The London Borough of Barking and Dagenham is
launching an online recruitment system to aid its management of the 120,000
applications it receives for the 600 vacancies it advertises every year.
Leaders at the local authority have said that the new system will cut the time
it takes to fill every position by around a third and cut down on the amount of
paper is wasted in unsuccessful applications.
It will also allow the council to provide individual feedback on each
candidate, which has proven impractical to do on a paper-based system. They
also hope that an established online recruitment programme will reduce
advertising spend by using stored candidate information from applications to
target more specifically where advertisements are placed.
Adrian Molloy, from the council's human resources department, said they were
looking to establish fast and seamless integration of their online recruitment
system.
We've already seen a rapid reduction in the levels of administration
required and have had positive feedback from line managers in particular, who
are now becoming more involved in recruitment processes at an earlier stage
thanks to the instant access of the online solution, he explained.
The ability to save applications in a 'talent pool' also means we have
candidate insight readily accessible when looking to recruit for further
positions.
Geoff Newman from online recruiter
Recruitment Genius recognises a lot of public sector bodies are moving
recruitment systems online.
“Online recruitment software not only allows huge
cost-savings, but also is location independent, and because of programming
languages used often easier to tailor to specific requirements. Not everyone in
the public sector may be thinking about recruitment now, but they are certainly
well placed for the future.”