Frequently asked questions

We’ve taken the pain out of juggling postings on multiple jobs boards, but we're not sourcing candidates in the same way a typical recruiter might. We already have a growing community of thousands of job seekers, who join Pollen to access resources, guidance and ongoing support, in addition to job opportunities with employers that adopt fair hiring practices.

Our solution helps you to find quality, well-suited talent in a fair and unbiased way. There’s no more filtering through serial appliers – with Pollen you’re only reaching people who have completed a behavioural assessment, have proven they have the skills for the role you need to fill, and are well prepared to hit the ground running from day one.

We believe the traditional methods of finding a job unfairly expect young people to know what they want to do and how to go about finding opportunities in that field. Academic and experience criteria can be excessive, ineffective, and very often it favours privilege. In turn you lose out on amazing diverse talent who could thrive in your business.

Our approach is more accessible and inclusive, giving job seekers the tools they need to find the career that’s right for them, and assessing them in ways that get you the best match.

Our inclusive platform welcomes anyone looking for entry-level positions: school leavers, graduates and career-changers. Before they join our community, candidates take a sign-up quiz designed to understand where their strengths lie, what they enjoy doing and the types of roles they may be suited to.

When we launch a job, we invite community members to complete a fun "skills challenge", designed to reflect the day to day responsibilities of the job. Not only does this provide evidence that they have potential to succeed in the role, but it acts as a diagnostic tool for job seekers while exploring different career paths. We find that this opens up a whole new talent pool who may have never heard of your industry or realised they would be well suited to your role.

But it's not just about competency, we also score candidates on other criteria such as communication, proactivity and engagement - as well as their behavioural strengths. We want to identify people who are genuinely keen, will be fast learners, and are a good match for your team's needs.

We don't screen on information like academic background or work experience history, as this can poorly influence decision making and disadvantage high potential candidates.

There are two stages to our process: a behavioural quiz designed to understand a candidate’s qualities, strengths and motivations, and a skills challenge designed to give applicants a better flavour of what it’s like to do the job, while giving employers evidence of their capabilities.

We have a bank of different challenges, from operations and analytics to fundraising and marketing. We also create bespoke assessments according to each role. We mark all of the assessments so you’re only getting matched with pre-screened candidates.

Those that don't make it to the shortlist are given feedback by Pollen to set them up for success for next time.

We invite suitable candidates to take part in a skills challenge that gives them a flavour of what it's like to do that job.

For young job seekers, job specs can be like a whole new language, so the challenge is designed to help them better understand what the job is really like. If they hate doing it, at least they know sooner rather than later!

Skills challenges also allow candidates to prove their skills, providing evidence that they're a good fit for the job. They receive immediate feedback on how they did, meaning no effort on your part to design or mark assessments.

We have skills challenges across a range of categories, from marketing and data, to sales and project management. We can also create a bespoke skills challenge with you if you have something in mind already.

We typically expect candidates to spend 30-90 minutes on their challenge. Their submission will also be shared with you as part of the candidate profile when you're sent the shortlist.

Our behavioural assessment is an adaptation of a colour-based model.

There have been several models of colour-based behavioural assessments developed by different individuals and organisations over the last century. These models use colour to represent different behavioural traits, and can be used to assess individual behaviour and communication styles, making for more effective team dynamics and hiring decisions.

Insights from behavioural profiling are used to highlight the shortlisted applicants' strengths and characteristics. It's important to note that these insights do not influence the shortlisting process itself.

Once they sign up, job seekers get access to our community space where we post new jobs, share resources and meet lots of like-minded individuals sharing their experiences too. We have loads of stuff to help our community, like a mentor directory, a podcast, a newsletter and more!

In addition to these resources, one of the biggest benefits for candidates using Pollen is the hiring process itself. We believe one of the major barriers to young people securing a job is slow, complicated and ghostly recruitment practices. Their experience with us is positive throughout, even if they don't get the job.

By working with us, you get access not only to a community of amazing talent, but a unique candidate experience that reflects positively on your employer brand. Our platform improves the whole process for candidates and employers alike.

