Delivering Diverse Early Careers Applicants in Financial Services

A leading UK financial services group partnered with PeopleScout to improve the candidate experience in their early careers programme, resulting in improved candidate diversity.

36% % Increased in Total Applications

39% % of Candidates Identified as Female

47% % Identified as Coming from an Underrepresented Group

SITUATION

Twelve years ago, we began supporting the client with candidate management within their Emerging Talent programme to attract more graduates and interns into the their workforce. As recognised leaders of employer brand and candidate experience, our client delivery team presented some recommendations to the organisation on how they could improve their hiring journey based on ad-hoc feedback received while interacting with early careers candidates.

SOLUTION

Crafting a Better Candidate Experience

We started by creating a candidate experience audit to measure the informal comments we’d heard. Through a series of internal and external focus groups with graduates and interns who had recently been through the recruitment process, we identified gaps in the candidate communication schedule. Candidates revealed that they were often unsure of where they were in the process, what was coming next and how they should prepare.

With our client first, not process first philosophy, we created a customised plan to address these concerns. We produced a candidate journey guide to help the candidates understand each step of the process. To go along with this, we developed a content plan to provide candidates with the right information at the right time, keeping them informed about next steps.

Supporting the DE&I Directive

We also took the opportunity to boost candidate engagement by personalising email communications and adding visual content which promoted organisational programmes that would appeal to this young audience, like their well-being initiatives. In addition, to support the client’s DE&I directive, we chose to highlight stories about women and BAME employees—especially those in finance and technology focused roles—to decrease the likelihood of these candidates dropping out of the funnel.

Implementing Candidate NPS

Since we’re always focused on delivery, we implemented a new candidate Net Promoter Score® (NPS) survey to measure the candidate experience and uncover more opportunities for improvements going forward. All candidates, whether hired or not, are asked how likely they are to recommend the bank as a potential employer based on their recent experience with the early careers recruitment programme.

RESULTS

Since taking on the management of the Emerging Talent programme for this client, we generated a 36% increase in total applications from the previous year, with 39% from female candidates and 47% from candidates from a underrepresented background.

The new candidate survey provided a candidate NPS of 57, which is considered excellent.

“The PeopleScout team are proactive in talking to us about new ideas and at the same time are brilliant at being reactive to business hiring needs. PeopleScout are a true trusted partner and have been fundamental to our hiring delivery and service over the last 20+ years.”
– Senior Resourcing Manager

AT A GLANCE

COMPANY
Leading UK Financial Services Group
PEOPLESCOUT SOLUTIONS
Recruitment Process Outsourcing, Talent Advisory
ANNUAL HIRES
1,500
ABOUT THE CLIENT
A leading UK financial services group has been partnering with PeopleScout for over 20 years, making it one of our longest-standing client relationships. What started as a Talent Advisory engagement has now expanded to include end-to-end volume Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO) services, with over 1,500 hires annually across 16 sites, 50 shift patterns and multiple banking brands.

Contact Sales

CHALLENGE

After publishing their gender parity report, Virgin Media set us the challenge of recruiting more female technicians into a role which has a pronounced gender bias, with 99% male incumbents.

At the end of 2017, Virgin Media changed their approach for vetting new starters. Sales starters would now have to complete full vetting before starting. vetting was completed after the start date.

In 2017 we successfully hired 275 Field Sales Advisors, in 2018 we were challenged to increase the number to 450, with a smaller attraction budget than we were granted in 2017. This was a sizeable challenge as field sales are one of the tougher areas to recruit for. Typically it uses up a higher percentage of our media budget.

APPROACH

Setting up a ‘Women in Field’ working group and regular project calls with the client were key. We explored every avenue to tap into a market which previously wasn’t engaged with this opportunity. We wanted to be bold and disruptive in our approach, particularly around how the role was advertised and positioned. We listened to existing female employees and involved them in the recruitment process, making sure they were present for female candidates attending assessments.

Fully vetting new joiners before they start on induction makes for a fantastic candidate and hiring manager experience. We used our existing partnership with ‘Security Watchdog’ to identify how to dramatically reduce the three-week clearance period. With better signposting and a clearer process, we reduced the clearance period to just 11 days.

We developed new channels to engage people who previously would not have applied. We streamlined the application process and introduced the option to register interest in hotspot areas. We used our internal SNAP team to post across social channels such as Instagram, Facebook and Twitter. Our Field Sales recruiters were then able to engage those interested and convert them into applicants.

‘We’ve made more than 30% more hires in 2018, with a 20% smaller attraction budget.’

RESULTS

‘Women in Field’ was launched in four key locations and in just two months, we received triple the number of applications from women that we received in the whole of 2017. And by the end of the pilot, we had more than doubled the number of female employees.

The new vetting process has helped to reduce early attrition by up to 20% across sales channels.

In field sales we’ve made more than 30% more hires in 2018, with a 20% smaller attraction budget compared to 2017.

Overall, we’ve dramatically improved our application to hire ratios across all of the UK. And in 2018 (year to date) hiring managers have saved 376 hours in interview time.

The campaign was shortlisted in the ‘Diversity’ category of the 2018 Recruitment Marketing Awards. We’re now seeing more regions across the UK using a similar approach in order to increase their gender diversity.

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