Design Thinking: How to create a better hiring experience?

Anna Migicovsky is Special Projects Manager and COO of Knack, which puts local skills to work for impact-drive companies, an initiative of Potluck Cafe Society, a social enterprise providing food, training, and job opportunities to residents of Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside. Anna is a former LEDlab Project Coordinator.

In December, local business owners and local job seekers sat down together to crack open some of the challenges that stand in the way of local social hiring efforts.

Knack hosted the event titled “Design Thinking: How to create a better hiring experience?” in partnership with the local BIAs (Gastown, Strathcona and Hastings Crossing) and sponsored by the LEDlab.

The workshop was modelled on Stanford Design School’s introduction to design thinking method, using techniques from the practice of Human Centered Design to solicit insights rooted in empathy, enquiry and frequent feedback and iteration.

In pairs (an employer and a job seeker), we facilitated our session about each of their experiences and perspective of the hiring process. Our aim wasn’t to provide answers, but to increase the understanding for both sides and lower the stigma for the social hiring movement.

Through our facilitation, we wanted participants to re-discover and/or re-design the hiring process with the new perspectives they gained through interviewing their partner. As part of design thinking, we used a structured interview method and prototyping solutions to start creating physical structures that can model new concepts. Some examples from the prototyping phase: Frameworks to help decision-making with regard to work-life balance and tools to ‘break-the- ice’ during early stage interviews.

Quote from an employer: “In the past I have always rushed through an interview giving it only 10 minutes, but I realize that getting to know someone takes longer, and I need to adjust this process for the good of my company.”

Quote from a job seeker: “I need to go into my job interviews with more questions about if this is a good fit for me, like are there opportunities to move up, what’s the staff culture like, and will I be learning new things?”

Following this event, as part of the City’s approved Downtown Eastside Community Economic Development Strategy, the local BIAs will be moving from concept to action through a series of targeted pilot projects.

If you or other businesses you know are looking to hire for social impact, contact info@knackworks.ca

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