Recruitment and hiring builds up every organization’s most critical asset: its people. Here at InsightPact, we aim to be the best place to work in the world, and we believe that goal begins with a focus on wellbeing. This commitment starts with our hiring process.

As an early stage organization, our recruitment process has changed dramatically over the last three years, and we will continue to iterate it as we grow and adapt. We strive to practice our values everyday individually, and together as a team. We have come to see our hiring process as a way to introduce and practice our values in conversation with our candidates.

Our values of people-centeredness, integrity, agility, and professionalism grounded in authenticity are a guiding compass towards every step of the hiring process including internal planning, candidate communications, interviews, technical assessments, and contracting. Ultimately, we practice these values in order to create a hiring process that we believe promotes thoughtfulness around wellbeing throughout every interaction.

In this blog, we’ll share more about our hiring process as of January 2022 and the thinking behind our approach. In line with our values,  Integrity is a huge part of our practice. With this blog, we hope to start a conversation about our hiring process that will help us continue to learn and adapt in ways that will make our team and operations stronger.

How we approach recruitment

The hiring process is a learning opportunity for both our team at InsightPact and for candidates who apply. We hope that the result of every application is time well spent on behalf of all parties involved in process, from initial screening to final offer.

When designing every round of our process, our team asks ourselves, “What would make this process time well spent for our team and candidates alike?” The outcomes of these conversations are directly applied to every step. We’ve come to the conclusion that transparency and expectation management for each step is critical to create space to truly understand and find the best fit for the advertised position.

From start to finish, our process is laid out for candidates from the job description to the final offer. For example, we have found that one of the most effective ways to set the desired tone and expectations for our candidates is to send application receipts from our leadership team directly.

Here is an example of our latest letter.

As detailed in the message above, our hiring process is not a quick one, as we want to make sure that there is the right fit and understanding between initial screening and our final offers. However, we know that the job search is tiring, cumbersome, and full of anxiety and assumptions. We want to offer candidates a better experience; one where they know exactly where they stand, what kind of effort they’ll be spending, and our gratitude for their time and energy.

Creating an inclusive and values-driven hiring process

While there is no quick  guide to creating inclusive and values-driven hiring processes, the following key steps have worked well for us at InsightPact.

#1: Manage expectations about the hiring process clearly and directly

As a company working in the social sector, we are constantly balancing the needs of our team, the organization, and our community (including our partners and clients) in order to remain a sustainable operation. And, with our structure as a global, distributed team, we have to be clear and direct about our needs as a team and organization when hiring because working across time zones is hard. For example, on our job descriptions we make sure that we write down which time zones we can support for that position, and engage in direct conversations with shortlisted candidates about their previous experience with working remotely and what they learned they need from those experiences.

#2: Make the salaries and benefits explicit

For example, at this time, we simply can’t afford the expected benefits and salary rates in some locations around the world. However, this situation doesn’t stop us from choosing to offer above market rates and benefits for many other places. Being clear and direct is people-centered, which means that we publish what we can offer for every position we advertise.

#3: Connect the process with the organization’s diversity targets

As a global south-based company in Thailand, working with social impact actors globally, we are proud of our diverse team. As we grow in the coming months and years, we are committed to building a team that is reflective of the partners and communities that we work with around the world. We do this by taking into account gender, disability, sexual orientation, geographic representation, and socioeconomic origin among qualified candidates throughout the recruitment process.

#4: Involve team members, particularly new hires

From the beginning of our recruitment process, we have always involved all members of the team who are interested in participating in interviewing candidates. We have found that this does a few things for our process: (1) it allows for a greater breadth of experiences to be shared, so that candidates have a better understanding of our culture, (2) it helps address unconscious biases by bringing in diverse perspectives into the process, and (3) it builds a shared responsibility for the growth of the team.

#5: Offer feedback as much as possible

We have always offered to give feedback at every stage of the recruitment process, so that people can improve for their next application at InsightPact or anywhere else they choose to apply. We see ourselves as a skills-building organization, and we try to practice this version of ourselves whenever possible, even in recruitment.

The future of our hiring process

The values that we practice at InsightPact are the same principles that we use to design our hiring process and the conversations that take place within that process.

Human-Centered: We recognize that consideration and grace are needed when we understand that job seekers are going through stressful transition periods. Psychological safety is key to enable honest discussions about needs, especially in reflection of previous experiences.  

Integrity: We are honest about our capabilities as an organization and what we are able to offer.

Agility: The process and its communications are direct and clear, yet flexible to account for a variety of situations that account for diversity, equity, and inclusion.

Professionalism with authenticity: The same professionalism and warmth that we extend to our partners and clients are extended to candidates with regular communication, gratitude, and opportunities for reflection and learning.

Our team is growing, and in a time of uncertainty during the COVID-19 pandemic, we have so much gratitude for the community that continues to engage with us. Our hiring process is just the start of a conversation, and we hope that, regardless of the outcomes with each individual, we can continue to have a conversation about the social impact that each of us cares about making in the world.

We have the goal of continuing to make our recruitment process “time well spent” for our team and our candidates. This means adapting to the changing expectations for professional life globally. The reality is that recruitment is just one part of our day to day at InsightPact. This process does not exist in isolation from everything else that we do. In the coming weeks and months, I am aiming to share more about our team’s experiences clarifying and codifying how we work as a global, distributed small business on topics ranging from diversity, equity, and inclusion to compensation policy.

What do you think about our approach to hiring? What other topics do you want us to write about when it comes to operating a small global business? Let us know at hello@insightpact.com

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