The Association of Graduate Recruiters
2015 Student
Recruitment
Conference
#AGRConf15
Premier Sponsors:
28th - 30th June 2015 Birmingham Hilton Metropole
From sharing labour market insights to delivering the right
candidates to the right roles, Prospects has been driving
forward exceptional graduate recruitment for over 40 years.
To find out how we can work together to meet your
recruitment goals get in touch with our friendly team.
0845 077 1966
enquiries@prospects.ac.uk
www.prospects.ac.uk
Welcome
W
elcome to the AGR’s 2015
Student Recruitment
Conference! We are very
pleased to be all back under one roof this
year in a venue that combines superb
conference facilities and hotel
accommodation. We hope you will enjoy our
Conference programme: we have put
together over 40 breakout sessions
addressing a very broad range of subjects,
from gamification in recruitment to virtual
assessment, including how to face global
early careers challenges or minimise
unconscious bias.
You asked us for content in a variety of
learning styles tailored to different career
stages. In response, we have tailored this
year’s sessions to suit various experience
levels: entry, intermediate and advanced.
Keeping in mind that not everyone learns in
the same way, we’ve designed sessions in a
variety of formats, from the classic
amphitheatre to TED-Style Talks. The
Conference will also give the opportunity to
get a taste of our new L&D offering with
trainer-led sessions that will be accessible
in full-versions at the launch of the AGR
Professional project in September.
The AGR Student Recruitment Conference
is the biggest event of its kind in Europe,
bringing together student recruitment
professionals from both the corporate and
the university world. We are all looking
forward to celebrating this year’s
Recruitment Awards at Birmingham
Symphony Hall on Monday evening, where
we will announce the winners of our six
categories. We hope you will take advantage
of this occasion to extend your network and
knowledge of the industry.
It just remains for me to thank all of our
sponsors, without whom we wouldn’t be
able to run this event. A special mention
goes to our joint Premier Sponsors,
Prospects and WikiJob. Thanks too to the
Conference Planning Team and of course
you, the delegate, for your continued
support of AGR.
Best wishes,
Stephen Isherwood, Chief Executive of AGR
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Contents
Session descriptions
12 Monday 29th June
39 Tuesday 30th June
Plenary sessions
43 Charles Leadbeater – Opening Keynote
24 Sir David Eastwood – The Future of Higher Education:
A Vice Chancellors’ perspective
46 Paul Anderson – Planting trees?
48 Are you earning enough? AGR / Mercer survey results
50 Sponsors
Back Page Floorplan
Conference Planning Team
Gary Argent – Graduate Transitions; Emily Bryant – RBS; Machar Smith –
Expedia; Chris Rea – Graduate Prospects; Judith Baines – Hertfordshire
University; Danni Brace – Havas People; Jennifer Doyle – Financial Conduct
Authority.
2015
2015 Student
Student Recruitment
RecruitmentConference
Conference
09
Monday
29th June >
Hot Topics and Session Descriptions
Pages 11 - 37
HOT TOPICS
Hot Topic Discussion Rooms
Level: All
Length: 60 minutes
Brief: An opportunity to discuss challenges
and share practices with other industry
professionals around a common topic of
interest. Use this session to make
connections, get new ideas and benchmark
your practices.
Each room will be facilitated by a senior
industry professional who will collate your
top challenges in your chosen hot topic
room and assign these to tables where you
can discuss with your peers. To help you
decide which room might be best for you,
here are some examples of topics that may
be discussed:
Room: London – Cross border recruitment
• Employer branding for a global audience?
• Global competencies Vs. local?
• Recruiting international students from
UK unis to work overseas – what are the
rules?
Room: York - Social Media
• New channels and innovative uses in
student recruitment?
• What content works?
• How do you sustainably manage social
media campaigns?
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Room: Arden - Internship Programmes
• What wider development opportunities
to include in an internship/placement
year programme?
• Should the selection process be the same
as graduates?
• Conversion of interns to graduate rates
Room: Lancaster –
Development Programmes
• Strategies for retaining graduates?
• Support provided to graduate line
managers?
• Effective methods to develop graduates?
Room: Cambridge Under 50 graduate hires
• How to do more with less resource
• Raising awareness of unknown brand on
campus
• Outsourcing V. in house attraction and
selection activities
ENTRY
Foundation in graduate
recruitment – Part 1 & 2
Level: Entry | Length: 90 minutes (Part 1) & 60 minutes (Part 2)
Room: Surrey | Capacity: 24
Brief:
Learn the graduate recruitment basics from
understanding the market, building an
attraction & selection strategy to measuring
impact. Suitable for all entry level
professionals seeking a solid introduction
to the industry.
Session Facilitator:
Rebecca Fielding, AGR Associate
Rebecca is one of the few people in the UK
with more than fifteen years’ experience in
our industry spanning large corporate
graduate recruitment, SME graduate
recruitment, University roles, AGR and
AGCAS board roles.
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INTERMEDIATE
Are you minimising
unconscious bias in
selection?
Level: Intermediate | Length: 90 minutes
Room: Norfolk | Capacity: 32
Brief:
There is good science behind the adage
‘birds of a feather flock together’. As
humans, we prefer people who are similar to
ourselves; whether this be in looks,
background, world views etc. This can lead
to problems when it comes to designing and
running a fair and effective selection
process. This session discusses
unconscious bias at both a micro and macro
level: first covering how to identify some of
your own unconscious biases and then how
to identify organisational patterns that
could suggest this an endemic issue within
your selection process. One strategy for
dealing with both are presented; giving you
clear, practical take-aways.
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Session Facilitator:
Ben Williams, AGR Associate
As a Business Psychologist, Ben has built a
strong reputation in the industry as an expert
on assessment design and is a frequent
contributor to AGR’s Graduate Recruiter
magazine. Through work with firms like
Teach First, Moodys, Frontline and BP he
has created a range of innovative graduate
assessment tools in an online and assessment
centre environment. His work with
Doncaster Children’s Services Trust was
runner-up in the Association for Business
Psychology’s Excellence in Assessment
Awards. First studying at Oxford University,
Ben went on the work for SHL, Kenexa and
Work Communications before starting his
own assessment design consultancy, Sten10,
in 2012. He is an Associate Fellow of the
British Psychological Society and an active
contributor to the profession, demonstrated
through volunteer work running lectures
and offering career coaching sessions for
aspiring psychology students.
