War games for talented graduates

26 May 2010 | By Colin Cottell

Being quizzed by the chief executive of the company, while under the piercing gaze of a panel of the company’s most senior managers is the sort of thing that gives even seasoned employees sleepless nights. But that was the scenario facing Ben Hayward, a management trainee at L’Oreal.

However, strangely at the time Hayward was not even a L’Oreal employee but a business management student at Cambridge.

L’Oreal hosts Brandstorm
Hayward was participating in the 2008 final of Brandstorm, an event in which teams of university students from around the world compete to put forward the best marketing strategies for a L’Oreal product. He was just one of 30,000 other eager students who have taken part in the game since it began in 1993.

But don’t be fooled by the term ’game’. While those who participate in the annual final in Paris agree it is great fun, everyone involved, both students and L’Oreal, understands that it has a more serious purpose.

As Thomas Riegel, recruitment director L’Oreal UK & Ireland, explains: “For us as a recruitment team Brandstorm is one of the most important and valuable sources for recruitment.

“Not just in terms of quantity of candidates but also quality. In London we have recruited round about 12 management trainees and interns in the past five years from this competition.”

And recalling his experience of being grilled by L’Oreal’s chief executive, Haward agrees. “It was great for seeing whether you could think on your feet, and it gave you the opportunity to really show your passion for the company.”

While L’Oreal is considered the forerunner of these ’super recruitment’ events, others graduate recruiters have begun to recognise their value.

BP’s Ultimate Field Trip
This year, for the first time, international oil giant BP ran ’The Ultimate Field Trip’, an event where teams of students studying Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics (STEM) subjects at universities from around the UK were asked to come up with innovative scientific ideas that would help reduce CO2 emissions from a typical power station.

The event culminated in a final at The Natural Science Museum, where a team from Imperial College won the prize of a paid internship opportunity with BP to work on one of the company’s oil rigs in the North Sea.

As Emma Hardaker-Jones, BP’s head of resourcing explains, the competition offers BP a unique insight into potential employees beyond the traditional graduate recruitment processes, such as milkrounds and interviews. “The Ultimate Field Trip has allowed us to see each individual’s drive, determination and commitment.

These are the key aspects we look for,” she explains.

“While traditional recruitment processes allow applicants to talk or present their knowledge, the Ultimate Field Trip bypasses the ’talk and present phase’ and requires applicants to demonstrate and then directly apply their knowledge. It allows us to review candidate skills very early on within the recruitment process.”

Hardaker-Jones adds that the competition’s uniqueness comes from the need for students to interact with real energy issues with real business effects, while working with senior BP staff members, for example, when obtaining technical information. “It goes beyond the normal graduate recruitment tactic of ’broadcast’ and into an ’engagement’ model,” she adds.

BP was so impressed by the performance of all this year’s finalists that it has guaranteed all 15 students after graduation a first interview with the company.

npower’s Energy Challenge
Another company that has recognised the value of these events is RWE npower. This year 39 teams from 32 universities competed in its Energy Challenge, which was based on a climate change theme.

According to Louis Koonjean, graduate recruitment manager at RWE npower, whereas in the past the event was about raising the profile of the company on campus, now the idea “is to make it much more of a direct recruitment channel”.

As a result, members of the winning teams will be offered a placement on npower’s summer school or, if final year students, fast tracked to an assessment centre. npower also runs a ’Future Leaders Competition’ in which teams of four “conceive, develop and deliver a project on sustainability”.

Koonjean says these events are particularly valuable in picking out those with the appropriate attributes required by the company. “They have to show leadership, drive, determination and time management, and achieve this while doing their course work,” he says.

These competitions also identify those who are really interested in working for a utility company and screen out those that aren’t genuinely committed, says Koonjean. “With a huge number of applications for a small number of jobs, they allow us to see if they are genuinely interested at an earlier stage. It’s a differentiator that way.”

For Koonjean, despite these events working out at “probably double the cost” of other recruitment initiatives, the benefits outweigh the extra cost. “They improve the quality and motivation of those that apply and allow applicants to demonstrate this is really what they want to do,” he says.

Grant Thornton leads 8 Task Challenge
This year international accountancy firm Grant Thornton was lead sponsor for the 8 Task Challenge, in which 260 students in 65 teams from universities across the UK carried out a number of mental tasks while canoeing, cycling and running/walking.

Grant Thornton’s graduate recruitment manager Maria Floud says the event, organised by graduate events business TARGETevents, plays a valuable role in identifying the type of graduate it is looking for. “Taking extra responsibility, working in a team and wanting a challenge; these are the kind of things we are looking for,” she says.

Floud says the company plans to measure the effectiveness of the event as a recruitment tool by collating those who mention it in response to the question “What prompted you to apply to Grant Thornton?”

However, the event goes beyond this. “This gives us a bigger bang for our buck on campus,” she says. Among the advantages over the usual campus events is that it widens the pool of potential candidates. Not only do many participants become aware of it through the Student Union rather than say the more usual

Careers office, it is also open to students from a wider range of universities on a wider range of courses.
It is also good for raising awareness of Grant Thornton, which Floud admits is relatively unknown despite being among the world’s top five accountancy firms.

P&G engage with universities
Procter & Gamble runs P&G&U in which university teams from around Europe participate in a consumer marketing business game.

And while Charlotte Dean-Hughes, talent supply leader, UK, Ireland and the Nordics at Procter & Gamble, agrees with other graduate recruiters, that P&G&U allows the company to engage with and assess potential recruits, she empathises that it is very much a two-way process. “The graduates can do the same with P&G,” she says. “We recruit people into careers, not just jobs, so it is really important that we can expose potential recruits to our purpose as a company, our culture, our values and our principles. We can both then decide if there is a good fit - for the long term.

“This business game is a great way to show this to potential employees… This is as close to real life training and assessment as it gets.”

P&G&U

The P&G&U Junior Seminar is open to teams of first and second year and first year Masters students from universities across Western Europe. Participants, who work in teams of three to five students are offered a choice of challenges:
- This year, one of these involves asking whether Ariel could be even greener, another whether Gillette could be more than simply a shaving brand.

The first stage involves
- building your team
- getting to know your consumer and your market
- coming up with a winning idea
- presenting your idea to a jury

The three best teams go on to the final in Geneva, where they work with marketing professionals before giving their presentation in front of a panel.

The winning team will be offered training by Procter & Gamble.

Powerpoints
The value of super recruitment events:

• identifies those with a real interest in the company and the industry
• identifies those who are a good fit – for example, those who can work well as part of a team
• widens the applicant pool
• provides potential applicants with a real insight into the company, helping them to decide whether it is right for them
• a great way of building awareness of your organisation among potential recruits

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