The beauty of WithYouWithMe’s solution is that diversity is built in from the start. A lot of recruitment partners provide skilled people first and then consider diversity afterwards. WithYouWithMe gives us skilled people who happen to come from under-represented groups.
Julie Adamson
Social Value Solutions Lead, Atos
"Diversity is core to everything we do," said Julie Adamson, Social Value Solutions Lead at Atos, UK & Ireland. “A significant amount of our business in the UK is in the public sector, therefore, by reflecting the diversity of the citizens we serve, we can deliver services that meet the needs of all of our end-customers.”
Atos’ recruitment structure is reflective of them as a large, matrix organisation with a high-volume of technically skilled roles. Atos work with many specialist recruitment agencies, however, due to barriers in acquiring technical/digital skills for many minority/underrepresented groups, there is often a lack of diversity in the technically skilled candidate pools and proactive measures are required to meet their ambitions. Therefore, the team wanted to expand their DEI approach in recruitment to lower barriers to entry, increase the diversity of the technically skilled talent pool and expand their definition of diversity.
Atos partnered with WithYouWithMe (WYWM) to adopt a skills-based hiring model designed to widen access to technically skilled roles. Rather than relying solely on previous experience or formal qualifications, the model identifies individuals with the aptitude and potential to succeed, provides targeted training, and deploys them into real roles through a structured squad arrangement.
“We love that WYWM’s solution has diversity built in from the start. It’s not a bolt-on. It’s not an afterthought. It’s the whole purpose of the program. That’s what made them stand out to us,” said Julie.
Julie described the model as a shift in mindset.
“WYWM’s model is completely different from what we’re used to,” Julie pointed out. “Normally, we’d go to a recruitment partner with a list of skills we need and they bring us candidates - most of which come with long and robust CVs. WYWM challenged that thinking — demonstrating that with the right assessment and training, individuals without prior digital experience can thrive in technical roles.”
Following a pilot program, Atos deployed its first cohort through the squad model — a structured pathway where individuals are trained and embedded into teams before transitioning into permanent roles.
One of Atos’ first placements was Alice Aumonier. After being a military dependent for 10 years, Alice found herself stagnating in her career as a nurse and unable to move professions due to lack of experience. But after going through the WYWM program, she’s now training as a Full Stack Developer and will soon be joining the Atos team.
“Alice is the perfect example of how, with the right training and support in place, someone with no digital experience can thrive in a technical role,” Julie pointed out. “She’s shown our business that WYWM’s model can absolutely work.”
Alice is one of eight people who are joining Atos through WYWM’s “squad” model, a temp-to-perm arrangement that enables organisations to hire people on a 12-month basis, before transitioning them to permanent staff. The new recruits all come from under-represented parts of society, and have been carefully selected using the screening tool, Greenbeam. As an AI-powered solution, the platform uses scientifically-based psychometric testing to identify candidates with the aptitude to thrive in tech-based roles, and provides them with certified training to make them rapidly proficient and job-ready.
With the first pilot well underway, Julie and her team are looking to expand the WYWM program to other areas of the business. By embedding diversity and skills-based assessment into recruitment strategy, Atos has strengthened both its workforce capability and its social value objectives.
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