Case Study

Sigma Recruitment are regularly asked by our clients to find outstanding graduate talent within the STEM field to allow them to add high calibre and talented individuals to their organisation who can grow and develop to become the engineers and scientists of the future.

The Problem

The STEM field can be very competitive, with some larger organisations around the UK offering high salaries for graduate schemes, which the South Wales market is unable to generally compete with.

• STEM graduates don’t tend to have much industry experience, so it can be difficult to undertake a high level of technical screening.
• As they’re generally recent graduates, they’re active in the job market and applying for multiple roles at a time.
• The most talented or more desirable STEM graduates (1st class degrees, placement years or industrial experience gained as part of studies, etc.) tend to be very in-demand and not on the market long, which can make it difficult for clients to secure them.
• Often, STEM graduate candidates haven’t yet gained their driver’s licence or been able to afford to purchase a vehicle and are therefore a bit more restricted in terms of the locations they can access.
• Graduates will generically say they are flexible to relocate for positions, which to an extent is true, but this creates multiple additional factors that need to be considered.

The Solution

• Sigma is always active in adding graduates in the STEM field to our candidate database.
• We ensure that, when discussing the opportunities we are going to be working on at a graduate level, we gain a full understanding of the work the graduate would be undertaking, what sort of development and progression is on offer (both in terms of responsibility and financially) and what positive news we can use to ‘sell’ the opportunity to candidates.
• We draft SEO adverts for the role and post them across multiple job boards, social media platforms, and our own website, ensuring we make the adverts as attractive and appealing as possible to the STEM graduate marketplace.
• We have developed several different sourcing strategies to ensure we provide excellent and broad coverage for clients when finding STEM candidates.
• We have set up four-stage text mailer campaigns to cover ground extensively in directing traffic to the adverts for our clients.
• We have developed a number of questions to ask candidates to identify their skills and personality fit for clients, given that they don’t have a lot of industry experience.
• We undertake thorough screening of candidates regarding commuting to locations to ensure they can get to the client location easily and in line with the working hours.
• For candidates looking to relocate, we talk to them about the area they’re looking to relocate to, find out if they have any connection to, or prior knowledge of, the area, and find out what sort of activities they need access to outside of work.
• We also send candidates who are considering relocating a document we’ve created that provides in-depth information regarding relocating to the area and ask them to use online tools to assess the cost of living.
• As with all Sigma Recruitment processes, we send a ‘job information pack’ for the candidates to fully consider all aspects of the role, location, and package on offer so they can confirm they’re happy to proceed with applying for the role.

The Results

Sigma has been able to recruit a high volume of STEM candidates for our clients in recent years. Not only have our clients been extremely happy with them, some have also gone on to progress within their organisations in a short space of time.

Examples of STEM recruitment success:

• Continual work with a client that has been experiencing large year-on-year growth that has led to them needing to consistently add scientific graduates at degree, Masters and PhD levels, sometimes needing them to undertake roles which are not necessarily laboratory-based and requiring them to utilise their skills in a slightly different way. Sigma has placed 16 graduates of a scientific nature with the company in a five-year period.
• We worked with a client based in a remote part of West Wales who required a couple of graduate-level electronic and software engineers. We were firstly able to find them a software engineering graduate who was based locally to them (a 45-minute commute) and then an electronics design engineer who relocated from the South of England to work with them. When discussing what the relocation candidate would require, they had quite a specific requirement for a church to attend, and we found it for them. Over two years later, they are still happily employed by the client.
• A client was looking to recruit a graduate project engineer with a background in mechanical engineering. Sigma was able to produce a shortlist of six candidates for the client, and during the interview process, the client ended up employing two of the graduates instead of one due to the qualities that they demonstrated to them.

About Sigma Recruitment

Since Sigma Recruitment opened in 2005, we’ve developed an enviable reputation as one of the leading independent recruitment agencies. We’ve recruited for a wide variety of companies, from Fortune 500 firms with sales in the hundreds of billions to niche high-tech start-ups and everything in between; we can recruit across the United Kingdom, including locations such as Cardiff, Swansea, Newport, Bristol, Birmingham, Cambridge, Gloucester, Leeds, Manchester, Oxford, Reading and Swindon.

Sigma Recruitment focuses on sectors including automotive, pharmaceutical, heavy industrial / power generation, medical device, life science, chemical, electronics, semiconductor, aerospace, food manufacturing, FMCG, packaging and plastics.

If you’re looking to recruit candidates with STEM skills in engineering, technical, supply chain, procurement, logistics, management, scientific or STEM graduates then, Sigma Recruitment is ideally placed to help you find the elusive high calibre talent you’re business needs. If you’re looking for a STEM skills recruitment agency, then please book a call with our founding director today! And we’ll show you why we are one of the leading STEM skills recruitment agencies.