Early Talent Advisor

Job Introduction

DAC Beachcroft are looking for an Early Talent Advisor to join our busy HR function. This is a new role based in our Learning & Development team, reporting to the Head of L&D and working closely with our Early Talent Lead and Early Talent Assistant. The role will be key in shaping the DACB employee experience by supporting attraction, selection and development activity for apprentices and graduates throughout the Early Talent lifecycle.

This is an exciting opportunity with scope to shape the role, and will involve working creatively on key strategic priorities that will make a real difference to our business. You will work with our Early Talent Lead, our Training Principal, and our Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Lead to design and deliver our Early Talent strategy. This will include taking a central role in building partnerships with third parties including schools, colleges and universities, and organisations such as Aspiring Solicitors.

Role Responsibility

Key responsibilities:

• Coordinate attraction and selection activity for DACB apprenticeship and graduate programmes designing underpinning assessment processes and working closely with stakeholders across the business
• Support work experience and internship initiatives including the upcoming 2022 cycle of the #10,000 Black Interns Programme
• Project manage DACB’s vacation schemes, assessment centres, and open days, including the content design of supporting materials and online collateral
• Design and facilitate Early Talent induction and onboarding activity
• Act as a primary point of contact for prospective and current Early Talent colleagues from attraction through to programme completion
• Work with Early Talent Lead, HR Business Partners and the business to analyse Early Talent needs and develop, co-ordinate and maintain Early Talent programmes to ensure internal talent pipelines are developed and provide a high calibre of Early Talent colleagues
• Work with internal SMEs and third party providers to evaluate the effectiveness of the Early Talent attraction, selection and development activity and provide input to continuously improve practices
• Develop relationships with external training suppliers and forums and work closely with our Training Principal, Early Talent Lead, and ED&I Lead to maintain professional working relationships with Aspiring Solicitors, BPP and other education providers
• Work with the Early Talent Lead and our Training Principal to continue to shape and develop our Early Talent pipeline and our DAC Beachcroft Talent Programmes
• Maintain networks and continuous professional development, keeping up to date with the latest approaches within Early Talent and updates within the legal industry
• Build on the foundations of the Early Talent brand at DACB and work closely with the corporate brand team and EVP programme.
• Contribute to the setting of the Early Talent marketing strategy including media, external activities, Early Talent attraction fairs and supporting communication plans
• Ownership of the data recording and tracking in order for evaluation and measurement of success rates and shaping of strategic decisions
• Support the management of Early Talent budget and Apprenticeship Levy fund

The Ideal Candidate

• Proven experience delivering recruitment and/or development initiatives in a similar context is essential (i.e. assessment or development centres / recruitment campaigns)
• A passion for championing diversity in law and a creative approach to seeking new and innovative ways to enhance attraction activity and continuously improve the Early Talent candidate and employee experience
• Self-motivated and able to work from strategic objectives
• A good understanding of the Apprenticeship Levy and Apprenticeship Standards
• Great communication skills, the ability to influence and engage colleagues and key stakeholders
• Enjoys working with a consultative and collaborative style and when sharing new ideas or new ways of working, they will make suggestions and take their colleagues with them on the journey
• Effective knowledge of recruitment with particular reference to attraction and selection industry standards and best practice
• Demonstrable evidence of successful delivery of Early Talent programmes as graduate and apprenticeship schemes
• Passionate about the importance of nurturing an continuous improvement culture and a role model of the behaviours that foster high levels of engagement
• Good planning skills/attention to detail/project management experience
• The ability to work with and understand bespoke systems quickly
• A good level of computer literacy and experience using recruitment and/or development systems (DACB use TribePad ATS and Cornerstone LXP)

About the Company

We are a leading international legal business with over 2,500 colleagues and a diverse range of capabilities. We have 11 offices in the UK as well as offices in Dublin, Madrid, Paris, Singapore, Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Miami. We also have associations/alliances with firms in Malaysia, Brazil, Peru, Argentina, Central America, the USA, Australia and Germany.

We are a broad-based commercial firm with a strong heritage in insurance, health and real estate. This is complemented by a fast-growing Business Advisory capability. We represent a wide range of clients, ranging from household names to government departments and NHS bodies. We act for all of the UK’s top-ten insurers, we are market leaders in the provision of strategic, commercial and regulatory advice to providers and commissioners in the health sector, and in real estate we advise all of the UK’s top-12 house builders.

We have an impressive legal pedigree, with 142 Chambers UK 2021 practice area and individual lawyer rankings. In Legal 500 UK 2021, the firm received a top tier ranking for 37 of its practice areas, and 58 DACB lawyers were singled out in the ‘Leading Individual' rankings.

Our successes have been recognised by the legal industry and the markets in which we operate. These accolades include two top prizes in the ‘Excellence in Business Development’ and ‘Excellence in Technology & Innovation’ categories of the 2020 Law Society Excellence Awards – the highest accolade for law firms in England & Wales. Our health sector team won the ‘Crisis Management Team of the Year’ award at the 2020 British Legal Awards for its support to the NHS at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, and our Cyber & Data Risk team received the ‘Business Development Innovation Award’ at the 2020 Legal Innovation Awards, as well as ‘Cyber Law Firm of the Year’ at the prestigious Insurance Insider Cyber Rankings Awards, for its market-leading suite of digital tools to help our clients prepare for and respond to cyber and data risk crises.

Our vision is to be leading business advisers, recognised for our insight and our outstanding commitment to clients, and for being the place where talented people want to work. For further details on our work and our culture, please visit www.dacbeachcroft.com.

Team Information:

The HR function comprises circa. 50 team members across specialist functions including Service Desk, Recruitment, Reward, Employee Relations, Learning & Development and HR Business Partnering.

The DACB trainee solicitor programme won the ‘Outstanding Training Innovation’ award at Legal Week’s 2021 Legal Innovation Awards and we have high ambitions to continue to grow our Early Talent flagship programmes to create an unparalleled experience across the legal sector for our colleagues.

DAC Beachcroft