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  |   USA

Enabling diversity hiring

This American enterprise is one of the world’s largest e-commerce companies. The brand started as an online marketplace for books but expanded to sell electronics, software, video games, apparel, furniture, food, toys, jewelry, and almost everything conceivable. It has a reputation for disrupting well-established industries through technological innovation and mass scale. It is the world's largest online marketplace, AI assistant provider, live streaming and cloud computing platform.

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Industry

E-commerce

Use case

Hackathon Platform

What the company achieved

6500 female students from tier-1 tech schools participated in the event

Conducted India’s largest diversity hiring online event


Business Challenges

The e-commerce giant’s commitment to diversity consistently pushed it to seek ways to scale its impact. It intended to build an increasingly diverse workforce by onboarding more women in tech roles, given its firm belief in equal employment opportunity. To achieve this vision, the company wanted to hire talented women coders from leading technology institutions across India.

 

The company had no ambiguity In its diversity hiring goals; however, the challenge was transforming them into an actionable strategy. It required a strategic partner to understand and execute its objective into a large-scale, pan-India campus hiring event.

 

The company sought the following specifications from its hiring partner:

 

  • A technology-based scalable solution

The company wanted to conduct and execute one of the largest virtual technology hiring events. It sought to reach out to the best tech institutions across India. So, it wanted a technology-based scalable solution. The solution had to be a one-stop shop that would help execute the event in its entirety.

  • Means of assessing technical skills accurately and efficiently

The company wanted a platform to evaluate the participating female candidates’ technical skills accurately and efficiently, with minimum hassles. The technology-based platform had to exceed the current industry standards of evaluation. The company also expected the platform to offer a user-friendly interface and easy codability.

  • Impeccable data security standards

The company wanted a partner that offered excellent data security standards and was GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) compliant. The company desired a robust and secure infrastructure support system because hundreds of thousands of participants were expected to upload and download files simultaneously.

  • Experience in conducting large-scale hiring events online

The company expected a scalable solution with experience in conducting large-scale events involving many participants. Besides, it expected a collaborative and interactive platform that allowed participants to brainstorm, manage thousands of registrations and judge many participants.

  • An intuitive solution that required minimal input and effort from the client

The company sought a partner to conceptualize, operate and execute the entire solution and provide round-the-clock on-ground support. The desired partner also needed to manage the ideation and technical difficulties and ensure a seamless flow of information and effortless integration. Besides, it had to provide a reliable tech-based platform that would efficiently manage all communications and entries on a single dashboard with the utmost ease.

Solution

Mercer | Mettl gained detailed insights into the brand’s diversity hiring plans and devised the right campus hiring strategy. Mercer| Mettl’s team of experts believed that an Online Diversity Hackathon would be the best way to attract top women coders in large numbers. Here is why:

  • Hackathons single out the best talent and identify creative thinkers and problem-solvers.
  • Candidates find creative solutions to business problems and help solve existing challenges.
  • Assigning real-world coding problems to students enables gaining insights into their overall coding aptitude.
  • The online version of hackathons reduces workforce efforts, requires fewer hours to plan and involves lesser logistic coordination.

Here is how Mercer | Mettl’s team addressed the problem statement with a step-by-step approach.

 

A fully online hackathon platform

 

Mercer | Mettl’s fully online and self-serve Hackathon and Ideation platform enabled conducting the competition at a large scale on a national level. The company required an online hackathon platform to build and market the proposed digital event that could attract, test and hire the best female tech students from all backgrounds across India.

 

Here is how the platform helped the company execute the perfect event:

  • Mercer | Mettl’s single dashboard with exceptional features helped set up an event landing page.
  • The configurable and user-friendly platform enabled the company to set up a white-labeled microsite with multiple stages.
  • It supported marketing initiatives and empowered the organization to execute all event-related activities on a single dashboard.
  • Mercer | Mettl’s Hackathon platform allowed participants to create teams and collaborate.
  • It configured multiple rounds with clear instructions on the challenge and rules.
  • After the event, the platform enabled the judges to review participants’ submissions easily and announce the winners.

 

Expert consultations for ideation and creating a customized landing page

 

Mercer | Mettl’s team recommended a campaign around International Women’s Day to increase women’s hiring to create a visible, large-scale hiring initiative targeting the desired group. The team created a dedicated landing page on Mettl’s Hackathon platform for the hiring event. It created a buzz around the event to ensure maximum visibility and participation through social media and direct campus engagement.

