How Bott + Co Improved New Hire Quality And Saved Time
Key takeaways:
- Bott and Co. was looking for a new, cost-effective way to screen candidates at scale.
- The team wanted a tool that would help them save time and better filter for candidate quality.
- Willo ultimately delivered both, helping Bott and Co. successfully in-house their recruiting efforts with zero disruption to their talent pipeline.
The problem: A time-consuming, expensive process
The recruiting process at Bott and Co. Solicitors, a law firm based in Cheshire, UK, needed to change.
In particular, the team spent 45+ minutes per candidate for initial interview stages. With dozens of candidates to interview per role, this took a mental toll on hiring managers and made running a fair process very resource intensive.
“It took a lot of time out of the hiring manager's day to do that for candidates that they weren't likely to consider going forward,” said Bott and Co’s team.
Further, many hires ultimately weren’t a great fit and left after only short periods of time, putting the recruiting team into a continuous schedule of long interviews.
It became clear that the team wanted a better solution to help them achieve two things:
- Reduce time required for both hiring managers and candidates in the initial screening step.
- Make it easier to screen for candidate quality.
Willo helped Bott and Co. Solicitors seamlessly achieve both goals.
Bott and Co. improved candidate quality with Willo
Now that Bott and Co. uses Willo, the hiring process yields better-fit candidates while saving the firm time.
First, Willo has entirely replaced the initial phone screen.
- Rather than coordinating a 45+ minute live call, candidates need about 30 minutes (including prep time) and can complete interviews on their own schedule.
- Hiring Managers can review interviews in batches, with each taking about 10-15 minutes.
In this phase, the Bott and Co. team said the biggest value from Willo has been not just time savings but the ability to compare candidates more fairly.
“Willo makes it easier when you've got a big bulk of candidates and you want to do comparison. You've got the privilege of having those recordings there. If you think, ‘That person did that better,’ you've got the opportunity to go back [to the video], rather than having to rely on your memory and what you thought in the moment.”
Second, candidates are shortlisted and invited for second round in-person interviews. Hiring Managers re-watch Willos before all in-person interviews to get a refresher on the person they are talking to.
Third, candidates are shortlisted further for a final decision. Before making a hiring decision, leadership re-watches the Willo a final time to get an end-to-end view of the candidate from first screen to hiring decision.
“[At multiple steps throughout the interview process], Hiring Managers will go back and watch the Willo again, to get a reminder of a candidate’s answers and their personality.”
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The end result for Bott and Co. is not just time saved, but increased candidate quality. Because they can better filter for people willing to work outside of their comfort zone, the team has found higher quality candidates that perform better in the role.
Video provided an automatic filtering layer
With Willo fully implemented, the entire Bott and Co. hiring team loves that it’s easy to use.
“We can say from experience that Willo is a very clear cut, very easy system to use, which is a great thing about it.”
Yet hiring managers initially expressed some skepticism—would candidates like video interviews?
The reality is that some said they wouldn’t do an async video, but this turned into a positive rather than a negative.
When Bott and Co. recruits, they look for candidates who are willing to try new things and work outside of their comfort zone a bit. So if a candidate was completely unwilling to try a video interview format, that became an “extra shortlisting” tool.
“We were looking for people who take the initiative to go out of their way to do the recording, even though they might not be 100% comfortable with it.”
Looking ahead to a bright future
Bott and Co. is growing at a steady pace and is looking to continue that success.
Looking ahead, the firm always prioritizes its clients’ needs. Right now, that looks like keeping a consistent flow of new people—and helping existing staff members grow, learn, and develop.
In the future, that might look like further expansion; if and when that happens, the team is confident they can run a smooth and scaled-up hiring process with Willo.
“Willo is a really positive tool that’s had a great impact on us and made our lives a lot easier.”
