Smallwood Trust

"I’m a HR Consultant working on behalf of the Smallwood Trust, a women’s charity focused on helping women to overcome financial difficulties and improve their social and emotional wellbeing.

When Smallwood Trust were looking to hire a Programme Manager to work on their newly-launched Gendered Poverty Learning Programme, the leadership team were keen to ensure that the recruitment process was as equitable and accessible as it could possibly be, with a specific focus on reaching candidates from underrepresented groups, or those with lived experience of some of the issues that the programme – and the Trust as a whole – seeks to tackle.

I contacted B-Radical to see how they might be able to support with this integral piece of recruitment and was really pleased to learn that they had an offering which aimed to market the opportunity through dual-branded social media posts and LinkedIn job postings, as well as direct outreach to their existing network of over 1200 candidates and 2000 referral partner organisations nationwide. We knew that the organisations that B-Radical were connected with would be those who were working with the talent pools we were hoping to reach, so were confident that the calibre of candidate would be very good, at the same time as offering a diverse range of lived experience.

In addition to the marketing aspect of the offering, B-Radical offered a comprehensive candidate support package, meaning that any candidate who fell into one of the groups we’d highlighted would be eligible to receive additional support and guidance with not only their initial application – both cover letter and CV – but also with interview preparation and the facilitation of any conversations around reasonable adjustments.

We were simply blown away by the quality of the candidates we received, which was in excess of 50 in total. It was an incredibly difficult task to choose ten candidates to take forward to interview, with a number of those being applicants who were supported in their candidacy by B-Radical.

After a one-stage interview process, we were delighted to have offered the role to a truly exceptional candidate who demonstrated previous skills and experience in the areas we were looking for, as well as a keen desire to work towards better outcomes for women facing poverty. And that candidate came via the support process offered by B-Radical.

I have historically been generally mistrustful of recruitment agencies and don't think of them all that well. Holly and the process with B-Radical has changed my mind. I found her to be an absolute pleasure to work with; bright, responsive, caring and always followed up, even when I did not expect her to.

I would have no hesitation in recommending the team at B-Radical to any other organisation looking to reach untapped talent and run fully inclusive hiring processes and I have in fact already passed their details onto three of my other clients!"

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