Solving for candidate drop offs - Geektrust PLATINUM

This has been the story of tech hiring especially for the past 1 year or so: you find eligible candidates, shortlist and interview 20 of them, make an offer to 3, 1 person accepts, and you wait 2 months for the candidate to join, only to finally have them back out 3 days before the joining date.

So we developed a solution for the problem of huge candidate drop-offs. I will present it in a minute, but stay with me while I explain why and how we got there :)

When we started Geektrust 7 years ago, our value prop was straightforward - hire code vetted developers who can write good code (read what we mean by good code).

Geektrust phase I - Quality candidates

Initially, we were trying to solve just 1 problem - reduce time spent by tech and recruitment team to hire developers. Tech teams get frustrated with the hiring process because they spend an inordinate amount of time interviewing candidates who are not good enough.

Our solution was to give companies not just candidate resumes, but also a report on their coding skills, along with access to the candidate's code (just like a github link). Companies found that seeing the candidate's code before shortlisting them improved the interview success ratio by 300%. Checkout testimonials from companies like Thoughtworks, Zomato, Vedantu etc. on our home page.

Geektrust Phase II - The human touch

We built our product and waited for companies to use it :). After much waiting, we realized we need to build a customer service team that talks to companies and developers, understands their needs and helps them use our product. In short, do everything tech/AI cannot do, fill in the gaps so that the tech and human parts complement each other.

From having 0 people in account management to 25+ now, we've come a long way.

Geektrust Phase III - Screw it, let's do interviews too!

The hiring process is a complex one. And in most cases long too. From building a pipeline of candidates, shortlisting the right ones, coordinating with them on interviews, the interview rounds (which can go upto 6 depending on the company), offer negotiation, post-offer negotiation, finally the candidate joining, it's a long drawn out process with multiple points of failure.

Two of the biggest points of failure we noticed were (a) companies taking long in scheduling interviews and (b) interviews being extremely unpredictable. Most companies don't have guidelines for interviewers, a fixed interview panel, or a checklist of skills. Depending on the mood of the day for the interviewer, the interview can swing either way.

So we took interviews out of the picture as well by asking the Geektrust community to take interviews for us (thanks folks!). At this point we had code vetted, interviewed candidates whom companies could hire. What could go wrong?

Geektrust Phase IV (today) - Reducing candidate dropoffs

The pandemic hit the recruitment industry in an unexpected way - more candidates were accepting offers but not joining. Dealing with candidate drop offs was becoming a huge problem. I know of recruitment companies that stopped servicing tech requirements because they were confident that candidates will not join.

We were deeply impacted by this as well with revenues dropping significantly. At its peak, for a couple of months, 45% of the candidates who accepted offers through us backed out. So we came up with a new offering that combines all our value props.

• Candidates matching the JD
• Code vetted
• Interviewed
• And can join in less than 21 days

This super premium set of candidates is Geektrust PLATINUM. We've recently launched this, and have received fantastic feedback from clients. All candidates come with a detailed code report and interview notes, in addition to their resume. And we curate for candidates who can join in less than 21 days.

How are we able to find candidates who can join quickly?

We work with 20+ contracting companies who have candidates who can join quickly. Most of these candidates are available to join immediately as either full time or contractors who can be converted to full-time over a period of time.

In addition, 15% of the candidates who register daily on Geektrust mark themselves as immediately available. We work with them, take them through our screening, code-vetting and interviewing process so that companies need to do fewer interviews, and have candidates join without dropping off.

If Geektrust platinum sounds interesting, do take a look at more details here and get in touch! You can mail us at [email protected]