Improving Efficiency, Diversity and Candidate Experience for Kantar | Arctic Shores

Their Challenges

Efficiency:

The world of marketing, and market research by extension, is changing. In 2018, Kantar needed to adapt as new technology altered the market. The team were reviewing ways to innovate and future-proof across the business to stay at the industry's summit. This meant making its hiring more efficient. Unimpressed by low assessment-to-hire ratios, they knew they needed a more cost-effective way to predict which candidates would fit right in. 

Diversity:

The team knew that efficiency alone wouldn't be enough to maintain Kantar's lead in an increasingly tech-driven sector. Their grad scheme, they realised, was a vehicle for them to drive the cultural change that would set them up for a bright future. But it needed to be more inclusive. As Kantar was hampered by high drop-out rates for female and ethnic minority candidates at the early stages, they required an innovative experience that truly catered to the many, not just a few. 

Candidate experience:

An innovative company needs an innovative candidate experience. Kantar saw that its push to be seen as a tech leader wasn't reflected in how it assessed those gunning for its grad scheme. It needed a process that truly engaged graduates who could bring fresh, exciting perspectives into the company. A new approach was needed that made these grads want to work for Kantar. Nothing less would do. 

Solution

Building an understanding of the future 

First, we needed to dig deeper into Kantar's vision for the future, and its strategy for getting there. So we arrange a workshop with their internal visionaries from multiple divisions. This, alongside our business psychologists' job analysis work, gave us a strong indication of the behaviours Kantar would need from its graduate hires. 

Results 

Building a definition of success with Kantar was crucial. It meant that all candidates would be assessed on their ability to immediately contribute, while also being aligned to this new culture in the medium term.

By giving them a consistent benchmark of what 'good' would look like for them Arctic Shores supported Kantar in two ways: 

• Made it easier to predict the right hires, contributing to much higher conversion rates (up to 100% for one division). 
• Every candidate was assessed consistently against the same framework for excellence, meaning a fair opportunity for everyone. This led to a 7% increase in hires from ethnic minority groups. 

Not only were candidates invited to an entirely fair assessment, but 91% of them also enjoyed it! Using our behaviour-based assessment, which substitutes statements for engaging, intuitive tasks, Kantar's candidates could respond authentically and without stress. This also helped to covey Kantar's increasingly tech-driven, innovative brand - consistent with their original cultural goals. 

Find out more about our potential-based hiring assessment here