| The Challenge |
The Outcome |
| Inefficient and unengaging recruitment process was causing delays in time to hire and shrinking talent pools |
Providing candidates with a fair and inclusive recruitment process whilst increasing efficiency for hiring managers. |
“We are looking to uncover potential in candidates, to unlock qualities that may not be so obvious, as these candidates will be able to adapt and change as our business grows. It’s futureproofing”
Kerry Sneddon, Early Careers Recruitment Manager
Challenge
Each year, WSP recruits up to 300 graduates in the UK and receives large volumes of applicants. Sifting through all of these can be an incredibly lengthy process. Previously, WSP used the video interview method and a CV to screen applicants, which was long and time-consuming for the recruiters. On top of this, they were experiencing a high dropout rate and a limited homogenous talent pool. WSP came to us with two clear challenges; time to hire and inclusivity. WSP was also looking to improve and streamline their recruitment process.
Back in 2018, WSP decided to partner with Arctic Shores and start hiring for potential. Looking towards the future, WSP was concerned with looking at candidates beyond just academic qualifications. They know the industry is changing, and new hires need to be able to adapt, possessing human skills as well as intellectual capabilities.
Kerry Sneddon, Early Careers Recruitment Manager at WSP said: “Our industry is changing, it's always going to need technical people but some of that will need to be automated. Now more than ever it’s really important to hire for potential so that we have candidates that possess the qualities to adapt and grow with the business in the future.”
“We wanted to use Arctic Shores because it’s a fair process for all. We’ve eliminated the CV, and it doesn’t matter what background you’re from. We believe in equal opportunities”
Kerry Sneddon, Early Careers Recruitment Manager
Solution
Our assessment stood out to WSP as an alternative to traditional hiring methods, such as video interviews. Backed by state-of-the-art psychometrics and powered by technology, our assessment presented a unique opportunity to hire for potential and streamline the recruitment process. The solution to WSP’s recruitment challenges was to implement our assessment between the application stage and the interviews. Therefore, the solution needed to integrate into the WSP application tracking system to provide a level of automation and reduce the amount of manual hours recruiters would normally spend sifting through candidates. A funnelled process provided a perfect solution with four key benefits; 1. reduced time to hire, 2. efficiency with high volume hiring, 3. saving resources and 4. increasing diversity within the candidate talent pool.
“Using the assessment has massively helped to speed up the recruitment process, within days, we can be in touch with a candidate. In this way, the candidate experience has improved a lot!”
Kerry Sneddon, Early Careers Recruitment Manager
Results
By implementing our assessment into their recruitment process, WSP has managed to save approximately 100 days of recruiters’ time that normally would have been spent on screening candidates (that’s more than 2500 hours!) Due to the success criteria selected by WSP’s recruitment team, focusing on unique behaviours they know will make a good fit for the role, candidates now automatically get rejected. Automating the recruitment process takes a huge amount of pressure off the team, and they now have a candidate pipeline to work from. Whilst bringing efficiency to the process, they have also managed to ensure that no adverse impact has affected minority groups who have applied to WSP, meaning they have achieved their goal of equal opportunities for all. It is hugely important within the engineering space, which already suffers from homogeneous and limited talent pools, to encourage candidates of all backgrounds to engage with the recruitment process fully. More than ever, it is vital to hire for potential, and WSP is a leading employer within this space.
