Virgin Media: Hiring More Women Technicians

Situation

After publishing their gender parity report, Virgin Media set PeopleScout, their RPO partner, the challenge of recruiting more women technicians or Field Sales Advisors—a role which has 99% male incumbents.

The previous year we successfully hired 275 Field Sales Advisors. This year, Virgin Media increased that number to 450, but has less budget available for candidate attraction.

With requisitions up, budget down and a remit to hire more women, we met the challenge head on.

Solution

PeopleScout collaborated with Virgin Media to set up a “Women in Field” working group. We listened to existing female employees and involved them in the recruitment process, making sure they were present for female candidates attending assessments.

We wanted to be bold and disruptive in our approach, particularly around how the role was advertised and positioned. By exploring new avenues to tap into a demographic which previously wasn’t engaged with this opportunity including developing new channels. The PeopleScout social media team helped the client post across social channels such as Instagram, Facebook and Twitter. Our Field Sales recruiters were then able to engage those interested and convert them into applicants. We streamlined the application process and introduced the option to register interest.

To improve the vetting experience, we used our existing partnership with Security Watchdog to identify ways to dramatically reduce the three-week clearance period. With better signposting and a clearer process, we reduced the clearance period to just 11 days.

“We’ve made more than 30% more hires this year, with a 20% smaller attraction budget.”

Results

The “Women in Field” campaign was launched in four key locations. In just two months, we received triple the number of applications from women that we received in the previous year. The client is now using a similar approach in order to increase their gender diversity in more regions across the UK.

We made more than 30% more hires Field Sales Advisors with a 20% smaller attraction budget compared to the previous year. Plus, we more than doubled the number of female employees.

The new vetting process has helped to reduce early attrition by up to 20% across sales channels.

Overall, we’ve dramatically improved our application to hire ratios across all of the UK, saving 376 hours in interview time for hiring managers.