How thyssenkrupp Materials UK is attracting a new generation to a traditional industry
- Location: UK
- Industry: Manufacturing
- Headcount: 500 across nine sites (UK), warehouse operatives and commercial roles
- Size of talent team: 2, Talent Acquisition Manager and People Coordinator
- Key goals: Improve candidate experience, hiring manager collaboration, reporting
thyssenkrupp Materials UK frequently recruits for niche roles like Slitter Operator and Plate Saw Operator. But these roles are unfamiliar to younger generations who often perceive them as outdated.
“A lot of candidates want to work remotely now, or they’re just not aware of roles in manufacturing,” explains Sophie Brown.
Instead of competing for a small pool of experienced operators, thyssenkrupp wants to bring new talent into the industry and train them. Sophie chose Pinpoint to help with this mission.
We want to be the employer of choice, and having Pinpoint on board is going to help us achieve that.
Making traditional roles more appealing
Sophie uses Pinpoint’s job pages to make roles tangible by showcasing videos of operatives at work. The careers site then shows how these roles contribute to familiar industries like aerospace, MRI machines, and Formula One.
The site also “shows off the amazing culture, the great benefits, and the strong ‘one-team’ ethos we have at thyssenkrupp,” explains Sophie. This is critical for convincing new people to join the industry.
Collaborating with hiring managers to find the right culture fit
Since thyssenkrupp trains its new hires, candidate assessment is more about behaviors and attitudes than technical skills. To make this process work, Sophie has to collaborate closely with hiring managers.
“I wanted a system that would make life easier for our hiring managers,” explains Sophie.
She gathered feedback about how the old ATS fell short and used it to guide her search. Pinpoint now centralizes everything—job requisitions, candidate communication, and onboarding—on one platform.
This ease of use and the training roll-out support Pinpoint offers as standard with every implementation has encouraged hiring managers to embrace the new system.
If they have a new vacancy to fill, I’ll offer to walk them through it. Most of them will say, ‘No, it’s really easy and self-explanatory.’ I think that is such a positive aspect of Pinpoint—it is really user-friendly.
Smoother, more engaging onboarding
Welcoming new hires to thyssenkrupp is about more than just paperwork. It’s about preparing them for an unfamiliar site and role.
Previously, candidates had to print and sign contracts, often delaying completion until their first day. This inefficiency frustrated both candidates and hiring managers.
When we saw Pinpoint’s onboarding portal, we were blown away. It’s completely revolutionized things for us.
Candidates now sign documents digitally, so everything is ready on day one. Sophie has also created a culture page where new hires can explore company values and team dynamics before their first day.
The next step is site-specific onboarding portals with practical information like parking, lunch spots, and team introductions.
“We’re all about trying to make candidates feel welcome before they get started,” says Sophie.
Insights to keep widening the candidate pool
In the three months thyssenkrupp has been live with Pinpoint, it’s posted 24 jobs, received 395 applications, and made 19 hires. And the data the platform has collected is already proving useful.
I wanted a reporting suite that was really visual, and the reporting suite on Pinpoint is just that. It's so much easier to understand and see what we need to do to make improvements.
- ROI on jobs boards. Sophie can see which job boards bring in more candidates and which of those candidates are strongest, helping her invest in the most effective sources.
- Diversity, equity, and inclusion (DE&I). Sophie can also analyze the demographics of her candidates. This helps her see which job boards bring in a more diverse range of candidates, ensuring a more modern, representative workforce.
- Time to hire. Sophie is keen to ensure those newcomers she does attract remain engaged. So, she’s built dashboards to compare each location’s performance. This helps her spot bottlenecks that increase candidate drop-off and act quickly on them.
- Candidate feedback. Pinpoint’s Net Promoter Score surveys help Sophie engage hiring managers. She shared a recent comment from a candidate, for example, which helped show the importance of salary transparency and its impact on application volume.
“Having that data to solidify what we’re saying has been really helpful,” says Sophie. And she plans to continue using this data to spot more opportunities to boost thyssenkrupp’s widening appeal in the coming year.
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