GTR Engineering Apprentices – GTR in partnership with eArcu

Govia Thameslink Railway are the UK’s largest railway franchise, operating Southern, Thameslink, Great Northern and Gatwick Express. With more than 7,400 staff, GTR manages 239 stations and delivers 24% of all passenger rail journeys in the UK. https://www.gatwickexpress.com/

•         The Engineering Apprenticeship programme at GTR balances college learning with work placements at GTR depots to allow for a blended approach to learning.

•         Successful completion of this apprenticeship results in a Level 3 Rail Engineering Technician qualification and a huge wealth of knowledge regarding different types of trains, faults and GTR depots. Once completed, there are plenty of other options in engineering, which means progression is easily found.

•         The attraction strategy for GTR’s Engineering Apprenticeships focuses on providing the best experience for candidates and managers. There are also key objectives to be met, such as increasing the number of applications from BAME backgrounds

•         Successful implementation of a new Applicant Tracking Talent Suite for 2020 created a contemporary application process, providing hiring managers with the ability to manage the process ‘on the move’, while having invaluable access to key measurements and analytic data.

•         The recruitment process was streamlined and tailored. A CV was no longer part of the process, for ease of application and considering the nature of the candidates applying. Candidates experience a greatly improved, engaging and informative journey.

•         School engagement was utilised, with the organisation liaising with several schools/colleges to showcase and promote the apprentice opportunity.

•         A new buddy scheme was introduced to support candidates throughout their application journey, particularly during the six-month plus period from when candidates accepted their offer and they actually joined the business.

Judges’ comments: “GTR was the obvious choice in selecting a winner. They had a real candidate focus with particular attention paid to the attraction of BAME and female engineers. This ties in neatly with overall business objectives while at the same time creating a new pool of apprentices that improves and enriches the organisation.”

Also: The judges added that this category ‘was streets ahead’ of all others they considered – there was widespread care, concern and commitment to the apprentice/school-leaver programmes and the submissions were testament to that.

HIGHLY COMMENDED

Greene King

Tomorrow’s Talent – Sky in partnership with Cappfinity

Sky is Europe’s leading direct-to-consumer media and entertainment company, with more than 30,000 employees in seven countries. The Early Careers Team delivers programmes for key corporate, content, customer and technology roles, with around 250 hires per year, and offers thousands more opportunities through insight days and weeks. They have a strong commitment to young people.

  • For the 2019-20 campaign, the early talent assessment strategy was redesigned with a focus on future workforce requirements, on improving the diversity of underrepresented talent, and on candidate engagement.
  • All candidates, successful and unsuccessful, are provided with personalised feedback at each stage of the process. These detail the top three strengths the candidate has shown within that assessment, and give advice on how they can stretch them further.
  • All candidates who start the process are invited to complete an anonymous, specialised candidate feedback survey. A perception survey is also included at the end of the assessment. Candidates are also asked open questions to gather qualitative as well as quantitative feedback and allow them to share additional thoughts on the assessments.
  • 95% of candidates who went through Sky’s recruitment process reported that they had received enough information while they were undergoing the experience in a survey by Group GTI – which focuses on matching students with employers and vice versa. GTI regularly surveys candidates across the industry about their experiences of applying to graduate schemes: of the 1,000 candidates who completed surveys in 2019, only 54% said they had received enough information during the recruitment process, compared with Sky’s sky-high 95%.
  • Sky is committed to bringing more people from diverse backgrounds to the organisation, and there was a recognition that the company needed to scale and redesign its approaches to fulfil its future skill and leader requirements.

Judges’ comments: The multiple outreach into local communities with a focus upon social mobility and equality, diversity and inclusion achieved fantastic results. Candidate experience was immersive, digital and personal.”

Also: The judges remarked that most notably for an experience category, the winner was supported by positive testimonials from unsuccessful candidates: given that recruitment is in the rejection business, this is a key component of experience that is often overlooked.

HIGHLY COMMENDED

Network Rail signalling experience – Network Rail in partnership with Bavarde

 

Ryan Adams, CEO – Signify Technology

Signify Technology is a bespoke recruitment solutions agency that serves the Scala programming language community.

