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As the recruiting operations manager for Better.com—an incredibly fast-growing digital homeownership company—Dan Morales has a front-row seat to what works and what doesn’t in the HR technology space. We recently sat down with Morales to get some insight into what this startup company is doing to ease the growing pains as it continues to add employees and grow its operations in today’s climate.
Key Recruiting Tools at Better.com
Morales noted that Better.com has gone from around 600 employees to more than 3,000 employees in the last year. And they don’t expect to slow down anytime soon. With this kind of growth comes some big challenges, particularly on the recruiting side.
Because of their explosive growth, the company is not finding a big need for outbound recruiting. Rather, job seekers are finding them in droves, and their top-of-funnel efforts are more focused on talent sources. They do utilize LinkedIn’s Recruiter tool to some extent, and they are looking at CRM sourcing options as well. But for the most part, Better.com is focused on employer branding to drive traffic to their job site.
Recent accolades include being listed #15 on CNBC’s Disruptor 50 list and being named to Fortune’s Best Places to Work in Financial Services for 2020.
Technology Strategy
The biggest technology strategy Better.com uses is to ensure all recruiters and sourcers are bought in before they choose a vendor partner. Since the tools will only work if people use them, it’s important to ensure key team members are onboard.
Screening Applicants
Better.com is continually evaluating the screening tools on the market. They have found success with a video interviewing platform. Morales has been very happy with the platform’s ease of use and its ability to have applicants record video responses to pre-set interview questions. Because this can be done at the applicant’s discretion, the platform is always available and working behind the scenes.
Morales pointed out the need for different tools for different types of job positions, as well. For example, while the bulk of their open entry level positions do very well with pre-set interview questions, applicants for higher-level openings may have different expectations and needs.
Knowing Where to Focus Efforts Going Forward
When a company is growing as quickly as Better.com, sometimes the biggest challenge is in allocating resources. In an ever-changing environment, attempting to plan out future projects may seem like an exercise in futility. Morales’s strategy is to allocate no more than 60% capacity to planned projects and leave the other 40% capacity open to handling whatever may come up along the way.
Applicant Tracking Systems (ATSs)
When looking for an ATS, Morales recommends companies examine their internal needs. For example, if they have a good handle on whether they need a lot of customization, instead of an out-of-the-box solution, this will help narrow the field. Likewise, knowing whether an all-in-one option is the goal, the matching vendor list will look a lot different than if the business needs require pulling from multiple solutions. Budget, company growth and size, and other key factors play a role in which solutions are going to be the best fit.
Employee Technology Solutions
Admittedly, because of the large growth happening over the last year, employee engagement platform has not been getting as much attention at Better.com—though Morales and his team are looking to change this. So far, they have integrated an organizational platform that they have also been temporarily using as an HRIS. However, they realize they need a more permanent HRIS solution, and they are looking at several options now. They are also looking at vendors for performance management.
While the tech will fall into place, in the meantime the company takes care to make all new employees feel welcome with their welcome packages, and they have improved their onboarding processes to be able to virtually bring on between 500 and 750 employees just since March 2020.
Final Thoughts
Better.com has a lot of moving parts right now, and Morales and his team have their hands full filling new positions on a daily basis. For any startup, the challenges are great, but technology is playing a key role in helping them manage these challenges efficiently. Ultimately, says Morales, “Technology is only as powerful as how much it’s used.”
Founded in 2016, Better.com is a digital-first homeownership company whose services included mortgage, real estate, title, and homeowners insurance. To date, Better.com has done $13.8B in home loans and $2B in cumulative coverage through Better Cover and Better Settlement Services, subdivisions of Better.com. Better.com has raised over $270M in equity capital and is backed by L Catterton, Kleiner Perkins, Goldman Sachs, American Express Ventures, Ally Financial, Citi and other investors. The company was ranked #15 on CNBC’s Disruptor 50 2020 list, as well as being listed to Forbes FinTech 50 for 2020. For more information, follow @betterdotcom.
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Related: How to Digitize Your Recruiting Agency, an Interview with Benjamin Lalanne
