How EDF Personalized Their Graduate Hiring Experience with Willo's Inclusive, Candidate-First Approach

Significantly improved candidate experience

Cut recruiter admin by 50% to under 20 minutes per candidate

Created a more accessible experience for neurodiverse candidates

Listen to the accompanying podcast episode

‍Meet EDF: Scaling Graduate Hiring While Improving Inclusivity

EDF (UK) is shaping the future of energy by investing in early-career talent across nuclear and renewable sectors, guided by a belief that Success is Personal.

Each year, EDF hires hundreds of graduates, apprentices, and placement students beginning their own career journeys. With thousands of applicants per cycle and a hybrid recruitment model spanning internal and outsourced teams, the graduate hiring process must balance efficiency, fairness, and candidate experience.

EDF's teams are tackling some of the most complex challenges of the energy transition, from building new nuclear infrastructure to expanding renewable capacity. As a collective the employees at EDF work on the basis that "together we crack the complex," bringing their diverse perspectives together to power Britain's energy future.

That is why the benefits of hiring graduates are so important to EDF. Early-career talent brings fresh thinking, digital fluency, and the long-term capability required to support the energy transition.

To support this growing pipeline while improving efficiency and inclusivity, EDF partnered with Willo.

By introducing Willo's flexible video platform, EDF cut administrative time in half while creating a process that better reflects its values. The result is a more inclusive hiring process that centers people, potential, and opportunity.

Candidates, regardless of background or ability, have the opportunity to demonstrate their strengths in a way that works for them.

The result is a more scalable and equitable recruitment model that removes unnecessary barriers, supports anonymous and skills-based assessment where appropriate, and ensures each applicant is seen as an individual.

The Benefits of Hiring Graduates at Scale

For organizations navigating complex transformation, the benefits of hiring graduates for large companies go well beyond entry-level hiring.

Graduates bring new perspectives, digital confidence, and adaptability. These qualities help organizations respond quickly to change while building long-term capability.

At EDF, the advantages of hiring graduates include:

Bringing fresh thinking and innovation into the organization
Building a pipeline of future leaders who can grow alongside the company
Strengthening workforce sustainability through early-career development
Creating diverse teams capable of solving complex energy challenges

These graduate recruitment benefits are particularly important in sectors experiencing rapid change, such as clean energy.

However, realizing these benefits requires a hiring approach that is both scalable and fair.

EDF's partnership with Willo supports this goal by embedding structure, consistency, and flexibility into the graduate hiring process.

Through asynchronous assessments and structured evaluation, Willo helps Recruiters surface authentic signals while maintaining a strong candidate experience. The platform enables Recruiters to evaluate candidates consistently while still allowing individuals to express themselves naturally.

For EDF, this approach improves efficiency without compromising the human element of hiring.

The Challenge: Improving Graduate Hiring Efficiency

EDF's Early Careers Recruitment Team, led by Recruitment Business Partner Hollie Powell, manages graduate, apprentice, and placement programs that bring hundreds of early-career hires into the organization each year.

With nine recruiters working across in-house and outsourced teams and thousands of applications to review, the team faced a common challenge faced by many large organizations. How to improve graduate hiring efficiency while maintaining a positive candidate experience.

As EDF expanded its early-career programs to support the UK's transition to cleaner energy, the team explored tools to continuously improve graduate recruitment while preserving fairness and accessibility.

"We wanted to manage volume applications without losing the human connection, reduce bias without adding bureaucracy, and give recruiters clearer signals, while keeping decisions firmly in their hands."

‍Geoff Thorpe, Head of Recruitment Services, EDF (UK)

Why EDF Chose Willo

EDF began searching for tools to continuously improve graduate recruitment with the aim of enhancing candidate experience.

Willo stood out as one of the best platforms for hiring graduates at scale while maintaining a human-first approach.

The platform delivered several advantages:

Intuitive and accessible — Recruiters and candidates can get started immediately without a steep learning curve.

Flexible interview formats — Candidates can respond using video or audio, creating a better neurodiverse candidate experience.

Seamless integration — Willo integrates easily with EDF's systems through API, Zapier, and Integrately.

Responsive support — EDF's team benefits from real-time onboarding and ongoing support.

As Geoff explains:

"Willo is incredibly intuitive and cost-effective. It's simple, efficient, and the support has been excellent. In a world full of overcomplicated tools, it's refreshing to use something that works for both our team and our candidates."

The Results: Faster Screening and a More Inclusive Hiring Process

The impact was immediate.

Recruiter administrative time dropped by 50 percent, reducing screening time from 40 minutes to under 20 minutes per candidate.

This improvement helped EDF significantly improve graduate hiring efficiency, allowing Recruiters to spend less time on administrative tasks and more time evaluating talent.

At the same time, candidate experience improved.

The process became smoother, more flexible, and more empowering. Candidates could choose response formats that suited them best, improving the neurodiverse candidate experience and removing the need for formal accommodation requests.

These changes helped EDF create a more inclusive hiring process, one that gives every candidate a fair opportunity to demonstrate their potential.

"True inclusivity means offering candidates the flexibility to choose what works best for them, and Willo makes that possible."

‍Geoff Thorpe, Head of Recruitment Services, EDF (UK)

Supporting the Future of Graduate Hiring

EDF continues to expand its early-career hiring programs as demand for talent grows.

"Our requirements have doubled in the past two or three years," said Geoff. "And we will continue to see growth. What I love most about Willo is that it's simple. It does what it says it will and doesn't overcomplicate things."

EDF's efforts have also been recognized externally. The company received multiple Top Employer awards in 2025 for its commitment to early-career talent development and workplace excellence.

By combining EDF's people-first philosophy with Willo's human-centered technology, the company has created a model for how to make graduate hiring more inclusive while improving efficiency at scale.

The result is a graduate recruitment strategy that supports confident hiring decisions, meaningful candidate experiences, and the development of the next generation of energy leaders.

Want to reduce your time-to-hire and engage retail talent faster? See how Willo can help.