The Challenge

Independent resource provider Resource Solutions Group’s aim was to become self-sufficient in staff. “The aspiration is to have

wholly home-grown talent, with the aim of promoting from within the company,” managing director Nick Walrond told Recruiter. And mainly through staff referrals, RSG was doing well, but with the continuing need for new sales talent, the pipeline was drying up.

For the previous nine months, through networking in Bristol — home to RSG’s flagship recruitment centre — Walrond had been in contact with Lee McQueen, former winner of TV’s The Apprentice and now founder and director of Raw Talent Academy (RTA). The time had come to enlist his help in finding fresh new sales talent.

RSG wanted to create 10 new jobs at its Cliftonbased head office, ideally enrolling the successful candidates in its training academy around the same time. The company culture is all about training up talented people, finding the natural spark in its staff and developing it, so the collaboration between the two organisations sounded an ideal fit. McQueen told Recruiter that one of the most important aspects of unearthing raw talent was to get under a client’s skin. “We interviewed people who already worked at RSG to see what they were like,” McQueen told Recruiter. “We weren’t going to be screening on qualifications — it was based on the type of people RSG hired in the past.” So how would RTA find these talented individuals?

The Solution

The plan was to have a one-day extensive audition process, Apprentice-style, in which candidates would participate in a series of business tasks and team building challenges in front of a panel of senior management staff from RSG. RTA invited prospective candidates to send in a short video clip explaining why they have the raw talent to receive a place on the audition day. Walrond said: “This appealed to a generation clearly heavily influenced by TV personalities and programmes such as The Apprentice.” And McQueen elaborated: “We invited 40 candidates, with 28 turning up on the day, but this was originally pared down from around 500 applications. It was hard work for my team at the front-end of the process!”

The morning consisted of different exercises involving sales and a Dragons’ Den-style task. Representatives from RTA and RSG were paired together to oversee the candidates throughout the process. At lunchtime, everyone was assessed and 17 remained in the process. However, for those who missed out, the day wasn’t a waste. “Those who didn’t get the job, who left the process at lunchtime, we gave them useful feedback,” McQueen emphasised. “It’s hugely important. There’s nothing worse than not getting feedback.” The remaining candidates had to do a threeminute presentation, followed by a 10-minute Q&A, “which was extremely daunting for most of them”, said Walrond. RTA staff were even assessing their behaviour in the holding area before their presentation. At around 7pm, at the end of a long, gruelling day, eight people were offered the jobs. “We took those who didn’t fit the bill to one side to advise them,” Walrond said, and McQueen added: “They were very close at missing out on the jobs — they’re good people.” The range of successful candidates varied from a recent 18-year-old school leaver and graduates, to someone with four years’ service in the police force. “You get to see a broader spectrum of the individual through this day assessment,” Walrond told Recruiter. “This process was very different in terms of our normal recruiting. We’d usually have two to three interviews to hire a new joiner.”

He continued: “It was a day I would repeat and heartily recommend to others to do likewise. It threw up a few surprises — candidates who wouldn’t necessarily have shone in our standard interview process. We were after the right mindset — discipline, determination and dedication.” McQueen echoed his sentiments: “It was a great day with a great outcome. Recruitment is my passion. It was the reason I started out in business in the first place. I wanted to showcase the raw talent — hire on the behaviour and attitude rather than a CV.” And yes, he did poke fun at his CV faux pas on his time on The Apprentice, when he put down he’d been at university for two years after he’d only lasted four months.

Although one of the new starters decided not to take up the appointment, three of the ‘raw talent’ who were able to start immediately have nearly completed their first month at RSG’s Academy, undergoing four to six weeks’ conditioning and learning the basics of recruitment (see below for their views on their new job). And Walrond was so impressed with the process, he’s thinking of repeating it all again later in the year.