INTERMEDIATE
Fings aint what they used
to be: the new breed of
careers services
Level: Intermediate | Length: 90 minutes
Room: Lancaster | Capacity: 40
Brief:
Learn about the changing landscape of
higher education over the past decades
followed by an interactive session delivered
by AGR Award finalists for their preparation
for work strategies. Leicester, Kent and
Imperial College Business School share
their approaches, what employers need to
know about the way universities are
structured, why some of their requests can’t
be accommodated and how to partner
effectively.
Presenters:
Chris Phillips: Information & Research
Director, GTI Media
Kerry Hyde: Associate Director, Careers
Development Service, Leicester University
Mark Davies: Employer Relations Manager,
Career and Professional Development
Service, Imperial College Business School
James Corbin: Placement Development &
Employability Manager, University of Kent
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TED STYLE TALK
Flashmob Assessment
Centres: Going old school
with a modern twist
Level: All | Length: 18 minutes
Room: London | Capacity: 100
Brief:
Graduate Recruitment used to be about
driving round university campuses and
handing out job offers after a brief interview
but today’s assessment processes have
become much more complex and
sophisticated. Many employers are starting
to realise that there are lessons to be learned
from the old school approach especially in
terms of being first to access the best talent
and recruiting more efficiently. This session
will introduce you to an innovative new
concept “Flash Mob Assessment Centres”
– a hybrid approach that mixes assessment
with marketing events so that in practice a
student can turn up at an event on campus
and walk away with a job offer.
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Presenter:
Sophie Meaney, Strategic Development
Director, GradWeb
Sophie Meaney (née Best) has more than 15
years’ experience in international
management, most recently with Towers
Watson as Director of Talent Acquisition. In
her current role, Sophie ensures that
GradWeb’s innovative solutions meet the
evolving needs of employers who recruit
entry level talent.
INTERMEDIATE
Sheep poo paper and the
art of zero waste graduate
recruitment
Level: Intermediate | Length: 60 minutes
Room: London | Capacity: 100
Brief:
In graduate recruitment we reject many
more people than we hire, which in
employer brand and candidate experience
terms is bad for business. This is not a new
observation, but judging by the frustration
of candidates, they still feel that when they
are rejected it is often an unsatisfactory
process. Large organisations conducting
graduate recruitment are also supplied by a
network of smaller companies. In contrast to
inundated graduate recruiters, many of
these SMEs have no brand presence with
graduates, and when they advertise
graduate roles frequently get few
applications. Finally, universities are
focusing on employability like never before,
but they often have little idea how their
graduates perform in the graduate
recruitment process, apart from
occasionally hearing about the ones who
get hired. If sheep poo, which is, in essence,
crap, can be turned into something good
then surely we can do something with the
waste in graduate recruitment
Presenters:
Martin Edmondson: Martin is the CEO and
founder of Gradcore, a social enterprise
focused on graduate employment and
employability. Martin has over 16 years’
experience working across recruitment and
Higher Education.
Kate Croucher: Kate is the University
Relationship Manager for FDM Group and is
responsible for initiating and developing
partnerships with universities and professional
bodies as part of the company’s graduate
recruitment strategy. Kate spent the last 17
years working in Higher Education, most
recently Brunel University where she was
Joint Acting Director of their award winning
Placement and Careers Centre.
John Cusworth: John is the Head of
Partnerships at Gradore and has over 10
years’ experience in a variety of employer
engagement and direct recruitment roles.
John is responsible for identifying, sourcing,
attracting & assessing graduate talent into
businesses large & small.
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TED STYLE TALK
Why engaging with schools
is too important to be left to
CSR & why HR teams
should lead the way
Level: All | Length: 18 minutes
Room: York | Capacity: 56
Brief:
Using case studies and calling on the
speaker’s experience, this session will
demonstrate that when engaging with
schools, companies should not view it as a
CSR tick-box activity, but rather as an
investment in their future workforce.
Dispelling the myth that the school market
is akin to the Wild West, the session will
join up thinking around the government’s
call for greater collaboration between
schools and employers, its drive for
increased apprenticeship recruitment and
provide practical solutions as to how
companies can take greatest advantage of
these opportunities. By taking a strategic
approach, working with schools can help
companies diversify their future talent
pipeline and deliver real returns in areas
such as brand recognition and future talent
identification. By showcasing how other
companies are engaging with schools using
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the Micro-Tyco Challenge, this session will
leave participants confident and wanting to
drive a new, strategic schools engagement
agenda that delivers real returns for their
organisation.
Presenter:
Charlie Thornton,
Partnership Development, WildHearts
Before joining the Partnerships team at
WildHearts, Charlie worked in schools for
four years. When not teaching pupils about
the importance of capital cities and ox-bow
lakes, he supported pupils as a Positive
Destinations Advisor - Careers & University
Advisor to you and me. Charlie now puts
this experience to good use helping
companies understand what makes schools
and school-leavers tick and how their
investment can deliver better returns.
INTERMEDIATE
The questions racing
around the minds of school
leavers and how to answer
them
Level: Intermediate | Length: 60 minutes
Room: York | Capacity: 56
Brief:
School leavers have a wealth of questions
that are racing through their minds as they
contemplate crucial career decisions. With a
wealth of choices now available, often these
decisions can prove stressful and confusing.
Yet when they do have the opportunity to
engage with employers, they often keep
these questions to themselves. Christos will
shine light on these questions and how they
can be answered to ensure employers
provide school leavers with the knowledge,
confidence and reassurance they need to
confidently complete applications.
