Guide to Using BrightHire

What is BrightHire?

Simply put, BrightHire is our interview recording tool. It is a smart interview platform built on Zoom to help run structured, high-quality interviews that can be replayed, shared and analyzed.

BrightHire rides along in Zoom interviews with an interactive notepad. All you need is the Chrome extension and Zoom and you’re all set. It records and transcribes the interview, making it easy to give thorough feedback in Greenhouse. The platform supports our DEI efforts by ensuring we evaluate each candidate on their own words with consistent interview criteria.

Why do we record our interviews?

We believe that candidates should be assessed based on merit, not our memory (did you know that one hour after an interview, memory recall of the conversation declines to 44%?). BrightHire allows us to revisit key details, revise initial impressions, and replace implicit bias with explicit evidence. It brings structure and consistency to each interview and ensures that every candidate gets the opportunity they deserve.

BrightHire also helps our interviewers feel confident that they are providing an excellent candidate experience by running a fair and effective interview process. After every interview, full highlights from the conversation provide evidence that is essential for strong decision making and reducing bias. Along with training, this will help us check and mitigate the unconscious biases that we bring into interviews and hiring decisions.

Specifically, BrightHire helps with:

• Equitable Hiring: BrightHire helps us reduce bias in every interview and hiring decision by facilitating structured, consistent and evidence-based hiring for a fundamentally more equitable process.
• Quality & Consistency: BrightHire takes the gut-feelings and guesswork out of our decision making process, helping Sourcegraph uncover the best talent and raise the quality of every single interview, assessment and hiring decision our team makes.
• Speed & Efficiency: BrightHire helps us make great hires in record time by shortening feedback loops, removing unnecessary steps, and eliminating misalignment across our hiring teams.

How our teammates use BrightHire

You must be on Google Chrome in order to use BrightHire.

• Step 1: You’ll automatically receive an email invite to BrightHire when you’re scheduled for your first interview (if the invite does not come through, or you require access prior to your first interview, please Slack #Hiring and a member of the Talent team will manually invite you). Use the invite to set up your account, log in, and sync your Google calendar.
• Step 2: Familiarize yourself with BrightHire by watching this video. Note: you must be a registered BrightHire user to view this video.
• Step 3: Download the BrightHire Chrome extension.
• Step 4: Click the “Interview with BrightHire” button in your calendar invite when joining an interview. (This is instead of clicking “Join Zoom Meeting”)
• Step 5: You should see your BrightHire Chrome extension pop up to help guide you. If you don’t see it, click the puzzle-piece icon in the top right hand corner of your screen and it will show up.
• Step 6: Lead the interview as you normally would. You can hover your curser over each question prompt to see your full question. No need to take notes unless you want to! Everything will be captured and transcribed for you, and you will be able to reference it when filling out your scorecard after the interview.
• Step 7: Go to Greenhouse to fill out your scorecard, and use the BrightHire side panel to review your notes and the interview to provide robust candidate feedback.

Teammate FAQ

How does BrightHire help me as an interviewer?

• BrightHire allows you to focus on the candidate, not on taking notes. It conveniently puts your structured interview questions and areas to cover at your fingertips, captures the details to make it easy and fast to leave substantive feedback, makes it seamless to collaborate with your hiring team to efficiently stay in-sync, and creates a more fair and equitable hiring process by removing subjectivity.

What should I say if a candidate asks why we record our interviews?

• Here are the simple answers to have in your back pocket:
  • We record our interviews so we can focus on the conversation, not taking notes, and run a better hiring process.
  • Memory recall actually declines to 44% one hour after an interview. We want to make sure that we are basing our hiring decisions on your merit, and not our memory.
  • BrightHire allows us to run a more equitable process by ensuring that all candidates are given the same questions and experience. Rather than requiring perfect recall or notes, it will allow hiring managers to refer back to specific questions and answers, and to triangulate perspectives using concrete examples.
  • BrightHire also ensures your interviews are structured and well thought out, giving you the best opportunity to showcase your relevant experience and qualifications.
  • If you speak with multiple interviewers, BrightHire will help the hiring team coordinate to give you a great experience. It’ll be much less likely you’ll be asked to “Tell me about yourself” four times in four interviews.

Will the candidate know they are being recorded?

• Yes, the candidate will be made aware of the recording in the following ways:
  • BrightHire’s disclosure is included in event invitations.
  • Candidates recieve the following discolsure in every single interview confirmation email: “We ask structured questions for all interviews - meaning, all candidates are asked the same questions in an effort to reduce bias and to even the playing-field. Please note, this interview may be recorded so that we can focus on you, not taking notes, and ensure that we’re delivering a great interview experience. If you prefer not to be recorded during your interview, please let us know - the structure of the interview and decision-making process will remain the same and your decision not to be recorded will have no weight on your candidacy.”
  • For phone interviews with BrightHire, candidates hear a notification “This interview will be recorded so we can focus on you, not taking notes” before every BrightHire interview.
  • For Zoom interviews with BrightHire, candidates see a visual “Recording” in the top left corner of the Zoom. And as an interviewer, you have the option to enable active consent in Zoom, meaning that candidates have to click to agree to enter the Zoom, with the understanding that they will be recorded.

