We’re excited to announce that the Bright Network team are winners of three prestigious awards this June! 

Bright Network took the winning spot for: 

1. Institute of Student Employers - Outstanding Employer and Supplier Recruitment Partnership with EY
2. Tiara Talent Tech Star Awards 2022 - Workplace Solution of the Year with EY
3. Tiara Talent Tech Star Awards 2022 - Learning Solution of the Year with Lloyds Banking Group 

At Bright Network, we are proud to be partnered with 300+ employers as we work towards our mission of building the workforce of tomorrow. By connecting employers to our 650,000+ student and graduate members, we are supporting and transforming the student recruitment process. Every day we are helping our partners improve diversity, transform and train their technology teams, boost employability and upskill their candidates in their hiring processes.

 

Institute of Student Employers Awards 2022

Outstanding Employer and Supplier Recruitment Partnership

The Outstanding Employer and Supplier Recruitment Partnership award recognises partnerships that ‘drive excellence, are innovative and make a highly valued contribution to the sourcing of emerging talent’.

In the partnership with EY, Bright Network:

• Increased the diversity among EY’s interns and graduates
• Provided a fast-track service for hard-to-reach talent
• Educated the market on roles that aren’t widely understood

The fast-track opportunity was an initiative to hire traditionally difficult to fill graduate vacancies in three streams across a six-week period. To ensure these objectives were achieved, Bright Network worked closely with EY and developed a strategy that focused on three key areas:

• Providing target marketing and attraction campaigns to female and BME members interested in assurance, technology and tax.
• Fast-track screen programme where candidates completed an application and interview before joining EY’s process.
• Coaching throughout the application to ensure candidates could put their best foot forward.

 Across our partnership to date, EY have received applications from:

• 63% female
• 77% BME
• 19% black heritage
• 26% regional applications

 

Tiara Talent Tech Star Awards 2022

Workforce Solution of the Year

Tiara’s Workforce Solution of the Year award recognises a solution that best enables improvements in talent acquisition, management and development for employers.

The submission required insight on our innovative approaches, how we deliver best service and our purpose beyond profit.

At Bright Network, our approach is to put candidates in the driving seat. To do this, we follow three components:

• Both candidates and companies are treated as individuals, with personalisation being key.
• With our diverse network, we use a data-led approach to create authentic, useful and impactful connections for underrepresented groups.
• Our real-time data tools empower our clients to see the impact and ROI of their campaigns.

In our partnership with EY, we shared insights on EY’s Empower Programme - a programme set up as a pathway for students from underrepresented backgrounds to be supported through EY’s application process.  

Of the 2,040 accepted applications:

• 60% were female
• 20% black heritage
• 50% from non-Russell Group universities
• 10% LGBTQ+
• 46% low socio-economic background indicators (inc. 19% free schools meals)
• 7% identified as disabled or having a long-term health condition

Judges praised Bright Network for a timely solution to upskill new talent and embed DE&I whilst also bringing its values to life, proving purpose beyond profit and innovating with data.

Learning Solution of the Year

Only 8.5% of technology leaders are from minority backgrounds in the UK, and just 25% of software engineers are female. 

The Learning Solution of the Year entry was an opportunity to be recognised for our learning technology that best enables employers to upskill candidates. We were proud to share insights of our work at Bright Network Technology Academy as we aim to address the UK’s digital skills shortage. 

Our trainee engineers are equipped during our expertly-designed 12-week technical bootcamp with the digital skills needed to make a difference. In our partnership with Lloyds Banking Group, 102 graduates have been placed in a technology role with 68% women, 13% black heritage and 82% from a minority ethnic background. 

Judges praised Bright Network for optimising its data to create a fair and equitable training and deployment solution for emerging talent – and a more diverse and inclusive solution for employers.

James Uffindell, Founder and CEO of Bright Network: 

“In our mission to build the workforce of tomorrow it’s absolutely fantastic to win not just one, but three, awards in one week! I am extremely proud of the team at Bright Network for winning these highly commended awards - what a great way to recognise the team’s continued impactful work with our clients, members and consultants. We remain passionate about championing social mobility and D&I in the workplace, and finding our clients and partners the brightest graduate talent"