Background
An international-calibre university business school in Montreal
In the vibrant city of Montreal, Quebec, Canada, recently voted the world’s best city for students, HEC Montreal is one of Canada’s best-kept secrets among business schools. Their one-year MBA boasts first-year salaries, job placement rates, and a global alumni network that rivals those of better-known Canadian schools, with the added bonus that the school offers a unique opportunity to study in French, English, or both languages.
Challenge
Scaling the team's visibility into their applicant pool
Historically, HEC Montreal’s admissions process included alumni interviews for the program’s approximately 130 full-time seats. But it wasn’t an ideal system.
Although alumni feedback was often telling of a candidate’s potential and fit, the school was unable to control for consistency between the experiences that each applicant would have in their interview or any cognitive biases that the individual alumni interviewer may bring to the table. The school provided an interviewing guide, they had no way to verify their interviewers were following it.
“Our first impression of Kira was the incredible amount of information it let us gather in no time flat.”
- Anik Low, Administrative Director of the MBA programSolution
Introduce Kira assessments into the process
HEC Montreal saw an opportunity to manage these variables with their small team and get more reliable insight into their applicant pool using Kira.
Results
Exceptional classes aligned with the school’s values
Since adding Kira the school is gaining more insight on each applicant and they've also seen that adding Kira to the process has brought a level of consistency across the admissions committee. The criteria the MBA program has outlined are competencies developed based on the school’s values and are used to determine potential candidate fit.
