In a bid to improve diversity, RPC will now take into account whether its job candidates qualified for free school meals.
The firm has signed up for a social mobility tool called the Contextual Recruitment System, invented by graduate diversity company Rare. CRS consists of an algorithm which uses 13 data points including candidates' postcodes, their school A-Level and GCSE results and their eligibility for free school meals, to identify whether they have disadvantaged economic backgrounds or difficult personal circumstances.
Plugging in the details of applicants who have just missed the required grades for a training contract or vac scheme (ABB rather than AAB, for example) may reveal, for example, that they attended a notoriously poor school but vastly outperformed their peer group. Or it might identify that candidates have no bells and whistles on their CVs because they grew up in relative poverty and spent every spare moment working at Burger King. Rare says that providing the extra context will enable firms to recognise high calibre candidates irrespective of their background, and who may otherwise have been overlooked.
The tool has been adopted by several large firms including the whole Magic Circle, Ashurst, Herbert Smith Freehills, Hogan Lovells, Latham & Watkins, Macfarlanes, Norton Rose Fulbright, Travers Smith and White & Case. However the Managing Director of Rare, Raphael Mokades, told RollOnFriday that the call from mid-sized RPC was particularly significant. "It shows that the system is right for firms of any size that are really serious about getting the best people regardless of background", he said.
Simon Hart, RPC's graduate recruitment partner, said the system would “allow us to look far beyond what a more traditional recruitment process might be able to tell us about someone’s past achievements and future potential".
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The firm has signed up for a social mobility tool called the Contextual Recruitment System, invented by graduate diversity company Rare. CRS consists of an algorithm which uses 13 data points including candidates' postcodes, their school A-Level and GCSE results and their eligibility for free school meals, to identify whether they have disadvantaged economic backgrounds or difficult personal circumstances.
Plugging in the details of applicants who have just missed the required grades for a training contract or vac scheme (ABB rather than AAB, for example) may reveal, for example, that they attended a notoriously poor school but vastly outperformed their peer group. Or it might identify that candidates have no bells and whistles on their CVs because they grew up in relative poverty and spent every spare moment working at Burger King. Rare says that providing the extra context will enable firms to recognise high calibre candidates irrespective of their background, and who may otherwise have been overlooked.
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The tool has been adopted by several large firms including the whole Magic Circle, Ashurst, Herbert Smith Freehills, Hogan Lovells, Latham & Watkins, Macfarlanes, Norton Rose Fulbright, Travers Smith and White & Case. However the Managing Director of Rare, Raphael Mokades, told RollOnFriday that the call from mid-sized RPC was particularly significant. "It shows that the system is right for firms of any size that are really serious about getting the best people regardless of background", he said.
Simon Hart, RPC's graduate recruitment partner, said the system would “allow us to look far beyond what a more traditional recruitment process might be able to tell us about someone’s past achievements and future potential".
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