How NLPCA introduced tests for graduate recruitment in 2020

First published March 2021

NLPCA wanted its recruitment process to reflect the modern approach it took to working with creative and growing businesses. In 2020, the disruption of the pandemic brought a more immediate challenge: graduate recruitment restarted with little time before interviews were due. The firm needed to get its recruitment activity moving again.

Restarting graduate recruitment in 2020

At first, NLPCA had not expected to take on the same number of graduates as usual. When those plans changed, the team needed to organise a recruitment round at short notice. Interviews were approaching, and testing had to fit into that preparation.

The firm contacted Test Candidates by email and telephone to get started. Those conversations helped NLPCA introduce assessments into its graduate recruitment process during that period. The account describes testing becoming part of the recruitment round before candidates reached interview.

A candidate experience that reflected the firm

NLPCA’s interest in testing extended to how applicants experienced recruitment. The firm wanted candidates to encounter modern technology before meeting the team in person. It saw the assessment platform as part of the first impression it could give prospective graduates.

That aim sat alongside the practical need to put testing in place. For NLPCA, the choice involved both getting an assessment process ready and presenting the firm in a way that matched how it wanted to work with people.

Laurence, a Partner at NLPCA, described the service, platform and value for money positively in the firm’s original feedback. This story relates to that graduate recruitment round in 2020 and the experience the firm reported at the time.