Creating a candidate-focused approach to early career selection

When it comes to hiring top talent for your early career programmes, a well-designed selection process is crucial for identifying candidates who align seamlessly with the competencies essential for an organisation’s success. This process goes beyond shortlisting, prioritising professionalism, fairness, friendliness, and informativeness to place the candidate experience at the forefront.

Online Assessments

Utilising online assessments, such as Emotional Intelligence, Numerical Reasoning, Verbal Reasoning, and Inductive Reasoning, ensures a modern and efficient evaluation process. These assessments are thoughtfully designed to align with the brand, creating a seamless extension of the selection process. 

Acknowledging the diverse demographic of candidates, and incorporating an engaging and gamified approach to assessments enhances the overall experience. With a clear and straightforward marking system, these assessments rigorously evaluate a wide range of competencies, providing a robust understanding of candidates’ abilities.

Flexibility is key, especially for candidates managing academic commitments. Online assessments offer the freedom to complete evaluations at their own pace, accommodating various schedules and ensuring a user-friendly experience.

Personalised Insights into Motivations and Experiences

Interviews play a crucial role in gaining insights into candidates’ motivations and experiences. Whether conducted in person or online, these sessions involve a brief biographical interview and competency or experience-based questions, each accompanied by a scoring system.

Collaboration with stakeholders is integral to this process. Working closely to identify specific competencies and experiences ensures a targeted assessment aligned with organisational needs. Beyond the selection phase, interviews provide an opportunity to articulate the role and its intricacies to high-performing candidates.

A Holistic and Transparent Selection Journey

Early career selection goes beyond shortlisting; it’s about creating a framework that assures candidates they are making the right career move. The process is designed to yield the best shortlist, offering clarity and transparency through a distinct scoring mechanism. This ensures candidates leave with a positive experience, regardless of immediate fit, encouraging consideration for future opportunities. With a focus on clarity in feedback and a commitment to a comprehensive selection journey, organisations aim to make every candidate feel valued and informed, setting the stage for a positive employer-candidate relationship.

Written by Michelle Kearns.