  • Ryan is the epitome of an entrepreneur, with a positive approach to risk-taking. When he founded Signify Technology in 2016, he did not start slowly, but began with two full-time employees. With his ‘all or nothing’ mindset, he opened four global offices in four years, and has achieved 884% growth in sales since 2017.
  • The company’s ethos has been based on values and skills, rather than background or education. This mindset has led to the creation of a diverse and forward-thinking company.
  • Although he lost his mother to Covid-19, Ryan remained focused on his staff during the pandemic, ensuring that Signify neither made any redundancies nor furloughed any employees. At the beginning of lockdown Ryan ensured all staff would be individually supported. There was heavy investment in staff skills, with multiple training workshops in areas such as ‘Lead Generation’ and ‘Goal Setting’. This enabled the firm to hit new company records.
  • With the first US office opening in Los Angeles 2019, as CEO he led the business across two continents. This brought the challenge of supporting employees in two different time zones: he used video calls to keep as much contact as possible with the teams in both countries and organised weekly social events to keep engagement high.
  • Because Ryan wanted his company to be diverse and full of opportunities, when teaming up with clients each consultant is encouraged to reflect that positivity and diversity. Campaigns run by Signify Technology showing examples of this are the ‘Women in Tech’ and ‘Black Stories Matter’ YouTube series. As a black business owner himself, Ryan is enthusiastic about amplifying marginalised voices.

Judges’ comments: “Ryan Adams impressed on so many fronts, including his infectious enthusiasm and commitment. His passion, ambition for his business and his focus on diversity and inclusion are to be admired. Despite personal adversity, he has helped his business prosper through a difficult year.”

Also: The judges were inspired by great examples of leadership in a very competitive category.

HIGHLY COMMENDED

Chris Sheard, Managing Director – SR2 – Socially Responsible Recruitment

Ryan McCabe, CEO – Odro

Andrew Anastasiou, Managing Director – Pertemps Professional Recruitment

Andrew Anastasiou spent his early career as a classroom teacher. Since then he has worked tirelessly as a recruiter in education, health and social care, founding Pertemps Professional Recruitment (PPR) in 2016.

  • Andrew has implemented an uncompromising business plan; PPR was not only the best performer in the Pertemps Network Group for 10 months between October 2019 and October 2020, but achieved continued growth and exceeded its own financial targets.
  • In 2019/20, while managing with the restrictions of the public health crisis, one of Andrew’s priorities was to stabilise and integrate the two education recruitment agencies he had handpicked for PPR in preparation for their official merger at the end of the year. The result is a 360-degree recruitment business, as proficient at finding agile, energetic and reliable temporary education professionals as it is as placing permanent teachers, sourcing candidates from around the globe, and securing senior leadership appointments.
  • The benefits Andrew brings to the business are tangible – particularly through its innovative culture. One example is the ground-breaking graduate training programme for social care, with a focus on work-life balance. Andrew believes that by supporting local authorities to deliver children’s and family services, and by ensuring that schools are staffed with well-qualified and motivated education professionals, he can add his weight to the work being carried out by public servants.
  • Andrew’s personality defines his leadership style – he’s positive, and leads from the front with authority and a warm sense of humour.

Judges’ comments: “Andrew was the epitome of what a leader should be – energetic, engaging, authentic, honest and passionate about his role and the industry in general, and his breadth of experience provides him with a tapestry of skills. It is clear that his staff want to join him on the journey, and each judge agreed that they would want to work with Andrew.”

Also: Overall, the judges considered that the field of candidates was particularly strong.

HIGHLY COMMENDED

Daniel Cornwell, Managing Director – SPE Resourcing

 

Bill Boorman, Founder, #tru

He’s known as “the One in the Hat” and “the King of Social Recruiting” – but to recruiters both in the UK and around the world, Bill Boorman is recognised for tearing up the rules of professional gatherings and creating popular knowledge-sharing events called #tru, The Recruiting Unconference.

For the last decade, Bill has taken his #tru events to five continents and numerous countries and cities around the world, creating a social movement of recruiters, recruitment technology experts and assorted professionals. To quote Bill, “An unconference is a gathering of minds, experiences and opinions where active participants lead the conversation.” His unconferences have four rules: No presentations, no Power Point, no name badges and no pitching. And in addition to embedding his unconference un-model in the recruitment culture, Bill is an advisor and consultant to corporates and tech companies. His credo of never wearing a suit, always wearing a hat and penchant for memorable t-shirts has contributed to his legend as both a beloved and respected figure in contemporary recruitment.

