Removing Barriers to Entry and Using Data for Good with Brooklyn Data Co.

Back in 2019, Kelli was thinking of getting out of the HR game. She’d worked in People Ops at tech startups for her entire adult life and was growing frustrated with her impact. “Lots of companies say they’re going to focus on taking care of their staff,” she said. “But then they just don’t get there for whatever reason.”

Then she found Brooklyn Data Co. which she describes as “actually walking the walk” when it comes to taking great care of people. “Without them, we can’t do the work that we do.” Kelli joined the company when they were just a team of seven. 

Despite their small size, BDC took big steps toward putting people first—starting with how they attract and hire new talent.

The first thing an applicant typically sees is a job description posted on a job board. “There’s no fancy language in our job descriptions,” Kelli told us. “There’s no ‘Rockstars Needed’ or crazy acronyms. Just, here’s what it’s like to work at Brooklyn Data. Here are some of the things you might have done somewhere else that translate to the work we do here and could help you succeed in this role. Here’s what a day in the life might look like.”

Before Talent Gleam, BDC had already taken steps like eschewing degree requirements from job postings, not accepting resumes, and being mindful of where they posted in the first place. (Hint: you probably won’t find their openings listed on the generic job boards.)

BDC wanted to include all voices and remove as much bias from the hiring process as humanly possible. But as the only team member on People Ops—and as a human doing all of the anonymized screening work manually—Kelli needed some software support.

Brooklyn Data Co. is no stranger to the value technology can bring to our lives. They knew they needed an ATS to support their DE&I recruitment goals, and their previous platform simply didn’t offer the functionality they needed.

Talent Gleam was a massive time-saver for Kelli right away. 

“There was me, like, funneling everything before it got to the hiring team, de-identifying everything. There’s room for human error in that. So being able to have a software help us manage that process allows us to focus on other things and continue to improve.”

Talent Gleam’s blind applicant screening has saved Brooklyn Data Co over two hours a week in manual anonymization and reduced their human error 100%. 

They’re already doing a lot for such a small company, but BDC has never been an organization that rests on its laurels. “We want to continue on our diversity path and make sure we’re getting our jobs out there to communities who might not otherwise see them,” Kelli told us.

The posting sites they target, like POCIT and Diversify Tech, are still relatively new and learning how to compete with boards that have a more extensive reach. But the team at BDC is committed to building on their diversity goals and have continued to iterate on their hiring process over time. With Talent Gleam in their corner, that process is running more smoothly than ever.

“When they go into first-round interviews, the only thing the team knows is how the person answered our kick-start questions,” Kelli said. It’s extremely important to them to withhold any identifying information until later in the process.

“Talent Gleam allows us to make a really holistic and confidential first pass on applicants coming in.”

When BDC switched to Talent Gleam, the feedback from their team was overwhelmingly positive. Yes, there were some bumps and tradeoffs associated with changing software. But, Kelli says, “It was all small things.” And once everyone got used to the new interface, the feedback was “overwhelmingly positive.”

We asked Kelli if she’d seen any unexpected benefits from Talent Gleam, and unsurprisingly, her answer was all about data. 

“Getting feedback through the candidate experience surveys,” she said with a smile. “I love the surveys that Talent Gleam sends out. We’ve already implemented some of the feedback we’ve gotten from those.”

Everyone at BDC loves seeing that data come back in real time—and the fact that Talent Gleam automates the process for them makes the result even sweeter. 

The team also loves Talent Gleam’s tag management system, which has cut down their email and Slack communication about candidates by 50%. They can use tags to see where candidates are in the pipeline and collaborate on what comes next.

We asked Kelli what she’d say to anyone on the fence about whether they should use Talent Gleam. “If organizations have a true commitment to DE&I, anonymized recruiting is huge,” she said. 

But beyond that, she’s been impressed with how customized and flexible our platform is. “To be able to start off with the anonymized recruiting, and then lean into each level of your hiring process and fully customize every single part of the process is awesome.”

Plus, it’s easy to use. Everyone at BDC interacts with Talent Gleam in some way, whether they’re a hiring manager or not. “Talent Gleam makes it easy,” she said simply.