Personnel Today Awards 2015
Merlin Entertainments plc
About the organisation
Merlin Entertainments is the largest European entertainments company operating in Europe. Merlin runs 110 attractions in 23 countries across four continents. Itsstrategy is to create a high-growth, high-return, family entertainment company based on strong brands and a portfolio that is naturally balanced against the impact of external factors.
The challenge
As Merlin rapidly expands across the globe, top talent is required to support the ever-growing business. Over the next five years, more than 5,000 employees will need to be recruited to join their already established global team of 26,000 employees. Merlin aims to open between six and eight new attractions each year, and, as they expand into new markets, recruiting the right top talent gets tougher. Two pipelines that have been identified as challenging specialisms to recruit top talent for marketing and operations.
What the organisation did
Introduced “Accelerate”, an 18-month fast-track programme that provides a tailored development path that consists of three six-month placements across different attractions.
Implemented and upgraded stages of the recruitment/selection process to make sure it is keeping up to date with new technology and making sure it is using effective ways to recruit and engage with applicants.
Rolled out a newly integrated global video interview that contains 10 strength-based questions.
Redesigned the assessment stage of application process to a more strengths-based approach, in line with the video interview.
Monitored performance in placements by the graduate manager –every graduate has a personal development plan in each placement with set objectives.
Offered a mid-programme development event and final development event, consisting of bringing the global graduates together in the UK, for a fun-filled first week where they get inducted into the business.
Benefits and achievements
The effectiveness of these changes can already be seen at such stages as the video interview – there has been fantastic feedback from applicants about the ease of use and how interactive the interview is compared to a normal telephone interview.
Graduate manager Holly Foot has been involved with the Association of Graduate Recruiters a number of times and has featured in numerous articles touching on topics such as global graduate recruitment and the graduate selection process.
Programme helps support major talent pipelines globally across the business and succession planning, with a diverse range of graduates with international experience across different sectors and brands of Merlin.
To date, more than 100 graduates have joined the programme and 60% are in marketing or operational management positions across the globe.
The remaining 40% are high potentials and, within the next one or two years, will also be ready to step into a management position.