At Kier, recruitment isn’t just about filling positions; it’s about building an inclusive and accessible experience for every candidate. Our commitment to inclusivity is woven through our recruitment processes, people, and systems, and we’ve won an award for our approach.
We ensure every individual feels welcomed, supported, and empowered throughout their journey with us. Here, Paul Thornton, talent acquisition director at Kier explains how we’ve put that into practice.
A candidate-first approach to recruitment
Our new careers site, developed in partnership with eArcu, has been designed with a candidate-first mindset, ensuring accessibility and engagement at every stage of the recruitment lifecycle.
Fully mobile-enabled and built with a digital approach, the platform allows applicants to complete their forms on a single page, making the process seamless and reducing potential barriers.
This approach has led to a 95% application completion rate—a significant improvement from the 70% in our previous system. This high rate of completion highlights how intuitive, accessible, and inclusive the platform is.
After they accept an offer, every new starter receives a welcome phone call from the onboarding team who are part of the HR Shared Services, ensuring they can ask any questions before they start, and that they feel supported from the very beginning.
This human touch reinforces that every candidate matters.
Accessibility for all: powered by Userway
Inclusivity extends beyond design to functionality. Our careers site incorporates Userway, a leading accessibility tool that ensures all users are able to customise their experience to suit their individual needs including font size, colour and animation preferences.
Over the past 12 months, the tool has been used over 60,000 times, demonstrating its impact and ensuring our platform remains accessible to all.
The voice of the candidate
One of the cornerstones of our recruitment process is our dedication to continuous improvement. We regularly survey both successful and unsuccessful candidates to capture their experiences.
This valuable feedback allows us to refine our systems and adjust where needed, ensuring that our process is always evolving and reflective of the diverse needs of our candidates.
Initiatives to show construction is open to all
We’ve developed initiatives aimed at breaking down barriers and creating pathways for individuals from diverse backgrounds. One of our flagship programmes, Making Ground, exemplifies this commitment to inclusivity. This prison engagement and employment program is designed to support serving prisoners and prison leavers by helping them transition into sustainable employment within the construction industry.
By providing training, mentorship, and career opportunities, we aim to unlock the potential of individuals.
We also recognise the immense value that individuals with a connection to the armed forces bring to the workforce. For many years, we have been committed to providing job and training opportunities to the armed forces community, working closely with clients and supply chain partners to achieve this. In 2013, we became one of the first construction companies to sign the Armed Forces Covenant, reaffirming our commitment by resigning it in 2021. Through collaborations with organisations like BuildForce and Forces Transition Group, we continue to offer meaningful and sustainable employment opportunities to veterans, reservists, and military families, further expanding our efforts to support diverse talent in the industry.
Award-winning mobile experience
Our commitment to inclusivity has not gone unnoticed. We recently won the Best Mobile Experience award at the Onrec Recruitment Awards, with 65% of our traffic now coming through mobile devices. This recognition speaks to the importance of multi-platform accessibility and highlights our forward-thinking approach to recruitment.
Onboarding that engages and excites
The onboarding process is an often-overlooked part of recruitment, but at Kier, we’ve turned it into an opportunity for engagement.
Our onboarding animations gamify the mundane task of paperwork, transforming it into an enjoyable and engaging experience. New starters can also watch a welcome video from our CEO, Andrew Davies, learning more about the company and the benefits available to them. This helps new employees start to feel connected and valued before they’ve even started.
The impact
We know we have more to do, but what I am proud of is how committed we are to an inclusion-first approach at Kier.
I am encouraged by the feedback I receive on the experience our candidates have, and how our people, culture, values and experience that we have created, is supporting so many new joiners to Kier, and the construction industry. If you would be interested in a career with Kier, visit our careers site: