<aside> 🎯 A Climate Accelerator not-for-profit start-up saw their team skyrocket when we helped them to secure 7x key new hires, all on top of a reduced time to hire and overall spend by 50%, by engaging our Human-Centred Hiring model.

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<aside> 📣 Subak was founded in 2020 to revolutionise how we respond to climate change.

Subak is a cooperative system developed by rice farmers for sharing water, which allowed them to grow and thrive despite difficult environmental conditions. At Subak, we apply this ethos to data. By collectivising resources and infrastructure, we enable organisations to collaborate to speed progress.

Wanting to upscale their core team and add a new Board Chair, the CEO of the Climate Accelerator start-up Subak reached out to Never Mind The Job Spec to implement a bespoke human-centred hiring experience.

As a not-for-profit start-up, Subak were interested in a hiring partner with a deep understanding of the climate, environment and sustainability talent landscape, and experience in creating assessment frameworks for multiple team functions. It was also vital for them to launch a new, bespoke hiring process that largely focused on company values, diversity and inclusion.

For context, our client offers two key functions in the climate not-for-profit sector:

1). A non-equity core funded 3-month accelerator programme for climate not-for-profits.

2). A Data Catalogue which makes climate data more discoverable, trusted and connected.

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<aside> 🚨 Our client’s existing team members had been sourced from the Advisory Board’s existing network or were Cohort members of the Accelerator Programme who had joined the Subak team on an interim basis while their own ventures continued to scale.

We identified the following project challenges below:

• A lack of a formalised end-to-end recruitment process, with no recruitment or hiring templates/documents to support the process.
• Hiring Managers operated in silos, which was causing a lack of cohesion and impacting hiring decisions.
• Low numbers of applications from active job seekers and limited to zero applications from passive candidates.
• Limited capacity in feedback from the team, keeping candidates/interviewees engaged, and managing the overall candidate experience, which was resulting in low candidate retention rates in the interview and assessment process.
• Talent brand awareness was limited with no activity or plan to scale and/or invest.
• Organic LinkedIn applications were the main source of candidate attraction and engagement.
• There were no pre-employment screening (PES) process or right-to-work (RtW) checks being undertaken with new hires. </aside>

<aside> 🎯 While working through our discovery phase in collaboration with the CEO and the Hiring Managers, we were able to find a solution for the project.

Together through a series of one-to-one meetings and group sessions, we defined a clear set of objectives for the 6-month project and agreed that our PROJECT solution was the best option for the team and business.

The solution was comprised of the following:

• Revamping the hiring process with our end-to-end human-centred hiring approach to prioritise the needs of both candidates and hiring managers.
• Implementing a high-impact values-led approach which would reduce the time to hire and embed the company values into the interviewing process.
• Utilising our deep talent market and industry knowledge to gather both qualitative and quantitative insights to inform data-driven hiring decisions.
• Delivering tailored hiring analytics and activity reports to the hiring teams to inform hiring decisions.
• Amplifying the talent brand message to engage and attract active and passive talent.
• Implementing our winning client and candidate-focused hiring approach to ensure that the company remained competitive. </aside>

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7x company-wide hires with a 100% offer to acceptance rate, covering the sourcing, interviewing and onboarding of the following core team members

• The list of key hires

We used the below hiring metrics to measure success:

• Faster Time to Hire which reduced from a whopping average of 40 days to 27 days
• Reduced overall cost of recruitment by over 50% versus the traditional agency model.
• 100% Fill Rate
• 9/10 Average Score for Candidate Experience (NPS)

Another major focus point of this project with Subak was driving forward an impactful Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DEI) strategy. To achieve this, we:

• Provided valuable assistance to the CEO in crafting a new DEI policy statement for use in all job descriptions and external hiring materials
• Proactively used job boards that were established to engage ethnically diverse candidates
• Presented interview shortlists that reflected gender and ethnic diversity

The results? A 20% boost in ethically diverse team members and a 40% boost in female team members with one female senior hire to the Board.

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<aside> 💛 At its core, our Human-Centred Hiring model fuses together positive candidate experience, talent brand advocacy and values-driven hiring.

• Click here to see the fusion

Human-Centred Hiring actions and activities included:

• Rolled out social media posts which promoted the candidate experience ****of other applicants and interviewees, resulting in applicants sharing their experience and advocating for the company.
• Used personalised messaging for passive talent resulting in an average 15% conversion rate from prospect outreach to response.
• Provided feedback to 100% of applicants which led to a 9/10 NPS score for candidate experience.
• Grew engagement through our bespoke candidate experience, resulting in a 95% retention rate for all interviewees.
• Placed company values at the forefront of social media content, increasing social content engagement and direct contact from talent via LinkedIn.
• Provided coaching to the interviewers through a continuous feedback loop, delivering a human-centred experience for interviewees.
• Increased candidate referrals based on previous applicants’ and interviewees’ experience of the process. </aside>

<aside> 🏁 Never Mind The Job Spec’s down-to-earth, human-centred hiring support made a world of a difference to Subak’s talent acquisition process, delivering successful outcomes for both our client and new hires.

By prioritising candidate experience, talent brand advocacy, and being values-driven, we played a pivotal role in attracting and hiring 7 outstanding individuals with diverse perspectives and skill sets.

The 7 key hires we made increased Subak’s social currency, and we were also able to establish a culture where feedback is viewed as currency for time.

Today, Subak continues to improve and grow their team, while also providing their employees with the support and tools to succeed.

Client after client, candidate after candidate, our Human-Centred Hiring model continues to prove that by putting the human first and focusing on their individual needs, you’ll be able to attract, engage, and hire motivated and productive team of professional who align with your organisation’s goals and wider vision.

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<aside> 💡 Read more details about the Project Talent Solution successfully deployed for this client here: Project

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📲 Let’s connect to talk

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Are you thinking of recharging your talent and people strategy in 2024? Our Human-Centred Project Talent Solution is proven to identify, activate, attract, and engage the best talent for your rapidly scaling startup or scale-up business.

If that sounds of interest to you, we’re open to a friendly, non-committal chat about your hiring ambitions.

Reach out today at…

Glenn Martin, I’m the Founder and CEO of Never Mind The Job Spec

Mobile/WhatsApp: +44 (0) 7834 786 889

Email: [email protected]

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