Presenter:
Christos Orthodoxou, Founder & Head
of Partnerships, Class Careers
Christos is a published author and having
worked at Aston University and founded
Class Careers, he has worked with multiple
employers, personally spoke with over 200
school leavers and engaged with 500
schools.
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TED STYLE TALK
Proactive Employer
Branding
Level: All | Length: 18 minutes
Room: Cambridge / Oxford | Capacity: 96
Brief:
Aimee is a highly motivational speaker
(‘incredibly knowledgeable and fantastic to
watch’ – James Caan) and understands the
bigger picture and candidates’ mind-set.
She will talk about the huge changes that
are taking place in the world of graduate
recruitment brought about by social media
and technology and how to stay ahead of
the game. Aimee explains how to use social
media not just to build your brand but to
build it fabulously. It’s no surprise given her
hugely engaging personal style that the
creation of exciting visual content is Aimee’s
forte. But creating exciting visual content is
one thing; optimising it for outstanding
return on investment quite another. It’s not
just about views and click-throughs – used
correctly, social media can help build
long-term engagement. It’s all about what
you do with the interest your content
generates. Your relationship with graduates
begins with a ‘why?’ Why should they work
for you? What values are they buying in to?
People judge you on why you do what you
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do rather than what you do. Proactive
employer branding is built on the
transmission of values and drives graduates
to you rather than you to them. Delegates
will leave Aimee’s session feeling very
motivated and on a high!
Presenter: Aimee Bateman, Founder of
Careercake.com
Presenter:
Aimee Bateman, Founder of Careercake.com
Aimee has worked in recruitment for over
10 years and in 2011 she set up her own
consultancy and her award winning careers
website Careercake.com. She is also a board
member of Tazio. Her achievements have
seen her front several TV shows including
BBC1 Wales’ X-Ray, BBC3 Cash Mob, BBC2
Learning and Online Careers Reality Show
– The Job Academy.
ADVANCED
How does Microsoft UK’s
Early Career Recruitment
strategy fit into the global
framework?
Level: Advanced | Length: 60 minutes
Room: Cambridge / Oxford | Capacity: 96
Brief:
An exploration of how we at Microsoft adapt
and amend our approach to work with
graduate recruitment colleagues around the
globe. The session will enable delegates to
understand how Microsoft UK approaches
their recruitment strategy and acknowledges
the wider organisational and demands for
hiring. Whilst it’s absolutely necessary to
recruit from the same values and beliefs
that Microsoft globally believe in, we share
how we’ve adapted our process so that it
continues to consider local nuances.
Presenters:
Lucy Saunders is University Staffing Lead
at Microsoft UK responsible for early career
recruitment. Lucy is an experienced leader
who has worked in various locations around
the globe to help recruit graduate, apprentice
and MBA level candidates. Lucy manages a
team that handles high volume campaigns
driven to recruit the highest quality
candidates within the IT industry.
Gurpal Minhas is Head of Customer
Solutions at Capp & Co Ltd. Gurpal is a
Chartered Occupational Psychologist and
leads a number of early career recruitment
projects including Lloyds Pharmacy, Reed
Smith and Thomson Reuters.
Nicky Garcea is Chief Customer Officer at
Capp & Co Ltd. Nicky is a Chartered
Occupational Psychologist and has led projects
with organisations including Microsoft,
Morrisons and Lloyds Banking Group.
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ADVANCED
Creating a more socially
mobile workforce: How to
build the strategy
Level: Advanced | Length: 90 minutes
Room: Arden | Capacity: 70
Brief:
This interactive session will explore the key
elements of a successful strategy to promote
social mobility. Participants will have the
opportunity to discuss the business case for
social mobility, engaging effectively with
schools and universities, the use of
contextual recruitment, targeting activity,
monitoring and evaluating success, and
communicating this important agenda to
internal stakeholders. Colleagues will leave
with new strategic insights and practical
ideas to discover new talent for their
organisation.
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Presenter:
Nik Miller, AGR Associate
Nik is an established expert on social
mobility and recruitment. As a consultant
he has worked with many leading
employers (e.g. KPMG, Goldman Sachs,
Google) and universities, and has advised
Government. He is Director of the Bridge
Group, a national policy group advocating
social mobility, and is regularly
commissioned to write and speak on the
subject.
INTERMEDIATE
Caught short? How to
manage graduate skills
shortages in today’s
economy
Level: Intermediate | Length: 60 minutes
Room: York | Capacity: 56
Brief:
As the slow global economic recovery
continues, there’s a redoubled focus on
talent identification, development and
retention. But, as more employers are
recruiting more graduates, some skills are
starting to become scarce. Join Dr Charlie
Ball as he looks at where the skills shortages
are, who is getting them, where new
shortages may emerge and what you can do
about it.
Attendees should learn about the current
extent of skills shortages, who is affected,
who is attracting graduates who are in
demand, where potential new skills
shortages emerge and strategies for dealing
with skills shortages in recruitment and
retention.
Presenter:
Dr Charlie Ball
Dr Charlie Ball is the Head of Higher
Education Intelligence at Prospects and
recognised as an authority on graduate
employment. He researches and writes on
all aspects of the graduate jobs market, and
runs the Prospects fund to support the
careers research of university careers
services. Charlie also sits on a number of
expert committees, including steering
groups for the early and longitudinal
Destination of Leavers of Higher Education
surveys and advises on graduate outcomes.
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INTERMEDIATE
Making virtual assessment
a reality: what it really
means to design and roll
out a video SJT
Level: Intermediate | Length: 60 minutes
Room: Hampton | Capacity: 70
Brief:
This session will introduce the innovative
concept of video SJT’s and explore how
Atkins has successfully implemented this
new selection tool into their recruitment
process. We will introduce you to the
concept, features and benefits of SJTs
before delving into the detail of Atkins’s
implementation, their project scope, and
outcomes including a preview of their new
selection tool. Join us to benefit from:
• An introduction to SJTs – what they are,
why they’re so popular and what they can
do for you
• What designing an SJT entails
• Key success tips
• A preview of Atkins new SJT
selection tool
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Presenters:
Katherine Dodge, Recruitment Manager
- Early Careers, Atkins
Katherine is a senor HR specialist with
more than 25 years’ multi-sector
experience. As Recruitment Manager for
Early Careers at Atkins, Katherine leads a
team of 10 and drives the development of
their innovative and market leading future
talent programmes.
