What you can learn from The Hut Group’s innovative graduate interview strategy

Charlie Benson
Charlie Benson

Early Careers professionals are operating in an increasingly talent-driven market.

Your candidate experience could be the difference between the best talent accepting the offer of a role with you, or taking one elsewhere. The Hut Group know this better than most. In the last 18 months they have increased their staff numbers from around 2,500 to over 4,000, and plan to increase this to 6,000 by the end of the year. A lot of this hiring is taking place at graduate level, which is leading to huge opportunities for ambitious graduates interested in careers in business and technology.

As the company grows, one of the biggest challenges the talent team at The Hut Group face is maintaining their candidate experience at scale. We spoke to Alice Moore, Head of Graduate Talent, and Simon Finnie, Talent Partner, to find out how they define a great candidate experience and why it’s so important.

At The Hut Group, it is important to form a connection with everyone you interview.

After submitting a CV, optional cover letter and undergoing a twenty-minute phone screening, shortlisted candidates attend one in-person interview stage. Each candidate spends around two hours at The Hut Group’s offices, divided into thirty-minute slots – one with a member of the talent team, and up to three with different managers and members of the business, to determine both competency and culture fit. Whether they’re successful or unsuccessful, all candidates receive a phone call with a decision and feedback within a couple of days of this interview.

Despite the volume and pace at which The Hut Group are looking to hire graduates, Alice, who previously worked in graduate recruitment at Ernst and Young and Goldman Sachs, says, “recruiting at The Hut Group varies from recruiting in a large corporate, we are very focused on taking an individualised approach”.

Get the full article for free

Our latest ebook, ‘Interviewing Graduate Candidates: a strategies and trends report,’ includes feature interviews with The Hut Group’s talent team, Enterprise Rent-A-Car’s Talent Acquisition Director, and more.

With your free download, you’ll also get access to the latest data on how employers across the UK are interviewing graduate candidates in 2018. You can get your copy here.

Share this post:

Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn

Are you hiring?

Put your job opportunities in front of the largest dedicated audience of any graduate careers service and maximise your early careers recruitment.

Related Posts

Request a call back