Challenge

In 2022, Iain Lindsay, Head of Talent, and Kathryn Stevens, Early Careers Manager, were facing two big diversity problems in their Early Careers hiring:

• Gender imbalances: only 15% female representation (vs a sector average of 18.9%)
• Lack of minority ethnic groups passing the first sift: 22% from Black and English as a Second Language (ESL) backgrounds

After researching the issue, they realised that their current process, which used CV-sifting and situational judgement tests, didn’t accurately predict who would be successful in a role — as it didn’t measure if candidates had the right personality traits and cognitive abilities to succeed in the company. 

Without this scientific measure of candidates’ future potential to succeed, hiring managers defaulted to experienced-based measures of potential. Which explained why relatively few candidates from non-traditional backgrounds made it through the process: hiring managers only looked for people who had done the job before. 

But the team also realised these issues extended beyond diversity and inclusion. 

The sift wasn’t predictive of those who would excel in either the assessment centre or the role. In total, only 51% of candidates who made it through the first sift went on to pass the assessment centre stage. And of those, only 55% started with Sisk. 

Meaning that as well as having an inequitable hiring process, the team was spending a lot of money on hiring low-quality candidates — as shown by a 13% attrition rate for those who did start. 

To create bigger and more diverse talent pools – and boost retention – Sisk needed an assessment tool with better predictive power: accurately assessing how candidates behave and think at work.

"We knew CVs were a thing of the past, and using SJTs pre-assessment centre just wasn’t yielding the right results. This is why we turned to Arctic Shores to help us sift the right candidates into the process, and it was just the right thing to do."
Iain Lindsay, Head of Talent, John Sisk & Son Ltd

Solution

Iain and Kathryn partnered with Arctic Shores. They changed the process for their first sift from relying on CV-screening and SJTs, to using Arctic Shores’ Task-based Assessment. 

Grounded in neuroscience, the assessment uses interactive tasks to analyse over up to 6,000 data points across a candidate’s Personality and Cognitive Ability. It does this by measuring candidates’ behaviours, which reveal their core strengths and capabilities. 

As well as removing unconscious bias from the process and levelling the playing field for diverse candidates; this approach gives much more accurate insights across all candidate demographics. Meaning that as well as sifting in more diverse talent, Sisk were able to sift in higher quality candidates across the board — increasing the assessment centre pass rate and lowering attrition. 

Working closely with an Arctic Shores Business Psychologist, Sisk quickly identified the key traits and abilities candidates would need to be successful, including problem-solving abilities and resilience. They then tailored their Task-based Assessment accordingly.

"Our contacts at Arctic Shores were amazingly helpful and always available — unlike with some tech companies, we never had to chase our tails.” 
Iain Lindsay, Head of Talent, John Sisk & Son Ltd

1. Before launch, Sisk set four goals for the new process:

   1. Become more fair and inclusive: tackle diversity challenges, boosting participation of female, BAME and ESL candidates. 
   2. Deliver a scalable and efficient process: eliminate manual CV-sifting, boost hiring managers' confidence with improved accuracy. 
   3. Improve candidate quality: before the assessment centre stage, identify candidates with the right behaviours to succeed at Sisk, thereby increasing pass rates while reducing attrition in role. 
   4. Deliver a phenomenal candidate experiences: Better engage talent with interactive value-added experience, and increase the number of candidates passing assessment centres then joining the business. (In 2022, 51% passed the assessment centre, but only 55% started)

   But as a construction firm with a traditional mindset, Kathryn and Iain knew the key to getting buy-in to a new approach would be to present their hiring managers with data to prove it worked. As a result, they started small, focusing on one section of their Early Careers programme: Graduates.

   
   

Results

Implementing the Task-based assessment delivered against all of Sisk’s key objectives and gave the team time to focus on other critical recruitment processes. 

1. BE FAIR AND INCLUSIVE

The Task-based Psychometric Assessment delivered an equitable process. Diverse representation remained consistent between online applications and later stages, proving the Task-based assessment supported diversity:

• Female representation increased from 15% to 25% post-assessment
• BAME/ESL representation increased from 22% to 31% post-assessment

"The overall Diversity of candidates we see is much improved, but also generally better aligned in terms of values and behaviours that will ultimately make them successful in Sisk” 
Iain Lindsay, Head of Talent, John Sisk & Son Ltd

2. BE SCALABLE AND EFFICIENT 

John Sisk saved +90 hours vs previous process while hiring 40 exceptional candidates using our approach to skills-based hiring. Hiring managers had high levels of confidence, thanks to new reports giving data-driven insights into candidates’ potential to succeed.

Higher candidate quality also meant the number of assessment centres dropped from 6 to 4 — saving further time and money. Dropping 2 assessment centres meant saving 2 full days for around 12 assessors and employees. This resulted in 192 hours being saved.

"Improved matching means we can sift an ever-increasing number of graduate applications successfully, meaning we have to resource and run fewer assessment centres, as the success rate for the face-to-face assessment is improved.” 
Kathryn Stevens, Early Careers Manager, John Sisk & Son Ltd

3. IMPROVE CANDIDATE QUALITY

In 2022: 51% of candidates passed assessment centres. Only 55% then started at John Sisk. 

In 2023: 88% passed the assessment centre. 83% of those started at the company. 

The increased candidate quality also led to attrition falling from 19% to just 7%.

4. DELIVER A PHENOMENAL CANDIDATE EXPERIENCE 

The new assessment provided an unparalleled candidate experience, offering every candidate personalised feedback. Results exceeded original KPI benchmarks of 90% satisfaction:

• 94% felt more positive about working for Sisk having completed the assessment
• 91% immersed and engaged in the tasks 
• 86% felt a sense of accomplishment 
• Only 7% drop-out rate at Assessment stage 

"One of the most amazing assessments I have ever done!
The process is very user-friendly.”
John Sisk & Son Ltd Candidate. 

“Arctic Shores has done a fantastic job tackling our selection process challenges.
They've helped us attract top candidates for our Assessment Centers, making our hiring managers happy. Plus, it's freed up our team to focus on other important aspects of recruitment."
Iain Lindsay, Head of Talent.