2019 - 2020 HRM Impact Award
Honorable Mention
Name of project: Goldman Sachs’ Graduate Recruitment Pre-Hire Assessment Strategy
Summary of project: Given the highly competitive and changing talent market, we recognized the need to update our hiring practices to better compete with other organizations for talent. We focused our reform efforts on our summer analyst and associate programs that hire approximately 3,000 undergraduate and graduate students each year to create a more scalable recruitment strategy to meet our firm’s evolving needs. Working alongside our business colleagues, our team of I-O psychologists identified several areas in which to focus the reform of our graduate recruitment pre-hire assessment strategy, including ensuring our hiring practices are as fair, objective, accurate, and reliable as possible; hiring junior talent with the most potential for long-term success; and tapping into talent we were previously unable to reach.
To achieve these goals, in 2016, we became the first major company to replace our first-round, on-campus interviews with asynchronous, structured video interviews in which candidates submit video-recorded responses to pre-defined interview questions. We extended the structured interviewing approach to our second-round, in-person interviews, which were previously unstructured. These first- and second-round structured interviews consist of standardized situational and behavioral questions designed to assess 13 core competencies identified by leadership as critical for long-term success in the firm. Questions are scored on a standardized 5-point anchored rating scale, and interviewers are given rubrics for each competency describing how to differentiate between responses.
Our strategy includes an interviewer training program, a feedback system that requires interviewers to rate candidates, and an intensive annual review process to identify necessary iterations based on the interview data. This strategy has allowed us to widen our search pool to tap new talent sources, identify poor interviewers who need additional training and good interviewers who can serve as recruiting champions, and improve our ability to make fair, accurate and reliable hiring decisions.
Information about Goldman Sach's: At Goldman Sachs, we connect people, capital and ideas to help solve problems for our clients. We are a leading global financial services firm providing investment banking, securities and investment management services to a substantial and diversified client base that includes corporations, financial institutions, governments and individuals.
Quote from Goldman Sach's: “At Goldman Sachs, we are constantly looking for innovative ways to identify and attract talented, diverse individuals to drive our business forward. We seek out people with different skills, interests and experiences, and through the use of technology and data, we are able to expand our recruiting reach and develop a more seamless candidate experience.”