Data-Driven Talent Acquisition
How BARK's Talent Acquisition Partner, Meredith Buzin, used targeted sourcing and candidate diversity data to move the needle with hiring managers and unlock a crucial advantage in a competitive hiring market-- speed to hire top talent.
Included shows us the most important data & how to use it, which has been really great! We're seeing an ROI and will continue challenging ourselves.
Meredith Buzin, Talent Acquisition Partner
Meet BARK
BARK is the world’s most dog-centric company, devoted to making all dogs happy. Since its founding in 2012 with BarkBox, their monthly themed subscription of clever toys and all-natural treats, they have served more than 6.5 million dogs and use that accumulated expertise to create their own products (1,000+ every year), experiences, and content. More than a company for dog food, toys, and canine health, BARK also has an active philanthropy program, supporting 1,000+ shelter partners around the country with BARKGood.
The Challenge
Meredith was riding the rocket ship of talent acquisition at a high-growth company with ambitious goals for diversifying its workforce. BARK needed robust analytics and visibility into the hiring funnel to make fast, effective hiring decisions. With the limited reporting capabilities of its ATS/HRIS systems, the main concerns were:
1. Increase Data Visibility
The company’s leaders and executives, including its VP, Talent & DEI, Kristi Robinson, relied on Meredith and her colleagues to have real-time visibility into candidate diversity. However, with data in various systems, getting instant insights and seeing how BARK was tracking to DEI goals was time-consuming.
2. Unify Teams with Transparency
There was an incomplete picture of where the equity gaps were and limited access to data in real-time. Hiring managers needed to know if candidates from every demographic background in the hiring funnel were progressing at the same rate as candidates with majority identities. In short, they wanted to remove any bias in the hiring process and ensure a truly equitable experience.
3. Agility & Speed in Competitive Talent Market
BARK needed to move quickly with candidates to move the needle to diversify their workforce. Speed is crucial in a hot talent market, and the lag time meant missing out on top talent and slowing progress towards DEI goals.
A Solution With Included
Now up and running with Included, Meredith identified the places where they see the business impact:
Instant Insights into the Hiring Funnel
Meredith can better understand/assess the candidate pool diversity for an open requisition (including less visible aspects of identity shared in EEOC questionnaires) and optimize sourcing and outreach to reach top talent from underrepresented demographic groups.
Included helps me understand the diversity of who organically applies to open roles and where I can be more targeted in my search and outreach.
Meredith Buzin, Talent Acquisition Partner
Motivating Hiring Managers to Embrace DEI Best Practices
Meredith understood the current diversity of specific teams she was supporting and shared the diversity makeup of the growing candidate pool with hiring managers. She also used research-backed tactics to improve the candidate experience by encouraging automated diverse hiring panels of interviewers.
Included is helping me educate hiring managers and also allows us to make sure that our interview panels are diverse - because if you don't see someone on the screen that looks like you, whether it's gender, race, etc., people can have concerns. We want to ensure we share company representation properly to external candidates because we only get one shot to make sure that they feel comfortable throughout the process, and so they can see our focus on it, too.
Meredith Buzin, Talent Acquisition Partner
Hire Top Talent Faster With Sourcing Efficiency
Meredith supported a hiring manager with their open req for a Paid Social Assistant Manager. The hiring manager was looking for top talent with the right experience but also wanted to ensure the candidate pool was truly representative to reflect their customer base and bring innovation to the team. That meant ensuring the candidate pool included veterans, people with disabilities, BIPOC, female, people with non-traditional educational backgrounds, LGBTQIA+, non-binary talent, and more.
I started sourcing on LinkedIn to attract more diverse talent through some of Included's boolean strings... Then, as applicants came in, I showed the hiring manager the diversity of candidates based on the EEOC questions we are asking them to fill out, allowing us to know candidate identity regarding intersectional diversity. Quick access to that data moved the needle, and it helped me to get the hiring manager to make a decision quickly and move us forward in that process.
Meredith Buzin, Talent Acquisition Partner
What’s Next for Bark
Meredith and BARK are on a continuous improvement journey to optimize their hiring processes and hit their DEI goals. VP Kristi Robinson is always pushing the team to test new things, try new technology, and do research. The right tools make recruiters’ lives easier when trying to find top talent, and she wants to increase the representation of all groups in the population of the company as a whole. BARK is always looking to pilot new tactics to make the recruiter’s lives better and wants candidates to come to Bark because they know there is a focus on diversity. Meredith says, “We don’t just want to talk the talk; we want to walk the walk.”
We have a strong relationship [with Included] to test new things and learn, and we also have great customer success support and training with Desiree [Enyi]. We get to chat directly with your developers to test new features, and I'm very interested to see what you guys come up with in terms of the product and research that you're putting out there in this green space of DEI.
Meredith Buzin, Talent Acquisition Partner
To learn more about Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at BARK, visit their website. Interested in seeing how technology can accelerate your transition to a more diverse workforce? Connect with Included to get data visibility, DEI guidance, and create a people first culture.
