Your experience as a candidate is really important to us. That’s why we’re open and transparent about how we recruit at Guinness and work hard to ensure it’s a simple and smooth recruitment process for all.
Application
The application process may vary slightly depending on the role you’re applying for, but we always strive to make it easy to submit your application while making sure we receive the information needed to complete our shortlisting.
Generally, we will ask you for the following information:
Personal Details – Your name, contact information and how you heard about the role.
Personal Statement – We know that a CV doesn’t always tell us everything, so before you upload your CV, this section presents you with an opportunity to tell us a little bit more about yourself, why you’re interested in the role and how you meet the essential criteria.
CV – Here you can upload a word or PDF version of your CV which should include your career history and most up to date list of education/qualifications.
Equality & Diversity Form – To ensure we’re able to monitor the success of our employment programmes in respect to Diversity, we kindly ask our candidates to provide information about their ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, religion/belief, marital status, age and any disabilities. Providing this information is entirely voluntary and there is an option not to disclose should you not wish to. The information you provide is protected and remains confidential throughout the recruitment process. We will ,not share the information you provide with our hiring managers and the data will be used as anonymised statistics for monitoring purposes.
If you’d like some tips & guidance about writing a CV or personal statement, please click on the following link: ‘Tips & Guidance – Writing a CV and Personal Statement’
Shortlisting
When you apply for a job at Guinness, your application will be reviewed by the recruitment team and the hiring manager in a process called ‘shortlisting’. The shortlisting process is where all applications received for a role are considered against the essential criteria to confirm which fully evidence how they meet the requirements and will therefore be progressed to interview stage.
If there are too many candidates who meet the essential criteria, we may need to complete a further shortlisting exercise to determine which candidates also meet the desirable criteria. Desirable criteria can also be found on the role profile and are often things like previous experience, specific system experience and previous experience in the same/similar role.
Because of this process, it’s important you tailor your CV to the job you’re applying for – making sure you have included detailed evidence of how you meet the essential and, where possible, the desirable criteria.
If you are successful at shortlisting, you will be invited to attend an interview. If you are unsuccessful, we will e-mail you to let you know.
Interviewing
There are several different types of interview at Guinness. Which one/s you will be asked to attend will depend on the job you’ve applied for and what skills we need to assess. All interviews at Guinness will consist of at least two parts. This means that you will be asked to complete at least one assessment in addition to an interview or attend at least two stages of interview. For face to face, live video interviews and assessment centres, there will be two interview panel members. Where possible, the interview panel will be diverse.
- Telephone/pre-recorded Video Interview – these interviews are generally used early in the application process to filter large numbers of applicants down to a more manageable number. This may be because there were too many applications that met the criteria and we need a fair way to shortlist applications down further. These interviews usually last between 15 minutes to half an hour where you will be asked around 4-5 questions.
For telephone interviews, you will speak directly with a member of the recruitment team or the hiring manager. For pre-recorded video interviews, you will be sent a link to the video interview, be presented with several questions and asked to manually record/video your response. Your recorded responses will then be sent to the hiring manager to review.
If you’re successful at telephone or pre-recorded video interview, you’ll typically be invited to a face-to-face interview or assessment centre.
- Face-to face Interview – you’ll be asked to attend an office and answer several questions by the interview panel. Face-to-face interviews usually last between 45 minutes and two hours and may be preceded or followed by tests and exercises. The questions may be behavioral based or competency-based.
- Live Video Interview – these are becoming increasingly popular and especially for roles where you may be working remotely. A live video interview is used instead of a face to face interview. The interview will be conducted in the same way as a face to face, the only difference is that you will be speaking over camera rather than be in the same room with your interviewers. Again, a live video interview may be preceded or followed by additional tests/exercises which you will be asked to complete within a certain timeframe.
- Assessment Centre – generally run over the course of one day or sometimes just a few hours. You will be given the chance to show how you tackle work related activities and objectives, and may be asked to complete group exercises with other candidates.
There will be various tasks that test key requirements such as group work and leadership skills and you will have the opportunity to demonstrate your capabilities across various assessments instead of just relying on a face to face interview.
You may be assessed by different people throughout the day and you’ll be scored against a list of competencies across a number of exercises – including a face to face interview.
Assessment centres also give you the opportunity to see if this is the right job for you.
Your interview and your tests/exercises/assessment centre will be scored by the interview panel and given an overall score. Your results will then be added together and considered against a minimum benchmark score. Anyone who achieves/surpasses the minimum benchmark will be considered as being suitable for the job. However, the candidate who scores the highest overall and has also met/surpassed the benchmark will be offered the role.
For more information about the types of assessments we use at Guinness and/or interview tips and guidance, please click on the following link: ‘Interviewing at Guinness’
Diversity & Inclusion
In accordance with our policy on Equality, Diversity and Inclusion, The Guinness Partnership will provide equal opportunities to any employee or job applicant and will not discriminate either directly or indirectly because of race, gender, sexual orientation, transgender status, religion or belief, marital or civil partnership status, age, disability or pregnancy and maternity as per the Equality Act 2010.
We believe that great ideas and the best business solutions come from bringing together a wide range of perspectives, and that by harnessing diverse viewpoints and talents we will do more for our customers and the communities we work in. We recognise that it is our people who deliver our vision and ambitions for our organisation, so being an inclusive employer and creating a culture where you feel you belong, can be yourself, and can share your views and ideas, is fundamental to our Guinness 2023 Strategy.
We work hard to ensure that our recruitment process is inclusive, free from bias and inspires success for diverse applicants.
You can read our Diversity & Inclusion Strategy here.
You can read our anti-racism statement here.
Disability Confident Leader
Guinness is proud to be an inclusive employer and we were awarded Disability Confident ‘Leader’ status in September 2017.
The status recognises us for our top level commitment to supporting and accommodating colleagues to flourish at work who may be navigating poor health, disability or who have experienced an accident or injury. It also recognises us for supporting applicants and accommodating requirements throughout our recruitment processes – promoting disability confidence within our shortlisting decisions and interviews. We also support our supply chain partners to achieve their disability confident status.