The Made in Group, which includes Made in the Midlands and Made in Yorkshire, is innovating its hiring process to grow the business. The group had a very traditional recruitment process despite being a disruptor in its space. The tired old, CV screening, interviews, second interviews and then hire.
Jason Pitt, Group CEO, said, "Our old applicant screening process has had mixed results, and on occasions may have even damaged productivity. We are now moving towards an entirely new recruiting process with an applicant screening process that creates job experience and real feedback. I believe we can hire smarter than before and improve retention rates."
“The idea is for an applicant to have a first interview as usual, but instead of a second interview or assessment day, they will have a 'work trial'.
The trial will be between 16-20 hours per week for between 3-8 weeks; the candidate will have their final assessment at the end of this. Some candidates could even take time off work to focus on a 'tryout'.”
This new approach to hiring aims to make job creation more inclusive and allows employers such as the Made in Group to move away from purely judging the CV and instead see how they work in practice. At the end of the period, the candidate either leaves with some new experience and skills plus earned during the trial or gets a permanent job. Jason said, "It's a much fairer way of working, and hopefully, it can improve culture and hiring within our business."
“In more challenging roles, often the CV is misleading, and it's when you get to work with the person you realise 'ah' there is a gap. Hiring permanent staff when you've only met them once is risky; either the employer thinks this is not what they were expecting, or indeed the employee may believe this is not the company they were hoping to work with either.” Added Jason
Recruitment needs to evolve, and these work trials provide a great way to add value; whether they get a job at the end of it or not, it's a more friendly way to approach recruitment and manage the expectations of all parties on day one.
Made in Group will pay each work trial on a contract basis at £10 per hour.
For candidates applying for a role in sales or customer support, they will be talking directly to an actual customer; if they are in our marketing team, they will be writing real copy, candidates get a chance to be creative.
During the trial, the group will provide a lot of feedback; if the company concludes that the applicant will not be successful, they will call to end the process as quickly as possible out of respect for everyone's time. On occasions, it may be the candidate that decides to end the trial.
Jason concluded, "This new approach to hiring will identify real skill and fit and give us the best chance of assembling the right team."
To express your interest in a work trial please email ilona@madeingroup.com and tell us a little about yourself, what experience and qualities you have that would be useful to our business and we will get back to you.
