In the first leg of the LinkedIn Philippines User Group event held at our office, we got to learn about how recruiters can be the extended voice of their company’s brand, essentially becoming brand ambassadors to potential candidates. This time, the second leg tackled how recruiters can ensure they’re getting the unicorns for their talent pool through Intelligent Interviewing.

After a round of group discussions that set the expectations for what attendees will learn during the event, the three panelists were up on the chopping board so other recruiters can learn from their example. One of our Lead Recruiters, Martin Ikemura (who’s filling in for Richa) was joined by Diana Christine Concepcion (TELSTRA) and April Lacson-Yumul (Johnson & Johnson).

L-R: April Lacson-Yumul (Johnson & Johnson), Martin Ikemura (YONDU), and Diana Christine Concepcion (TELSTRA)

These three lead recruiters of their companies were asked on how their respective company’s recruitment processes, including their recruitment cycle, structure, and interview scaling; calibration; methodologies for consistent candidate experience; innovative ways in testing candidates for their skillsets; culture fit and diversity; and unconscious bias management.

Because of the difference of the three companies in terms of industries they play in and their requirements for candidates, there were variations in their answers and helped the attendees see different perspectives on how they can better carry our Intelligent Interviewing.

But what is Intelligent Interviewing anyway?

That’s what the attendees also learned throughout the event. It involves stepping away from the traditional interviewing process and getting to know candidates better past their skills and credentials. It’s about considering how candidates are also people, with different personalities and temperaments and characters influenced by their demographic profile and sociocultural environment.

Q&A during the event

Some of Martin’s highlights for companies like ours – who provides staffing to other companies apart from our internal team – was to:

1. Ensure that candidates are welcomed and accepted even during the interview phase. Ask questions that let them express themselves more than just an applicant for a specific position.
2. Align and calibrate with stakeholders to solidify where the meeting point between the client’s needs and Yondu’s resources lies. This not only includes the hard skills (though it also matters greatly), but also what kind of culture the client has so the candidate does not feel left out and instead can contribute better.
3. Be innovative when it comes to assessments – the traditional method may deliver safe candidates, but to actually bring out the best, authentic ones, a little deviation goes a long way. It can involve giving them interesting tests, let two kinds of recruiters with different perspectives interview one candidate, etc.
4. Always consider that people come from different cultures, and “culture fit” does not mean that your company has to be only one kind of culture. Yondu is a melting pot of various cultures and personalities and interests, yet together, we all work towards a common goal. Having diversity in a company is important to make sure no one is left behind, especially when candidates have excellent skills.
5. Being a target-focused company, it can be easy to give in to unconscious bias when trying to meet the goal. It’s imperative that recruitment heads must keep track of their team (and members are actively keeping check off themselves) to see patterns that lead to unconscious bias and address it properly.
6. Always optimize through feedback from both the recruitment team, stakeholders, and the candidate – whether they are accepted or not. This helps the team improve itself and know where their shortcomings lie.
7. Platforms, especially LinkedIn, can provide valuable insight and tools to help you find the right candidates. Used expertly, and you can get the best talent pool for consideration. It’s worth your while to train yourself there.
8. Rejection is always a sensitive move, but it needs to be given in a comprehensive manner. This is not for the company’s ego, but to help the candidate improve themselves and help them step up to their personal challenges. It may very well be the key to cultivating the candidates to become the best version of themselves so they can come back more ready than they were before.
9. Trust your guts. It may sometimes be imperative to convince stakeholders to deviate from their specific candidate profile if you’ve seen that they are the perfect match except for one aspect. Challenge the stakeholders to open themselves to this change.
10. Tests are only one facet of the recruitment and assessment process. A candidate may have scored low in psychometric exams and whatnot, but why not give them a chance? If a person really wants to change and contribute to the company, they will absorb training and coaching to become better holistically.

Sir Rap Nicolasura sketching out his ideas on how to make the recruitment process more innovative.

After the panel talk, attendees engaged in sharing their ideas for how they can improve their recruitment process per group. This allowed them to brainstorm on ways that can solidify their efforts and how they can carry our more Intelligent Interviewing in their respective companies.

We hope the attendees learned something from us as much as we learned something from them!

We Want You to Be a YONDUde!

Our doors are open for everyone who wants to be part of the Yondude initiative! If you’re ready to put these practices to the test as one of our recruiters, head on over to our Careers Page and see if you have what it takes!