Intelligent Automation for Early Careers Recruitment for BDO

Our core purpose at BDO is ‘Helping you Succeed’. Tomorrow’s world of work is ever-changing, as an organisation we need our talent to adapt and evolve at an unprecedented rate to deliver for our clients. To support this purpose, over the past year we have been on a journey to transform the Early Careers recruitment experience

Our assessment process was initially implemented 4 years ago. To ensure we are able to recruit the right talent for our business and keep up with market expectations we looked for continual improvements. Our biggest focus was on how recruitment technology could better support our process both in terms of driving further efficiencies and providing benefits for both our candidates and the firm

After a short application form, candidates progress onto a combined
online, blended assessment and video interview. It allows us to identify future potential by measuring the four most important indicators which are critical for our business: Grit, Digital Intelligence, Applied Intellect and Creative Force. Designed in partnership with diversity and neurodiversity specialists, the assessment offers multiformat deployment and responses are time recorded rather than time limited.

With the use of innovative and intelligent automation our new solution has delivered impressive results against our initial objectives to ensure the project had the impact we required:

Reduce resource drain
The process & technology provided improvements whilst requiring 2-3 less headcount than the previous year

Reduce time to hire
We have reduced stages in the hiring process from 7 to 3 and reduced hire to time from circa 4 months to 1 month.

Improve effectiveness
There has been a 241% YOY increase in offers which has led to 72% of roles being filled by
Christmas. This is an increase of 45% from 2019. 

Improve candidate experience
The average time for candidates to complete the assessment process was reduced from
2.5 hours to 45 minutes.