Network Rail picked up awards for Best Candidate Experience and Most Effective Recruitment Strategy for its work on its three-year apprentice programme for maintenance staff.

“This is a tough programme,” Adrian Thomas, head of resourcing at Network Rail told Recruiter.

“Our strategy is to put as much information in front of candidates about the role, the training and being away from home [for the first year] because if any of those don’t align with the candidate, we are not going to see the motivation we need in an individual.”

Thomas says it is important to give candidates an idea of the type of individual who is going to be successful. The message that the company is looking for people with a service attitude, with the motivation to work outdoors in the cold and rain is reinforced at all stages of the recruitment process, says Thomas: “We need to tell people that the work is not behind a desk.”

Including this message, for example, in Network Rail’s recruitment advertising also helps unsuitable candidates self-select out, says Thomas.

“We get a high level of interest so we have to give candidates the information, so they have the confidence to make the decision that we are not for them.”

Thomas says that involving parents of candidates at every stage of the process is also important, especially given that most apprentices are under the age of 25. Families are invited to recruitment and assessment events, and a 24-hour support line is manned by Network Rail’s recruitment team.

Thomas says that many callers seek reassurance there will be a job the end of the three-year scheme. “We hire against known vacancies right from the start,” he emphasises.

Adopting these measures has helped reduce the attrition rate on the apprenticeship scheme from 16% in 2005 to 1% in 2008, saving Network Rail over £1m in recruitment and training costs.