Author: Sean

About the Customer

Background

Kier Group, one of the UK’s leading construction, infrastructure and property development companies, partnered with Unseen to modernise its emerging talent assessment process using TopScore.

With graduate hiring volumes increasing by 40% in 2025 and more than 350 early-career candidates across graduate and apprenticeship programmes, Kier needed a scalable, reliable and user-friendly assessment solution capable of supporting both virtual and in-person assessment centres.

Having experienced challenges with a previous platform, Kier implemented TopScore to streamline assessment delivery, reduce administration, improve assessor engagement and deliver a more consistent candidate experience.

Within weeks, TopScore became a key part of Kier’s recruitment strategy, supporting 31 assessment centres and the assessment of more than 250 graduates and 100 apprentices.

The Challenge

Kier’s Emerging Talent team needed to manage growing candidate volumes while maintaining compliance, consistency and a positive candidate experience.

Their previous platform created several challenges, including:

Our Solution

Kier implemented TopScore across its graduate recruitment programme before expanding into apprenticeship hiring and Youth Futures Foundation initiatives.

TopScore provided a single platform for assessment delivery, assessor scoring, candidate management and reporting across both virtual and in-person events.

Its intuitive interface significantly reduced assessor onboarding requirements, while the ability to instantly update exercise content, assessor allocations and event structures provided greater flexibility and control.

Results

The Kier Group team grew in confidence around using an assessment platform thanks to the delivery of the project in full.

Feedback from the Kier team has been excellent, and all have expressed how intuitive and user friendly the TopScore interface is.

More importantly, Kier Group’s key business stakeholders have been extremely impressed, and comments such as ‘Can I use this for all of my interviews?’ and ‘Am I doing something wrong, it seems too easy?’ are a testament to the work that [the team] has dedicated to making the platform as simple and effective as possible.

Driving Social Impact Through Evidence-Based Hiring

Alongside improving the efficiency and scalability of its recruitment process, Kier is using TopScore to support its wider commitment to social mobility and youth employment.

As part of the Youth Futures Foundation Employer Trials Programme, Kier is partnering with the UK’s national What Works Centre for youth employment to test recruitment strategies that can improve outcomes for young people facing barriers to employment.

Using TopScore, Kier is trialling the impact of structured interviews within its apprenticeship recruitment process, assessing how a more consistent and evidence-based approach can improve fairness, strengthen compliance and reduce potential barriers to employment.

The initiative supports Youth Futures Foundation’s mission to build robust evidence on what works in youth recruitment and retention, helping employers unlock the potential of marginalised young people while futureproofing their workforce.

By participating in the programme, Kier is not only improving its own hiring practices but also contributing to industry-wide research that could help shape more inclusive recruitment approaches across the UK.

Significant Time Savings

TopScore dramatically reduced administrative effort, from campaign setup and assessor management to reporting and candidate evaluation.

Assessor training was simplified from webinars and detailed guidance documents to a straightforward self-service experience, delivering value within weeks of implementation.

Improved Assessor Experience

The platform’s clear structure and scoring process enabled assessors to focus on candidate evaluation rather than technology.

100% of assessors reported a significant improvement compared with the previous platform.

Reduced Risk and Improved Compliance

By centralising assessment delivery, scoring and reporting, TopScore helped Kier standardise processes, reduce manual administration and improve confidence in hiring decisions.

Cost and Sustainability Benefits

The move to a largely virtual, fully paperless assessment process reduced administrative costs, labour requirements and operational overheads while supporting Kier’s sustainability goals.

Lasting Impact

What started as a graduate recruitment solution has become a cornerstone of Kier’s emerging talent strategy.

Graduate recruitment is now fully supported through TopScore, apprenticeship programmes have expanded onto the platform, and Kier plans to assess all graduates, placements and early-career talent through TopScore by FY27.

By combining scalability, efficiency and an outstanding user experience, TopScore has enabled Kier to confidently grow and future-proof its emerging talent recruitment programme.