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The traditional recruitment process is broken
You spend hours sifting through thousands of irrelevant applications, only to appoint someone to a position that looks, sounds, and acts like everyone else in the business.
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Systemic biases mean employers are missing out on a generation of brilliant talent.
Plus, the traditional recruitment process neglects candidate experience.
Ghosting after interviews, a lack of transparency, unclear selection processes, and missing information…it all chips away at candidate confidence, AND tarnishes your brand.
46% of new hires fail within 18 months. What if we flipped the script?
And prioritised finding the right person for a role, rather than someone who ticks boxes on an outdated checklist.
Skills can be taught. Attitude can’t.
Here at Pollen, we’re rehumanising recruitment by removing ALL barriers to entry, so growing companies can find their next star employee, and diverse candidates can kickstart an exciting and fulfilling career.
You're an ambitious business with BIG plans
You need ambitious talent to get you there.
You’re sick of the time suck that is traditional recruitment, and splashing cash on recruiters with large candidate quotas to fill.
You think great company culture isn’t just a nice idea: it's non-negotiable.
You’re committed to attracting more diverse talent to your company and are open to new ideas on how to do it.
Sound familiar? Then we could be a perfect fit.
WE'RE PROUD TO PARTNER WITH COMPANIES LIKE:
Remove the pain from the recruitment process
HIRE FAST
With Pollen, you can fill your next entry-level position 4x faster than with standard job boards, and avoid spending weeks screening hundreds of irrelevant and low-quality candidates.
HIRE SMART
Our assessment-based process 100% guarantees you will only speak to exceptional candidates with the skills you need - saving you thousands in recruitment costs as you hire right, first time.
HIRE FAIR
Our inclusive, data-led approach introduces you to candidates from all backgrounds, who typically face barriers due to factors like ethnicity, disability, or neurodiversity.
Hire on potential, not privilege
44%
17%
12%
21%
42%
of our community identify as Black, Asian and other ethnically diverse people
of our community do not have a university degree
of our community have a disability
of our community are part of the LGBTQIA+ community
of our community have been looking for a job for over 6 months
We're on a mission to transform the entry-level job market
It's time to make careers more accessible, inclusive and equitable.
We believe candidates deserve a productive application experience - and that’s exactly what we provide for our community of over 5000 (and growing!) exceptional job seekers.
By giving young candidates the support, skills, and opportunities they need to thrive, and working with businesses who want to access a diverse pool of talent ready to make an impact…
…We create a sustainable future of work where candidates AND businesses can thrive.
Let's talk about CVs...
Specifically, what’s wrong with them.
On average recruiters spend 7.4 seconds looking at a CV
CVs with white British sounding names are 50% more likely to progress over identical CVs
55% of people have admitted to lying on their CV
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We've been conditioned to believe that CVs prove our worth. But all they are is a hypothesis.
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CVs hold back diversity in business and make hiring less effective. Instead of finding the right fit for your organisation, high-potential candidates are locked out of the recruitment process based on factors that aren’t relevant to the role in the first place.
Our solution minimises bias and matches your team with values-aligned talent from less traditional backgrounds who have already proven their potential.
Let’s face it, they’re a bit boring too!
Hire with Pollen
Want to work with us?
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Here's the lowdown:
Contact
We have an in-depth chat to get to know your business; your culture, values, and role(s) you want to fill.
If we’re a good fit, we take your job description and transform it into…
Assessment
Instead of starting with CV screening, we jump straight in with a bespoke assessment, with no requirements for who can or can’t apply.
This means you immediately choose to hire on skill, rather than background, level of education, or previous experience.
Plus, everyone who applies will get feedback on their application, so they know how to make improvements for next time.
Shortlist
We don’t bombard you with poor-match candidates to fill a quota.
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At most, you will receive five profiles of the top-matching candidates, all standardised and humanised to minimise bias and build connection.
Interview
Profiles at hand, you conduct the final interviews - giving us feedback on every candidate so we can build their confidence, even if they don’t get the role.
Celebrate!
You’ve secured your next star employee!
Our "right fit" framework
COMPETENCY
VALUES
SOFT SKILLS
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AS FEATURED IN
“We found Pollen's approach unique, refreshing and most importantly, very efficient when searching for new starters to our industry. Their selection process saved us time and we had every confidence in their neutrality. The candidates they sent us were of the highest quality and well matched to our business and I am happy we employed one of them. Pollen is now our go-to for career starters.”
Dan Pimm, Co-Founder at december19
"We loved Pollen's approach ​to talent identification and ​found that their approach ​and values were really ​closely to our own as a ​charity focussed on ​breaking down barriers. The ​team at Pollen worked ​swiftly and were such a ​pleasure to deal with - and ​importantly found us a ​fantastic candidate in an ​area we've previously ​struggled to recruit in! Thank ​you Team Pollen!"
Hannah Padfield, Head of People & Culture at IntoUniversity
“Working with Pollen Careers ​has been an absolute joy! I ​have previously been involved ​in recruiting for hundreds of ​roles, far too many to count, ​and the process with Pollen ​has been by far the most ​effective, and enjoyable. All of the candidates were not only appointable but were incredible! Pollen clearly and quickly understood what we wanted in a candidate, drawing out our clear prioritises with ease. Within a week of that initial conversation we were sent profiles of potential candidates. The profile, different to a normal CV, was so simple, easy to read and yet gave us everything we would have asked for. ”
Laura Littlehales, CEO at MyBigCareer
"I couldn’t recommend Pollen ​more highly. My recent ​experience working with ​them, and interacting with ​members of their ​community, was without ​question the best experience ​I’ve had in a recruitment ​process for as long as I can ​remember."
David Graham, Head of Customer Success at Mobsta
“Working with Pollen was a breath of fresh air. They took all the admin, stress and time involved in the early stages of recruiting away, giving us a shortlist of great candidates ideally suited to both the role and our business. They worked closely with us to really understand the type of business we are, our core values and the type of candidate that would flourish in our working environment. Being such a small business as we are, this was invaluable and enabled us to focus on the day to day business until the final stages. We will certainly be using them for all future recruits.”
James Dickens, Founder at Performalytics
“Pollen... a refreshing approach to recruitment. Pollen allows recruitment within HPS to be much more rewarding. Their process is efficient but also unique, allowing employers to connect to prospective candidates on a more personal level. HPS have found that all interviewees proposed by Pollen to be an incredible cultural match, as well as carrying the competence to deliver their job role to the highest standard. Pollen is a prime example of how the world of recruitment should be: open, honest, welcoming, and innovative.”
Adam Hart, Managing Director at HPS
"We've all really enjoyed the ​CV-less and inclusive hiring ​process. As a brand our ​values of being pioneering ​and for all are really important ​and in Pollen we've found a ​great match of a recruitment ​partner. Coupled with it being ​a really effective, fun and ​seamless process that ​resulted in a great hire for us. We will definitely work with ​Team Pollen again."
Katie Dolby, Managing Director at Cubitts
"I used Pollen to recruit with ​someone to assist ​production and guest ​bookings at Jimmy's Jobs of ​the Future. The process and ​list of candidates was so ​good that we ended up ​taking two people on. I ​would highly recommend to ​people looking to diversify ​their talent acquisition away ​from generic Job Ad."
Jimmy McLoughlin, Founder at Jimmy's Jobs of the Future
Work With Pollen
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APPLY TO BECOME AN EMPLOYER PARTNER
Work with our team to find your next star employee. We’ll guide you through the hiring process and partner with you to find the best match and give every candidate a positive application experience.
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