How Nearbuy evaluates candidates on ‘culture fit’

For any hiring process, the first impression that recruiters build about candidates is based on their resumes. This is because the background, skills, and education of the candidates are outlined in the resumes. But, here is a company that believes in reversing the process.
Keeping the resume scanning for the end of the process, this company first screens the personality of the candidate – the objective being to find the right culture fit.

Nearbuy is that company, which has disrupted the usual hiring practices and has set its own rules. The digital company now takes help of online screening test mediums for the initial level of assessments, which neither require a brick and mortar premise nor a hundred invigilation checks.

“Amidst this experimentation of cultural variation, I decided on inheriting an approach of knowing the potential candidates, not by screening their resumes but by primarily screening their personalities and approach. We began by sending a list of 20 odd questions to all those who had approached us for various positions,” says Ankur Warikoo, CEO and founder, Nearbuy.

Engaging with candidates on social-network sites is the first step of the process. This drives them to the corporate website, and these online channels are able to build the organisation’s image in the minds of the people.

This allows the employers to engage with the prospects and also better judge their abilities and job suitability. It also allows the employers to develop a relationship with the prospective employees.

“There was no structure to the questions sent to the applicants. Nothing was prescribed as right or wrong, but the approach was what we were assessing. Much to my amazement, of the over 100 applications received, only 27 per cent of the applicants reverted with their responses. Hence, the first level of screening got done automatically, where we realised that those not interested in answering for themselves, would naturally not respond to us.”

I decided on inheriting an approach of knowing the potential candidates, not by screening their resumes but by primarily screening their personalities and approach

This process became an automatic filter for Nearbuy to gauge the interest level of the candidates.

The Company believes that money isn’t the only factor to attract prospective candidates.

The employees aspire to be a value addition to the organisation and be a part of the growing entity. This motivates them to deliver high-end performance, which eventually benefits the organisation. Hence, Warikoo and his team screen such aspirations among the candidates.

The recruitment team at Nearbuy have adopted a holistic approach towards the recruitment process. This involves multiple rounds of interviews along with keeping in touch with the candidate even after the recruitment process is over.

The screening doesn’t really end here, states Warikoo. “Post this stage, we send the respondents a GMAT sort of test, which helps us screen various analytical aspects of their personalities. Since everyone in the company has already taken the test and we know their scores too, consideration is given to those who cross the respective benchmarks of the three segments of the test.”

A new trend is to check that the candidates have the right attitude towards learning and self-development, before hiring them. Given the pace at which business is changing and growing, HR today has no option but to continuously upgrade the skill sets of the existing workforce and keep them abreast with the latest tools and technologies.

Hiring is no more limited only to searching for candidate profiles on job portals or sourcing profiles from job consultants. As the economic sexiness of start-ups continue to lure top talent from larger, established industry companies, employers must adapt to this paradigm shift in hiring to remain competitive. Not only is there a need for new recruiting strategies, tools and approaches, but stronger collaboration between marketing, communications and HR.