Is using BrightHire optional for our teammates?

• Just like with candidates, using BrightHire is optional for all interviewers. However, we strongly encourage giving it a try and truly believe it will benefit you as an interviewer, as well as improve our candidate experience. If you chose not to use BrightHire, please partner with the Talent team to ensure you’re still providing a consistent, structured interview experience for all candidates, and please submit robust feedback in writing immediately following the interview to ensure your recall is as strong as possible.

Is using BrightHire optional for our candidates?

• Using BrightHire is optional for both our interviewers AND our candidates. We will only record interviews with a candidate’s explicit consent and they can choose to opt out at any time. If they do, the structure of the interview and decision process will remain the same and their decision will have no weight on their candidacy.

What if the candidate doesn’t want to be recorded?

• If you encounter a candidate who requests not to be recorded, the recording is easy to turn off. To stop recording a BrightHire phone interview, simply press the “Cancel Recording” button. You do not need to call the candidate back or create a new Zoom link, simply continue the conversation and none of it will be recorded. To stop the recording in Zoom, use the stop button in the top left of the Zoom or in the control window.

Will BrightHire take notes for me?

• With BrightHire, the notes you take in the Interview Assistant will be time-stamped to take you right back into key moments. BrightHire’s Auto-Highlights pull out key moments for you after the interview. You can toggle these on or off when you’re reviewing the interview in BrightHire by using the switch above the Notes section.

Does BrightHire transcribe in real time?

• The interview transcription will be ready after the interview is over. The notes you take in the Interview Assistant will be time-stamped back to the point in the interview at which you wrote them, in both the transcription and recording.

Who can see a BrightHire interviews?

• The hiring team for the role and the talent team will be able to see your interviews. Interviews can be made private in BrightHire, if necessary. We take a candidate’s privacy seriously, and these are the same people who can see a candidate’s information in Greenhouse, our ATS.

Can candidates request a copy of their recordings?

• Yes, Sourcegraph will provide candidates a copy of their recording and transcript upon request to recruiting@sourcegraph.com.

Is BrightHire GDPR compliant?

• Yes, BrightHire is GDPR compliant.

Candidate FAQ

What is BrightHire?

• A: BrightHire is an interview intelligence platform that records interviews and guides interviewers to help Sourcegraph deliver a great interview experience. It ensures every candidate gets a fair and effective hiring process.

How does BrightHire benefit me as a candidate?

• A: BrightHire will help ensure that we are focused on you, not on taking notes. It also ensures that interviews are structured and well thought out, giving you the best opportunity to showcase your relevant experience and qualifications. If you speak with multiple interviewers, BrightHire will help the hiring team coordinate and it’ll be less likely that the same questions are asked in multiple interviews. BrightHire will help interviewers recall important details about your experience and qualifications so they aren’t simply relying on their notes and recollections.

Q: How will I know that my interview is recorded?

• A: You will always know that the interview is being recorded. Sourcegraph will first inform you in the interview confirmation email. Then, if the interview is over the phone, you may hear an audio message announcing the call is being recorded or the interviewer will say the interview is being recorded. If the interview is being conducted over a video conference system, you will see a visual recording notification (like a flashing red recording button), hear an audio message, and/or see a recording notification appear when you join the video-conference.

Q: Can I choose to interview with Sourcegraph without being recorded?

• A: Yes, you can say at any time that you prefer to interview without being recorded. We do not penalize candidates for their choice not to use BrightHire. In rolling out BrightHire, we want to balance the importance of equitable hiring with a candidate’s choice and privacy. We respect every candidate’s decision regarding whether or not they want to be recorded, and that’s why we do not require candidates to be recorded or penalize candidates who choose not to. In other words, choosing not to be recorded will have no impact on your candidacy for the role.

Q: Who will be able to see my interview?

• A: BrightHire gives recruiting leaders at Sourcegraph detailed controls to ensure only the right people have access to your interview. Only the talent team and the hiring team can see your interview.

Q: How long will Sourcegraph hold on to my interview?

• A: Under GDPR, we are legally required to delete interview recordings when we no longer have a business need for them. There is no legal requirement specifying the amount of time we have to delete the recording. As a matter of policy, Sourcegraph will auto delete all interview recordings within 365 days of the recording. If at any time you would like Sourcegraph to delete your interview recording, you can email your request to support@brighthire.ai and your recording will be deleted (applies to EU residents and to non-EU candidates interviewing with companies that adhere to GDPR).

Q: Is my interview secure?

• A: BrightHire’s first value as a company is to put candidates first, and this shapes every decision they make, including their approach to data security and privacy. They take the responsibility of securing your information very seriously and use a variety of industry-standard technologies and services to prevent unauthorized access, disclosure, use, and loss.

Q: Will BrightHire make a judgement about my qualifications for the role?

• A: No. BrightHire is built to help people make better, less biased hiring decisions. The platform may analyze your interview to help your interviewer recall important moments, but BrightHire does not attempt to automatically determine if you’re the right candidate by evaluating your words, voice, or video - that’s the interviewer’s job.