By using Pollen and gaining back time you otherwise would have spent screening and scheduling, we ask you to commit to efficient processes, timely updates and constructive feedback too.

The main requirement of the companies we work with is that they share our values and will therefore commit to our fair hiring standards. By using our platform, our hiring partners are committed to a people-first approach and must truly offer a nurturing, supportive working environment for the candidates that are placed.

We are big supporters of small and medium-sized employers using our platform. Collectively, they make up the majority of private sector employment in the UK. We believe one of the obstacles to an effective entry-level employment system is a lack of exposure to these businesses – who all want great people too. This isn’t a sustainable employment model, with the majority of job seekers fighting for the same jobs with more established employer brands. We want to champion the companies who might lack this exposure, but can still offer amazing job opportunities.

As a profit-for-good business, we’re especially committed to making our platform accessible to start-ups, non-profits, social enterprises, sustainable businesses and B Corps.

You can get started by applying to use Pollen here, and we’ll discuss more in our introductory call.

All of the roles that we promote through Pollen are exclusively entry-level. This encompasses permanent positions, temps, or paid internships.

We believe that fair pay and fair expectations are fundamental to removing the threats faced by young people today. Therefore we will not promote a role that requires relevant experience or is below our minimum salary requirements.

Please note that we are not an apprenticeship broker so you would need to have the necessary employment arrangements in place if you would like to hire an apprentice. You can find out more here.

We can recommend companies who specialise in this area, just get in touch if you’d like to find out more. You can reach us on hello@pollencareers.co.uk.

We also promote roles across a variety of industries - basically anything that doesn't require relevant experience or specialist qualifications, and where entry-level talent can learn on the job.

Our platform is free for job seekers.

For employers, we recommend you speak to us to discuss a suitable pricing model, based on your needs. Find out more about our pricing here.

Our processes only make sure you're only matched with quality, well-suited applicants from the outset. Our goal is to make your hiring processes more efficient by only bringing you people who would be a good fit for the role.

However if for some reason you don't feel they're right or would like to meet more candidates, we'll provide you with a refreshed shortlist of matches for free.

If for some reason something doesn't work out with the match you hired in the first three months, we'll also find a replacement for free.

That's great! We especially recommend hiring junior people at the same time - it's great for them, and more efficient for you. Just let us know your requirements on our intro call.

By working with Pollen, you agree to uphold our fair hiring standards, that were created alongside our community to ensure that every job seeker has a more positive and productive experience. We ask employers to agree to:

Fair Pay. Employers must commit to paying a starting salary of at least the real living wage for all entry-level roles. By paying people less, you alienate those who would otherwise take a pay cut from a lower skilled job.

Transparency. Clarity over remuneration, flexible working, in addition to your expectations for the role and responsibilities, helps job seekers to understand if it’s a right fit and saves everyone a huge amount of time from the outset.

Background. You need experience to get a job, but you need a job to get experience. We won't promote roles that request relevant experience for entry-level positions, and we do not screen candidates on educational attainment.

Efficiency. We expect employers to commit to our timing standards: upon receipt of candidate profiles, we recommend arranging next-stage interviews within one week and issuing offers within two weeks, wherever feasible.

Communication. It's important to retain regular communication with applicants throughout the process, including providing opportunities to ask questions, request adjustments and be notified of timelines.

Feedback. We request that you speak to every applicant who is introduced by Pollen, and that feedback is provided to each of these candidates. Pollen only shortlists a reasonable number of applicants deliberately, so that this is realistic and feasible.

We believe a positive candidate experience is critical to a sustainable employment ecosystem - giving candidates more confidence, delivering stronger interviews, and ultimately making hiring processes more effective for the employer.

We find that our processes work most effectively if we manage the process on your behalf, to allow for consistency of candidate experience, and an effective outcome for you.

However, Pollen is an impact-first business, on a mission to bring about lasting change in entry-level hiring. Therefore we don't mind if you have other candidates you would like to bring into the process, but we do ask that, to ensure it's 100% fair, that they go through the same application process as candidates from the Pollen community.