Candidate Experience
The research goal: to understand and map the employee candidate to new hire journey
Duration
November - January 2023
Methods + Tools
Generative Research / In-Depth Interviews / Journey Maps
Role
Lead Researcher
Client
Wayfair
Problem space
The Talent Technology group at Wayfair supports all current and soon-to-be Wayfarians through talent acquisition and enterprise HR tools. This research supports a broader discovery effort to apply learnings about the current hiring experience of candidates to inform a new implementation of a high volume ATS, CRM and onboarding platform.
OVERVIEW
Outcome
In-depth interviews with candidates allow the team to map and understand their candidate journey with segmentations by role and location. Understanding the current candidate experience informs the new tool implementation, establishes key traits of new employee group (physical retail employees), and evaluates the company against competitors.
RESEARCH PROCESS
The 5 phase approach
This five-phased approach was used to address the study design, lending structure to the research process while also outlining stages of progress clearly to involved stakeholders.
01Align
Organize questions + study intent
02Plan
Recruit + create protocol
05Apply
Moving the data forward
04Analyze
Synthesize + deconstruct insights
03Gather
Capture + debrief data / stories
ALIGN
With physical retail stores being a new expansion of business for Wayfair, establishing key traits and personas for physical retail associates was necessary in designing for the overall Wayfair employee experience. The research audit was accomplished by gathering known data from previous user interviews, talent acquisition analytics, and competitor analysis.
Working with cross-functional partners, the team determined known information and identified knowledge gaps by completing a research audit
Key study objectives
✧ Understand and map the current High Volume search and apply process
✧ Identify differences by vertical + geography
✧ Identify what’s working well and what isn’t
✧ Understand how our candidate experience compares to that of competitors
PLAN
Understanding the physical retail space meant modifying the research plan and recruiting efforts to best meet their practices.
The research plan determined the types of data required, what research methods will be utilized, scheduling logistics, and team participation. Listing the research project leads, stakeholders, SME contributors, and consultants created clear communication and expectation for all involved. Working with store managers and onboarding training leads, I worked to schedule sessions with participants, aiming to converse with them as close to their start date as possible.
METHODOLOGY
A total of 14 1:1 one hour remote interviews with physical retail associates across all three store locations via Google Meet
GATHER
Capturing the end-to-end new candidate journey from job application to day 1 of onboarding through identifying and investigating key points on their journey.
Interview Structure
01 Introductions
02 Their role at Wayfair
03 Job search and application
04 Interviewing, job offer, acceptance
05 Pre-boarding process
06 Day 1 orientation
07 Comparison to other companies
08 Closing
ANALYZE
A structured note-taking guide, video transcriptions, and thematic coding allowed for a streamlined process for analyzing the qualitative data.
Arranging debrief sessions with my note-takers helped with recalling notable points of the conversation, and allowed for high level interpretations on what participants shared with us. From codifying themes and topics, issues with the overall new hire candidate journey emerged such as difficulties with scheduling drug tests, inconsistent communications from the hiring team, and confusion around i9 verification.
Images of project artifacts are representative, text has been blurred.
APPLY
Journey maps detail the employee candidate to new hire experience for store associates and design advisors that outline key phases, sentiments, pain points, comparisons to competitors, and opportunity areas.
Identified opportunities
✧ Clarify required steps for I9 verification process
✧ Ensure a consistent training experience
✧ Increased transparency throughout application process, including role updates and status
✧ Clearer instructions for on-site arrival
NEXT STEPS
Taking action
Avature Onboarding / Pre-boarding Portal Configuration: This research will be used to help inform the initial MVP configuration of the Avature Onboarding / Pre-boarding portal, and will also be used to help brainstorm what the ideal future state pre-boarding process might look like.
Socializing this research with other areas of the business: This research identified several opportunities to further improve the high volume candidate experience (e.g. clarifying required steps for I9 verification process, ensuring a consistent training experience, etc.). The next focus is to socialize these learnings with the respective teams who have ownership over these different processes.