Graduate client brochure

1. Graduate
Recruitment
www.weareaspire.com

2. | achieving more together www.weareaspire.com
Graduate Recruitment
‘We are graduate specialists, recruiting
candidates from entry level to 2 years of
experience across the Media, Digital and
Corporate markets.’
Aspire has been actively recruiting graduates since 1993.
We have helped change people’s lives by assisting them in
getting started in their first career after University. Since
then we have broadened our remit and actively work with
candidates from fresh graduates to those with up to two
years of relevant industry experience.
Graduate recruitment is often a complex process, but it
doesn’t need to be. There are over 1.4 million students in
Higher Education and over 400,000 graduates annually.
Aspire has over two decades experience of offering a ‘high
touch’ human service. We meet and asses every candidate
before recommending them to our clients and this alone
sets us apart in this specialist market.

3. Sectors
Our client base ranges from digital companies,
technology providers and emerging platforms,
to a host of marketing, media and creative
agencies, to corporate clients in telecoms,
business information, property, healthcare and a
wide range of other industries:
Corporate - For corporates, we specialise in
recruiting graduates within a range of businesses
including, management consultancy, property,
technology and market research sectors, working
with candidates looking for sales, support and
research positions.
Digital - Within the digital markets we specialise
in recruiting into junior digital marketing,
commercial and data led roles within media and
digital agencies, trading platforms, technology
companies, ecommerce brands and media
owners.
Media - Within the media markets we specialise
in recruiting junior candidates looking for sales,
research, conference production and support
positions across media owners, publishers and
agencies.
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4. More Together
We work to our More Together values and
believe that only when all parties are truly
committed do you get the best result. This is
why we aim to meet with all our clients, taking
the time to get to know you and understand your
individual requirements. This is why we have a
96% success rate placing the right people into
the right job.
Key stats for you:
• Last 12 months – interviewed over 2,200
graduates
• Taken over 750 jobs
• Placed over 470 graduates
96%
64% of
candidates
come from our
own network
sources
We have a 96%
success rate
placing the right
people into the
right job
| achieving more together www.weareaspire.com

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How do we help
you recruit the best
Graduates?
• Contingency - Group interviews for multiple roles or one
on one assessments
• Graduate Schemes – retained either for finite numbers
or top up
As a value added extra, our clients often like us to host
interviews in our offices, which is known as our “HIRE
service”.
HIREs are highly successful group or back to back 1:1
interviews which many clients who are recruiting for
graduate sales, or non-sales candidates choose to use.
With our heritage comes access to a huge network of
contacts. Our state of the art CRM hosts over 480 active
coded and qualified graduate candidates (over 20,000
in total) with over 64% of new candidates coming via our
own channels such as referrals, returning candidates, our
website and social media.
job
boards
36%
our
network
20%
social
media
19%
aspire
website
25%

6. Key benefits of using our hosted interview
services:
• Interviews take place at our offices, a neutral location for
a candidate. This is particularly helpful if office space is
tight at your location, you are opening a new office, or if
it simply makes things easier for you logistically!
• Interviews are held back to back with short intervals in
between for reflection and feedback.
• They are ideal to benchmark candidates (better than
seeing people spread over the week or squeezing
in recruitment out of hours times). You can see and
benchmark circa eight candidates at a time. We can
provide competency and/or scoring criteria.
• It demonstrates to candidates your commitment to the
process.
• Instant feedback enables both parties to assess their
positions, without delay.
• It enables you to focus on selection without interruption.
• It ensures we are under pressure to deliver – the date
and time is agreed, and you don’t need to think about
recruitment again until you turn up on the day.
• Success rate is twice as likely compared to “normal
contingency recruitment”
• 90% of clients that use this service are returning clients.
| achieving more together www.weareaspire.com

