Optimizing Hiring: From Obstacles to Effective Solutions

BY Stephanie Reed | March 10, 2025

To effectively enhance talent assessments, organizations must first identify any gaps that currently exist or could emerge in the future. Recognizing these gaps sets the stage for exploring external resources that can provide solutions.

“We asked questions like, ‘What historical challenges have our stakeholders experienced that we haven’t been able to get exactly right,’” said Generi Wilson, talent acquisition program manager at Greenhouse.

“‘What do we want to accomplish in X amount of years, and what's stopping us from achieving them?’” Wilson recalled how Greenhouse approached improving their hiring practices. These fundamental questions helped the organization determine the business need for an interview intelligence tool.

At From Day One’s February virtual conference, Wilson led a thought leadership spotlight about “Optimizing Your Hiring Process: From Challenges to Solutions.” Greenhouse is a hiring platform that helps businesses improve their hiring processes. Wilson draws on both client experiences and the organization’s own journey to develop a more structured approach to hiring.

Demo Interview Intelligence Tools

After pinpointing any gaps or focal points, it’s important to explore external resources created specifically to address those challenges to achieving your business goals, says Wilson.

Generi Wilson of Greenhouse led the thought leadership spotlight (company photo)

For example, Greenhouse determined it needed ways to cut the length of its interviewing sessions, and it wanted to help their hiring managers make more informed and unbiased decisions.

The company noted the growing popularity of business tools using AI to optimize tasks and filter objective data. Leaders at Greenhouse proceeded to schedule demos with different vendors supplying interview intelligence tools. Then they used a rubric to determine which vendors were more aligned with their business goals.

The pitch to stakeholders determines a new tool's successful integration. The approval of stakeholders influences how the rest of the organization reap the benefits of those new tools.

Discussing the benefits of interview intelligence tools and how to measure their success will be more successful when determining what information segments of your audience find most important. “So for example, what’s top of mind for a senior leadership team member might be different from what’s important for an individual contributor to know,” she said.

Integrating New Tools

Change management will help fully integrate the new tools into an organization. Two-way transparency was essential to Greenhouse’s change management: providing support and data to address concerns or misconceptions, says Wilson.

“The first step in that process was to identify all of our stakeholders beyond senior leadership, and mapped how they would be impacted,” Wilson said. “Once we understood what would be changing for them, we created robust enablement resources to help our audience perform the new tasks that we were asking them to do.” Available resources include tutorials, FAQs, and live demos.

Then, they launched a pilot program to verify the success of the tool before fully integrating it into daily operations. Leaders kept track of the user experience with the chosen tool, BrightHire. Bugs, missing workflows, user sentiment, and usage helped measure its overall impact.

After notable improvements, Greenhouse increased the pilot from 2 to 10 roles: the results were that 70% of departments were represented in the hiring teams and 60 interviewers used BrightHire to record their interviews. “By rolling out roles one by one, folks were able to experience BrightHire in a controlled environment, but also share success stories with other people on their teams who haven’t gotten the chance to use it just yet.”

A Final Structured Hiring Process 

Wilson's description of how Greenhouse developed a structured hiring process is particularly insightful because the organization applies the same strategies they recommend to their clients. “This is a huge differentiator for us because it means we get to practice our own mission internally every day,” Wilson said.

“Now, structured hiring is at the core of everything that Greenhouse does.”

Greenhouse’s structured hiring process begins with defining the role requirements and the skills candidates should possess before a job is posted. It also focuses on building diverse and inclusive talent pipelines, ensuring that all candidates have an equal opportunity to showcase their skills.

BrightHire has been instrumental in achieving these outcomes with benefits like generating AI notes for interviewers and providing transcripts of the interview in a question-and-answer format to help interviewers create more objective feedback.

Greenhouse found success in improving its hiring processes: feedback from surveys reported that 75% of Greenhouse interviewers confirm BrightHire provides clarity, 90% say it saves time, and 100% recommend using BrightHire, says Wilson. 

Editor’s note: From Day One thanks our partner, Greenhouse, for sponsoring this thought leadership spotlight.

Stephanie Reed is a freelance news, marketing, and content writer. Much of her work features small business owners throughout diverse industries. She is passionate about promoting small, ethical, and eco-conscious businesses

(Photo by Jacob Wackerhausen/iStock)

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