Jill Summers, Head of Assessment &
Development Services, GradWeb
Jill has strategic responsibility for
assessment and development solutions at
GradWeb. She has over 10 years’ experience
in occupational psychology and uses
leading-edge technology and best practices
to resolve issues in assessment,
development, restructuring and training.
INTERMEDIATE
Sesame Street, a Photograph and
Barack Obama: 10 Smart and Scientific
principles you need to know for
excellent Early Talent Recruitment,
Development and Marketing
Level: Intermediate | Length: 60 minutes
Room: Henley | Capacity: 70
Brief:
Making your Early Talent Recruitment,
Development and Marketing exceptional
may be less expensive than you think. Join
us to learn how 10 scientific principles can
change the way you think about Early
Talent. In this session you will:
• Explore how thinking smarter always
wins over increased spending
• Challenge conventional recruitment,
development and marketing approaches
using 10 scientific principles
• Understand how to translate ideas into
action using Systems Thinking
Presenters:
Mike Wedgewood, Head of Training &
Events Practice, The Smarty Train
As Head of the Training and Events Practice
and as part of The Smarty Train’s
Leadership Team, Mike is responsible for
the design and delivery of award-winning
learning interventions across sectors - from
experiential events to programme
assessment.
Christian Gettermann, Senior Learning &
Research Specialist, The Smarty Train
Christian uses quantitative and qualitative
methods to drive client decision making
around ‘Unlocking Early Talent’. He is
interested in how small behavioural
changes by companies can have huge
impacts on recruitment, development
and marketing.
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TED STYLE TALK
Recruiting for mindset
Level: All | Length: 18 minutes
Room: Cambridge | Capacity: 100
Brief:
What makes some graduates perform better
than others? How can we better identify
potential in graduates? Charlie will talk
about how he believes 1. Mindset is a
predictor of potential, 2. Mindset can be
developed in everyone, 3. You can recruit for
mindset and this has the potential to
revolutionise the way we approach
recruitment and development.
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Presenter:
Charlie Reeve, Early Careers Consultant,
Charlie Reeve Enterprises
Charlie Reeve has 12 years’ experience
designing and implementing graduate
programmes for large and small
organisations in the UK and internationally.
He is a recruitment specialist, a learning
and development professional and is
fascinated by neuroscience and languages.
TED STYLE TALK
What’s stopping you?
Level: All | Length: 18 minutes
Room: Cambridge | Capacity: 100
Brief:
The recruiter needs to know what the actual
job really entails but too often there is a gap
and real talent might be missed in the
search for ‘easy’ recruitment, assessing
candidates based on their grades without
knowing the context. This short TED style
talk will debunk some of the myths and
promote wider thinking. Great people might
be missed.
In the drive to chase down recruitment costs
it’s all too easy to focus on the easy to
measure elements. Finding real talent is
tricky: ideally the environment should be
created whereby real talent searches for the
right organisation. There is a mindset
change coming if the same algorithms are
being used by recruiters.
Presenter:
Marcus Orlovsky,
Director, Bryanston Square Foundation
Marcus Orlovsky’s journey through the
corporate world was very rich as well as
diverse. He was Regional Director of
Corporate Finance & Recruitment at EY
then Director of Stanhope, a company
specialising in real-estate. Marcus to a
break from corporate life to co-found
Bryanston Square to enhance the learning
environment in UK. Thirteen years on, he
and his team impacts more than 6,000
school leaders, business professionals and
students from different cities across the UK,
Europe and the US and is interested in
expanding his impact to the MENA region.
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TED STYLE TALK
The funny thing
about innovation
Level: All | Length: 18 minutes
Room: London | Capacity: 100
Brief:
The thing about innovation is that people
tend to confuse it with new things and in
particular technology. But innovation is
actually about making things better – just
because something is new does not make it
innovative. In graduate marketing
innovation means any action needs to be
demonstrably better than the best form of
graduate engagement: A well briefed
recruiter and a well matched undergraduate
having a chat. Our talk asks how innovative
are campaigns being developed for UK
students? And what innovation should
mean for recruiters today. We illustrate our
perspective by looking at the history of
innovation, two recent examples of
successful innovation and ask what will
graduate marketing look like in 20 years’
time and is it a future we should be looking
forward to?
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Presenter:
Graeme Wright,
Strategy Director, Havas People
Graeme has worked in employee and
candidate marketing for over 20 years. As
Strategy Director at Havas People he is
responsible for the Strategy Planning and
Insight (SPI) team. SPI looks to help clients
better understand the markets they are
working in so that they can build closer
relations with their audiences.
TED STYLE TALK
The secrets of great TED
talks – and how you can
use them
Level: All | Length: 18 minutes
Room: London | Capacity: 100
Brief:
The first TED conference was held in 1984
as a strictly one-day event. Today, five TEDx
events take place every day in more than
130 countries. Over 1 billion people have
now watched TED talks online, with the
most popular talks receiving millions of
viewings. Using the format of a TED talk,
this presentation ‘decodes’ the secret of the
truly great TEDs, and in less than 20
minutes, gives you a body of TED-tools that
you’ll be able to use, with great effect, every
day.
Presenter:
Dr Paul Redmond, Director of Student Life,
Manchester University
Dr. Paul Redmond is Director of Student Life
at The University of Manchester and an
expert on generations and the new world of
work. As an experienced writer and speaker,
Paul has presented at numerous events and
conferences around the world. In addition to
writing regularly for national newspapers,
he is a frequent contributor to radio and TV
programmes.
Paul’s work brings him into contact with an
extensive range of national and
international organisations. His research
into the future of work, ‘Generation Y’ and
the impact of ‘Helicopter Parents’ has
attracted considerable attention among
both graduate recruiters and the media.
