People

The role of training and development in career progression

Introduction
Nestl UK has been trading as a business since the 1860s.
Today, Nestl is the worlds leading nutrition, health and
wellness company. It is a major player within the UK and Irish
food industry, employing over 8,000 people across 23 sites.
Nestl produces some of Britains best loved brands, such as
KIT KAT, NESCAF, SMARTIES, FELIX, BUXTON
MINERAL WATER and SHREDDIES.
The Academy creates a great world of support for all
those involved, graduates and apprentices alike.
Mark Thompson, Engineering Apprentice
The food and drinks sector is the largest manufacturing sector
in the UK. To ensure the industry attracts outstanding young
talent, Nestl established its own Academy. The Academy
provides flexible entry points to enable people at all levels to
build a rewarding career at Nestl.
This year the Academy will play a big part in Nestls
European Youth Employment Initiative. Over the next 3 years,
Nestl have committed to offer 20,000 employment
opportunities for young people across Europe under the age
of 30, with 1,900 of these opportunities based in the UK and
Ireland.
The Academy focuses on creating flexible entry points into the
business, enabling people to develop functional expertise and
leadership skills to drive the business forward and grow a
sustainable pipeline of talent for the future.
This is achieved by offering a lifetime of learning from
apprenticeships to graduate and school leaver programmes,
to work experience and on-the-job training across all
disciplines from engineering to finance, manufacturing to
marketing, as well as a range international opportunities.

Nestl, along with many UK businesses, found that there can

often be a difference between the skills gained in education
and those needed in the workplace. The shortage of
candidates with the skill set required to help develop the
business created a challenge for Nestl. To overcome this,
Nestl ran employability skills workshops for young people,
both on campus with potential university candidates, and also
on site with local young unemployed people. Nestl also
recognized the challenges young people face in traditional
interview situations, due to their lack of work experience and
being able to provide meaningful examples to traditional
interview questioning techniques. Nestl needed a new
approach to be able to differentiate between their entry level
applications so adopted a new recruitment methodology.
This case study looks at how Nestl has developed its
'strengths-based' approach which focuses on strengths
rather than competencies to recruit young talent.
The Nestl Academy has provided me with the
opportunity and support to learn, develop and excel
in the career I want.

Human Resource Management (HRM)

The key function of Human Resource Management (HRM) is
to ensure a business has the right number of employees with
the skills and qualifications required to meet current and future
needs. This is known as workforce planning. Employees are
normally the largest cost to a business, so it is essential that
the HRM function measures productivity, absenteeism and
employee turnover to monitor the effectiveness and efficiency
of human resources.
A business needs to be flexible in order to meet the demands
of the changing and competitive environments in which it
trades. Therefore, the HRM function must ensure that the
workforce is able to adapt to these changes effectively.

Curriculum Topics: Human Resource Management Workforce Planning

Workplace Planning Effective Recruitment

A growing business like Nestl needs to regularly take on new

staff in order to create a pipeline of talent for the future, and
keep key skills and knowledge within the business as older
employees retire. An ageing workforce is a particular
challenge for Nestl, as over 50% of its entire workforce, from
across a variety of areas within the business, are due to retire
within the next 15 years.

Competency based
interviewing
Demonstrates what
candidates can/have done

Strength based
interviewing
Demonstrates energy/
motivation, performance of

Before recruiting any new staff, an analysis of the job is

undertaken. Job analysis is a process which identifies the
tasks required from the role, and what skills, strengths and
training are required to perform the job effectively. The
information obtained through the job analysis is used to
advertise the vacancy. Vacancies are filled through internal or
external recruitment. Internal recruitment involves recruiting
someone who currently works within the business. The main
advantage of internal recruitment is the reduced cost, as the
recruitment process is shorter and so less expensive. Another
benefit is that the individual is already familiar with and within
the business. A problem recruiting internally is that the internal
promotion leaves a vacancy to be filled. External recruitment is
when a business recruits someone from outside the company.
This has the potential to bring new ideas and experience into
the company. It can be an expensive process as individuals
recruited externally need a longer induction into the company.

looking for experience of

an activity and how

can do rather than love

regularly they get to use

to do

this strength

Demonstrates a flat line

of ability able to be
competent at all activities

Demonstrates strengths,
competencies and areas
of weakness

Candidates are able to use

As questions are not

always based upon
past experience it is
more difficult to prepare

When looking to recruit young talent, Nestl adopted a radical

recruitment shift to strengths based recruitment; this enabled
them to more easily differentiate between candidates with
limited experience by focusing on their potential instead.
This means that its roles are analysed and advertised in terms
of the strengths required for the job, not competencies.

Probing is allowed
can guide people
to give the answer and
turn a poor response
into an average one

The differences between the two styles of interviewing are

shown in the table to the right.

Recruitment
Having completed the job analysis, two documents need
writing before the job is advertised. The first is the job
description.
This lists the main responsibilities of the job, including the job
title, main purpose of the role and conditions of employment,
including salary and benefits. The second is the person
specification. This sets out the skills, knowledge, experience,
qualifications and personal qualities required from the job. This
specification can be subdivided into essential or desirable
criteria.
An essential criterion may be a specific qualification that is
required. A desirable criterion may relate to a technical skill the
new recruit develops once employed.

