Leading building services group, Kier, who employs more than 11,000 people worldwide, has adopted eploy®’s inclusive applicant tracking and recruitment software system as its company standard across all its UK business divisions including Kier Support Services, Kier Homes, Kier Construction and Kier Regional.
The centralised web based solution has been specially customised by eploy® to allow the organisation to efficiently manage and coordinate the recruitment and HR needs of all of its businesses. Steve Iles, Recruitment Services Manager - Kier Support Services and Kier Homes said: “The vendor selection process was heavily influenced by the overall capability of the software package to meet the flexibility of multi-organisational working and manage the development of a companywide talent pool. The complex and diverse requirements of all of our businesses meant that we needed one all-inclusive solution that would integrate an applicant tracking system with sophisticated recruitment and HR management reporting tools.”
Steve continued: “With my own agency background experience come ‘poacher turned gamekeeper’, I knew that a combination of applicant tracking software and traditional recruitment software would allow us to become more efficient, ‘Kier Support Services’ alone processes 1000s of CVs every month and recruits between 50-100 staff. The challenge was to identify how this capability would be delivered, cost effectively, as part of a much larger and multifaceted Human Resource requirement. We wanted the best of both worlds, the technology of today, as well as the assurance that the different portals would not face future challenges around interoperability - we did not want a combination of disparate software products that do not communicate transparently to one another. eploy® was the only purpose developed package system we assessed that could deliver on all fronts.”
Baljit Rai, Recruitment Manager - UK & International, Kier Construction Limited & Developments Division added: “We were aware of the benefits of traditional applicant tracking systems but we needed a more advanced capability to manipulate the data so that we could accurately match candidates to roles. This meant search, auto skilling and contact management tools that were adaptable. eploy®’s system allows us to arrive at a percentage match by comparing skills in relation to roles. eploy® also highlights skills and identifies key sentences from CV’s to help make decisions. We have extremely powerful Boolean searching tools as well as the quick match search tool which enables recruiters to quickly find potential candidates from their talent pool. This enables Kier Construction in particular, to accurately pre-sort applications before immediate email distribution to line managers across the UK and abroad via eploy®’s Hiring Manager portal.”
This central web portal also provides Kier personnel unified access to all information introducing time saving functions at both regional and group levels. Since the introduction of eploy® the Kier Group has found the recruitment process to be more effective, efficient and a more enjoyable experience. eploy®’s completely browser based application runs in all the main browsers (including Macs and mobile versions) providing a familiar interface for users. It allows individual HR functions to pick and choose the functionality they require to meet specific business needs reducing potential complexity. Importantly, the eploy® powered website and career portal also serves to build on the company’s strong brand image.
“eploy® has introduced tangible benefits by allowing short lists to be drawn up faster, less administration and reducing time to hire. In addition, we have also been able to take on more jobs due to the time saved. We are also less reliant on external agencies now that we have the in-house functionality to develop and maintain our own talent pool and flexible communication tools including email and SMS. Integration into job boards builds further time efficiencies and allows the business to source candidates directly,” added Steve.
In addition, the eploy® solution has introduced further management capacity by capturing all transactional data. For Kier Construction for example, who operate at a UK and international level, the system records the entire recruitment process from all hiring managers across all locations, providing return on investment analysis to be undertaken and the effectiveness of recruitment campaigns to be measured.
Chris Bogh, Technical Director at eploy®, worked closely with the Kier team in the development and installation of the system, and he said, “We are delighted that Kier has taken eploy® on board to streamline its recruitment function. With such inherent structural complexities across the Group, we needed to tailor a solution that would address a range of business and HR needs. The project delivers a transparent and consistent service to all group companies providing both simplicity of operation, in-depth functionality and professional management reporting.”
“Significant for eploy® is the fact that we have replaced Kier’s incumbent recruitment software provider, who is one of the world’s largest suppliers of enterprise class ATS Systems,” added Chris.
Steve confirms: “The team at eploy® are all very dedicated and passionate about their product and were quick to react to our needs. They are a highly technical team, not sales people, who used their experience and knowledge to adapt elements of the software and create bespoke web portals to ensure the system works seamlessly with the company’s workflow infrastructure.”
With an expanding workforce of over 11,000 people, Kier Group is a leader in construction with particular strengths in civil engineering, support services, public and private house building, property development and the Private Finance Initiative (PFI). The business has combined revenues of £2.1 billion and relies on its skilled workforce to maintain a professional and competitive edge across all its business activities.
