Case Study
Building a more diverse workforce by attracting a wider candidate pool
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Industry:
Agri-food Production
Headquarters:
United Kingdom
Employees:
3,000+
About AB Agri
AB Agri is the agricultural division of Associated British Foods (ABF plc). They are a unique community of leading agricultural businesses, employing more than 3,000 people worldwide. They operate across the entire agri-food supply chain, supplying farm performance services, animal feed, speciality ingredients and supplements to farms, feed manufacturers, food producers and retailers. AB Agri sells products and services in more than 100 countries and reaches five million farmers worldwide.
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The Challenge
AB Agri, like many STEM businesses, saw a real opportunity for more diversity in its workforce and talent pipeline. The challenge wasn’t just attracting candidates from underrepresented backgrounds but also ensuring fair opportunities for career progression. AB Agri recognised that language played a crucial role in shaping perceptions, attracting talent, and creating a sense of belonging. This led them to take a fresh look at their recruitment practices, introducing key changes and systems, including Develop Diverse. From there, AB Agri focused on embedding inclusion into every aspect of the employee lifecycle and measuring progress to ensure sustained impact.
A data-driven approach
Determined to foster a fairer, more inclusive hiring process, AB Agri began exploring solutions. That’s when AB Agri and ABF discovered Develop Diverse.
“When we started analysing our job descriptions with Develop Diverse, we realised how much of our language was unintentionally deterring certain groups from applying”
Matt Cannon
Head of Talent Acquisition and Diversity & Inclusion, AB Agri
Previously, ABF and AB Agri had used a free tool to identify gendered language in job descriptions. While it helped to some extent, it wasn’t enough. After testing Develop Diverse, they quickly recognised its advanced capabilities. Matt explains that it wasn’t just about gender decoding - the tool went further, identifying and addressing biases related to age, neurodivergence, ethnicity, disability, and more. He also really liked that it became a highly educational resource for the team.
“It’s really helpful when the tool suggests changes to words. The team learns the impact of language, which helps us understand how different words might affect candidates. It’s become an educational tool that’s working across the team,” says Becky Clarke, Talent Acquisition Partner at AB Agri.
“Understanding job descriptions and how we portrayed ourselves as an employer through a more inclusive lens provided an opportunity to make recruitment even more inclusive and welcoming to a broader range of candidates. But to fine-tune our job descriptions we needed to get our hiring managers on board,” says Angie Voidloss, Diversity & Inclusion Manager at ABF. Angie explains that they needed evidence to support why a shift was necessary, even for something as small as changing a word or phrase. This is where the educational aspect played an important role.
Strengthening collaboration and adoption
Becky explains that adopting and using Develop Diverse has significantly boosted the Talent Acquisition (TA) team’s confidence when engaging with hiring managers - many of whom are unaware of how their job adverts are perceived in the market.
“For example, we had a position where applications were not coming in as expected. When we analysed it using Develop Diverse, it scored very low. The TA specialist and the hiring manager then worked with Develop Diverse to create a completely new advert, and as a result, we received significantly more applications.”
Becky Clarke
Talent Acquisition Partner, AB Agri
The tool's ease of use and user experience (UX) also played a key role in its adoption. Becky adds, “I love how visual and intuitive the tool is. My goal is to see those circles fill up, aiming for 100%. It's satisfying to use, and I appreciate how it offers suggestions, even rewording entire sentences. It’s a really easy-to-use system that does exactly what you need.”
Matt echoes this, noting that the tool is simple to use - just upload a job description and get instant results. What he values most is the conversations it sparks. “Without Develop Diverse, it would be difficult to train recruiters and managers on this knowledge.”
The result
Engaging the TA team was crucial for AB Agri in driving change. Matt explains that with 350-400 vacancies to fill annually, using Develop Diverse regularly became essential. The team needed to see its value, not just as another task. To ensure success, they focused on sharing wins - both in business outcomes and in how the tool supports them.
The results speak for themselves:
increase in female applicants
increase in applicants from minority ethnic groups
increase in applications from people with disabilities
“This wasn’t about hitting diversity targets. We purposely don’t set specific targets; instead, we use measures to track progress,” Matt emphasises.
“It was about ensuring that talented individuals didn’t self-select out of the process before they even had a chance to show what they could offer.”
Matt Cannon
Head of Talent Acquisition and Diversity & Inclusion, AB Agri
The success didn’t stop there. AB Agri saw a faster and more efficient hiring process year after year. "We've implemented several new recruitment initiatives, resulting in faster vacancy fills," Matt continues.
"Four years ago, it took 119 days to fill a role - now, the average time to offer is just 44 days. This improvement is due to a broader talent pool, allowing us to identify quality candidates more quickly."
Develop Diverse played a key role in this progress, alongside other initiatives.
“Talent management is central to our DEI strategy,” Matt concludes. “We integrate diversity, equity, and inclusion into everything we do, rather than treating it as a separate pillar. Over two years, our senior leadership team grew from 4% female to 40% female, and our overall workforce saw a 4% global increase in female employees.”
By embracing inclusive language and rethinking the recruitment approach, AB Agri has transformed how they attract talent. Their journey underscores an important lesson: the words we use matter!
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