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People often react negatively to change. They fear change because they fear the unknown. However, when the winds of change blow, a few manage to build windmills and prevail. One such change that the business world has seen recently is the increase in hiring challenges (or competitions) among recruiters.
Having been in the recruiting landscape for over a decade now, I’ve seen waxes and wanes in hiring methods year on year. However, the challenges of hiring have set in, while traditional methods have taken precedence.
I remember two of the most important B-school job competitions going back in time – one from HUL and the other from Mahindra. Students loved them because they offered face-to-face interview opportunities as a reward. This was the scenario ten years ago.
But over time, other companies (including new era companies, startups, and established companies) have also climbed the rankings. This is because they accepted and adapted to the change. Some of the best examples include Walmart Global Tech India, Flipkart, Juspay, Amazon and Intellect.
Related: Rethinking recruiting is key to finding the best talent
Here’s what they did:
They all played smart and conducted hiring challenges. Benefits? They tapped into earlier unreachable talent by attracting sign-ups as high as 1,37,000+ from a single campaign. Companies like Intellect and Walmart have hired over 302 and over 165 students in fewer resources and less time. Others like Juspay have deployed over 2610 PPIs.
They have built a strong employer brand through an ongoing social media presence.
They tested candidates’ skills accurately and fairly, without any trace of bias.
They saved time and money by running their engagement activities on one platform and accessing a large pool of talent.
Whether new or established, hiring challenges are for everyone. Here are a few examples where companies (regardless of size) have decided to leave the old hiring model behind and give this successful new trend a chance.
Walmart has met the global gender equality mandate with CodeHers. Walmart Global Tech India has been tasked with solving a specific problem – achieving the global gender equality mandate. Therefore, they took a unique approach by designing a recruitment hackathon for female developers with this goal in mind.
Last year, they employed 165 female coders out of 51,053 girl enrollments across all engineering institutions through their coding challenge, CodeHers. So, they ended up going from 35% to 56% of female workers in a shorter period of time without any hassle.
In short, they got access to coders from across the country on one platform. The company also took advantage of free social media promotion to keep potential candidates up to date and provide insight into its employer brand.
Flipkart closed 33% of its B-school hires through various campus challenges. Flipkart has been successfully running job competitions for quite a while now. This year, the company decided to break the status quo by opening the PAN India competition to all B schools. They received around 39,272 entries in the fifth season of Flipkart WiRED; the company hired 58 MBA students. To sum up, they hired 166 candidates through different campus challenges!
In addition to saving time and money, they gathered insights and solutions to their real-world business problems across different industries including business, supply chain, and HR through the Hiring Challenge.
With 302 hires, Intellect has set an example for many. Intellect connected to a large potential reservoir in a seemingly shorter period thanks to their global hackathon. They attracted highly suitable candidates and hired 302 students with fewer financial resources.
26,693 registrations, more than 100 hires and Ather Energy nailed in a single campaign. Ather Energy is another new era company that has understood the importance of recruiting students through hiring challenges. It all started with the individual visit of approximately 45 colleges by the company; in no time, they organized CRAZE-A-THON: Ather Hiring Challenge on Unstop. The best part was providing a level playing field for all interested candidates with no preference for an IIT label, which appealed to the masses and helped them hire over 100 candidates.
Pay has become a student favorite by deploying over 2610 PPOs. To date, Juspay has already hosted two recruitment hackathons and is up and running with its third season of Juspay Developers Hiring Challenge. It has definitely captured the hearts and minds of developers by opening its doors to all engineering students and working professionals.
Related: Recruiting Trends That Are Sure to Change How You’re Hired
Save time and resources
They eliminated prejudices and worked on the diversity of the company by inviting people from different backgrounds. As a result, the company achieved all its goals with fewer resources and saved considerable time.
If you’ve read this far, one thing is for sure: you want to save resources and time, just like these companies did. It can be daunting at first to change your recruiting style, but these examples speak volumes about the effectiveness of hiring challenges.
The point to note is that it doesn’t matter whether you’re a new-age business or a decade-established business, or whether or not you’re offering a big check; you can still interact with a larger audience. Above all, the more people know you and your culture, the more likely you are to attract the right talent.
They can’t all be wrong. Give it a thought. Happy hiring!
Related: Struggling to Hire Top Talent? Change the way you recruit.
