I wanted my nickname to be Dee, so that people could say 'Hi, Dee'.

Up next is Heidi (or Dee, as she once wanted to be called), our Offers Manager. 

 I'm the Offers Manager at Cuckoo and sit in the Commercial team, part of my role involves constantly reviewing the market and working up proposals to create a fair offering for our customers. 

What I love most about my job is that I get to work with a lot of different teams, bringing everyone together to find the right solution for our customers.

Show & tell - show us an item that represents you.

To represent me, I’ve brought some coffee cups along with a baby toy because, in my free time, I arrange meetups for mums (and dads if they like) to come together and meet like-minded people.

heidi silent.mp4

And when you're not bringing people together, what's your perfect holiday destination?

I do love Dubai, sunshine whenever you want to go. Food. Drink. Beach. You can’t go wrong.

Finally, did you have any childhood nicknames?

I didn’t. But I wanted one. So I made up one for myself. I don’t know if that’s a cool thing to do or not, but, it was Dee. I used to like the fact that people could say “Hi Dee”. Now looking back it probably wasn’t cool.

If you'd like to join our Flock and work with good eggs like Heidi, visit our careers page to see current vacancies, or say hi 👋

The Good Eggs interview - Heidi

Welcome to the next instalment of our Good Eggs series, where we find out more about our incredible team here at Cuckoo. 

Our 2021 Cuckoo Christmas party in Manchester. We raced go-karts and, funnily enough, it was my first time meeting a lot of them. It made for a pretty great icebreaker before we tucked into a festive meal afterwards! Great fun all round.

Who’s job at Cuckoo would you like to try out for 24 hours? 

Probably Tommy Toner, our Chief Experience Officer. I’d love the opportunity to spend all day thinking about what our customers want and need, and how to turn it into an exciting customer experience. He's also an army reservist – something I’ve always wanted to do. Who wouldn’t love to jump out of planes for free (so long as there’s a parachute)?! 

Any time spent with our Cuckoo creative team. I know I’ll have finished my cup of coffee before we even get to the topic at hand (en route, we’ll discuss everything from cycling gear to moustaches, as well as the best way to boil potatoes). They’re the perfect combination of hilarious and are extremely skilled at what they do. 

There's a chocolate drink powder I used to have a lot when I was younger called Milo. But if you take the powder and add it to plain boiled rice, you have an incredible dessert. Heard it here first. 

I've found myself googling the Philippine Eagle recently (because, you know). They're absolutely huuuuuge, but also very cute. Not sure if I would pet one or just run away. Only one way to find out... 

Anything cool you've done we don't know about? 

I started a vegan food business back when I was at Uni, called Naked Monkey.
 It was at the end of my 3rd year, when I had to have a business idea to do an MSc in Business Creation and Entrepreneurship. 

A friend and I opened NM as an on-campus vegan food stall, which meant getting up early (well, for Uni students) to cook and serve meals at lunchtime. 

As the stall wasn't easy to scale, we decided to make Buddha bowls instead and sold them through on-campus shops and a local city cafe. We didn't become millionaires but it was a lot of fun. 

Welcome to the first of our new series, where we find out more about one of the lovely folks here at Cuckoo. First up is Junnel, our Performance Marketing Lead. He’s the strategic mastermind behind all our ads on Google and Facebook.

The Good Egg interview - Junnel

Whether we realise it or not, we all have biases. Psychologists describe unconscious bias as ‘people preferences’, because by nature we can favour people who look like us, sound like us or have the same interests as us. In fact, findings from a study conducted by researchers at Northwestern University, showed bias is already present in children as young as 4 and 5 years old.

So, let’s look at a few statistics. Did you know that on average 77 jobs are submitted every second on LinkedIn? Or that there are currently 6,202 roles advertised on the Indeed ****job site? How about the fact that if you’re currently seeking a remote role in the UK, you are spoiled for choice with the the option of 59,807 available roles?!

