With a data-driven approach undertaking a school-mapping exercise by location, we focused our recruitment efforts on a hyper-local level. For instance, when recruiting in the remote Scottish town of Stornoway, on the Isle of Lewis we focussed on specific outreach to local schools, utilised local websites such as “welovestornaway” and encouraged current employees to spread the word within their communities and online networks, sharing job details and starting conversations to raise awareness.

Attraction is just one part of the recruitment puzzle, especially as construction is a sector that may not naturally encourage fresh new diverse talent to gravitate towards it. So once candidates do apply, it’s crucial for us to be adaptive to their needs, personalising their recruitment experience to keep them engaged and supported throughout.

In a highly automated world, we recognise the value of the “human touch” so instead of relying on automated video interviews, we opted for interactive career conversations over the phone, outside of school and college hours, supporting candidates to give the best account themselves and delving deeper into motivations whilst providing them with a chance to ask questions. Additionally, we discussed ways of working and transport networks to ensure their potential commute would be manageable