  • The customized landing page allowed participants to register, get crucial information about the roles, complete assessments and schedule interviews.
  • Registration: The participants could register for the event and set a preferred interview location.
  • Information: The participants could get every detail about the jobs/roles, location, the company, and view the FAQs (frequently asked questions).
  • Virtual assessments: After the screening, the participants were invited to complete the online assessments and participate in a simulated coding challenge.
  • Interview schedules: The shortlisted candidates were then invited to face-to-face interviews.

 

Assessment frameworks designed by subject matter experts

 

After gaining insights into the job role requirement, Mercer| Mettl’s team of subject matter experts defined every sub-competency required for each role and designed assessments considering the levels for which they were being administered. These role-specific tech assessments combined application and knowledge-based problems that needed to be solved in real-time.

 

Mercer | Mettl offered a two-layered innovative solution, including MCQ-based questions, combined with real-world coding problems. These were to be solved using Mercer | Mettl’s stellar Back-end Simulator (Codelysis).

 

Multiple choice question-based assessments evaluated the domain knowledge

 

Mercer | Mettl’s coding assessment platform offered an extensive programming test library, replete with 100,000+ technical questions for 300+ skills, enabling the brand to devise impactful screening assessments.

  • A user-friendly and well-defined test interface helped the hiring managers set up the candidates’ exams using multiple question types instantaneously.
  • The diversity of the questions helped the brand gauge the candidates’ technical concepts in every dimension, besides their future thinking.
  • The score-based reports determined the level of domain understanding and filtered candidates for the next round of online simulator-based tests.

 

Mercer | Mettl’s high-tech coding simulators assessed the application-based skills of the filtered candidates as part of the hackathon

 

Mercer | Mettl’s Coding Simulator enabled the company to test the real-world coding skills of the filtered candidates and identify the most suitable from the lot for the final face-to-face interview round.

 

Click here to learn about Mercer | Mettl Simulator Codelysis.

 

Fully auto-graded and detailed reports of the assessments offered insights into the candidates’ existing skills level

 

The company could evaluate candidates in detail, using the custom scoring logic for both assessment and simulation tests.

  • The auto-graded assessments instantaneously evaluated candidates on several parameters, such as code correctness, difficulty level, time and space complexities and other vital parameters.
  • The accurate test reports offered in-depth analytics of code and programming standards, enabling the decision-makers to predict the candidates’ real-life skills at scale.
  • A thorough evaluation of the coding potential was bias-free and backed the hiring managers’ decisions with optimum reliability and validity of coders’ actual potential.

 

Proctoring and authentication features to maintain the credibility of assessments

 

A remarkable set of online remote proctoring features added to the value and credibility of the online coding and MCQ-based assessments. A stellar candidate authentication system, followed by AI-based proctoring and easy access to recording and reviewing the assessments, ensured credible tests.

  • Mercer | Mettl’s facial recognition technology and a 3-point candidate authentication system ensured the right candidate took the assessment.
  • Mercer | Mettl’s Secure Exam Browser sanitized the environment by disabling unauthorized browsers, tabs, search engines, ports, etc.
  • Mercer | Mettl’s AI-powered suite of proctoring tools ensured maximum cheating prevention, using record and review proctoring on its coding assessment platform.

The Impact

The e-commerce behemoth digitized its entire technical assessment process without compromising on the candidates’ experience using Mercer | Mettl services and its team of experts. Mercer | Mettl’s transparent, bias-free and time-saving package entirely digitized the company’s diversity hiring event. It implemented state-of-the-art technology to conceptualize, market and execute the event. The company met its goal of hiring the country’s best tech talent by using Mercer | Mettl’s detailed reports that offered a deep understanding of the applicants’ domain and applied skills.

  • Around 6,500 women students participated in the online competition from various tier-1 tech institutions across India.
  • The diversity hiring online event promoted a change in a typically male-dominated sector.
  • Mercer| Mettl-enabled highly efficient online hackathon platform and a suite of assessments empowered the brand to hire the country’s best talent.

Learn how Mercer | Mettl commissioned a country-wide diversity hiring event

Mercer | Mettl's campus hiring solution enabled 6500 female students from top tech institutes of India to participate and compete in a country-wide online diversity hiring event.

Looking for an efficient platform to find the best tech talent in the country?

Conduct customized online assessments on a powerful cloud-based hackathon platform and measure students’ skills with Mercer | Mettl’s suite of coding simulators and domain-based assessments.

Build a remote and scalable campus hiring plan with Mercer | Mettl services

Mercer | Mettl’s stellar online Hackathon platform enabled a global e-commerce leader to conduct a scalable and remote diversity hiring event for its tech workforce in India.

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