Ashurst and Herbert Smith Freehills join firms committing to Rare’s contextual recruitment tool

Rare has confirmed that Ashurst and Herbert Smith Freehills are the latest two firms to sign up to its contextual recruitment system (CRS), which allows recruiters to identify outstanding candidates regardless of their background.

Last month, it was announced that Baker & McKenzie and Hogan Lovells would pioneer the system in time for the 2015-16 graduate recruitment season. The CRS tool hardwires social mobility metrics in firms' existing graduate recruitment applicant tracking systems so that recruiters can quantitatively and consistently measure the social mobility characteristics of applicants. Ashurst and Herbert Smith Freehills adopted the tool after being involved with a cross-industry working group convened by Rare over the past two years; the group worked to advance the practical application of contextual data to the graduate recruitment industry.

Emma Young, global head of graduates at Ashurst, said: "Having been involved in the Rare contextual recruitment working group, we were feeling confident about using the data and were clear from the outset that using it at screening stage was the correct approach, as this was the most likely stage for candidates from a less privileged background to be filtered out."

Peter Chater, head of resourcing at Herbert Smith Freehills, added: "We've been using contextual data on Rare candidates for the last year. In that time, it's really proved its value. We're excited about having it available for all candidates for the next recruitment season."