The challenge:
Reed Talent Solutions worked with the Government Actuarial Department (GAD) to hire and screen 16 graduate trainees for two key roles, Graduate Trainee Actuary and Graduate Trainee Actuarial Analyst, to support their annual graduate programme.
GAD held principal responsibility for sourcing candidates, and we held responsibility for screening application and conducting competency-based interviews.
We also provided free advice and support regarding how best to recruit candidates, including where to post advertisements and how to increase the diversity of the candidate pool during the attraction stage.
The solution:
Reed Talent Solutions supported all elements of the screening and interviewing process, with all GAD advertisements integrated directly into our applicant tracking system (ATS).
By doing this we removed the administrative burden from the client.
We then appointed a dedicated team of interviewers who worked with relevant client stakeholders to:
Formalise a screening and interview process that could be applied for all candidates.
Create a bespoke application form, comprising key questions related to education, mathematical skills and key competencies (for example, ‘Please tell us about a time you had to digest and analyse a data set and produce a report’).
Create a bespoke interview script, which was uploaded to our applicant tracking system. This was based on documentation provided by GAD.
Create a defined and weighted scoring matrix for each interview question to ensure we could best differentiate between good and excellent candidates.
Create a bespoke candidate communication pack, including assessment invitations and formal regret letter templates.
We conducted an initial screening of more than 520 applications, focused on basic criteria such as degree details, proficiency in mathematics and compliance to key competencies.
Our team provided written constructive feedback to unsuccessful candidates and provided successful candidates with written confirmation regarding their progress to the telephone interview stage.
This information was provided via our ATS, which provided a link to enable candidates to self-book into interview slots. The team then conducted detailed telephone interviews - using scripts agreed with GAD, completing 32 interviews per day during peak periods.
Successful candidates were provided with a link to an online assessment, which was marked automatically, with results automatically transferred to our ATS.
Our team then reviewed scoring against GAD-agreed pass marks.
Unsuccessful candidates were provided with written feedback and successful candidates were provided with written confirmation they had progressed to the shortlisting stage.
Our teams conducted a detailed review of the shortlist - combining scores from all stages, to progress the top 30 candidates from a shortlist of more than 160 to a final assessment, conducted by GAD. We scheduled and arranged all assessments on behalf of both parties.
The results:
In total our team completed more than 300 interviews, shortlisted over 160 candidates and progressed 30 candidates to the final assessment.
All roles were successfully recruited within agreed timescales.
We have now successfully delivered this project for a second consecutive year.
Find out more about our recruitment process outsourcing solution, or get in touch with one of our experts to talk through your needs.