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ADVANCED
Roundtable: Enabling Social
Mobility in Practice for Early
Careers Recruitment
Level: Advanced | Length: 60 minutes
Room: Oxford | Capacity: 50
Brief:
This roundtable discussion explores best
practices for enabling social mobility in
early careers recruitment. Topics covered
will include a discussion of what social
mobility is and what it means to different
people, how to measure social mobility, and
how to enable social mobility in practice
throughout the early careers recruitment
process. Roundtable speakers will share
their experiences from the perspective of
university careers, developing social
mobility solutions, and championing social
mobility as Champions of the government
initiative, the Social Mobility Business
Compact. A particular focus of the
roundtable discussion will be on the
practical steps that organisations can take
to measure and improve social mobility
throughout their early careers recruitment,
together with an exploration of the results
achieved by leading organisations in doing
so, and insights into the latest research
findings around social mobility and career
outcomes.
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Speakers:
Tom Banham, Head of Academy Talent
Acquisition for Nestlé.
Sally Bucknell, Director Diversity & Inclusiveness for EY.
Rachel Hill, Senior Manager – Social
Mobility for Grant Thornton.
Dr. Alex Linley, CEO of Capp.
Anne Wilson, Head of Careers for the
University of Warwick.
Francesca Campalani,
Employer Youth Brand Group Lead
at Lloyds Banking Group
TED STYLE TALK
Gamification in student
recruitment: Gimmick or
game changer?
Level: All | Length: 40 minutes
Room: Cambridge | Capacity: 100
Brief:
In this practical session, run by Arctic
Shores and Deloitte, attendees will get the
chance to download and test a psychometric
game and understand why and how Deloitte
will be using this technology and
assessment approach to engage and select
their candidates for the next School Leaver
Programme. The session will go into the
science behind the use of games for
psychometric assessment, why games are
so relevant to the millennial generation, and
how gamification can fit into the selection
process.
Presenters:
Robert Newry, Managing Director &
Co-Founder, Arctic Shores Limited
Robert is a serial entrepreneur and regular
speaker at conferences around the world,
most recently on innovation. He has an
MBA from Imperial College and an
undergraduate degree from Oxford
University.
Laura Lucas, Selection & Assessment
Manager, Student Recruitment, Deloitte
Laura has been in graduate recruitment for
over 10 years and is responsible for the
selection process at Deloitte for over 1,500
positions in the next year.
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ALL
Accessible Video
Interviewing –
Making It Open for All
Level: All | Length: 40 minutes
Room: Lancaster | Capacity: 50
Brief:
A must-see interactive masterclass for
anyone planning or currently implementing
video interviewing in their recruitment
process, and keen to know more about
ensuring the technology is accessible to all
candidates. Diversity plays a key part in any
graduate recruitment agenda and with
recruitment technology evolving all the
time, this is key information for any
recruiters wanting to stay abreast of current
trends. After a brief introduction to the
Sonru and Employ-Ability partnership, we
will delve into the impact of disability/
adjustments during recruitment. With your
input, we seek to uncover the kinds of
adjustments that are requested and explore
how they can be accommodated. Using real
examples, the session will provide practical
tips and takeaways for recruiters to consider
when using video interviewing. We will
encourage recruiters to think about how
accessible their process is and how to
increase and progress applications from
disabled candidates.
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2015 Student RecruitmentConference
Presenters:
Adam Gretton, Senior Business
Development Manager, Sonru
Adam has worked in the recruitment sector
for 15 years, with the last 5 years in the
graduate space. His passion is in bringing
disruptive digital products and services to
market. He has been behind a number of
diversity projects aiming to improve gender
balance, social mobility and skill shortages.
Tab Ahmad, Managing Director,
EmployAbility
Tab founded EmployAbility in 2006, after
four years’ experience providing specialist
disability and employment consultancy
services to employers whilst at a disability
charity, where she pioneered work in this
sector. Previously, Tab founded and ran her
own search firm specialising in financial
services and investment banking, and she
has over twenty years of experience in
recruitment and selection.
ALL
Campus Velcro how to make your
graduate messages stick
Level: All | Length: 40 minutes
Room: York | Capacity: 56
Brief:
“Sticky” ideas get understood and passed
on, so they create change. If your messages
on campus don’t stick the investments you
make to develop and promote them are
wasted. If they do, your ROI is improved,
and you might even win some awards. Even
better, making your messages sticky is
something you can do yourself, for free!
In this session, Tom will set out some
‘golden rules’ based on established
academic research that you can use in order
to make your messages more likely to stick,
whatever your budget. You will then be
challenged to use these rules to make your
campus messages stickier, and to test them
with other delegates.
You should come away from this session
with something really valuable – a means of
creating and refining your messages so that
they have a better impact, travel further and
improve your ROI on campus, without
having to increase your budget.
Delegates are advised that this session
includes interactivity and luxury chocolate.
Presenter:
Tom Viggers, Specialist Sales Director,
Graduate Promotions
Tom’s career in graduate recruitment
marketing started early. Whilst he was at
university he worked as a Student Marketer
for Graduate Promotions. He joined the
company as a graduate in 2007 and since
then has worked on campaigns for a host of
AGR members from many different
industries including Finance, Professional
Services, Law, Consultancy, Public Service
and Engineering – many of them awardwinning or award-nominated. In his free
time, Tom likes to geek out on books about
what motivates, moves and persuades us.
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2015 Student RecruitmentConference
ALL
Be Bold, Be Brilliant,
Be Clear – EE’s Graduate
Assessment Centre is
actually different
Level: All | Length: 40 minutes
Room: Henley | Capacity: 70
Brief:
Working together, EE and Cubiks
redesigned EE’s graduate assessments
centre in 2014 to improve the quality of
hires, to overcome the problem of a lack of
engagement from business assessors and to
align seamlessly to the employee brand.
