Recruitment with Surevine & why we use Sonru

Our recruitment process is one-of-a-kind. That’s not just us saying it: we’ve often been told by the people we’ve hired that one of the reasons they’ve accepted the role is because of the awesome process they’ve gone through. Don’t believe me? Just give our blog on a Day in the Life a read and try and stop Dan’s enthusiasm leaving you giddy.

But the stage before the Day in the Life is one which is often met with hesitation, which is why we’ve decided to tell you a bit more about why we think it’s a crucial step, and why there’s more to it than meets the eye.

The Sonru

The Sonru is the 2nd stage in our process (there are only 4, so it’s the mid-way point), and it’s a straight-forward Q&A… with a twist. The twist is that this is an automated video interview, with maximum read and answer times. Completely automated means you don’t actually get to interact with a Sureviner when you’re completing the Sonru – it’s just you and the video.

The good and the bad

As a remote company our primary communication is through video calls; therefore, having a video element in our process is key. The automated part also gives you the flexibility to complete it in your own time and enables our remote teams to review when they are ready. With 62% of candidates completing their interview outside of office hours, and 31% completing them over the weekend (according to Sonru), gone are the days where you need to sneakily take a morning off to try and squeeze in an interview. 

Sonru also allows for a much fairer process. Every candidate completing the assessment is given the same amount of time to answer the questions, and has no opportunity to ask for clarification. 

Plus, it lets our candidate see a bit more of how our teams work. The questions are prepared by the team the candidate would be joining and are specifically crafted for each role; meaning that you can see what’s important to us and how the team think.

And the bad? Some people do find it difficult to simply talk at a camera, because they need to be able to react who they’re talking to. It can be a bit unnerving or even bizarre at first which is precisely why we’ve decided to blog about it. But we do understand that. We don’t continue to use AI to analyse candidate’s responses, instead we take the time to fully absorb all the information in the interview and allow the benefit of doubt to those who we feel might have been a bit nervous (they tend to settle in a few questions down the line). We also make sure that it’s not just one person making the call on these things, and a candidates’ Sonru is reviewed by multiple Sureviners.

The view from the teams

One aspect that might make you feel better about doing a Sonru is that almost everyone in Surevine has been there. In fact, rather than telling you how they did, we thought we’d just show you instead. Roll the blooper reel!

Like what you see? Apply for a job and maybe you could be a part of the Surevine team too.