UpGrad is India's newest online education startup focused on working professionals. The company provides industry relevant programs designed and delivered in collaboration with world-class faculty and industry. Different from most ed-tech players, UpGrad believes that online learning platforms shouldn't be just a content library. For them, it’s about creating a fully immersive learning experience for everyone - anytime and anywhere.
UpGrad is backed by prolific investor Ronnie Screwvala, with several industry leaders on their Industry-Academia Advisory Board. They recently acqui-hired Pyoopil to expand their foothold on B2B services while still catering to B2C demands on their own platform.
Key hiring challenges
UpGrad is growing steadily since its inception and always on the lookout for the best talent. We asked their hiring team about their process and the challenges they face while sourcing talent. “The main problem I face is that candidates don’t update their CV or when we don’t have their updated contact details. Also, finding the right match or skill set,” says Mittal Soni, HR Manager at UpGrad. She feels that it prevents her from getting in touch with the right candidates.
For a young startup like UpGrad it is also necessary to hire exceptional candidates who have relevant industry experience. Mittal elaborates, “We want somebody who’s hands-on and ready to take responsibility immediately and work by himself.”
Fast and noiseless hiring
To fill such roles, Mittal had tried every other platform there is in the market. But Instahyre turned out to be the source for best-quality candidates.
She says the platform gave her the exact set of applicants she was looking for. “When I put a few keywords that I’m looking at while posting a job, I’ve got applications which are relevant and matching to that skill-set. I did not receive any irrelevant profiles.”
This precise matching was made possible by Instahyre’s machine-learning algorithms that churn out the most relevant candidates. The platform made sure that Mittal didn’t have to spend hours filtering unrelated candidates.
Mittal also found Instahyre very user-friendly and uncomplicated. “Generally a lot of other portals have too many filters. So Instahyre was exactly what we’re looking for. It had only one page for job posting and some questions that I was asked. Apart from that, there were not many things to be done, so I found it very easy as compared to the other portals that I’ve used,” she observes.
Chirag Thakker, Sr. Manager at UpGrad, concurs with Mittal. For him, it’s about the efficiency and ROI. He feels Instahyre actually helps them achieve more results while investing minimum efforts.
Closing critical positions
It’s all about hiring the right talent, who is the right fit for the company, at the right time. UpGrad achieved this with Instahyre by tapping into a filtered pool of elite candidates. Moreover, the platform also enabled candidates to learn about the company culture through company profile before applying.
As a result of using Instahyre, UpGrad’s conversion ratio improved significantly. With only active candidates available for jobs, the noise was removed from the signal. The final verdict - UpGrad closed their most critical positions from the platform in just a few months.