Applying best practice in assessment
methodology with a modern twist, EE and
Cubiks we able to create an assessment
process which captured the spirit and
culture of EE’s dynamic culture. Deploying
a fresh approach to interviewing and
multimedia technology, a fully immersive
experience was created for candidates and
assessors which delivered real business
results. In this interactive session, Helen
and Katie will explore the challenges EE
faced and what was done to overcome them.
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2015 Student RecruitmentConference
Presenters:
Helen Ling, Assessment and Selection
Manager, EE
EE is the UK’s most advanced digital
communications company. Helen is
responsible for developing and managing
EE’s assessment & selection strategy. An
Occupational Psychologist, Helen
previously worked at E.ON designing talent
solutions for a range of areas including
graduate recruitment.
Katie Dodsworth, Managing Consultant,
Cubik
Cubiks provides HR tools and services for
selecting and developing people
internationally. As an Occupational
Psychologist with over 15 years’ experience,
Katie started her career in graduate
recruitment and now specialises in
leadership and talent identification and
development.
ALL
Staying ahead in
innovation doesn’t have to
break the budget (or require
a 20-man team)
Level: All | Length: 40 minutes
Room: Hampton | Capacity: 70
Brief:
With the millennial market embracing
innovation and technology at an
unparalleled speed, how can you embrace
the attraction techniques of tomorrow
without having to spend a fortune in the
process? This session will provide you with
innovative attraction ideas and practical
solutions that you can integrate into your
own marketing campaigns. Highlights of
the session include:
• What’s next for social media - covering
the essential channels have on your radar
and how you should best use them.
• Social Video – creating short, authentic
and engaging content that candidates
actually want to watch, discover why
video is the medium with the highest
engagement.
• Live Streaming with Meerkat & Periscope
- How can you engage with more students?
• Google Hangouts - what are they and
how we can use them effectively in
Graduate Recruitment?
Presenter:
Craig Barnet, Client Partner Future Talent,
Bernard Hodes
Drawing on more than 8 years’ experience
of recruitment marketing and event
marketing to a student audience, Craig
develops and leads the Future Talent
portfolio of clients at Hodes.
Zack Young, Digital Engagement LeadBernard Hodes
Zack is an adventurous entrepreneur with a
passion for travel, technology and personal
development. At Hodes, Zack leads our
social recruiting campaigns for clients
including Barclays, Dixons Carphone and
Enterprise-Rent-A-Car.
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2015 Student RecruitmentConference
INTERMEDIATE
Why forums are great
for student and graduate
engagement
Level: Intermediate | Length: 40 minutes
Room: London | Capacity: 100
Brief:
Despite the rise of social media, forums are
still as popular as ever, and provide very
valuable information resources. Employers
can take advantage by talking to graduates
directly within popular forums, as a means
to be helpful, gain trust and get a
competitive edge over rival recruiters.
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2015 Student RecruitmentConference
Presenter:
Dan White, WikiJob
Dan draws on almost 10 years of experience
in student and graduate recruitment to
inform and educate on the value of good
quality engagement, specifically looking at
how online forum engagement has proved a
successful engagement tool for employers
wishing to proactively manage their
recruiter brand identity and the early
candidate experience.
ALL
Beyond the call of duty - An
employability take-away for
early careers applicants
Level: All | Length: 40 minutes
Room: Oxford | Capacity: 50
Brief:
Jaguar Land Rover strive to provide a
positive and employability-centred
experience for all early career candidates,
whether they are successful or not. This is of
particular importance for apprentices given
that the Jaguar Land Rover recruitment
process will be the first interaction with the
world of work for many applicants. This
session will provide an insight into the
introduction of multimedia situational
judgement tests, providing engaging yet
realistic previews to enhance interaction
with the recruitment process and
understanding of the role. Furthermore, the
session will focus on how Jaguar Land
Rover are taking the lead in addressing the
employability of their early career applicant
pools, by investing in and focusing on the
development of key behavioural skills
through the use of tailored employability
reports, made available to all applicants at
the earliest stage of the recruitment process.
Presenters:
Chris Small, Deputy CEO, Saville Consulting
Chris is a chartered psychologist with a
strong and practical consulting background
which includes the delivery of a wide range
of selection and assessment solutions,
training and development programmes, and
competency/values design. As head of
Saville Consulting’s international business,
Chris has had exposure to several global
projects placing great emphasis on the
internationalisation of HR processes and
understanding of multinational assessment
programmes.
Rob Gill, Head of Graduate, Undergraduate
& Apprentice Recruitment, Jaguar Land Rover
Rob has worked in various human resources
roles within the automotive engineering
and manufacturing sector since graduating
15 years ago. His roles ranged from
employee relations and policy and planning
to salaried HR, but for the last four years
Rob has been responsible for the company’s
graduate and undergraduate recruitment
and apprentice recruitment from the school
leaver market.“
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2015 Student RecruitmentConference
Simplifying graduate
and school leaver
recruitment
Our principal objective is to provide the best graduate and school leaver
recruitment consultancy and outsourcing service.
Smart Resourcing Solutions offers employers a range of services including
sourcing candidates, designing processes and managing the whole end to end
recruitment procedure.
We can help you recruit and develop talent that will remain within your
organisation and demonstrate a return on your investment.
enquiries@smart-resourcing-solutions.co.uk
0191 229 9547
www.smart-resourcing-solutions.com
Tuesday
30th June >
Session Descriptions
Pages 39 - 44
INTERMEDIATE
Effective Assessment Design
- Are you confident that
every element adds value?
Level: Intermediate | Length: 90 minutes
Room: Norfolk | Capacity: 32
Brief:
We are frequently challenged as recruiters
to explain the value we add to the
organisation. This session takes you
through four ways to evaluate the
effectiveness of each step of your
assessment process and ends with a
practical case study where you will have a
chance to practice these skills in a realistic
setting. Combined with practical templates
for how to conduct these types of analysis
yourself, this session should leave you
feeling fully equipped to both evaluate your
assessment process as prove the value you
are adding to stakeholders.
