Diversity Diversity
Achieving targets
In 2012, Barclays had fewer than 300 employees under the age of 21. Employee turnover was up to 70% in some entry level roles and diversity was poor; things had to change. Below Shaun Meekins, Head of Operations, Barclays Apprenticeship Programme, and Vanessa Hawes, Account Manager, Stafford Long, explain how they went about this…
O
ur main objective was to really make a difference to diversity at Barclays and build a talent
pipeline in the business by designing and launching an apprenticeship programme that engaged young unemployed communities. We wanted to change the external perceptions of the sector, diluting the myth that a career in banking requires experience and qualifications. We set ourselves an ambitious target to recruit 2,000 apprentices by the end of 2014 and 2,800 by the end of 2015. We also set specific diversity targets of what we wanted to achieve for our 2014 intake – 100% NEET (Not in Education, Employment or Training), 30% unemployed for 12+ months, 20% under 18 years of age, 5%+ with a declared disability, and strive for a 75% retention rate after 6 months on the programme.
Barclay’s Apprenticeship Programme was launched, offering 16-24 year-olds not in employment, education or training a recognized qualification. We engaged the marketing agency Stafford Long in 2013
26 00 Graduate Recruiter |
www.agr.org.uk
to help us develop brochures, flyers and other materials that focused on a single, powerful message: ‘Grow with Barclays’.
In 2014, Barclays worked with Capita to introduce a new Traineeship model in order to encourage more applications from people who had no education or experience – making them ready for the world of work. When speaking to those involved in the programme, it was obvious how passionate they were and how much was invested in the success of each candidate, but this was difficult to put across in Barclays’ own voice. The bank was still seen as ‘not for me’ by a huge proportion of those from disadvantaged backgrounds that it was trying to attract. The Traineeship proved excellent at bringing in that kind of audience, but we needed a way to make the marketing materials ‘connect’ better. So we decided to feature the apprentices themselves, and allow them to market the scheme in their own words. This featured throughout the printed materials, website materials and media content via people profiles and videos.
The results speak for themselves. We hired 2,000 apprentices by the end of 2014 and we are on track to hire another 800 in 2015, as well as 1,200 Trainees. As well as achieving the ratios of unemployed for over 12 months and under 18 years of age, 47% of the 2014 apprentices are from disadvantaged areas, 45% are from ethnic minority background and 6% have a declared a disability. From the Traineeships hired in 2014, 100% are from NEET background, 40% had been unemployed for more than 12 months, 69% are from a disadvantaged area, and 11% have a declared disability. What’s more the retention after 6 months on the programme is 97%, 22% higher than our initial target.
Incredible results were achieved not with an isolated marketing campaign, but through the combination of strategic focus and passion from within the business, and a strong partnership with marketing and recruitment agencies to deliver on that vision. The Barclays Apprenticeship and Traineeship Programmes were highly commended in CIPD recruitment marketing awards 2015 for Recruitment Effectiveness. n
In 2014, Barclays worked with Capita to introduce a new
Traineeship model in order to encourage more applications from people who had no education or experience – making them ready for the world of work.
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