Case Study: Diversity of Thought Employer Partnership Programme at the University of East London

A study undertaken in 2020 established that less than 12% of University of East London (UEL) graduates were working for Times Top 100 companies, something we were committed to change. Research showed that our graduates simply didn’t consider applying for these organisations and for those that did the selection processes were alien and daunting. Recent research undertaken in 2022 by Cibyl, which surveyed over 65,000 students from across 160 universities, showed that UEL students were 26% less likely to aspire to secure a graduate scheme when compared to their counterparts at other higher education institutions.

In response, the Diversity of Thought (DoT) programme was developed to drive aspiration and social mobility, and to address the key stages of the recruitment cycle where those from marginalised backgrounds were less likely to be represented. There are three core elements in each programme: mentoring, work-based learning, and experience of professional environments. To build social and cultural capital, programmes include one-to-one mentoring within businesses, on-site events, workshops by the early talent team and either an internship, consultancy project or work shadowing experience.

In this article, I outline how the DoT is delivered and share key learnings from the programme for colleagues across the sector.

Insight Days

An integral component of our Diversity of Thought programme is Insight Days, which provide a unique opportunity to challenge student perceptions and give a ‘day in the life’ experience. Providing an authentic perspective, students benefit from first hand exploration and conversations with staff about different career paths and opportunities alongside the working culture and day to day running of the organisation. One of our partners, VML (WPP) used the insight day to showcase opportunities from across the business including HR, Finance, Creative and Project Management. Shantel, a business management student, said this experience allowed her to discover where she wanted to go in her career, stating ” Through the programme I have been given a once in a lifetime opportunity which has offered me the platform I needed to start my career”.

Dataminr hosted a group of students at their London Headquarters, providing inspiring keynotes from staff, an immersive tour of their offices and a deep dive into their advanced technology. Mina, a Computer Science student from Iran, reflected on the day, “Being introduced to the CEO of Dataminr was brilliant, I got to spend time living ‘a day in the life’ and realised the true value of what my culture and four spoken languages bring”. Mina has progressed on the programme and believes the Diversity of Thought Programme has opened the door to what she wants to do with her Computer Science degree and knows where she is going once her studies are over. Mina sees herself utilising all the skills she is gaining from the programme and envisions herself as a future female leader - something she never thought possible before the programme.

Finding New Ways to Showcase Talent

Perhaps the most discussed barrier to diversifying the talent pipeline are the conscious and unconscious biases that exist within recruitment processes and CIPD research has shown this. A mere 28% of employers train all interviewers on legal obligations and objective interview practice, less than a fifth make efforts to remove bias through testing the words of job adverts or checking that tests are valid, reliable and objective.

Within the Diversity of Thought Programme, our experienced careers professionals work in collaboration with partners to design the programmes and selection processes. The team work intensively with individuals to prepare them for the recruitment process ensuring they have a fair and equal chance of being successful. Francine, a Sociology student, felt instantly inspired by what the programme had to offer and loved that the team helped her with her CV, interview techniques and communication before starting the programme. This preparation stage is a vital step in closing the social mobility gap and empowering students within the recruitment process.

Alongside the preparation work we have developed a unique recruitment methodology ‘Talent Hacks’, providing a ‘live’ experiential hackathon putting companies most significant challenges in our students’ hands. This is an opportunity for students from across a wide range of disciplines to showcase their talent, skills and values while gaining an authentic insight into working for a company and developing vital transferable employability skills which will follow them throughout their career. This end-to-end recruitment tool is an immersive opportunity for organisations to identify diverse early talent. Our dedicated delivery team bespoke design and deliver the Hack to match the competencies of our partner organisations. One of our Talent Hacks, run in partnership with Coca Cola saw 20 students go through an intensive day of debates, research, and presentations. Whilst Coca Cola was originally looking for four students, they selected eight for 12-month paid roles resulting in a 40% success rate.

Changing the Way Businesses Recruit

In addition to supporting graduate employability, the programme campaigns for organisations to reflect on their own practices for attracting and retaining diverse early talent. We held a Diversity of Thought Summit in May 2023 where we launched an employer handbook called Supporting Early Talent to Flourish, created to help employers build positive relationships through trauma-informed practices to truly bring out the best in early talent. The handbook (supported by the ISE) is informed by a study- which found that an overwhelming majority of those surveyed (858 first-year UEL students) had suffered at least one ‘Adverse Childhood Experience’. The handbook supports employers to examine how trauma-informed principles can be used to construct an enabling workplace culture.

Through defining and understanding trauma the handbook guides employers through the five key elements of building and maintaining relationships via a trauma-informed approach which includes:

• Safety: to be understood and feel safe emotionally and physically

• Trust: to build trusting relationships, find reliability and consistent support

• Choice and Control: to have some control and choices in the workplace

• Collaboration: to build positive relationships with colleagues and mentor

• Empowerment: to have spaces to individually and collectively develop their own voice, needs and interests in the workplace

The principles of this trauma-informed approach have been applied to the Diversity of Thought programme which provides insight to employers about alternative approaches to recruitment. One of the employer participants in the programme said, “Many companies have the desire to change, but it’s taking a long time, The Diversity of Thought programme has been an advocate for making changes in the world of EDI . I’m proud to say that WPP and I are as passionate about making changes – they take time, but they are happening. The standard we’ve hired from the programme has been exceptional.” Michael Ludlow – Talent Acquisition Director – WPP

Measuring Impact and Moving Forward

To measure the programme’s impact, we use the NERUPI framework to collate meaningful feedback from students. 2021/22 results showed 75 per cent of participants broadened their career goals and 97 per cent had increased confidence when applying for jobs after university. 88 per cent of our inaugural DoT partners have directly recruited students from the programme. We have seen 100 per cent growth in the number of partners year-on-year with high rates of retention and satisfaction resulting in 100  per cent of partners and students surveyed recommending the programme.

We have partnered with 44 aspirational organisations in the last three years including ITV, AWS, Barclays, Colas Rail, Dataminr, Dishoom, English National Ballet,  London City Airport, Siemens and the Taylor Bennett Foundation. Our ambition is to develop a consortium of partners, who will share best practice around attracting, recruiting and retaining diverse talent with an ambition to inspire a step-change within early talent recruitment.