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2015 Student RecruitmentConference
Presenter:
Ben Williams, AGR Associate
As a Business Psychologist, Ben has built a
strong reputation in the industry as an
expert on assessment design and is a
frequent contributor to AGR’s Graduate
Recruiter magazine. Through work with
firms like Teach First, Moodys, Frontline
and BP he has created a range of innovative
graduate assessment tools in an online and
assessment centre environment. His work
with Doncaster Children’s Services Trust
was runner-up in the Association for
Business Psychology’s Excellence in
Assessment Awards. First studying at
Oxford University, Ben went on the work for
SHL, Kenexa and Work Communications
before starting his own assessment design
consultancy, Sten10, in 2012. He is an
Associate Fellow of the British
Psychological Society and an active
contributor to the profession, demonstrated
through volunteer work running lectures
and offering career coaching sessions for
aspiring psychology students.
ADVANCED
Developing a talent
management strategy
Level: Advanced | Length: 90 minutes
Room: Surrey | Capacity: 32
Brief:
This trainer-led session will provide an
introduction to the following areas of talent
management strategy: Current thinking
and practice in talent management,
principles to be defined within the strategy
and takeaway actions to implement.
Presenter:
Rebecca Fielding, AGR Associate
Rebecca is one of the few people in the UK
with more than fifteen years’ experience in
our industry spanning large corporate
graduate recruitment, SME graduate
recruitment, University roles, AGR and
AGCAS board roles.
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2015 Student RecruitmentConference
ALL
Top talent? It’s all about the
context: Using contextual
data in graduate recruitment
Level: All | Length: 90 minutes
Room: York | Capacity: 40
Brief:
Universities have used contextual data for
many years to find and select the students
with the greatest academic potential
regardless of his/her background. In doing
so they have managed to both improve the
social mobility profile of student intakes and
maintain academic excellence.
With similar challenges (thousands of
applications, not a lot of time etc.) how can
recruiters learn from the university
experience to find the best graduate talent?
In this interactive session, Rare will show
how to contextualise candidate achievement
and separate potential from polish. Using
real data and cases, delegates will also gain
an understanding of how social mobility
factors and “capital” manifest themselves
during assessment processes.
Presenter:
Raphael Mokades
Raphael Mokades is the founder and
Managing Director of multi award winning
diversity company Rare. Raphael founded
Rare in 2005. Rare now has over 5,000
candidates on its books, and works with
about thirty of the world’s best companies,
including Google, the Civil Service Fast
Stream, Goldman Sachs, L’Oréal, and a
significant number of the UK’s top law
firms. Prior to starting Rare, Raphael was in
charge of diversity at Pearson, the
international media company which owns
the FT. Pearson won two Race for
Opportunity awards during this time.
Raphael has a First class degree from
Oxford University, represented the
University at basketball, and served as his
College’s JCR President.
Table Hosts:
André Flemmings, Carlton McFarlane,
Josh Oware, Kate Baker, Naomi Kellman
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2015 Student RecruitmentConference
ALL
All change for school
education and careers
provision - bringing you up
to speed on current and
future developments
Level: All | Length: 90 minutes
Room: Hampton | Capacity: 100
Brief:
Hear from Sam Freedman, Director of
Impact & Research at Teach first, about the
latest information on GCSE and A Level
grade system changes, how government are
investing in careers provision, what this
means for employers and future policy
proposals. An opportunity follows to learn
about the pressures school head teachers
and assistant head teachers face, how their
approach to careers guidance has evolved,
how things are developing, what they would
like from employers. The session will
conclude with facilitated discussion on how
these changes impact your organisations
hiring plans.
Session Chair:
Alex Cole, Chief Operating Officer,
Good Careers Guide
Presenters & panellists:
Sam Freedman, Director of Impact &
Research at Teach First
Julie Cornfield, Assistant Head Teacher
at ACE Academy
Elaine Purves, Head Teacher at The Rossall
School
Kim Hodgetts, Programme Manager Youth Unemployment Development,
Business & Employment, Telford & Wrekin
Council
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2015 Student RecruitmentConference
ALL
You told me but you didn’t
persuade me! How to use
recruitment data to engage
your stakeholders
Level: All | Length: 90 minutes
Room: Henley | Capacity: 100
Brief:
Learn how to position yourself as an expert
and trusted partner within your business
through the power of gathering and
presenting data effectively. You’ll hear AGR
and practitioner perspectives on where you
can use data in your initial engagement to
inform hiring numbers, building your
campus approach, during the selection
process and for your end of year review
measurements.
44
Presenters:
Stephen Isherwood, Chief Executive, AGR
Sam Gordon, Research Analyst, AGR
Brian Sinclair, Student Recruitment Campus
Manager, EY
Brian Sinclair has worked for the last 13
years at a number of large organisations,
including HSBC, BT, Accenture, Capgemini,
McLaren and is currently a Student
Recruitment Manager at EY – focusing on
EY’s Campus activity. Brian is very familiar
with a variety of recruitment processes,
methodologies and systems and has
developed a passion for getting the most out
of recruitment data to enhance stakeholder
engagement.
Plenary
Sessions
Pages 45 - 51
PLENARY ONE
Opening Keynote
Room: Monarch
Brief:
Charles is a leading authority on innovation
and creativity. He has advised companies,
cities and governments around the world on
innovation strategy. Charles will share his
thoughts on work and education and
challenge us to think differently about the
issues facing our industry.
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2015 Student RecruitmentConference
Presenter:
Charles Leadbeater
In 2005 Charles was ranked by Accenture,
the management consultancy, as one of the
top management thinkers in the world and
has advised a wide range of organisations
on innovation including the BBC, Vodafone,
Microsoft, Ericsson, Channel Four
Television and the Royal Shakespeare
Company. Charles has worked extensively
as a senior adviser to governments, advising
the 10 Downing St policy unit, the
Department for Trade and Industry and the
European Commission on the rise of the
knowledge driven economy and the
Internet. He wrote the first British report on
the rise of social entrepreneurship, which
has since become a global movement. His
report on the potential for the web to
generate social change led to the creation of
the Social Innovation Camp movement. A
past winner of the prestigious David Watt
prize for journalism, Charles was profiled by
the New York Times in 2004 for generating
one of the best ideas of the year, the rise of
the activist amateur, outlined in his report
The Pro-Am Revolution.
