Latest update as I know a few members on here have applied.
Last week, we announced that we needed to recruit 1,600 new Openreach engineers. Wondering how we got on? Well, amazingly, we received over 12,000 new CVs in the space of five days! A good number of those were family and friends that you think would love to work at Openreach. So I wanted to say a massive thank you for taking the time to get them to apply.
Now we’ve got so many candidates to consider, I want to be clear on how our process will work. We have everything crossed that some of your friends and family will join us in Openreach – but obviously the numbers make the competition more fierce than ever. I therefore wanted to bring you up to speed on two ways we are working differently this year.
Firstly, in terms of getting CVs into our recruitment process. Before last week, we asked you to point applicants to one of our email addresses. While the volumes were relatively small we could manage those inboxes – although it’s fair to say we weren’t always very quick at responses. Now we need to automate our process, not only so we get those candidates into the process more quickly but also so that we can address your major gripe – that we don’t acknowledge people quickly enough or keep them briefed on where they are or what’s happening.
It would be really helpful if you could now point people who are interested to the BT PLC site to apply for one of our jobs instead of using one of the old inboxes. In return, we’ll commit that they’ll get an instant acknowledgement that we have their CV, and that within two weeks they’ll know whether they have made it past the sift process and will be invited to complete an online assessment. Applications already sent will be processed, but from now on please encourage folks to use the new site if they are applying.
Secondly, what happens once we have their CV? A number of you have asked why we now do an online assessment. Lots of you will have joined Openreach without taking one and it feels odd to you to have to do this when people don’t always need engineering experience to make a brilliant contribution to our teams.
We know it’s a change – but it’s genuinely for good reason. We have to make sure that we recruit absolutely the best people into our business, to work alongside you all and deliver the excellent customer service we are striving for. So what we’ve introduced is an industry-standard online assessment consisting of a mechanical comprehension test and a questionnaire which lets us understand how much people are likely to enjoy working with our customers and on our network – something used by top companies and by other parts of BT Group. The assessment isn’t about how good or bad someone is, it’s about assessing their aptitude for the job and how they might relate to our customers, to you as part of your team and to Openreach. It has a scientific basis, as well as providing a good benchmark.
Not everyone will pass, and we know that will be a huge disappointment when you have recommended friends and family. But you can rest assured that everyone will be treated the same and those people that do pass will get the opportunity to showcase their abilities at an interview. And while we can’t guarantee a job, we will absolutely make sure everyone gets a fair crack.