In short, the current job market is pretty saturated - yet despite what seems like a wealth of choice, certain minority groups still experience discrimination when trying to find employment. For example, according to research from Oxford University, candidates in the UK are up to 60% less likely to receive a call back for a job if they have a ‘foreign sounding’ name.

At Cuckoo, we are working hard to craft a recruitment journey that eliminates unconscious bias as much as possible. Of course there’s always more work to do, but here are some of the things we’ve put in place to make a great start!

Words really matter, and they have the power to include or exclude. Whether it’s text for our careers page or a specific job advert, we select our words carefully to reduce the chance of deterring or disqualifying potential candidates.

Unnecessary requirements. For example ‘5+ years experience’.

Phrases like ‘young and ambitious’, or (on the other hand) ‘mature’.

Complicated and exclusive jargon and terminology.

Our diversity statement, so that it’s clear we welcome all people.

Phrases that don’t unintentionally deter people, but rather encourage them to still apply, such as:  ‘It’d be great if you also had’ or ‘We know that not every candidate will meet all of the above requirements, but we’d still love to hear from you if you’re interested in our vacancy’.

Inviting language that is friendly and conversational, and that can be easily digested and understood.

We also take extra care when it comes to the types of adjectives that we use. Research from Gaucher, Friesen and Kay (2011), shows that ‘gendered wording’ in job adverts sustains gender inequality. Including words in job adverts that are generally associated with women, such as: interpersonal, empathetic, warm, collaborative, enthusiastic and loyal, or words that are typically associated with men, such as: confident, driven, impulsive, ambitious, and determined, can strongly suggest that certain roles would be more suited to a particular gender and so encourages discrimination. 

After a role has gone live and the applications begin to roll in, the first stage in our recruitment journey is shortlisting. At this stage, we’re aiming to see suitable work experience, and/or strong transferable skills. We know simple information such as a candidate’s name can strongly suggest potential discriminatory factors like age, gender or ethnicity. So we use a setting on our Applicant Tracking System (we use TeamTailor) called ‘anonymous mode’. Anonymous mode conceals all applicants personal information and any images, and gives them a fun pseudonym (see below). This helps us to keep the focus on what truly matters. If we decide to shortlist the candidate and progress them to the screening stage, their personal information is then revealed.

Screening calls are a great way to find out more about a candidate and to introduce them to Cuckoo’s culture and values. All of our screening calls take place virtually. We carry out these 15-minute informal chats as audio only, and specifically instruct applicants in advance not to enable their videos. We recognise that someone’s physical appearance can influence (both negatively and positively) our decision making due to the biases we all have, so keeping this stage as audio only encourages us to focus on whether we feel they align with our culture and values and if they have the correct skillset/transferable skills for the role. Each screening call also follows the same structure to ensure consistency and fairness to all candidates.

For some of our roles, we ask candidates to complete a role specific task. We make sure that all of the selected candidates are given the same brief and the same amount of time to complete this. When all tasks have been submitted, we carry out a blind review. This means we remove any names or identifying factors before the hiring manager reviews the task.

At Cuckoo we are always pushing to do more, and to be better than we already are. Although we know we have worked hard to remove unconscious bias from our recruitment process - we also recognise that there’s still a way to go. Here are some of the things we are still working on:

There are some brilliant job sites and platforms that exist to create opportunities for minority groups. We aim to advertise our roles on these sites, to truly reach a more diverse pool of talent.

For neurodiverse individuals, there may be elements of our recruitment process that they find challenging. This doesn’t negate their ability to do the role they have applied for, it just means that they may require some accommodations to ensure the process is fair for them. As such, we are currently reviewing our take-home task and competency interview stages.

We’re removing any barriers that prevent us from attracting and sourcing great people. As a business we want our team to be a true reflection of the society that we live in, and we know that goes beyond how we build our recruitment process.

If you have any thoughts on all of this, or would like to make any suggestions about our recruitment process, we’d love to hear from you.

