The human-first approach in Hiring during pandemic times

We are aware of how difficult it is to prepare for an interview. And with almost the entire workforce working from home during the pandemic times, the entire hiring process has become even more so stressful for the candidates.

Finding that comfortable position with the internet, away from the daily chores, away from the family to find that peaceful corner where you may present yourself as the best person for hire. The core team at Wizikey, had such human-level experiences while interviewing  – one day, a candidate with amazing talent and experience, now in Bhopal started apologising because of the prayers coming from a nearby mosque, or a candidate felt miserable because she was in Bengaluru and her electricity kept cutting in and was impossible for her to focus on the interview. 

And there are just so much of competition to fit in the few available jobs. We recently started actively hiring and 4 of our positions – in Sales, Management, Success and Tech– fetched us close to 2000+ resumes. Under 24 hours. All our resume filtering process, systems were in check. We are a Tech company and we decided to upgrade our systems to cope up with the resume – and then we realised  – there is so much power play in these hiring processes more in the favour of the employer that it is absolutely impossible for the interviewee the maintain sanity. No product, No conference software or not even an algorithm can help here. And while discussing this with my core team, we decided to do our bit to ease off things.

It is simple – a 15 min casual talk.  A friendly talk that you would have with human beings. At the Airport when you find someone reading your fav book. At the restaurant, when you are in the queue. Or met someone recently in a friend’s home.

So we have begun doing a 10 to 15 min casual talk – on phone, video or wherever you are convenient. This talk is not a criterion to select you or interview you. This is more of a friendly chat with us and you. Like friends. We will just chat with you to know if you want clarification in the role, how will you like to be an interview, clarify our hiring process, ask you on your immediate needs, why is the job important and let just talking to make a friend.  
Is that not the right thing to do right now? 

Should we feel that our job is not the right fit for you, we will tell you in this talk itself – rather than taking you through dozens of hours and then telling you the result. We are aware of how difficult it will be to cope up with that undue stress. 
If you have recently been asked to come for a casual talk – please do not stress yourselves. And if you have feedback to help us better this process – please let us know. 

We are all together in this.