possible by working in startups.

Bonus: Startups are Fun!

Most startups believe that the best work and ideas come from work hard, play hard culture. From celebrating the big milestones to appreciating the little things, startups have a strong company culture that encourages both teamwork and healthy competition.

Our awesome engineers on the startup journey!

How to choose for yourself?

The word ‘startup’ is an inclusive term and is used by a company with a single person to a company with more than 10,000 employees, like Uber. When evaluating a startup, one needs to look at the strength of the leadership team, funding status, number of employees, happy clients, the culture of the company, the problem they are trying to solve, products they are working on, and more.

A few engineers who initially hesitated to join us because we are an early stage startup eventually joined our team after asking and finding answers to the above questions. Not all startups are the same. So, ask the right questions before you accept or reject an offer from a startup. Good luck!

Ready to make the leap? We are always looking for talented engineers in Java and other open source web technologies at our Hyderabad office. Learn more at www.shortlist.net and get in touch with me at sbandaru@shortlist.net.

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