Jaguar and Land Rover have managed to double the proportion of women and
ethnic minorities they have recruited as apprentices after offering the jobs
online.
In a joint campaign the companies tried recruiting apprentices this year using
the web, despite the general belief that such recruits tend not to be internet,
or PC, literate.
The vehicle manufacturers had 500 responses for only 50 positions on the old
recruitment drive and all openings were filled through the web-based application
process.
Of the successful recruits 10 per cent were women and 10 per cent were from
ethnic minorities – double the proportion employed in last year’s recruitment
drive.
Graham Thompsett, recruitment manager for Jaguar and Land Rover, said
candidates were also recruited four months earlier than in previous years
because of the move online.
"It is dangerous to assume people aren’t internet literate. We are
looking for the skill base of the future." he said. "We’ve now got a
process to build on. It is not perfect and lots can be done to improve it, but
for the manufacturing industry, the results are very good indeed."
Jaguar and Land Rover were able to take the interview stage out of the
recruitment process by choosing candidates suitable for assessment centres
using an online competency-based application form.
They also found they were able to monitor responses and manage data more
easily as well as provide metrics to highlight various aspects of the
candidates, including their ethnicity and gender.
