We can’t change everything. But we can contribute to a world of work that’s truly fair and inclusive, and do our bit to build a better society…

Back in July, we hosted an Arctic Shores Insight Event for some students participating in the Social Mobility Foundation’s (SMF) programmes.

SMF is a charity that supports high-achieving young people from low-income backgrounds in accessing top universities and competitive professions. Each year, they help thousands of young people all across the UK, who have the ability to flourish in the professions they wish to get into, but who lack the guidance, encouragement and networks to help them get there.

Like Arctic Shores, the SMF is committed to promoting potential-based hiring rather than more traditional approaches which focus on experience and provide advantage to young people from more privileged backgrounds.

We invited 12 students to a Careers Insight with our Customer Team and showcase what we do at Arctic Shores and in the Recruitment Technology sector and why. One of the aims was to help them gain knowledge and understanding of future career options open to them in the worlds of tech, psychology, customer success and customer support.

Students had the opportunity to complete our behaviour-based assessment followed by a 1 on 1 feedback session with our Business Psychologists based on their results. We also ran sessions in small groups to give students the opportunity to speak directly with our Community and Support team, Business Psychologists and Customer Success Managers. The participants also heard from our CEO, Robert, on what it takes to set up and scale a business.

Working with the SMF, Arctic Shores has the opportunity to enable these young talents to showcase their potential through our behaviour-based assessments.

The objective was to help the students identify their personal strengths and qualities by using UNA and explore roles and careers within a tech business, here is what a few had to say following the session:

“Attending the Arctic Shores Insight Event helped me to learn about

a business that doesn’t fit the typical ‘tech mould’. It was a very insightful day

and the employees were really interesting to speak to.”

“I really enjoyed being able to see the field I’m interested in be practically applied in the real world as well as the professions within it.”

….and about Arctic Shores:

“Very professional but with a laid-back approach. Everyone was very friendly, and they were all excited to

make a difference with the organisation.”

“It was really interesting as I had never heard of a company who specialised in specific psychometric

testing.”

However much the students got from the session, it is fair to say that we ended the day feeling inspired by them and even more motivated to encourage other companies to scrap the CV and hire for potential.

We were delighted to work with the SMF on this our first collaboration and hope to build on this event and create a long lasting partnership.