Every year, Sony Music hosts its A&R Academy talent scout search — an annual graduate recruitment drive aimed at finding the best and brightest music talent scouts out there.
The company found that while candidates applying for the role may have shared an impressive passion for music, differentiating those who would actually make a good talent scout from those who just wanted a fun opportunity to travel around the country was nearly impossible — especially with just a paper CV to reference.
Sony Music knew it needed to establish additional protocol to make sure it was identifying candidates that possessed the right culture fit, commitment, music taste, and personality required to work in a relatively cutthroat industry.
Sony Music approached LaunchPad Recruits to help them implement a more multimedia-focussed approach to recruitment, which would help them determine whether a candidate merely enjoyed listening to good music or if they might actually be able to find the next big thing.
The first step in creating a more streamlined process was to invite eight universities to put forward a limited number of highly-qualified candidates. Those shortlisted candidates were all invited to apply via LaunchPad by uploading their CV, answering four video questions based on music, and uploading three of their favourite music tracks with their application.
Those who most successfully completed the video interview process were invited to an assessment centre so that a final decision could be made in a face-to-face environment.
With LaunchPad’s help, Sony Music significantly reduced the initial number of applications, relieving HR staff from sifting through paper CVs and improving the calibre, and suitability of each candidate for the role. Those who actually completed the application proved their commitment to the position and brand, as the process was more complicated than simply emailing a CV to a recruiter.
In total, 150 candidates from the eight universities were invited to interview via LaunchPad Recruits. 96 of those candidates completed the application process, and after a select few were invited to the Assessment Centre, four offers were made.
Implementing this specialised process made it far less time-consuming to screen all of the applicants on paper, and also ensured buy-in from the whole of Sony Music — including the chairman, who presented the initial video introduction, and other senior board members, who recorded the questions. This carefully designed, individualised process helped Sony Music find the perfect candidates for the job, saving them huge amounts of time and energy that would have otherwise been spent sifting through CVs.
