Rikta.ai helps Story House protect their culture

Story House Early Learning, a leader in tech-driven recruitment, is rapidly growing, with plans to expand across Victoria, NSW, and Queensland. For Head of Talent Acquisition Kelly Murphy, the challenge isn’t just hiring at scale, it is doing so while preserving the company’s culture and employer brand.

“Our educators are the face of our brand,” Kelly explains. “They interact with families daily, so a strong workplace culture across every Early Learning location is critical. If our Story House-er’s are happy, that positivity flows to the children and families we care for. Finding the right cultural fit is more important than skills - those can be taught on the job.”

High hiring volume, limited resources

Before partnering with rikta.ai, Story House was already hiring at speed. However, their Talent Acquisition  team remained the same size, making it difficult to manage the increasing volume without cutting corners. Kelly knew they needed a scalable, data-driven approach to ensure they made the right hiring decisions, without slowing down the process and still delivering a standout candidate experience.

“When hiring at speed, the risk of rushed decisions is always there,” Kelly says. “Rikta enables us to hire smarter while safeguarding our culture as we scale. The platform is seamless, and the rikta team’s responsiveness has made adoption effortless, even during our busiest periods.”

Story House had considered using psychometric testing, but traditional assessments were too lengthy and required a computer, making them impractical for frontline roles like educators, 2ICs, teachers, and cooks. With top candidates often hired within days, they needed a faster, more accessible solution, leading them to choose rikta.

Fast, mobile-friendly candidate insights

When Story House  introduced rikta to their hiring process, the impact was immediate. Unlike traditional psychometric tests, rikta’s mobile-first quiz provided candidates with an engaging, five-minute experience, delivering instant personality insights that were easy to interpret by hiring managers.

“I loved that rikta didn’t feel like a test,” Kelly says. “Candidates can complete it on their phone in minutes, making the process fast, engaging, and seamlessly integrated into our existing hiring experience.”

Beyond speed, Story House needed a solution that integrated effortlessly into their hiring tech stack, which includes PageUp and IntelliHR. Rikta’s ability to fit seamlessly into their process meant hiring managers could access data-driven personality insights without additional steps.

Building a culture-first workforce

‍“We have always focused on values based questions in our interviews, but we recognised the potential for unconscious bias and saw an opportunity to add another layer of consistency and insight,” Kelly shares. “Rikta has given us objective data to support our hiring decisions, ensuring we bring on people who will succeed in the role and truly align with our values and team.”

For Story House, partnering with rikta has proven that innovation and data-driven tools can transform recruitment, ensuring a scalable, culture-first hiring process that delivers measurable results.

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