The organisation
Wincanton is a supply chain partner that works with British businesses and public bodies to provide logistics around the globe. It offers a range of services from transport management and optimisation, to handling and distribution.
The problem
Like other companies in the sector, Wincanton faces an ongoing issue with logistics being perceived as a pale, male and stale career pathway, especially by younger generations. The company has, until now, had a predominantly male workforce and an ageing population.
Wincanton’s leaders are always seeking new ways of working to adapt to the changing industry. In 2017, they realised that the company needed to attract a more diverse talent pool into the workforce to do so.
Read more: UK firms' recruitment strategies fail to diversify workforce
In 2022, its early talent programme applicants were mostly male, with an 80 to 20 male to female ratio. “This industry seemed to be far more attractive to males than females, because we and others weren’t doing enough to position the opportunities and how dynamic some of the roles are that we have within this industry,” reflects Michael Hardy, group talent and development director.
“Our work is seen as fairly labour-intense, and not very technology-driven. But of course, that’s not true.”
Wincanton needed to fix its PR problem if it was to be attractive to the best and brightest future talent. “It was identified that we need to do more to bring in more diverse talent into the business, and balance the ageing population and profile we had,” Hardy says. “Part of that involved thinking about how we encourage younger talent into an industry that isn’t necessarily seen as being particularly glamorous, high-tech or exciting.”
The method
Wincanton introduced an early careers strategy across several years. The business’ leaders started by going down the classic route of introducing a graduate programme and a one-year placement scheme in 2017, followed by degree apprenticeships for supply chain management in 2019.
In 2021, however, the business experienced a talent shortage of drivers, and had to innovate to attract talent. “We had to pivot to look at a future drivers programme that would bring in people to help combat the driver shortage,” Hardy says. Wincanton previously had an ageing driver workforce, so it targeted these efforts towards people under the age of 34.
Hardy’s team then began to look at how they could apply this approach throughout the business. “We then started to ask how we attract younger talent before college, at school age,” he says.
In 2021, they introduced the Cygnet programme, which brought school students between the ages of 16 and 18 into the business for part-time work, to give them exposure to the industry. “The programme was born out of a fairly small trial,” Hardy remembers.
“It started by going out to some of our internal colleagues who have children at school age that wanted some work experience, and offering them the opportunity to come to work, with some proper structure and support.” The trial was then rolled out across multiple sites, to encourage 16-to-18-year-olds to work for Wincanton, around their studies. The Cygnet programme has now had 66 participants.
Alongside these placements, Wincanton introduced one-year placement programmes for ‘sandwich students’, university students whose course requires them to complete a relevant industry work placement. The programme encouraged people on degree courses who might have an interest in working in the supply chain sector, to apply for roles at the company and gain hands-on experience.
On top of all this, Wincanton established a dedicated early careers team in 2022, to generate interest in the sector. The team worked on formalising the firm’s original early careers offerings.
The degree apprenticeship programme was reformed to provide different pathways in supply chain, finance, or digital and tech. This was supported by a development programme to allow cohorts the chance to earn while they learned on the job.
The new early careers team also lowered entry criteria from 2:1 to a 2:2 degree class for new applicants, to broaden the potential talent pool. Additionally, they backed Generation Logistics, an industry-led, government-backed campaign that aims to nurture the next generation of logistics talent.
“We’re a gold sponsor for Generation Logistics and we’re pretty proactive in supporting them and the work they’re doing to encourage people into the sector,” Hardy explains. He also noted that Wincanton has increased its virtual and physical presence at colleges and universities, completing 53 educational visits between 2023 and 2024.
“We are doing a lot more work to encourage people to come and apply for our graduate scheme,” he describes. “My team and wider members of Wincanton do quite a bit of guest speaking at schools, colleges and educational institutions.”
This involves showcasing that the industry is moving “more and more into the digital and technology age”, Hardy explains. “The opportunity to get involved in some really innovative, technology-driven work within the supply chain is pretty vast, and it will continue to grow.”
The result
Investing in new programmes and raising the profile of careers in the logistics industry has revolutionised Wincanton’s recruitment of early years talent. Since launching its Future Drivers programme in 2017, Wincanton has onboarded 354 new drivers, 56% of which are under the age of 34; 13% are under 24 years of age.
Of the 66 participants in the Cygnet programme, around 25% have transferred into full-time employment at the company. Further, 7% of those participants have gone into full-time apprenticeship programmes.
Read more: New apprenticeship rules aim to remove barriers into the workforce
Wincanton saw a huge 292% increase in graduate applications between 2022 and 2024, and a 193% increase in placement applications since 2022. Nearly half (48%) of those placement students returned to work at Wincanton as either a graduate or a direct applicant. Applications from people under 24 rose by 33% between January 2021 and July 2024.
Thanks to the influx of a new, younger and more diverse range of staff, the company now has a 52 to 48 female to male ratio for people under 24. The number of applicants from a minority ethnic background has also increased from 27% in 2022 to 43% in 2024.
But the company’s focus on early careers recruitment doesn’t stop there, Hardy notes. Instead, the strategy is embedded into Wincanton’s broader talent strategy. “It’s not just a nice-to-do,” he comments, “it’s an absolute essential for us, and it’s something we get excited about internally because we see some fantastic individuals coming through our programme.
“We know it’s going to give us every opportunity to continue to innovate in the future, if we’ve got new talent in our business. Working alongside our existing experience makes for a much more balanced approach.”
This article was published in the January/February 2025 edition of HR magazine.
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