12 months ago the British Heart Foundation implemented eploy®’s leading recruitment software, and today the web-based solution is playing a fundamental role in helping the charity streamline its operations and achieve its stated objectives. In recognition of these achievements BHF were recently honoured at a top recruitment awards ceremony and won the title ‘Most Effective Use of Technology / Online’.
“We implemented eploy® because we wanted to create a more effective, efficient and enjoyable recruitment experience for both our applicants and hiring managers. In addition to continuing to drive down recruitment costs and build a talent pool of applicants for the future. By working with eploy® we have achieved this goal. We have streamlined our internal processes, which has improved efficiency and effectiveness, allowing the recruitment team to focus on a more proactive resourcing strategy. And, in just 12 months, we have reduced our overall costs significantly, enabling more of our money to go in to saving lives,” says Rebecca Birs, British Heart Foundation’s Recruitment Manager
The Challenge
Prior to implementing an online recruitment solution, BHF’s recruitment team operated a traditional ‘manual’ model for search and selection across each of the company’s locations, utilising telephone and email as the primary communication methods with both prospective candidates and Hiring Managers. Whilst this method delivered an acceptable service, it was apparent that the administration overhead and lack of flexibility combined with the complex Hiring Manager communication process was making the operation reactive rather than proactive. It was also dependent on additional support from recruitment agencies to help coordinate and manage fundamental activities.
Due to the volume of recruitment the organisation manages and the administration burden that creates, as well as a desire to provide a more proactive service, BHF looked to the use of technology. Through this period of research which also included reviewing the recruitment capabilities of our current HR software option, BHF worked extensively with all users through testing, focus groups and regular user feedback to understand their specific needs from the system.
Finally BHF decided to implement eploy®’s specialist recruitment micro-site / website with back end database and administration system.
The Solution
eploy®’s hosted, online solution has been designed to achieve BHF’s recruitment objectives. The goals for BHF were to:
- Continue, and further reduce costs
- Better utilise its brand in the market place
- Offer both applicants and hiring managers a more efficient and enjoyable recruitment experience
- Vastly improve and streamline administration processes.
Now 12 months since implementing eploy®, Rebecca Birs, the British Heart Foundation’s Recruitment Manager discusses how the solution has helped BHF achieve its stated goals:
“We recognised the opportunity to meet several business objectives in one by implementing eploy®. We could further reduce recruitment costs by building a searchable talent pool of applicants. Build on an already strong brand and become an employer of choice by strengthening our image in the market place. Offer applicants and hiring managers a more effective and efficient, and ultimately more enjoyable recruitment experience by providing one central portal to access all information and time saving functions for both. As well as vastly reduce the time spent on admin, avoid duplication and streamline processes with the back end administration system.
Registration now takes seconds with eploy®’s CV parsing software. Candidates benefit from email/SMS job alerts, email a friend facility, staff stories and details of our benefits and values. They can also browse or apply for jobs, track their status 24/7, and if invited to an interview, download office addresses and directions. Lastly, we continuously monitor and improve our services for users through our feedback section.
All of our 60+ Hiring Managers also now benefit from eploy®’s secure portal, which can be accessed remotely, 24/7. We deliberately decided against a site with an internally hosted back end system to enable all users, including our regional staff, the flexibility and freedom to use the site at their convenience. Line managers are able to log vacancies, review applications, shortlist and give feedback through the system. Managers short of time are able to use the short listing assistance tool, which highlights applicants CV’s that best match the skills we have configured the system to recognise for that role. The system also hosts a document library with all the relevant forms and information they need in one place. There is also a Director’s authorisation level for senior heads to review and approve new recruitment requests, enabling us to always maintain control.
Both applicants and hiring managers are delighted with the user friendly functionality of eploy®’s system and the user experience has improved dramatically for both.
On the admin side we benefit from a live applicant database, which at the touch of a button allows us to search for specific skills and experience enabling us to proactively search for hard to fill roles, i.e. fundraisers. This, combined with eploy®’s mail merge / SMS functions, enables us to pin point the right applicants for the right opportunities, and communicate quickly and effectively with them. We also utilise eploy®’s reporting systems that allow us to constantly monitor the success of our recruitment allowing us to tailor our resourcing strategies to be the most effective and cost efficient.”
The Result
Since going live with eploy®, BHF’s recruitment website has amassed many thousands of applicants, and in the first few months of 2010 alone the number of applications has reached more than 1000 a month. Week on week the organisation has seen an increase in hits to the site, with the average candidate viewing 4 pages of the site - as opposed to just the jobs page - proving the additional information such as office directions, staff blogs and benefit details are relevant.
Due to the increased traffic to the site, online recruitment has increased by nearly 50% from 33% to 65% in less than 12 months.
BHF is also benefitting from eploy®’s automated email and SMS job alerts system, with approximately 6% of applications now coming through this route and 4% being offered employment. Rebecca confirms; “As a result of these statistics alone plus the fact that we have successfully filled more than 80 positions, eploy®’s system has already paid for itself in just 12 months.”
“We stepped outside of the charity comfort zone by referring to corporate and public sector careers sites for inspiration and innovation in order to try to achieve a new and dynamic user journey. By designing a bespoke system with eploy®, as opposed to the standard edition, we were able to meet our business needs at low cost, and create a more exciting and user friendly candidate experience. As such this has been highlighted as a key organisational achievement by the CEO in BHF’s 2009-2010 annual report,” concluded Rebecca.
In recognition of BHF’s success, the organisation was recently honoured at the 2010 Recruiter Awards by winning the “Most Effective Use of Technology / Online” award category.
For a free online demonstration or trial version, please visit www.itssytems.co.uk, or contact eploy® on 0800 073 4243 or email info@eploy®.co.uk.
