How Sky and Cappfinity designed an award-winning early careers assessment and selection process.
Sky’s vision was to create an immersive, innovative and inclusive early careers assessment and selection process that assesses talent for potential over experience.
Our aim was to create a strengths-based, futureproof process that reflects our brand, values and purpose, giving candidates an authentic preview of life at Sky.
Designing immersive strengths-based assessments
A ‘golden thread’ of Sky’s brand and culture ran throughout the process, from assessment narratives based on our products and initiatives, to video resources filmed on campus.
We refreshed our assessment experience to evaluate the same strengths across multiple stages and formats:
- Online immersive assessment – our first digital assessment introduces candidates to our business and products through interactive, scenario-based tasks. We created three distinct levels to reflect different analytical abilities.
- Job simulation – the second digital assessment immerses candidates in their chosen business area, with four bespoke simulations tailored to corporate and technology streams.
- Assessment centres – the activities continue to assess strengths in the context of our CSR commitments, such as Sky Cares and Sky Zero, and bring candidates together with business stakeholders as assessors.
- One stop – a brand-new, streamlined assessment for technical programmes, combining the online immersive assessment and job simulation into a single experience to accelerate hiring for high-demand roles.
Inclusive and supportive by design
Candidates can use our Programme Matcher quiz to identify the best-fit programme before they apply and explore practice questions and assessment tips on our Preparation Hub.
We built accessibility into the assessments from the start, with neurodiverse-friendly designs and alternative assessments or reasonable adjustments available at every stage to support candidates who need them.
Our assessment centres include non-assessed activities, such as Q&As with current graduates and apprentices, to help candidates feel supported and informed.
We also created personalised feedback mechanisms, so every candidate receives a feedback report after each digital assessment and is offered individual feedback calls following the assessment centre.
Collaborating with business stakeholders
We engaged with stakeholders at all levels to design assessments based on the needs of our leaders, business champions, current cohorts and future candidates.
This involved:
- Conducting interviews with senior leaders to define the strengths critical to success at Sky
- Gathering insights from current graduates and apprentices through focus groups and surveys
- Partnering with business champions to design role-specific exercises and embed real-world job scenarios
- Collaborating with our brand partner to create immersive videos and interactive content that reflect our employer brand
- Validating assessments with over 250 programme participants and refining based on feedback
- Running live assessment centre pilots and integrating feedback to streamline the experience
- Conducting threshold analysis using real candidate data
Measurable impact and positive candidate experience
Sky in partnership with Cappfinity won Best Assessment and Selection Process at the ISE Awards 2025. The strategy delivered measurable success:
- Shorter attraction windows – 44% of pipelines closed early
- Increase in job simulation completions and assessment centre participation
- Faster hiring timelines for in-demand roles
- Increase in target hires achieved
- Exceeding company targets for BME and BH hires
Candidate feedback was overwhelmingly positive:
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97% would recommend opportunities at Sky
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95% highlighted the innovation of the process
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94% gained insights into Sky’s culture
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92% felt empowered to answer authentically
Our new assessment and selection process has helped us secure the talent Sky needs, supercharge our business with diverse hires, and strengthen our employer brand.
By embedding innovation, inclusion and authenticity into every stage, we’ve created a standout experience for all candidates which reflects our company ethos Believe in Better and our early careers strapline Where Better Begins.