About the campaign

The Nestlé Academy offers graduate schemes, apprenticeships, placements and internships to develop the skills required for the future of the organisation. It began working with Cappfinity in 2013 to move to a strengths-based approach to recruitment that would support its diversity and inclusion goals. Nestlé and Cappfinity redesigned the existing assessment process last year to ensure it was still measuring what matters for early talent.

It conducted in-depth analysis of the attributes needed for high performance within specific roles, introducing a digital assessment showing applicants these different personas and showcasing the company’s Force for Good campaign. Candidates receive an online feedback report including their top two strengths, suggestions for improvement areas and future development opportunities.

Candidates are then presented with a job simulation so they can immerse themselves in a hypothetical project. This centres on the behaviours identified above, and the assessments are designed to visually showcase the Nestlé employer brand. The third stage is a virtual assessment centre with a strengths-based interview and challenge linked to the Force for Good campaign. Candidates receive a feedback report and are invited to offer their own feedback at each stage.

The refreshed process has delivered thousands of eligible applicants and after two selection stages and a virtual assessment, the process resulted in almost 100 offers. The Net Promoter Score for the new assessments is higher than for the previous campaign, and offers made to individuals in under-represented groups grew considerably.