Recruitment Report Generator - How Datumo automated recruitment processes

In this article, we'll discuss how we at Datumo have transformed our recruitment process with the help of an in-house tool called the Recruitment Report Generator (RRG). By automating, standardizing, and streamlining our recruitment procedures, RRG has helped us save a substantial amount of time and enhance our candidate evaluation process. Datumo's recruitment process involves multiple stages, with the programming task being a crucial step, tailored for candidates with limited experience and serving as an essential component and a highly reliable methodology in assessing their competencies.

In the past, Datumo developers shared their expertise about assessed recruitment tasks through manually written feedback. As the number of applications to our company grew, managing and comparing these evaluations became increasingly challenging.

We introduced the Recruitment Report Generator (RRG) to address this issue. RRG is now integrated into the final stage of the recruitment process. Its implementation has significantly improved and streamlined our operations. We use RRG to ensure that every candidate is evaluated fairly and objectively. Our standardized approach allows us to compare and analyze evaluations quickly, providing valuable insights for candidates and recruiters.

In this article, we'll delve deeper into the features and benefits of RRG, explaining how it has transformed our recruitment operations, improved the candidate experience, and provided valuable data for analysis and decision-making. We invite you to join us on this journey to discover the transformative impact of RRG on our overall recruitment process.

The Challenge: Pre-RRG Task Evaluation Process

The implementation of RRG did not change the key steps of the evaluation process. Candidates still need to grant access to their private GitHub repositories for the evaluation of their recruitment tasks at Datumo. Then, Datumo developers assess the code from two perspectives: ensuring that task requirements were met and evaluating its quality in terms of programming best practices and cleanliness.

Before the tool was introduced, the process had its limitations.

• The evaluations usually took around 30-40 minutes, depending on the developer's experience. It could take over an hour for a new developer to establish their own evaluation criteria based on instructions and guidelines.
• Sometimes a developer would want a second opinion, and would provide a link to the repository to other developers for peer review. However, if such a link was not available, a lot of work had to be done to find the candidate's solution on GitHub.
• After the evaluation, the Datumo developers documented their assessment in a private recruitment channel on Slack. They highlighted the strengths and weaknesses of the solution, assigned a numerical rating (usually on a scale of 1-10, although each developer had their own interpretation), and recommended to decision-making stakeholders whether the candidate should move forward in the recruitment process. Compiling evaluation feedback was time-consuming. Additionally, comparing and analyzing it was challenging due to its varying structures and the criteria used by individual developers.
• To ensure effective communication with the candidates, the Operations team had the additional responsibility of providing clear and concise feedback. This task was particularly demanding for the Operations team members who lacked technical expertise, resulting in additional work for them.

The Functionality of RRG

The Recruitment Report Generator (RRG) is a powerful tool that automates, standardizes, and speeds up recruitment. It transforms recruiters' assessments into comprehensive PDF reports. It also generates a summary message for the recruitment department containing an overview and recommendation for the candidate. It all starts with the developer filling out a Google form with an evaluation of the task. The form features various criteria to select from. After completing the form, the developer simply clicks "submit," and RRG handles the rest of the process.

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The PDF report generated by the RRG fulfills several key objectives:

Ready-to-Send Feedback: The generated PDF is formatted and ready to be sent directly to the candidate as comprehensive feedback. It eliminates the need for the Operations team to compose messages manually. Additionally, the PDF report includes all the evaluation criteria and their corresponding assessment, giving candidates a thorough breakdown of their performance, as well as actionable insights for development.

Centralized Criteria Collection: The RRG consolidates all evaluation criteria and information regarding how the candidate performed in one centralized location. This enables easy comparison of reports and evaluations of different candidates, facilitating more objective decision-making.

Identifying Solution Details: The generated PDF report contains all necessary information about the candidate's solution, such as their name and surname, and a link to their GitHub repository. This ensures clarity and traceability in the evaluation process.

By streamlining the task evaluation process and automating the generation of comprehensive feedback reports, the RRG has transformed how performance is assessed at Datumo.