In recent years, the recruitment world has become increasingly aware of how unconscious biases can influence their processes and practices. This has led to some brilliant work being done globally to eliminate bias. 

Removing unconscious bias from recruitment

Around summer of 2021 I had come to the conclusion that I needed a change. I was working at a financial services firm and I wanted a totally different work environment. I got in touch with a recruiter and described my ideal employer/role. I wanted to be at a company that has a fun, relaxed culture where employee wellbeing is prioritised and where the mission of the company is one I really believe in. I also wanted to be somewhere I could really grow my skills as a developer and work on a product that was not only functional, but also exciting to interact with.

My interview process at Cuckoo was by far the most fun I had in an interview, as an example of that here is my hand drawing of an otter that I did for the coding portion:

After my interview with Dan McClure (Co-Founder and VP of Technology) and Alex Fenton (Principal Engineer), I came away from it feeling confident that Cuckoo would be a great fit for me, as they had exceeded all of the requirements I’d spoken to my recruiter about. In particular, I remember agreeing that a website should be an experience that brings joy to the user and not just a means to an end.

The prospect of working at a startup really excited me and the more I looked into Cuckoo, the more I loved what they were all about and where they were going (especially loved their promise of 1% of every customer’s bill going to charity). And after that painless interview process, I didn’t have much else to think about when the offer came through!

My start at Cuckoo aligned perfectly with the rebranding kick off. Which meant - with the help of Studio Output - building a totally new website. This could not have been more exciting, as we were frequently getting presented with new and vibrant designs for the brand, each with their own feel and direction. Once a brand direction was landed on, we delved deeper into it, with things like interactions and motion being explored. This was a very memorable experience and I can’t imagine a better way to have got stuck into my new role.

Brand Key Vis 1080p.mp4

Brand Key Vis 1080p.webm

This rebrand went hand in hand with starting up our new design system, Yolk. A design system was something I had never worked on before, let alone setting one up from scratch. I have gained new skills, more confidence, and loads of experience while working on Yolk (special shout out to my former colleague Mike Francis for his amazing mentorship during this time). Not only have I learned a huge amount, but I have had a great time doing it, working closely with the design team and being part of the creation of a brand from the ground up.

One particular thing that Cuckoo does well (among many other things) is their company culture. From my very first day it has been clear that Cuckoo is a welcoming place that respects and values each and every one of its employees.

The culture is based around the company’s values, which are referred to often in our weekly All Hands meeting, where we recognise and celebrate those who have displayed any of these traits.

Race to the future - We grow by doing things we haven't done before. 

Love the flock - We listen and we act with humour, humility and empathy. 

Champion each other - We celebrate our differences and welcome everyone, all of the time.

Stand up, speak out - We take responsibility for everything we do.

These values help to steer us in the right direction with everything we do, both with how we treat each other and with how we treat our customers. Personally I have always found the culture to be one of the best aspects of being at Cuckoo. I have been actively encouraged to carve out time at work for personal development, and I have been consistently supported by my colleagues in my professional and personal life.

And as a side note - sometimes you get sent chocolate.

I’ve thoroughly enjoyed my first year at Cuckoo and, knowing what our CEO Alex has in store for the future, I can’t wait to start on the next challenge. Feel free to email me at rose@cuckoo.co with any questions you might have.

At the time of writing this blog post, it’s coming up to my 1 year anniversary at Cuckoo (23rd of August) so it seems fitting to reflect on my time here and tell you why it’s been the best career choice I’ve ever made.

The Good Eggs interview - Heidi

Tell us a bit about your role

Show & tell - show us an item that represents you.

And when you're not bringing people together, what's your perfect holiday destination?

Finally, did you have any childhood nicknames?

Ready to break the mould?

More from Cuckoo

The Good Egg interview - Junnel

Removing unconscious bias from recruitment

Taking flight: my first year at Cuckoo

How fast can you go?