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previous examples
prepared in advance

Questions can be closed

and have simple followups the question
draws out candidates
strengths

It is important that these documents, and the whole

recruitment and selection process, comply with all UK and
European employment laws. These include equal
opportunities laws such as the Equality Act (2010) which are
designed to prevent discrimination in the workplace and
ensure fair access to jobs and training. Once these
documents are complete the job can then be advertised.
Nestl promotes career opportunities on its specifically
designed careers website. It uses social media, including
Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, to attract candidates. It is
able to offer long term career opportunities, a competitive
salary and a range of benefits and training. Operating as a
responsible business is at the heart of Nestls culture, and
this attracts likeminded candidates.
Each year the Nestl Academy recruits over 115 graduates,
apprentices and school leavers, although with the introduction
of the European Youth Employment initiative, Nestl will
increase its numbers across its different schemes to 285 per
year.

Nestl uses an online recruitment process. This improves the

speed and efficiency of the process for both the applicants
and the company. After initial attraction, the online application
form is the next part of the process. The diagram shows
Nestls graduate recruitment process.
Nestl recognised that high youth unemployment figures in
Europe demonstrated the need for employment opportunities
for this demographic.

Candidates that successfully complete these stages are

invited to attend an assessment centre day.
The assessment centre includes:
a strengths-based interview
a written exercise to test a candidates skills by

analysing a business or technical issue and making

recommendations for action
presentation to test behaviours to certain business
scenarios
a group discussion to show how a candidate
interacts with other people.

The tasks designed for the assessment centre provide an

overview of how a candidate may behave in a number of
different scenarios. Assessors review individual candidate
performance and their overall suitability for the role against key
behavioural indicators. The behavioural indicators are
highlighted below.

This led to the Nestl needs YOUth initiative. This initiative

plans to help at least 20,000 people across Europe under the
age of 30 to find employment by 2016 by offering
opportunities for individuals to gain work experience and
develop new skills. Nestl aims to create 1,900 employment
opportunities across the business in the UK and Ireland over
the next three years. As part of this, it will offer 300 paid work
experience placements, giving opportunities to those
struggling to find work due to lack of experience in the
workplace.

Selection
The selection process is about getting the best candidate for
the job. Companies use a range of selection methods to suit
their specific recruitment needs. At Nestl, successful
applications proceed to the online testing stages following a
sifting procedure. This includes a situational strengths test
providing candidates with an insight into the culture and role
they are applying for, a numerical test and a strengths-based
telephone-video interview.

Candidates that are successful at this stage in the

assessment process are offered a position within the Nestl
Academy and invited to a formal induction programme. The
induction programme provides an overview of Nestl and
specific information about the function they are joining. It also
provides individuals with a chance to network with other
candidates from other schemes and functions. The
programme includes meeting the senior leadership team and
allows individuals to learn important information about the
company. This is a vital part of the process and ensures new
recruits get the best possible start to their career.

Benefits of a strengths-based approach

Since introducing strengths-based assessment to its graduate
recruitment process in 2012, Nestl have monitored the
benefits to both the business and candidates. For the
business, the benefits over the past year were a 21% increase

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www.nestle.co.uk
in productivity, increased customer satisfaction of 12% and an
increase in the number of women recruited into technical roles
from 22% to 67%. There was also a 33% increase in positive
candidate perception of the Nestl brand. The company has
seen an improvement in the calibre and number of applicants,
with nearly a 50% increase in the volume of applications
following a refreshed attraction campaign. Furthermore, a
50% reduction in labour turnover was reported in the first year.
This directly benefits Nestl by reducing further recruitment
costs and enabling a strong talent pipeline.
For candidates coming through the process, the strengthsbased approach has both differentiated Nestl, with 96% of
candidates reporting that Nestl stands out compared to
other graduate recruiters by using a strengths-based
methodology, as well as providing an innovative day in the
life assessment experience. Indeed 88% of candidates said
the online Situational Strengths Test (SST) gave them a
realistic insight into a graduate role at Nestl. The introduction
of strengths-based feedback reports now also enables the
thousands of candidates coming through Nestls SST to
better understand their strengths, regardless of their
progression in the process.
Nestl believes that its strengths-based interview provides a
very positive experience for both interviewer and interviewee.
A recruitment manager commented:
The interview was one of the most interesting and
enjoyable interviews I have ever had. I was just able to
be myself. I believe the strengths-based questions
allowed me to show Nestl who I am and where my

This style has relaxed candidates and allowed them to make

the most of their time in the interview, demonstrating their
potential rather than relying on pre-rehearsed examples to
succeed. One candidate commented that:
I feel as though Ive got to know this person better
than Ive ever known a candidate previously. The new
interview method was easier to apply and the scoring
guidelines have allowed a more accurate evaluation.

Conclusion
Human Resource Management is a key function in an
organisation.
Having a flexible workforce with the right skills and
qualifications means that a business is better able to respond
and adapt to changes in the market.Taking an innovative
approach to recruitment and selection ensures that a
business recruits and selects the right candidates who can
grow and develop with the business.
To date, Nestls strengths-based recruitment approach has
benefitted both the company and the candidates applying. It
gives young people with limited work experience the
opportunity to demonstrate their potential and suitability for a
position. By mirroring the companys commitment to creating
opportunities for young people across Europe, through its
European Youth Employment Initiative, for example, Nestl is
rising to the challenges within its external environment whilst
preparing its workforce for continued growth.

strengths are.

1.

Explain two advantages to a business of

recruiting externally. (2 marks)

2.

Describe the advantages to a business of

using an online recruitment process.
(4 marks)

3.

Analyse the costs and benefits of Nestls

commitment to reduce high youth
unemployment. (6 marks)

4.

Evaluate the effectiveness of Nestls

strengths-based approach to recruitment
and selection. (8 marks)

Nestle | Recruitment and selection at Nestl Academy

Exam style questions

Monitoring the strengths-based approach has confirmed that

it has been particularly effective for candidates with minimal to
no work experience.