30million Budget Geared To E-cruitment - 09/2000

The biggest employer in Europe is the National Health Service. Annually, the NHS spends over 30million on advertising, of which 5million is earmarked for recruiting nurses. The might of this huge recruiting machine has recently been turned towards the e-cruitment sector. In what is perhaps the biggest ever e-cruitment drive, the NHS is to source 20,000 nurses and 10,000 doctors via the net over the next 5 years.

The e-cruitment drive was announced by the Minister for Health, Lord Hunt. Keen to maintain the staffing levels in an organisation which employs over 1million people, Hunt intends the strategy to cut costs and effort. He enthused ìThe internet is now a major tool used by an increasing number of employers to recruit the best staffî. ìThe NHS must follow suit if it is to retain and recruit the highly skilled, dedicated staff it needs to take forward the radical reforms set out in the NHS plan.î

Far from simply being a resourcing tool, Hunt intends for the new online service to develop current employers, he commented ìIt will also help to develop the careers of those already working in the health service by acting as a single source of vacancy informationî. ìStaff working in even the smallest rural trust or GPís surgery will be able to see at a glance all available posts throughout the NHS, encouraging them to apply for posts or promotion which they previously might not have known existedî. The NHS is to invite competitive tenders for the contract, which is assured to be the biggest deal ever in the European online recruitment industry. Proposals from interested organisations have been requested by 29th September and a decision is anticipated by the end of October with the aim of launching an on-line e-recruitment service in the spring.

Tom Sykes, Analyst at HSBC enthused ìThe inclusion of Internet Recruitment in the public sector where cost savings are paramount, is a clear vindication of the online modelî.

www.nhs.uk