PLENARY TWO
The Future of Higher
Education– A Vice
Chancellors’ perspective
Room: Monarch
Brief:
Post-election analysis of higher education
policu, the forces affecting universities
strategies and the need for greater
engagement in higher education by
employers.
Speaker:
Professor Sir David Eastwood
Professor Sir David Eastwood became
Vice-Chancellor of the University of
Birmingham in April 2009. Former posts
include Chief Executive at the Higher
Education Funding Council for England,
Vice-Chancellor at the University of East
Anglia, and Chief Executive of the Arts and
Humanities Research Board. His early
career was spent at the University of Oxford,
where he was Fellow and Senior Tutor of
Pembroke College. He later held a Chair in
Modern History and was Pro-ViceChancellor of Swansea University.
He is currently Chair of the Russell Group of
Universities, Universitas 21, and also the
Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS).
He is also a Board Member of Universities
UK (UUK) and INTO University
Partnerships Ltd, and a member of the
Advisory Board of the Higher Education
Policy Institute. He also serves as an
international member of the Hong Kong
University Grants Committee.
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2015 Student RecruitmentConference
www.nottingham.ac.uk/careers
@UoNCareers
PLENARY THREE
Planting trees?
Room: Monarch
Brief:
The CEO must balance the competing
demands on his or her time between a
number of things from crisis management,
performance, strategy and the long-term
health of the organisation. Rightly or
wrongly, that balance is rarely right and the
diary too often dominated by pressing
matters in the here and now. However the
CEO wants to spend more time shaping the
organisation for the future, and there is
nothing more important to the long-term
health of any organisation than the talent it
brings in at the graduate level. This session
will address why it is so significant for
senior managers to dedicate more time to
their graduate teams.
Speaker:
Paul Andersen, Deutsche Bank
Paul joined the Deutsche Bank Group in
1995. Having started his career as a
quantitative analyst in the Group Risk
function, he moved to Global Markets and
spent eight years in the Complex Risk
Group. From there he spent four years in
credit trading before moving to Global
Transaction Banking in 2011 to create a
front-office risk function. In January 2015,
Paul relocated to Birmingham to take a
newly-created role as Site Head to focus on
the improvement of governance, culture and
conduct, and systems and controls.
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2015 Student RecruitmentConference
250,000
Talented students.
Find out how
we can help
you recruit
work ready
graduates.
Contact details for all 11
universities can be found
in delegate bags.
50
2015 Student RecruitmentConference
PLENARY FOUR
Are you earning enough?
AGR / Mercer survey
results
Room: Monarch
Brief:
As an industry we pay considerable
attention to the salary data of the students
we hire. But how often do we look at our own
roles? As recruiters and developers we
should apply equal attention to our own
people. Only 39% of us think our
organisation has a talent strategy for
ourselves as HR staff.
• How many hires is a recruiter typically
responsible for?
• Why do other recruitment teams
outsource?
• How much is a graduate recruitment
officer paid these days?
• Which sectors have the highest and
lowest salaries?
Discover the answers to all these questions
and more, as AGR’s Research Analyst
Samuel Gordon leads an exciting first look
into AGR’s new research on recruiters and
developers, in conjunction with talent
specialists Mercer.
Speakers:
Samuel Gordon, Research Analyst, AGR
Stephen Isherwood, Chief Executive, AGR
BUSINESS
SCHOOL
CAREERS AND EMPLOYABILITY
Services for Employers
Sophie Barlow
BA Business Economics
with Industrial Experience
Emerging Talent
Join our portfolio of top graduate recruiters
► 5th for UK Business School graduate employability
► Top 1% of worldwide Business Schools
► 315 talented students from Accounting, Economics, and Business
and Management seeking 2016/17 industrial placements
► 85% of graduates in graduate employment or PG study
► 98% of industrial placement students graduated with a 1st or 2:1
► AAA typical A Level offer
http://ex.ac.uk/emergingtalent | uebs-careers@exeter.ac.uk | +44 (0)1392 723289
2015BS035
► Consulting projects available with MBA and Masters students
Sponsors
Pages 53 - 55
► ‘Day@’ site visits to your organisation
► Target e-mails
► Drop-ins
► ‘Meet the employer’ informal one-to-ones
SPONSORS
Premier Sponsors
Prospects
As the only graduate media provider to have
an exclusive partnership with the NUS, a
close relationship with UK careers services
and more than 2.4 million monthly web
browsers, Prospects is truly at the heart of
the student career journey - on every
university campus.
More students and graduates choose
Prospects, with its unique career planning
tools and expert content, than any other
recruitment specialist - enabling recruiters
to engage with career-minded candidates at
every stage during their decision making.
Prospects also works closely with both
employers and their prospective employees
to make sure they are developing the skills
and experience businesses are looking for.
Website: www.prospects.ac.uk
Twitter: @prospects
54
2015 Student RecruitmentConference
WikiJob
WikiJob is the UK’s largest forum for
graduate jobseekers: the first stop for
up-to-date info on employers, assessment
centres, interview questions or aptitude
tests. University careers services refer
students to WikiJob as a reliable source for
advice, and many leading companies use
WikiJob to land the best graduates. Over
half a million jobseekers visit WikiJob each
month; it has over 230,000 registered
candidates looking for work.
Website: www.wikijob.co.uk
Twitter: @WikiJob
SPONSORS
Thank you to all AGR sponsors
and supporters
55
2015 Student RecruitmentConference
Notes
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2015 Student RecruitmentConference
Notes
58
2015 Student RecruitmentConference
REACH & ENGAGE
the highest-calibre graduate talent
www.brightnetwork.co.uk
Connecting Leading Graduate Employers
with the Best Undergraduate Talent
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