HACKING YOUR TECH HIRING HOW AMEX, WIPRO & CISCO ALTERED THEIR HACKATHON WORLDVIEW

Transcription

1 HACKING YOUR TECH HIRING HOW AMEX, WIPRO & CISCO ALTERED THEIR HACKATHON WORLDVIEW

2 02 PLOT 1: WIPRO CROSSING THE NEW TECHNOLOGIES BRIDGE 04 PLOT 2: COMMEMORATING WOMEN S DAY THE CISCO WAY 06 PLOT 3: BUILDING AN AGILE WORKFORCE BY AMERICAN EXPRESS Table of Content 08 THE METTL CATALYST

3 Hi there, Our last 4 months have been eventful to say the least. Hackathons emerged rather strongly as a buzzword, especially among pivotal names in the IT industry. Why not? They do offer an easy, strongly effective means to boost employee engagement, cultivate ideas, reinforce ideals and encourage competitive people development. In many ways, you may suggestively equate hackathons to swiss-knives precise with the task at hand, and yet abundant with versatility. Having transitioned into the second half of the year, now seemed as good a time as any to plant your brain with seeds of thought. Just how differently or effectively can you use your Hackathons to drive multiple business outcomes? Wipro, Cisco and American Express have walked in with part of the answers. 1

4 PLOT 1 WIPRO CROSSING THE NEW TECHNOLOGIES BRIDGE Hackathons have often remained secretly synonymous to disruptive evolution. Think about it. Ever since its inception, companies have used hackathons to magnetize talented individuals be it to create a community of coders, to improve recruitment procedures, or to drive engagement among employees. What Did Wipro Desire? As one of the world s largest Information Technology Services Corporation, Wipro aimed to stay a firm step ahead of its competitors by keeping their employees up to speed on bleeding edge technologies. From their headquarters in Bangalore, they sought to upgrade their workforce know-how with technology along the lines of AngularJS and ReactJS. 2

5 How Did Wipro Do It? Having partnered with a firm driven by assessment technology, Wipro hoisted the flag for a hackathon in their headquarters in Bangalore. It highlighted two things: FRONT-END SIMULATORS This was Wipro s first time using state-of-the-art simulators representative of real-world work scenarios. The platform intuitively acknowledged different coders in terms of approach to solution, adjustments to discrepancies, and adeptness in newer technologies. Additionally, the simulator s ability to replicate dynamic environments helped Wipro consider them for their L&D processes as well. ACTIVATION INTO EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT Hackathons tend to foster a strong sense of competition. It was no different with Wipro. Employees took the event as a platform to identify areas of improvement and understand their present state of skills. For Wipro, these findings later helped develop better learning programs. POINT OF IMPACT 3,000 Wipro s hackathon registered over 3,000 applicants. It marked significant success for the firm, solidifying its position as a giant in the IT industry. 3

6 PLOT 2 COMMEMORATING WOMEN S DAY THE CISCO WAY Another thing often associated with hackathons is the idea of a brand. It s very likely that in today s day and age, all it takes is for one organization to execute something more efficiently than the other to hoist a stronger brand image. It gives companies a chance to unveil their products to the world a diverse group of both employees and customers. What Did Cisco Desire? An American multinational conglomerate in the heart of Silicon Valley, Cisco chose to commemorate Women s Day using a hackathon. The idea stood representative of women empowerment to remnants of an old guard that still objected to them as powerful employees in certain industries. A symbolic gesture via a symbolic event. 4

7 How Did Cisco Pull It Off? For Cisco, driving employee engagement remained high on priority among everything else their hackathon could achieve. To top it off, they chose to measure success based solely on women participation. What were the highlights, you ask? IMMERSIVE CODING SIMULATORS Anyone can code efficiently given the ideal environment. Workplaces, however, aren t ideal. They are prone to changing plans, mishaps and third-party interventions. To engage their candidates in a more immersive manner, Cisco utilized simulators that replicated real-world code environments. BOOSTED BRAND IMAGE & EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT Efforts drove coders into the event on a consistent basis. It provided a platform for female coders to engage, motivate, learn and share ideas. In essence, Cisco managed to boost their brand image with the event. The consequent mindshare didn t hurt either. POINT OF IMPACT 1,000 Cisco s hackathon registered over 1,000 women applicants. It hit industry newsletters as one of the biggest women-centric events in recent times. 5

8 PLOT 3 BUILDING AN AGILE WORKFORCE BY AMERICAN EXPRESS In many ways, hackathons exist to fertilize barren business minds. Remember how we called it something synonymous to disruptive evolution? Well, the AMEX story promises to entice. Tell Me Your Desires, American Express An American multinational financial services corporation, American Express has been at the forefront of several employee related innovations. Between , the company devised strategic measures to preserve the lost knowledge of their retiring experts something that has begun to affect several companies today as their baby boomers move into retirement. What we re trying to say is that they ve often remained well ahead of their competitors, both in terms of people analytics and in how to use said data for a competitive advantage. Building an agile workforce was next on their cards. 6

9 No Rewards for Guessing How AMEX Did It AMEX possessed an army of data analysts employees well-versed in the art of Sequel, some Regular Expressions, and BI packages. But to remain a step ahead of its competitors, the firm needed those same employees to evolve into data scientists people who could bend or manipulate data to his or her own will using either engineering, programming or a bit of machine learning. They used hackathons to identify people adept enough to make the transition. Here are the highlights of the event: DATABASE SIMULATORS Partnering with a firm at the forefront of innovative assessment technologies, AMEX used powerful database simulators to assess their analysts on multiple accounts. The diagnostic reports from the same helped their L&D team align suitable employees make the transition. BUILDING AMBITION & COMPETITION AMEX used the L&D programme as a carrot in front of the stick. It boosted employee morale in terms of strong competitive spirit, and drove the idea of progress into the minds of many at lower organizational hierarchical levels to aim for more. POINT OF IMPACT 500 American Express hackathon registered over 500 employee participants. It helped the company power L&D programs with a strong Return on Investment analysis formative and summative assessments. 7

10 PLOT TWIST: YOUR TURN TO GUESS THE CATALYST SIMULATORS. We walked you through three events, three organizations, and three success stories. All powerful reactions, but one point of commonality. Let s call that a catalyst. Any guesses on what that was? Of course, you got it right on the first guess. 8

11 Better yet, we re here to tell you that these powerful simulators birthed within the confines of our company Mettl. Yes, we re the mystery third-party assessment technology firm oft mentioned in the content above. Why didn t we say it that in the first place? Well, we wanted to convince you of your need for simulators first. Now that you have this information on hand. What do you choose to do? If you re ready to begin conversation, we re here to take you up on that offer. Thanks for sticking around, and godspeed! TAKE A FREE DEMO 9

12 What is Mettl? Mettl is a Saas based assessment platform that enables organizations to create customized assessments for use across the entire employee lifecycle, beginning with pre-hiring screening and candidate skills assessment, training and development programs for employees/students, certification exams, contests and more. TRY FOR FREE TRUSTED BY contact@mettl.com Plot 97, Sector 44, Gurgaon, Haryana, India