Switching to data-driven hiring

A major source of Contentoo's growth has been its sales and customer success teams, which expanded significantly over the past couple of years. However, according to COO Wisse Bakker - recruiting for these roles posed some unique challenges.

“Our team at the time consisted of a lot of young people who, while talented, were quite inexperienced in hiring, and I didn't want to rely solely on my opinion. I'm a big fan of taking feelings out of the hiring process to make it as unbiased as possible, which is never completely the case, but I think we should at least do our best to make it as unbiased as possible.” - Wisse Bakker

Hiring bias can filter out the best candidates

For Wisse, it was extremely important to standardize the hiring process to maximize objectivity and accuracy.  

“I think in the whole process, the hiring team doesn't see a resume to make sure that everything is the same. So you don't get biased from, let's say, an unimpressive CV” 

However, the hiring managers still needed additional data to help them decide which candidates should be moved onto later interview stages. 

“I was indeed looking for a tool that can give me some guidance but doesn't take over the whole process and is in that sense scalable and affordable.”

This was particularly important for the customer-facing roles the company was hiring for, as a large degree of soft skills were involved.

Initially, the team used another talent assessment tool to support their decision-making, but the workflows and general UX weren’t up to par. Having used TestGorilla at a previous company, Wisse suggested TestGorilla as a strong alternative as the platform was particularly easy to set up, and new applicants could be entered into the process with ease.  

After some additional testing, Contentoo made the switch to TestGorilla.

Contentoo set skills-based benchmarks that top candidates could clear

Wisse first had his entire team take the test to set up an initial benchmark, so he compared candidate results against those achieved by existing employees.

Having used TestGorilla for multiple years, the company now has additional candidate results that it can pull from to establish even more accurate benchmarks.

“Yeah, that really helps me because now it's not just one or two results measured against the TestGorilla benchmark. Instead, all of our candidates contribute toward the benchmark, and that helps us understand how the different tests should be scored.”

This process also helped him understand the critical skills needed for customer success roles. Currently, the company’s assessment consists of tests for time management, communication test, and negotiation skills. 

Candidates whose scores meet or exceed benchmarked levels are passed onto a final interview with a key account manager and a final scenario-based test. 

With TestGorilla, Contentoo has the data to back recruitment decisions

For Contentoo, hiring fast isn’t the main objective. Hiring right is. Everyone from operational managers to senior leadership is involved in recruiting decisions, and quality is always at the forefront of their thinking.

According to Wisse, TestGorilla’s biggest impact has been minimizing bias across the company’s hiring process. 

“It's a data point to help with understanding someone's real capabilities. So for me, it’s really important” 

Hard data was particularly important when hiring managers weren’t familiar with the technicalities of a particular role.

The assessments also help identify individuals who are motivated to demonstrate their value to the company.

“Candidates have a bit of pressure during the process and know they need to achieve something, to show their skills.”

Equipped with these new insights, Wisse and his team can gain a much fuller understanding of their applicants and ultimately make data-driven hiring decisions.

Make the move to data-driven hiring

With TestGorilla, you have the tools to ask your candidates better, more incisive questions. Assessments are automatically graded and ranked based on standardized criteria, ensuring you can compare candidates on a fair basis according to their proven skills.

With these reports at hand, you can easily select the applicant that is the best fit for your company.

About the Company

Contentoo is Europe’s leading content creation platform. Combining AI-powered, cutting-edge technology with creative human talent, the company empowers brands to create scalable, performance-optimised content. It currently provides content for hundreds of rising EU brands.