Member Article

Carling brewer to scrap CVs for job interviews

Jobseekers will no longer be asked to provide a CV when applying for certain roles at the brewer of major beer brands including Carling, Coors and Madrí Excepcional.

Molson Coors Beverage Company, one of the largest suppliers of beer to the UK hospitality sector will no longer require candidates to provide details such as level of education and prior experience for a range of roles including in its HR division and on-trade sales and technical services teams, a department of over 500 people.

The brewer, which employs more than 2,000 people in the UK, said it wanted to recruit people for these roles based solely on potential, rather on specific competencies, to make the recruitment process more inclusive and encourage a more diverse range of people to apply.

Applicants for these roles will undergo a task-based psychometric assessment, developed in partnership with assessment specialists Arctic Shores, which detect natural aptitude for a role and neuroscientific behavioural assessments that chart psychological traits and model how a person will react in different situations.

Founded in 2014, Arctic Shores is a market leader in hiring for potential and soft skills. At a time when organisations across the world are facing an acute skills crisis – elevated by the launch of ChatGPT and other generative AI models – the need to assess for potential and soft skills has never been greater.

Phil Whitehead, Managing Director for Western Europe at Molson Coors Beverage Company, said: “CVs simply aren’t necessary for all job roles. They encourage recruiters to focus on details, like the school or university someone went to, that don’t really speak to the person’s true potential. This increases the chances of unconscious bias creeping into the selection process and disadvantages those who didn’t get the opportunity to attend a great school or access internships and work experience.

“We believe in finding people who are the right fit for our business that demonstrate the raw talent, drive and inclusive values that we look for. It’s then up to us to provide them with the training and support they need to reach their full potential.”

The approach launches alongside Molson Coors agreeing a new partnership with Bridge of Hope Careers, a recruitment portal that connects businesses with applicants from less advantaged backgrounds.

Phil Whitehead added: “We’re striving to be a truly inclusive employer. To do that, we must be constantly looking for new ways to remove barriers that prevent people with lots to offer getting into good jobs, when all they need is the right support. There are busloads of talented people out there – it’s our responsibility as employers to go out and find them.”

Molson Coors has already introduced a number of progressive recruitment initiatives as part of its inclusive hiring approach. This includes ensuring an equal number of men and women are shortlisted for roles, and a new pilot across its IT, Sales and Supply Chain teams of sharing interview questions with candidates in advance to accommodate people with learning disabilities or those who have neurodivergent characteristics. After the pilot concludes, the intention is to roll this approach out across the entire UK business.
The brewer has also partnered with Working Mums & Dads to help improve support for parents returning to work.

In 2019, the company launched ‘Life leave’ in the UK, giving employees an extra two weeks of annual leave they can use for significant life moments like moving house or helping a new pet to settle.

One of the first people to benefit from the new CV-less application process was Hannah Butler, who has just joined the HR team as a Junior Talent Acquisition Consultant from a technical services background.

Hannah said: “It can be quite off-putting when you see some roles that ask for a certain number of years’ experience or qualifications. It’s frustrating too when you know you’d be great at a job but aren’t able to tick certain boxes on the application.

“Taking away some of those requirements gave me the confidence to apply and a belief that I really could get the job. It makes a real difference and I hope it will give others like me the same confidence to apply for a role at Molson Coors.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Lucy Jefferson .