7. HIREs
The Register were looking for two sales candidates to start
together as soon as possible. To save time we ran a HIRE
where we could get between 6-10 candidates together at
our offices for them to meet as a group for the first stage.
They saw some candidates for a one to one interview
straight after, took four back for a second interview at
their offices and were so impressed by the individuals they
decided to hire three candidates in the end!
Capita Conferences, who we have worked with since
2005, have always wanted to take the “traditional route”
of recruiting for their team; reviewing CV’s and holding
individual first and second stage interviews.
Since starting work with them in 2011, we have sold the
idea of a HIRE to overcome the frustrations they regularly
experience when recruiting for their team (ie. process
taking too long, candidates going off the market).
Last year, they agreed to give the HIRE process a go - with
great success! They hired a Delegate Sales Executive for
the team in less than a week and found the process fast
and effective.
The same client has since used this process on three further
occasions to recruit for the same position and wouldn’t go
back to the “traditional method” of hiring on his team.
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8. Highly impressed. Great opportunity to see numerous
candidates in a short period of time. Happy with the standard of
candidates.
Maximyser Ltd.
Great selection of candidates – very good. The
consultant listened to what we wanted, thanks for providing the
service.
News International
The work is done for us. Structured, informative and saves a
lot of time.
Carrenza
Efficient and great for bench marking
IIR Exhibitions
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9. Other Agencies Don’t
Compare…
We met a client, Media Bounty, who had been looking
for an Account Executive for four weeks using another
agency. It was an urgent hire, as someone was leaving and
they wanted a handover/crossover. The other recruitment
agency let them know the candidate pipeline had ‘dried up’,
and didn’t have any more people to send. We spoke to the
client on the Tuesday afternoon, met them on Wednesday
morning and took the brief. We sent one CV over the same
day and the interview happened on the Thursday. The
client then invited the candidate for the final stage at the
next earliest opportunity and there was an offer on the
table on the Wednesday. He started the next week.
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10. Proven success = long
term relationships
A year ago a new client IMRG approached us to find a
graduate for an administration role. They were a fairly new
company and were growing quickly and they had never
hired a graduate before. We suggested a HIRE as they
were pushed for time and wanted someone with a strong
personality.
The group interview was a success and they hired someone
within a week. This candidate has done tremendously well
over the last 12 months and now has been promoted to
senior member of staff. They have just approached us again
to hire for their replacement, so they can focus on their
new position.
In the meantime we have filled another two roles for the
company. One of these roles was a position they were not
using an agency for, but the candidate was such a strong
match, they could not say no.
We are now the only agency they use for recruitment.
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11. We smooth the
process
We have worked with Media IQ as one of various agencies,
helping to fill roles with difficult to find digital traders.
The process took a very long time, and they were losing
candidates to competitors due to the lengthy process. They
also needed to hire on a regular basis, but didn’t have the
time to do so. We offered to change their initial recruitment
process; which was CV screening, then telephone
screening, then face to face interview, followed by a
second stage presentation. We cut out the first two stages
by using our recommendations to find the best possible
candidates from the marketplace, and arrange a HIRE for
them. The clients were then able to interview between six
and eight candidates, and condense down to three or four
candidates for final stages, all within a two hour timeframe.
This increased candidate buy-in, which in this competitive
marketplace is crucial. It was time effective, and has
resulted in various top level Graduates being hired. The
process from first stage interview to start date was just two
weeks.
| achieving more together www.weareaspire.com

12. We can manage
recruitment for
structured graduate
programmes
We have worked with a number of clients to fill their
traditional graduate schemes. We work to each clients’
timescales and interview structure:
We have been the sole recruiter for a boutique
management consultancy to fill their graduate scheme for
the last three years. When they approached us, they had
not run a graduate scheme within their business before.
We met them to understand their company, culture, values,
scheme and how they saw the programme working. As this
was the first time they had hired at a graduate level, we
were able to offer advice for the best way to manage this
process and structure the programme. The first year they
wanted two candidates and last year they took five! This
year we are running the progamme again, and are looking
for another five graduates to join their flourishing business!
We handled all of the applications and pre screened all
applicants that applied. We then held 30 minute structured
telephone interviews with each potential candidate, before
compiling a shortlist to send to the client.
The client then ran there own in-depth telephone
interviews, before inviting the most suitable candidates to
assessment centre. This was based on our HIRE format, but
was a full day assessment held in our office, and attended
by the client. The day consisted of testing numeracy,
debate, critical thinking and problem solving skills. It
was time effective, and has resulted in various top level
Graduates being hired.
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13. To find out more, contact our specialist
Graduate Recruitment Team
020 7612 3925
enquiries@weareaspire.com