Task Evaluation with RRG

We will now explore how implementing the Recruitment Report Generator (RRG) has transformed the task evaluation process, establishing clear and specific criteria, while increasing objectivity, efficiency, and time-management.

Before the introduction of RRG, the evaluation of task submissions followed a manual and subjective approach that we described previously, detailing all the shortcomings. Now, let's explore how the evaluation process has evolved with the introduction of RRG:

Objective Assessment: The evaluation process becomes more objective with RRG criteria. Developers now have a framework to assess candidates consistently, eliminating some of the subjectivity in the previous approach.

Streamlined Evaluation Process: The developer opens a prepared Google Forms evaluation form, where they fill in essential information about the candidate, including their name, surname, and the GitHub repository link. The form remains unchanged and can be treated as a checklist, meaning with every subsequent evaluation, the developer knows what to expect, ensuring a faster and more systematic approach. 

Automatic Report Generation: Once the developer clicks the "Submit" button in the Google Forms evaluation, RRG automatically generates a comprehensive feedback report in PDF format. The report includes all the evaluation criteria, candidate identification details, and an overall assessment. RRG saves the report on Google Drive and sends a Slack message to the recruitment department containing the report link and an evaluation summary.

Comprehensive Assessment: The developer evaluates the task by checking if all requirements were met and assessing the code quality. They indicate the fulfillment level of all criteria (fully met, partially met, or not met) and assign the task solution a rating on a scale of 1 to 4. Finally, they make a recommendation regarding the candidate's progression.

Time Savings: The use of RRG significantly reduces the time required for evaluation, communication and feedback. The evaluation process now takes approximately 10-15 minutes, saving around 20-30 minutes compared to the previous approach. The most time-consuming aspect is often assessing the correctness and computational complexity of the algorithm used in the task solution.
Faster Onboarding of Evaluators: The detailed guidelines provided by the criteria enable faster onboarding of new developers responsible for evaluating task submissions. The new team members follow specific instructions, ensuring consistency in the evaluation process.

Effortless Feedback Delivery: The Operations department no longer needs to spend time editing and formatting the feedback. They can simply access the generated report and send it directly to the candidate, ensuring consistency and saving time.

By utilizing the power of RRG, the task evaluation process has become more efficient, objective, and standardized.

Summary

As we have demonstrated above, the implementation of the Recruitment Report Generator at Datumo has brought about a revolution in the task evaluation process. By automating and standardizing the evaluation workflow, RRG has significantly enhanced the recruitment process's efficiency, objectivity, and overall effectiveness.

Traditionally, evaluating task submissions was a time-consuming and subjective endeavor. Developers relied only on their individual judgment and intuition when assessing the code and providing feedback. This approach often resulted in inconsistencies, lengthy feedback messages, and challenges in comparing candidates' performances.

However, with the introduction of RRG, the evaluation process has undergone a remarkable transformation. The clear and concise evaluation criteria has provided a solid framework for assessing candidate solutions objectively. Developers now have standardized guidelines, ensuring consistency and fairness in the evaluation process. And most importantly, RRG provides a significant advantage with its ability to save time. The automated generation of feedback reports has cut the evaluation time by more than half. This time-saving benefit allows developers to focus on core tasks and manage increasing numbers of applications more effectively.

Additionally, RRG's standardization has streamlined the evaluation process and allowed for faster onboarding of new developers. The detailed criteria and guidelines make it easy for new team members to understand and participate in the assessment, ensuring a smooth transition and consistent evaluations.

To sum up, our use of RRG has transformed how we evaluate tasks by addressing the issues of subjectivity, inconsistency, and time constraints. Automating report generation, establishing clear criteria, and improving objectivity have increased our recruitment process's efficiency, transparency, and effectiveness. As we expand and attract more talented individuals, RRG will remain a valuable asset in ensuring a seamless and robust evaluation process, setting us up for continued success and excellence in talent acquisition. For those interested in the technical aspects of RRG, we have also prepared an article that delves into the architecture and technical solutions behind our evaluation system. This article provides detailed insights into the inner workings of RRG, offering a deeper understanding of the technology that drives our recruitment process.