Emerald Publishing

World-leading digital first publisher, Emerald Publishing, were looking to recruit three summer interns to join different departments across their organisation. Recognising the barriers to securing opportunities within the publishing sector without corresponding higher education, Emerald reached out to B-Radical to help them broaden their reach when it came to the pool of talent they were recruiting from.

The main aim of the project was to offer opportunities to those without prior experience in publishing or with any formal education within a publishing-related subject. The three interns would be taking on roles of Sustainability Researcher, Book Cover Designer and Events Marketing Executive.

B-Radical’s first task was to market the internship opportunity to those outside of Emerald’s usual talent pool – by heading out to a very busy public space (London’s Stratford Westfield Shopping Centre) – to engage with people face-to-face in the community; those who may not necessarily be on the likes of LinkedIn, Indeed and TotalJobs.

Using content created from this initial outreach, the team was able to leverage the power of LinkedIn storytelling and highly engaging social posts to attract an overwhelming level of interest. In total, the opportunity received over 200 applications in just 1 week. This outreach was picked up by creative career app, Eric, which also saw a high level of interest come through by direct email application.

The team individually screened each candidate and then made an initial shortlist for Teams meetings and a deeper dive into skills and experience. With this, the team supported 30 candidates with full CV and creative portfolio reviews where necessary, with all 30 making applications for the internships.

Following CV review meetings with the Emerald hiring managers, where the team talked through each candidate in great detail to explain their background, circumstances and motivations for applying, 15 candidates were shortlisted by Emerald for interview. Once selected, each candidate received 1-2-1 interview preparation with someone from the Radical team to ensure that they were able to best represent themselves during the interview process.

The feedback from Emerald was nothing short of astounding; of 15 candidates, 13 were said to be hireable, with Emerald having an incredibly difficult decision to make for each internship.

Of the 30 candidates submitted:

• Nearly one-third were ESOL speakers
• 80% were global majority candidates
• Two thirds were global majority candidates under the age of 30
• 13% identified as being neurodivergent or having a disability
• None had any publishing related education or qualifications
• More than 10% were long-term unemployed
• 10% were members of the LGBTQIA+ community

Three candidates were hired as interns. All three were global majority candidates under the age of 30, with two being ESOL speakers. None had any publishing related education and only one had any education related to the internship they were hired onto.

Each intern was provided with a mentor from the Radical community; a professional working in a field relevant to the role they were doing, who checks in with them weekly to ensure a wrap-around support service that continues to provide in-work, post-placement support to ensure the success of each intern.

The Emerald team were delighted by the quality of the candidates provided and the feedback from candidates has also been excellent, with many citing B-Radical’s approach as a breath of fresh air and a real door-opener for those who otherwise would not have had the opportunity to interview for such programmes.

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