According to the inbound recruiting experts at Datapeople, employers should pay candidates they ask to do trial projects to create a more equitable hiring process.
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It’s common practice these days for employers to include a trial project as part of the hiring process. Less common, though, is for organizations to pay candidates for the time they spend completing those projects. Inbound recruiting firm Datapeople recommends paying candidates for trial projects.
“At Datapeople, we pay candidates for the small projects we ask of them as part of the hiring process,” says Datapeople spokesperson Charlie Smith. “It’s something we do because we recognize that their time is valuable and we want to create a more equitable hiring process.”
According to Datapeople, interview teams aren’t necessarily well prepared to assess talent. They may write job posts quickly, use generic scorecards, and receive little to no interview guidance from the hiring manager.
Interviewers may also repeat the same questions about the candidate’s work history and never paint a clear picture of the role for the candidate, according to Datapeople. The team may end up learning no more than what’s already on an applicant’s resume. Or, worse, the team may formulate judgments based on biased and superficial interpretations.
Datapeople says that a trial project is an opportunity for hiring teams to see a candidate’s work product. Not just past work, which may lack relevance, but current work based on exactly what the employer does. Projects give employers a chance to learn how a candidate thinks and approaches problems. They can see how candidates like to work and better judge whether a candidate is a good fit for the team.
But projects also give candidates a chance to assess a team and company in return, according to Datapeople. Candidates can see up-close the kind of work an employer does to gauge whether they want to join the company.
Datapeople says there are lots of ways to structure trial projects and many ways to pay candidates. Trial projects can be as small as a two-hour project or as big as a trial week or temp-to-hire arrangement. Datapeople limits its own trial projects to something candidates can get done in an afternoon.
“Questions for hiring teams to consider include when to ask for the project, what type of work the project should be, and how much to pay for it,” says Smith. “We typically wait until later in the hiring process to ask. At that point, we may already want to work with the candidate, and the trial project is just the final step before we make an offer. The candidate is either the only one left or in a group of two or three.”
The type of work an employer chooses depends on the end goal, according to Datapeople. Assigning projects unrelated to an employer’s actual industry is one way to assure candidates that the company isn’t trying to get free or low-cost contract work. These tasks also tend to be immediately accessible to candidates.
Assigning related projects, on the other hand, can reveal how well a candidate grasps a company’s work and can give the candidate a clear view of that work. By choosing an already-completed, real-world project, hiring teams can compare the candidate’s solution to an existing one. Datapeople chooses projects directly related to the company’s work, although not already-completed projects, and the projects are purely for assessment purposes.
The amount an employer pays candidates depends on many variables, from duration of the project to recruiting budget. Datapeople pays candidates a fair market freelance rate for this interview step, which isn’t a burden on the company but can be valuable to the candidate.
Many candidates will understand implicitly that they have to do the project to get the position, according to Datapeople. The balance of power is tilted even further for candidates who are out of work and don’t really have a choice. With pay, they at least get something in return.
Finally, paying candidates shows respect, helps establish a level of trust, and provides a better overall candidate experience, Datapeople says. Candidates who appreciate the offer may put more faith in the company. They may also value the work and put more thoughtfulness and effort into the finished product.
Contact Info:
Name: Charlie Smith
Email: Send Email
Organization: Datapeople
Address: 90 Broad St Suite 803, New York, NY 10004, United States
Website: https://datapeople.io/
Release ID: 89076898
