As every business understands, attracting top talent is a significant challenge.
Employers need to rethink traditional methods to distinguish themselves, expanding their appeal to a diverse range of candidates and creating an environment that emphasises retention. In the current dynamic market, adapting your strategies is not just optional – it’s crucial for staying ahead.
Data from the Top Employers Institute indicates that almost three-quarters (72 per cent) of certified UK Top Employers are transforming their talent acquisition strategies. The question, naturally, is in what manner? To find the answer, examining the approaches taken by certified Top Employers like Molson Coors and Primark is helpful.
Skills-based hiring: no CV, no problem
Molson Coors, the beverage company, implemented a hiring-for-potential program to revamp its organisation, emphasising recruiting skills and behaviours over traditional methods. This approach has led to a broader and more diverse pool of applicants and workforce.
The organisation created pilot programs for skills-based hiring in partnership with its collaborators. This success led Molson Coors to eliminate "experience" as a requirement for certain positions, instead focusing on strengths, skills, and the potential of new talent. After the pilot, the organisation pinpointed specific roles that could gain from this method, including extra sales positions, technical representatives, mobile technicians, and supply chain roles within their breweries.
Molson Coors has seen a significant increase in candidates and has sustained high retention rates for new hires. Gender representation and the match of applicants have also significantly improved, and the business has since fine-tuned the assessment to be more effective in identifying candidates who could fit their business needs.
A team to focus on removing barriers
Primark UK established a Removing Barriers team focused on assisting candidates who need reasonable adjustments throughout their application and interview process and managing access to work requests. Primark recognised the need for a dedicated team to provide specialised expertise and evaluate the store recruitment process from an unbiased, impartial standpoint.
The team helps in all aspects of the application and interviewing process:
Pre-application. The team offers support through guidance, prepping and liaising with a designated support worker or one of the charities they work with.
During application. This includes phone or technical support or additional assessment time, according to individual needs.
Interview stage. The team may contact the interviewing store to arrange support and provide coaching and guidance to the interviewer where needed.
This support system was established in 2018, and since then, Primark UK has supported over 500 candidates. Ensuring equity in candidate consideration and hiring decisions is vital to remain genuinely inclusive of underrepresented talent.
Driving inclusivity through smarter hiring practices
Both organisations and other certified Top Employers are committed to being more inclusive in their recruitment processes, emphasising providing more opportunities to underrepresented groups and offering new approaches and more assistance throughout each stage of the hiring process.
Organisations should have a clear diversity, equity and inclusion strategy in hiring practices to improve the quality and number of applicants. By removing unconscious bias, prioritising skills and offering more support to underrepresented groups, applicants can have renewed confidence when applying for roles.
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