---
id: ins_leah-knobler-customer-stories-at-center
title: "If you ask candidates to do work, pay them — that's the recruiting hot take"
operator: Leah Knobler
operator_role: VP of People at Help Scout | Strategic People Leader | AI Tinkerer | Talent Acquisition | Performance Management | Remote & Distributed Teams | DEI advocate
source_url: https://www.ashbyhq.com/podcast/episodes/where-increasing-internal-transparency-and-accountability-can-lead-to-recruiting-team-success
source_type: thread
source_title: 'Where Increasing Internal Transparency and Accountability Can Lead to Recruiting Team Success — Leah Knobler'
source_date: 2026-04-10
captured_date: 2026-05-04
domain: [pmm]
lifecycle: []
maturity: applied
artifact_class: framework
score: { originality: 3, specificity: 3, evidence: 2, transferability: 3, source: 3 }
tier: B
related: []
raw_ref: raw/linkedin/reactions/linkedin-reactions-2026-04-10.md
---

# If you ask candidates to do work, pay them, that's the recruiting hot take

## Claim

If a hiring process asks candidates to complete any project or substantive work and doesn't compensate them for their time, the company is doing it wrong. At Help Scout, candidates get paid for take-home projects and presentations. The practice signals respect, sets the company apart in a competitive hiring market, and protects the employer brand.

## Mechanism

Unpaid candidate work compounds two failures: it filters out the best candidates (they have other options) and it sends a values signal to those who stay through the process. Paying for work flips both, the best candidates self-select in, and the values signal becomes a marketing surface for hiring.

## Conditions

Holds for any role where the assessment requires substantive work (engineering, design, content). Fails for purely conversation-based interviews where there's nothing to compensate.