University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne

George Abbot School

Head of Graduate Careers, FirstGroup
&
Board Director, Institute of Student Employers

Greater Bristol Area, United Kingdom

The Institute of Student Employers (ISE) is an independent, not-for-profit member organisation that acts as the UK’s leading independent voice for student employers, our vision is that the success of every business is maximised by full access to student talent. This is achieved by bringing together employers, the education sector and supplier partners, providing leadership and support in all aspects of student recruitment and development.

As a member of the board I work with the remit to build a thriving member community that can benefit from a huge range of services, research and thought leadership on a range of issues affecting apprentice/intern/graduate hiring and development including current/ future trends as well as industry bench-marking data.

For more information on what the ISE could offer you go to <a href="https://ise.org.ukMy">https://ise.org.ukMy</a> role on the board is to support

Institute of Student Employers

Board Director

Supporting FirstGroup to formulate and deliver effective, efficient and robust resourcing strategies to deliver 'best in class' graduate and undergraduate resourcing and development across Group, FirstBus and FirstRail. Working with senior stakeholders, HR colleagues and suppliers to improve inclusion within our selection processes whilst maintaining transparent and candidate rich experiences within selection.

FirstGroup plc

Head of Graduate Careers

Working as an independent consultant to Support businesses to build, grow or improve their Early Career Talent agenda - building and delivering effective, efficient and scalable early talent strategies aligned to future business growth. My experiences cover all resourcing activities from attraction and selection to development and stakeholdering of emerging talent propositions.

TalentTap

Independant Early Careers Talent Consultant

Supporting selection activities for Amberjack clients including application screening, Video Interview reviews and Telephone Interviews

Amberjack Global

Freelance Selection Associate

Responsible for the global Emerging Talent recruitment and development strategies and frameworks for Corporate Head Office and all Global Sales Markets delivered through a network of Resourcing and HRBP Champions.

Attraction & Selection
-  Managed attraction campaign employer EVP rebrand project with internal and external stakeholders achieving recognition as a top 10 Employer of Choice for an FMCG company in the JobCrowd Top Companies rankings – the only tobacco company in the list.
-  Expanded the ‘reach’ of our MBA opportunities amongst additional business schools in Europe.
-  Streamlined selection process for all markets allowing consistent candidate experiences and greater quality assurance whilst reducing time to hire and cost per hire by +50%.

Development
-  Developed a global core learning and development programme framework for all graduates whilst allowing for the provision of specialist technical and local market development within business functions.

Business Impact
-  Redefined the graduate proposition to better align with the business objectives and the talent agenda – with sponsorship and agreement from senior leadership stakeholders to target c.40 graduates/year.
-  Through the campaign rebrand, improved candidate management and programmes development, I improved graduate retention rate by 16% in my first year and 22% in my second.

Imperial Brands PLC

Global Emerging Talent Manager

Member of Global University Recruitment team responsible for the implementation of attraction and selection activities to source all Market Sales Associate graduate roles within EMEA.

Attraction & Selection
-  Lead the development of recruitment strategies to target 30+ universities across EMEA for all Expedia brands.
-  Expanded brand awareness of Expedia’s MBA and graduate opportunities through creation of case studies for inclusion in degree programme curriculum and sponsorship deals.
-  Exceeded recruitment targets for the season whilst improving candidate experience.

Development
-  Developed and piloted structured EMEA summer internship programme in London - later adopted for the USA programme due to success.

Expedia

Senior Recruiter - Emerging Talent Programmes, EMEA

Lead Recruiter responsible for all Emerging Talent Programme resourcing working in partnership with Hiring Managers and HRBP community.

Attraction & Selection
-  Reduced marketing costs with refreshed marketing materials and media plans, which whilst increasing brand exposure and awareness amongst target candidate audiences.
-  Developed scalable delivery model for a robust, adaptable, end to end selection process to recruit c.60 candidates per Graduate and Internship programme, 2 months ahead of deadline.
-  Introduced enhanced filtering tools, including psychometric online testing (then adopted into all hiring activity), reducing time-to-hire, cost per hire and improved candidate experience.

Development
-  Supported activities of Business Central HR team with on-boarding and employee development.

Business Impact
-  Selection tools developed were incorporated into all hiring activities across all recruitment.
-  Created IT academic programme link with Imperial College London, gaining direct access to targeted candidates.

Ocado

Recruitment Manager

Maternity Cover. Responsible for managing the Graduate Resourcing Team and representing HR on the Graduate Programme Partner Committee.

