Stories to create a winning early careers programme

Making the candidate journey more inclusive at the British Library

With an incredible archive of national artefacts from every age of written civilisation, the British Library knows more than most about the power of storytelling.

So extending how they use stories to connect with people and bring knowledge to life in a memorable and inclusive way is a key part of their 50th anniversary vision. And this vision includes the employee experience, with attracting the very best apprentices a core part of their talent strategy.

When recruiting apprentices over the summer, the Early Careers team set out to make the candidate journey an inclusive experience for everyone applying to this iconic workplace.

Early careers candidates and apprentices are typically at the start of their careers. This means many don’t have the breadth of interview experience or specialist expertise to feel confident and equipped to flourish at different stages of the application process.

“StoryTagger made it easy to capture impactful videos to upskill candidates and open the curtains on what a brilliant experience it is to work at the British Library”

Gemma Lunn
Early Careers Specialist, The British Library

Storytelling to create a level playing field

To support inclusion, the British Library needed to create a level playing field for candidates and help them access information in more relatable, impactful ways. Rather than expecting everyone to read reems of text, they used StoryTagger to capture authentic, useful and concise insights and experiences on video. The Early Careers team recorded their own stories as well as reaching out to existing and past apprentices and managers.

Each employee-generated video gave the candidates a sense of what it’s like to work at the British Library and hear from people who could become their future colleagues.

These video stories brought knowledge to life:

• • • • Apprentices shared their experiences about what it’s like to learn on the job, the new skills they developed and the support they received.
      • Line managers introduced their team plus what it looks and feels like to work in their function.
      • Early careers team and existing colleagues shared valuable interview tips, what the British Library values mean to them and research pointers to help the candidates get ready for the next stage.

Impactful video content to enhance the recruitment process

The Early Careers team did a fantastic job at designing their campaign and successfully using the videos as vital resources in the ‘keep warm’ and support communications for candidates who had been accepted for interview. The team prepared ahead, giving managers three weeks to share their experiences on video whilst reinforcing the value these would add to key stages of the candidate journey.

StoryTagger enabled the team to efficiently curate ready-to-share videos without complicated workflows or the need for editing skills. In terms of impact, they were able to make both the resources and process more inclusive, helping all the candidates perform well in the later stages of their application. As a result, candidates were even better prepared and the interview quality and engagement was higher, leading to the recruitment of an excellent new cohort of apprentices.

See how stories can support your early careers programme or book a demo.