To say that Robinhood entered 2020 with aggressive hiring goals would be an understatement. In October of 2019, the commission-free investment platform, which allows users to trade stocks, options, crypto and gold, announced it would make 800 hires to fill its new Denver office over the next eight years.
The pandemic’s slowing or completely halting effects on hiring seen elsewhere haven’t impacted Robinhood’s 2020 plans. The company has kept its foot on the gas, announcing in May a $280 million Series F and plans to continue hiring. According to People Operations Manager Lauren Van Cavage, Robinhood’s hiring goals are still as aggressive as they were at the beginning of the year.
“We have more than 100 roles currently open across all our offices and plan to add hundreds of new employees globally in 2020,” Van Cavage told Built In.
“In our Denver office, which opened last fall, we expect to hire more than 100 additional team members this year, including registered reps and financial services professionals in compliance and brokerage operations as well as engineers focused on security and business automation.”
Van Cavage and her team have made several changes to Robinhood’s hiring process to ensure the company hits its goals. We recently caught up with her to learn more about these changes, along with what tips and best practices she has for tech companies trying to get their remote hiring programs on track.
The pandemic hasn’t changed Robinhood’s hiring goals, but it has changed the hiring process for all companies. Has Robinhood adopted any new technologies or made tweaks to its processes to adapt to both life outside of the office and the loss of recruiting events and on-site interviews?
We’re helping employees adapt to and embrace this new working environment through virtual hangouts with all our teams. We’ve loved hearing from employees that they are still getting quality time with people across the company.
For the candidate experience, we’ve enhanced our focus on engagement. This includes moving in-person collaboration assessments to virtual whiteboards and adding candidate close videos with future team members congratulating the candidate on their offer. Although how we interact with candidates looks different now, we still make it a priority to give candidates a peek into our culture during the interview process.
The hiring process at most companies involves on-site interviews, which weren't possible to schedule over the past few months. How did Robinhood adjust for this?
Since Robinhood shifted to fully remote work across our four global offices in March, we’ve welcomed more than 100 new employees. We’re utilizing a variety of resources to ensure the interview process is productive and that candidates get a strong understanding of the role, the team and Robinhood’s culture. Examples include increased information on our benefits packages, video conferences, virtual whiteboard tools to aid in visual collaboration and discussion, video messages from team members and photos and videos of our offices for a better sense of the work environment at Robinhood.
“Although how we interact with candidates looks different now, we still make it a priority to give candidates a peek into our culture during the interview process.”
Are there any aspects of Robinhood's new recruiting and hiring processes that will remain after the pandemic passes?
We want to take a thoughtful approach to what processes and policies may look like during and after the pandemic. We’re focusing both on the health and safety of employees and candidates, and ensuring people feel connected to our culture.
One current practice we may keep in place long-term is interviewing via video conference. And as a data-driven company we will evaluate many inputs to ensure we foster a productive, inclusive and fun work environment — whether that’s in a physical office or remote.
What tips, best practices or advice do you have for companies that are currently trying to figure out remote recruiting and hiring?
Collaboration has been critical to adjusting our onboarding process. Over the past several months we’ve established a comprehensive onboarding curriculum with several touchpoints across the company. The move to remote work made it essential to maintain consistency. By forming a cross-departmental working group that included members from HR, IT, tax, payroll, enterprise risk, legal and compliance, we were able to adapt our model to fit a remote experience. It’s very important to us that candidates focus on enjoying the excitement around their new role, so we kept the logistics of the project behind the scenes and ensured the process wasn’t designed in a way that added stress.
We have also ensured that new hires have open communication with recruiting, HR and their manager before they even start. This helps us understand any unique circumstances new hires may face so we can tailor their onboarding to set them up for success.
Responses have been edited for length and clarity.