Danny Brooks: CEO, VHR

VHR is a global technical recruitment consultancy serving the aerospace, automotive, engineering, defence and marine industries across 50 countries. VHR has 90 employees, nine global offices and boasts a £36m turnover – a far cry from 2003, when Danny Brooks re-mortgaged his house and sold his car to launch VHR.

  • VHR joined with airlines Etihad and Lufthansa to begin designing new training courses to upskill and migrate workers from around the world. VHR sourced and trained all individuals, organising medical support, flights, accommodation, visas and references, and worked with Etihad to monitor performance.
  • In 2019 Danny ran the London Marathon, cycled across Australia for charity and led VHR’s employees in nine charity activities, including paying personally to send two employees to India to build a school and support the local community.
  • At Danny’s instigation, VHR has rolled out a bonus scheme to employees at its most junior levels, including in finance, compliance, marketing, operations and HR. Bespoke bonus schemes ensure that, rather than just rewarding sales staff, each employee across departments sees the direct result of their efforts, and is rewarded for their hard work.
  • Danny has acted as a mentor for junior staff members since VHR’s inception. In 2012 and 2013, Azem Hoti and Rebecca Fagan joined VHR as 17-year-old apprentices; and in 2019 both were promoted for the third time and now run their own departments.
  • The judges were impressed with how Danny aims to transform recruitment industry working practices through VHR’s learning and development focus, which challenges the industry’s historic ‘hiring and firing’ nature.

Judges’ comments: “Danny understands the market he operates in and creates innovative solutions. He has an impact on the wider society, taking accountability for the ethical impact outside the day-to-day running of a recruitment company. Authentic and diverse in his own workforce.”

The Food & Beverage Candidate Experience – National Trust

This was a strongly contested category, which made it difficult for the judges to choose between the shortlist. The National Trust came out as the eventual winner with its recruitment for its food & beverage roles.

  • In a candidate-driven job market, applicants often seek out the National Trust, so it comes down to a great candidate experience to recruit successfully and attract the best. The candidate experience mirrors the visitor journey, so both have a pleasurable experience with working for the Trust and visiting Trust venues.
  • Achieved a better hiring process in food & beverage roles through clearer adverts, simpler recruitment processes, implementing strengths-based recruitment via a situational strengths test, reacting quickly to all applications, using supportive interview techniques, ensuring everyone has feedback opportunities and a dedicated point of contact.
  • To ensure the Trust doesn’t waste candidates’ time, it is made clear within its adverts the steps that it takes to be successful, when they will hear from the Trust, and what to expect moving forwards.
  • More personable interviewing so applicants can get a feel for the Trust’s food & beverage outlets, such as a relaxed ‘Coffee Meet’ in this environment, leading to the potential of a ‘Trial Interview’ or ‘Property Tour’.
  • Although the Trust is known as an employer of choice when it comes to historic buildings and parks, its generally not known for its cafés or eating establishments. Along with its wage restrictions as a charity, this means that when it finds talent it’s essential the candidate experience is significant to stop the Trust re-recruiting on a regular basis.
  • The National Trust aims to capture better talent, onboard them comprehensively, and offers career development and training opportunities to achieve longevity. Its new processes have helped the number of applications increase by 18%.

Judges’ comments: “The National Trust applied a personal touch to the recruitment process – meeting and engaging candidates in the hospitality industry in this way is a fantastic method of ensuring fit from both the candidate and employer perspective.”

Cisco Leaders of Tomorrow are the New University Grads of Today – Cisco

Global technology company Cisco hires university graduates from more than 60 countries every year. The Cisco Sales Associate Program (CSAP) is a global early-in-career onboarding programme that brings a pipeline of diverse graduate talent for Associate Sales Engineers (ASE) and Associate Sales Representatives (ASR) roles.

  • The judges were very impressed with the programme’s diversity recruitment, which is vital to match Cisco’s customers. Diversity applies to both female/male equality, as well as visible minorities.
  • As Cisco’s business is global, CSAP must recruit, hire, train and deliver client-ready sales associates in multiple countries. CSAP supplies an ongoing pipeline of talent for Cisco, develops Cisco’s future leaders and continues to hire a strong female presence.
  • Cisco is constantly experimenting with new ways of recruiting. This includes AI (artificial intelligence), EQ (emotional intelligence) and Virtual Reality (VR). Digital videos have now taken the place, in most countries, of in-person interviews.
  • Cisco organises a nine-week summer programme in the US, Canada, Europe and Asia to hire university students to intern at Cisco for 2-3 years before fast-tracking them into the CSAP programme. It establishes a loyalty, which results in high conversions to the CSAP programme, reducing the cost of recruiting. Interns stay engaged with Cisco when they return to their universities through the ‘Cisco Street Team’ program.
  • Impressive success in diversity hiring: the 50% male/50% female goal has been achieved in each of the last five years in every country; increasing the number of African-American hires in the US, with the Historical Black Colleges initiative raising African-American diversity in CSAP Americas from 3% in 2013 to 14% in 2019.
  • CSAP-ers stay for many reasons, including the fact that they have formed life-long friends within their CSAP Tribe. The CSAP Program runs on the principles of teamwork, operational excellence and repeatable process. The team reviews feedback (qualitative and quantitative) daily to make the recruitment and hiring process better, year-on-year, for prospective candidates.

