If you attended university in the United Kingdom, you’ve almost certainly heard of Brightsparks. In fact it’s highly plausible you could be one of the 14,000 students they have worked with every year since starting in 2003.
Headquartered in London, Brightsparks specializes in placing UK students into both temporary employment during their studies, and entry-level graduate positions afterwards. As their Senior Talent Manager Jake Wibberly reveals, Brightsparks wants to approach their work differently from other temporary employment agencies, building long-term relationships with their candidates:
“This is quite a unique niche. We get to know students very well as we screen them, assess them, and gather feedback after placing them into roles with our clients, so we can gather deep insights into their personalities and skills.”
Appealing To Generation Z
This approach is not without major challenges, especially when working with students who may have little or no job experience. Traditional CVs and application processes are of little value, and with Brightsparks dealing with such a large number of applicants, they need standardized processes to ensure efficient and fair placements.
Then there’s finding the students in the first place. Generation Z has a disdain for the older, lengthier application processes of previous decades. University is a busy time with essays to finish, societies to join and — let’s face it — copious amounts of partying to fit in. With this in mind, Brightsparks needed a quick and easy process that would appeal to students AND give their hiring managers the data they required.
Building Long-Term Relationships With Candidates
In 2016, Brightsparks discovered that SmartRecruiters offered the solutions to all of these concerns, and more. Let’s see how:
- SmartRecruiters’ easy-to-configure dashboard allowed Brightsparks to develop standardized tests for candidates. Not only did this provide them with all the data they needed, it also helped reduce bias and increase diversity.
- Candidate profiles provides the ability to track students throughout their entire relationship with Brightsparks, allowing long-term monitoring of their data and experience. This means a profile created for a temporary job can be updated and later used for finding a graduate position.
- SmartRecruiters’ flexible API allows it to seamlessly post to multiple social media platforms, a critical advantage when attempting to source younger candidates. Additionally, the ease of click-and-go applications further appeals to time-pressed students.
- The data reports and metrics at the core of SmartRecruiters’ platform allows Brightsparks to quickly assess a large number of candidates and effectively analyze their sourcing channels, saving them money and giving them an edge over their competitors.
