Background:
Having progressed from a start-up to a scale up DDaT function by 2021, the DDaT leadership team sought to source diverse permanent hires its software development, engineering, architects, and service design teams, reducing reliance on its contractor base across to deliver on its 2022 focus of creating services based around user centred design.
Challenge:
Demand for digital professionals, particularly in software development and user centred design is high, with increased competition between employers and, a candidate led market who enjoy a wider range of employment choices, enhanced by increasing remote working postpandemic.
DIT also wished to attract permanent talent to its sites outside of London, with sites in Belfast, Cardiff, Darlington and Edinburgh.
Solution:
We worked extremely closely with DIT's DDaT recruitment team to organise hiring CTO and HOD briefing calls via Teams, formulating common selling points of working for DIT and its DDaT teams, understanding the challenges and career opportunities open to individuals within the various DDaT teams.
Posts were approved for inclusion on Civil Service Jobs with shorten versions for commercial Job Boards, with all online applications being automatically forwarded to the Inspire People website for application management.
A social media campaign was integral to the solutions, sharing DDaT explainer videos on LinkedIn, targeting a wide range of over 40 different D&I groups on Twitter.
Video was used to shorten the time to hire and ensure a wider range of candidates were given first interviews, with DIT embracing the use of video interviews following a blind sift, to replace written applications, providing candidates with three competency-based questions to respond to over a 2-way, live Teams call with Inspire People, designed to highlight attributes and relevant skills that otherwise could not be gained from reading a CV in isolation.
This significantly enhanced the hiring managers ability to shortlist candidates against sifting criteria, in combination, with candidates’ CVs and our candidate screening notes.
Results:
DIT’s embracement of innovation to replace their traditional written application questions, contributed to a positive campaign that resulted in approximately 400 applications, with 40% of shortlisted candidates from BAEM and female applicants, resulting a second campiagn with successful hires in 2022 and 2023 including:
- Chief Architect
- Cyber Risk Leads
- Head of Service & Interaction Design
- Principal Software Developer
- Principal SOC Analyst
- Senior Software Developers and Software Developers
- Senior Product Owners
- Senior Service Designer
- Senior Site Reliability Engineer
- Technical Architect
- Threat & Vulnerability Manager
Links:
https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/department-for-business-and-trade
For more information, contact Andrew Medhurst or Tom McNeillat andrew@inspirepeople.net or call +44 (0)20 7871 8550.