Judges’ comments: “A truly holistic approach, from attraction, to ‘keeping warm content-based information’. Impressive African-American hiring as well as strong retention, with very limited attrition.”

Virgin Media Apprentices – Virgin Media in partnership with Amberjack

Virgin Media relies on an army of skilled engineers who maintain the ultrafast network, but with an ageing population, the company needed to nurture the pipeline of talent necessary to take its business into the future.

  • Virgin Media became one of the first private companies in the UK to launch a structured part-time apprenticeship scheme to make the programme more inclusive and diverse than before.
  • Apprenticeships are now offered in a range of non-conventional business areas including HR, legal, finance and data analytics, as well as the more traditional disciplines.
  • The company understands that not every apprentice finds it easy to learn in the same environment, so apprentices who have literacy and numeracy challenges receive tailored, individual support to ensure they reach their full potential.
  • Making apprenticeships as flexible and inclusive as possible has meant that over the past year the apprentice recruitment process has been upgraded. As a result, the number of females applying to engineering roles increased from 11% at application stage to 16% at offers made.
  • To unite the Liberty Global and Virgin Media brands, the company created universal recruitment processes for apprentices, placements and graduates. The new apprentice recruitment process inspired, engaged and identified the talented candidates who could adapt to change quickly, pursue innovation and drive business growth.
  • Given the age profile of many apprentice candidates, Virgin Media felt it was important to engage parents and carers too. The company created an overview of what parents needed to know about its apprenticeship schemes, helping them understand what apprenticeships involve. ‘What parents need to know’ provided all the information and advice parents and carers needed to support their children in making the decision to apply for one of Virgin’s schemes.

Judges’ comments: Virgin Media has innovative assessments and including parents is fantastic. Part-time apprentice scheme is innovative to help inclusion.

Leaders of the Future – North Yorkshire Police in partnership with Cappfinity

As the UK’s largest single county force, North Yorkshire Police needs to continuously respond to the changing nature of demand for policing. The new recruitment and assessment process required a focus on values and culture that also complemented the current policing competency framework. Strengths were identified as the best way to unlock this potential.

  • In a world with ever evolving threats with consistent changes in complexity, policing in 2025 will look and feel significantly different. North Yorkshire Police realised it would no longer be able to rely predominantly on traditional recruitment methods and approaches.
  • Through its police officer promotion boards, the force realised that interviews were a ‘rehearsed’ process – candidates would spend days if not weeks rehearsing competency-based examples, giving no opportunity for applicants to bring their best self to the interview and demonstrate their true potential. Developing a strengths-levelled framework allowed the force to tailor its approach for different levels and ranks across the force to ensure that the content and candidate experience was appropriate.
  • A range of innovative assessment tools including an online immersive assessment, strengths-based interview, virtual reality and micro exercises were introduced. This strengths-based recruitment moved away from the ‘evidence-based’ competency approach that is an embedded process across the policing culture.
  • To deliver the new process, the Talent Team needed the support of the entire force, so gaining buy-in from the Chief Officer Team from the outset was paramount. Didn’t want the perception that this was just another ‘fad from HR’, so having the full support of the Chief Officer Team was critical to the success.
  • The legacy has shown that challenging the status quo and taking a leap of faith has very quickly become one of North Yorkshire Police’s unique selling points, receiving interest from senior leaders in other forces nationally, as well as the College of Policing.

Judges’ comments: “Showcases how they challenged the status quo, blending technology and innovation for better outcomes for police recruitment, without using tech for tech’s sake. The approach showed marked improvement in creating a fair experience for candidates and has attracted interest from other forces – and the College of Policing – who now want to share this best practice.”