Partner Article

Talent Works helps digital infrastructure disruptor CityFibre double its workforce in 12 months

*- Talent Works supports CityFibre to rapidly scale its organisation in support of its £4bn investment in Full Fibre infrastructure across UK

• Innovative marketing and recruitment strategies help grow headcount to over 1,700 *

Talent Works, the collaborative talent acquisition company, has enabled CityFibre, the UK’s largest independent provider of Full Fibre infrastructure, to double its headcount in just twelve months. The success of the partnership has supported CityFibre’s continued growth throughout the pandemic as the demand for digital infrastructure continues to increase.

With a £4bn programme of network rollout underway to connect up to 8 million homes and businesses with full fibre infrastructure by 2025, CityFibre is growing extremely fast and was looking for an innovative solution to hire talented candidates rapidly and at scale. To meet the challenge, the Talent Works team provided strategic recruitment capabilities and supported the implementation of new technologies including an applicant tracking system, candidate marketing tools, machine learning based sourcing and data-led recruitment.

CityFibre had originally appointed Talent Works in 2019 to provide Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO) for its Network Build function, accounting for 50% of its vacancies and roughly 350 hires. The collaboration aimed to make CityFibre’s recruitment team as streamlined as possible, and bringing all aspects of the recruitment process together has created better experiences for hiring managers, candidates and existing employees across all CityFibre brand touch points.

A key part of the partnership with Talent Works involved developing CityFibre’s Employee Value Proposition (EVP) and Employer Brand messaging to differentiate CityFibre and help emphasise its position as one of the most exciting brands to work for in telecoms. The EVP was then complemented by a number of successful recruitment creative marketing campaigns to drive brand awareness and direct sourcing to recruit high numbers of Build Assurance Engineers, City Build Managers and Fibre Network Planners across the country. Collaborating with Talent Works on an EVP and recruitment strategy ensured CityFibre saw a greater quality of candidate; and rather than simply hiring at scale, they are hiring talented candidates who are a cultural fit.

To support the EVP, CityFibe ran an onboarding survey which found that based on the onboarding experience, which the brand prides itself on, 97% of new hires would recommend CityFibre as an employer. The same survey found 97% of new hires considered the recruitment process to be excellent.

Richard Hutchinson, Head of Resourcing at CityFibre, commented: “To support the huge growth of our business, we needed a different recruitment strategy. We wanted to create a beautiful recruitment experience underpinned by strategy and structure which would enable us to scale our business quickly but also give the option to scale down once we have grown to capacity. Talent Works’ flexible approach to RPO gave us a level of fluidity which allowed us to be nimble and quick to react to change which helped in situations like the pandemic. What’s most important to me is that we work as one team, towards the same goal and therefore haven’t had to lower our standards. Talent Works are an extension of CityFibre and understand what we’re trying to achieve.”

The collaboration has earned three nominations at the 2021 Recruiter Awards for Most Effective Recruitment Marketing Campaign, Best In-House Recruitment Team and Outstanding Outsourced Recruitment Organisation; proving that the partnership is going from strength to strength.

Neil Purcell, founder and CEO, Talent Works, added: “CityFibre is a fantastic example of successful innovation; not only are they creating thousands of jobs but they’re changing the way the UK connects. When businesses scale, they need to be agile, and able to respond to situations flexibly. Managing ongoing recruitment costs as a scaleup just doesn’t work, businesses need services that move with them, understanding that recruitment needs change, and so must the service. We are delighted to support the team on its journey to roll out fast internet for all.”

Following the success of this partnership, CityFibre has signed an additional two-year contract with the Talent Works team in order to support the continued expansion of its world-class Full Fibre networks across the UK.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Talent Works .