Attraction & Selection
-  Delivered greater cost efficiencies through audit and ROI Analysis of attraction and selection tools, leading to the removal of online testing element due to insignificant correlation with Assessment success.

Business Impact
-  Created Partner’s University Sponsorship Committee to enable greater budgetary control and governance leading to 75% reduction in university sponsorship spend.

Clifford Chance LLP

Graduate Recruitment Manager (FTC)

Member of the Recruitment Senior Leadership Team responsible for managing Candidate Contact (Birmingham based), Candidate Assessment (London based) and a home based Selection Associate Teams, accountable for candidate management from application to offers and cultivation (5000+ applications, 1200+ assessed candidates, 760+ Offers).

Attraction & Selection
-  As part of the Recruitment Senior Leadership team advising on all graduate recruitment issues
-  Developed Assessor Training Programme and new candidate selection materials, improving assessment time efficiency and candidate selection experience.

Business Impact
-  Member of the Associate Directors Leadership Team providing business support to the Directors team.
-  Member of the organising team, leading 30 strong leadership team’s knowledge exchange visit to Teach for India.

Teach First

Associate Director, Recruitment

Managed EMEA Graduate & MBA recruitment as part of a global recruitment team, including responsibilities for external supplier and senior business stakeholder management; all induction process for internal transfers into EMEA; support for the InStep Intern programme and Account Development Specialist recruitment.

Attraction and Selection
-  Introduced the Infosys graduate brand to the UK graduate market, gaining a nomination for a TARGET Award and 17th rank in the best IT and Telecoms graduate employers.
-  Supported recruitment for UK based Account Development Specialists.
-  Developed selection processes for Graduate Software Engineers to align to UK best practice and the India based recruitment strategies.

Development
-  Accountable for induction process for internal transfers into EMEA.
-  Supported the India led InStep Internship programme.
-  Developed ‘School Work Experience’ programme for GCSE and A-Level pupils in collaboration with
E-Skills UK that enabled Infosys to become a champion of IT education within the UK

Infosys Technologies Limited

Emerging Talent Manager, EMEA

As Interim Head of Development Schemes, in addition to previous roles responsibilities, I had oversight of TfL's apprentice and internship opportunities across London Underground, Surface Transport and London Buses.

Business Impact
-  Responsible TfL’s Graduate programmes, Entry Level HR Professional Development Scheme, London Underground’s Apprenticeships programme and the Press Office BAME Internship Programme.
-  Internal stakeholder management; campaign review and evaluation; RPO management.
-  Line management of team of 2 recruiters.

Transport for London

Interim Head of Development Schemes

Lead Resourcer for TfL's graduate opportunities across London Underground, Surface Transport and London Buses.

Attraction & Selection
-  Responsible recruiting 125 graduates annually for TfL’s 17 Graduate disciplines and Entry Level HR Professional Development Scheme.
-  Internal stakeholder management; campaign and selection process design; demand planning; budgetary control.
-  Gained TfL brand recognition as new entrant into the High Fliers Times Top 100 Graduate Recruiters list and awarded Times Top 100 Employer of Choice in Transport and Logistics.

Business Impact
-  Consolidated TfL's siloed selection processes into a streamlined collaborative process across all of the TfL Businesses leading to greater numbers of offers per application, improved candidate experience and greater assessment cost efficiencies.

Graduate Resourcing Manager

Part of the original team of 12 who embedded Teach First into the Graduate Recruitment arena in the UK. Responsible for Selection and regional Campus Recruitment in the Midlands.

Attraction & Selection
-  Recruitment of 500+ of the best graduates via targeted, bespoke marketing and recruitment strategies, delivering a new brand to the graduate market.
-  Responsibility for design and delivered all validated selection criteria, processes and materials.

Business Impact
-  Contributed to TF being the first charity to win a place in the Times Top 100 within 1 year.

Summer Institute Operations Manager	       2003 - 2005
-  Recruit and manage events programme team for Teach First’s summer training institutes whist making cost savings of 50% through effective research, negotiation and summer activities management.

Senior Manager, Graduate Recruitment

Planning and  Leading 3 month long overland expeditions throughout East and Southern Africa, with up to 22 passengers, full budget control, managing up to 2 other staff and maintenance of the overland vehicle and all expedition equipment.

Exodus Travels

Overland Expedition Leader

- Field Guide on walking and 4WD safaris in privately run game conservancy.
-  Coordinated staff rotas and work programmes
-  Designed ‘Junior Ranger’ wildlife activity classes for children.
-  Conservation work on reserve infrastructure, animal relocation, wildlife surveys, habitat monitoring and Serval cat reintroduction programme.

Paul Siaens