Enhancing Candidate Experience with a Job Simulation Graduate Pre-hire Assessment

We spoke to Wincanton’s Group Early Careers Manager, Marieta Jones, to hear about her experience with ThriveMap, the journey, and the benefits since transforming their graduate recruitment assessment process.

Wincanton’s mission to build the next generation of logistics professionals

Wincanton, a leading supply chain solutions company based in the United Kingdom, operates across 200 sites with a workforce of approximately 20,000 employees. Boasting a legacy that spans nearly a century, Wincanton understands the value of nurturing fresh talent.

To identify the future generation of logistics professionals, the company has implemented early careers programs.

In their pursuit of optimising the recruitment process for their graduate programs, Wincanton partnered with ThriveMap to improve how they screen and select applicants.

The Graduate Recruitment Challenge 

Wincanton’s Early Careers team faced several challenges in their recruitment process that affected efficiency and strained resources:

1. Hiring Consistency: The existing candidate selection process involved individuals screening CVs and applications. They had concerns about a lack of consistency and objectivity in this process which could lead to unintentional hiring bias.
2. No Shows: The company encountered an issue with candidates failing to appear for scheduled interviews, leading to disruptions in the recruitment process and wastage of valuable resources.
3. Resource Constraints: Wincanton’s internal HR team grappled with managing the high volume of candidates and struggled to provide personalised attention throughout the screening and interview stages due to limited resources.
4. Manual Screening: The existing screening process relied heavily on manual methods, resulting in a time-consuming and labor-intensive procedure that burdened internal resources.
5. Whole-Team Task: Hiring up to 25 new graduates annually became a demanding undertaking, requiring significant efforts from the entire team.

ThriveMap’s Approach

Bringing the graduate program to life for candidates

Working closely with Wincanton’s Early Careers team, ThriveMap developed a tailored pre-hire assessment that would bring the graduate program to life for candidates.

The approach included the following key elements:

1. Program Understanding: ThriveMap collaborated closely with Wincanton to gain a comprehensive understanding of the graduate programs, their objectives, and the desired candidate profile.
2. Graduate Insights: Graduates already in the program were involved to provide firsthand insights into the job and company culture, ensuring the assessment process closely aligned with the reality of the role.
3. Customised Assessment: ThriveMap designed a pre-hire assessment process that accurately reflected the requirements and expectations of the graduate programs.

The Results? Graduates that Thrive 

“I would say we reduce about 30% of our telephone screening. But for us the biggest advantage was no doubt the candidate experience. Through better pre-hire assessments, our graduate program has been bought to life as an exciting and challenging career path.”

Marieta Jones, Group Early Careers Manager at Wincanton

The implementation of ThriveMap yielded significant results and brought several benefits for Wincanton:

1. Streamlined Screening: Wincanton observed a reduction of approximately 30% in telephone screening, saving valuable time and resources for the HR team.
2. Improved Candidate Selection: The refined screening process led to a decrease in the number of candidates progressing to the second stage, allowing Wincanton to allocate more candidates to the team. This increased availability for interviews and facilitated a more efficient selection process.
3. Improved Diversity: The use of an objective and consistent assessment instead of relying on manual CV reviews has led to a fairer and more objective hiring process.
4. Reduction in No Shows: With the customized pre-hire process setting clear expectations for the graduate programs, Wincanton experienced a considerable reduction in the number of candidates not showing up for scheduled interviews, resulting in improved process efficiency.
5. Enhanced Candidate Experience: The custom assessment process brought the graduate programs to life for candidates, providing them with a realistic preview of the role and the company culture. This enhanced candidate experience helped set accurate expectations and contributed to positive perceptions of Wincanton’s graduate programs.

Streamlined Screening, Reduced No-Shows, and Improved Selection Process

Through its collaboration with ThriveMap, Wincanton successfully enhanced its recruitment processes for graduates and early careers programs.

By leveraging graduate insights and closely aligning the assessment with program requirements, Wincanton achieved streamlined screening, reduced no-shows, and improved hiring consistency. Furthermore, the enhanced candidate experience led to increased interest in the graduate programs and positive perceptions of Wincanton as an employer.

This case study exemplifies how a tailored pre-hire process can significantly optimize recruitment efforts and positively impact candidate experience for graduate programs.