Graduate selection across Middle East & Africa
Building a scalable, data-driven graduate selection process across the Middle East & North Africa
Client: Nestlé
About Nestlé
Nestlé is the world’s largest food and beverage company, with a presence in 185 countries and a portfolio of over 2,000 brands. With a strong focus on nutrition, health, and wellness, Nestlé is committed to unlocking the power of food and beverages to enhance quality of life for everyone. Not just today but for generations to come.
This global ambition is brought to life through strong regional operations, including a well-established presence across the MENA region. Here, Nestlé continues to invest in building future-ready talent pipelines, ensuring the organisation is equipped with the skills and capabilities needed to drive long-term growth in a dynamic and diverse market.
The challenge
To support its 2024 Graduate Development Programme in the Middle East, Nestlé required a trusted assessment partner to help identify and select high-potential graduates across multiple business functions.
The programme needed a robust, scalable, and objective assessment approach that would:
- Evaluate candidates across six core business areas (Sales, Marketing, Supply Chain, Technical, Finance, and HR)
- Deliver fair, data-driven selection decisions
- Provide deep insights into candidate strengths and development areas
- Be delivered within a compressed timeline and at regional scale
Nestlé was looking for more than an assessment provider: they needed a partner who could combine global best practice with local delivery expertise.
Why Talogy
Talogy brought a combination of global assessment expertise and regional delivery capability, making it well-positioned to support Nestlé’s ambitions.
Key differentiators included:
- Scalable delivery model, enabling assessment of large candidate volumes within tight timelines
- Alignment with international best practices, including standards from the British Psychological Society
- A customised, client-centric approach, tailored to Nestlé’s competency framework and hiring needs
- Deep expertise in designing engaging, high-validity assessment experiences
The solution
Talogy designed and delivered a customised, multi-modal assessment centre solution to identify high-potential graduates with the capabilities to succeed in Nestlé’s dynamic environment.
Half-day assessment centres
A structured, insight-led assessment experience was developed, combining multiple evaluation methods to ensure reliability and fairness:
- Two behavioural simulations
- One Group Exercise
- One Analysis Exercise
- Logiks Cognitive Ability Test (Verbal Analysis, Numerical Analysis, Abstract Reasoning)
These were designed to assess four key competencies – aligned to Nestlé’s success profile – as well as potential and learning agility.
Each candidate was observed across multiple contexts to ensure a holistic evaluation. In addition, each participant was assessed by two trained assessors in line with global best practice.
This approach ensured objective, consistent, and high-quality insights into each candidate’s performance, potential, and learning agility.
Data-driven reporting and insights
Talogy developed a suite of reporting tools to support confident decision-making:
- Individual dashboard reports, summarising:
- Performance across competencies
- Key strengths
- Development areas
- Group ranking data sheets, enabling Nestlé to:
- Identify top-performing candidates quickly
- Compare candidates consistently
- Understand cohort-wide strengths and gaps
All outputs were aligned to Nestlé’s internal competency framework, ensuring seamless integration into the selection process
The impact
Talogy’s solution delivered both speed and insight, enabling Nestlé to make confident, data-driven hiring decisions.
- 49 candidates assessed within one week
- Clear, objective insights into each candidate’s capabilities and potential
- Structured comparison across the full cohort for fair and effective selection decisions
The programme provided Nestlé with a strong foundation for selecting graduates who can contribute to the organisation’s future success.