Penbrothers humanises global hiring

The background

Penbrothers is not your typical offshore staffing provider. Based in the Philippines, they help global startups, from 3-person teams to 200-plus scale-ups, connect with highly skilled professionals.

Rather than traditional BPO models where workers are often managed by third parties, Penbrothers embeds Filipino talent directly into their clients' teams. The goal? Humanized, high-impact hiring.

“We call it humanizing growth. Our hires aren’t just a number. They work directly with clients, and the CEO usually knows them by name.”

Carla Batan, VP of Talent Acquisition, Penbrothers

The challenge

With 4,000 applicants per week and limited internal capacity, Penbrothers needed a way to scale assessment-driven hiring without losing the human touch. Before TestGorilla, hiring decisions relied heavily on recruiter instinct, which is especially risky for small startups where one bad hire can set back months of progress.

Carla explained that 60% of early attrition was linked to performance issues, often stemming from “gut feel” hires that lacked objective skill validation.

“We’d hire someone who aced the interview, then three months later, it’s a wrong hire. They knew how to talk, but they couldn’t deliver.”

Carla Batan, VP of Talent Acquisition, Penbrothers

The solution

Penbrothers introduced TestGorilla to bring structure and data into early-stage hiring. They prioritized roles with standardized skill sets, including finance, IT, and executive assistants, and piloted a TestGorilla paid plan to assess the platform’s impact.

What stood out?

• Assessment library depth: “If I want to hire a recruiter, there’s a sourcing test. For finance, there's Excel. For executive assistants, we use soft skills tests.”

• Built-in objectivity: Carla recalled an executive assistant candidate she felt confident about, but TestGorilla ranked them third. “It was a welcome challenge to my bias.”

• Proctoring & cheating controls: “It’s important to know it’s the actual person taking the test, not their smarter cousin.”

• Ease of use: “The interface felt modern. Some platforms feel like Windows 95. TestGorilla feels now.”

They also layered in a conversational AI screener for language proficiency, then used CEFR ratings and TestGorilla results to enrich candidate reports shared with clients.

“We’re no longer saying ‘She communicates well.’ Now we say, ‘She’s a B2 English speaker with an 88% EA score.’ It builds confidence instantly.”

Carla Batan, VP of Talent Acquisition, Penbrothers

The results

It’s still early days, but signs are promising:

• Smarter shortlisting: For a recent executive assistant hire, the top 3 candidates all scored above 88%, and the CEO was confident choosing from that list.

• Reduced subjectivity: Recruiters spend more time nurturing strong candidates and less time debating fit.

• Improved candidate experience: Applicants like Gabriel, now a Penbrothers employee, said TestGorilla “felt professional” and stood out from 300-plus job processes.

“Out of all the assessments I took, TestGorilla was the best. It felt serious. It made me respect the company more.”

Gabriel De Luna, recently hired via TestGorilla for PenBrothers

What's next

Penbrothers plans to expand TestGorilla across more high-volume roles, especially where efficiency and quality matter most. They’re also beginning to analyze how assessment scores correlate with 6-month retention, with the goal of building stronger predictive models for success.

Long-term, Penbrothers sees skills-based screening as a cornerstone of their mission to humanize hiring at scale, matching global startups with top Filipino talent that not only looks good on paper, but performs in the role.

“TestGorilla helps us spend more time with the right people. That’s how we scale human growth without compromising quality.”

Carla Batan, VP of Talent Acquisition, Penbrothers