Iceland goes to Jobtrain...for e-recruitment!

Iceland Frozen Foods Ltd, the UK frozen food retailer which operates 700 stores and employs 18,000 people across the United Kingdom has selected the Jobtrain e-recruitment system to handle recruitment across its UK operation.

Jobtrain Solutions has been working with Iceland, to implement the Jobtrain candidate management solution to provide a more efficient and professional recruitment process. The system is also being used as a key tool to support their extensive new store opening programme, following the acquisition of 51 Woolworths stores in January of this year. 3,000 new vacancies have been created, with the Jobtrain system handling over 30,000 applications from interested candidates in the first 4 weeks alone.

Improved candidate experience and recruitment management across the UK

Like many businesses, Iceland had managed candidate applications and recruitment activity across their UK operation via email. This process had become an administrative burden for both the resourcing team and Area HR managers alike.

Iceland recognised that a candidate management system could help them to manage their resourcing activity more efficiently whilst at the same time providing a more professional candidate experience when applying for opportunities with Iceland.

Iceland had the following objectives:

ï Provide candidates with a more structured, informative and professional way of accessing information about opportunities and applying to Iceland online.

ï Use scored online assessment within the application process to enable the team to focus on the most promising candidates, whilst at the same time ensuring unsuccessful candidates were informed promptly and professionally.

ï Maximise candidate referrals and better manage candidatesí speculative interest in opportunities within the business.

ï Smoother management of recruitment campaigns across their stores, through more effective communication with colleagues and candidates.

ï Establish talent pools of candidates to assist in more proactive recruitment and improved relationships and communication with applicants.

ï Report on all aspects of their recruitment activity including, campaign progress, lead times, advertising performance and equal opportunities monitoring.

Jobtrain delivered the solution to Iceland within 4 weeks of being chosen as their preferred partner. Icelandís solution includes:

ï Dual Branded Online Job Search and Application Facility
Seamlessly linked from Icelandís internal and external careers sites, the separate portals enable them to publish all their live internal and external vacancies. Candidates and employees can review and apply online for live vacancies, register their interest for future opportunities and refer vacancies onto friends and colleagues.

ï Scored Assessment Forms
Iceland use Jobtrainís scored assessment form builder to automatically screen candidates according to both core requirements for the role and also using behavioural based questionnaires.

ï Email and SMS Functions
The communication tools enable Iceland to communicate with candidates, individually or en-masse, including the facility to send SMS alerts and communications to candidates and for candidates to reply.

ï Integrated Psychometric Testing
Jobtrain has integrated with Icelandís provider of online assessments, to ensure that candidates test results are posted back into the Jobtrain system, providing a common platform for all candidate assessment.

ï Agency Management Tool
Jobtrain provides Iceland with a vendor management tool to provide an integrated online portal to manage and report on applications from preferred suppliers. This enhances the agency experience and improves Icelandís communication with their preferred partners, whilst ensuring all candidates can be assessed objectively.

ï Comprehensive Database and Talent Pools
Iceland have instant searchable access to every candidate and employee that has applied online, including role, salary and location matching to save time, money and improve overall talent management.

ï Reporting Tools
Iceland can now report on any aspect of their recruitment activity, saving time and driving cost efficiencies.

ï Comprehensive Support
All Iceland users have unlimited access to a dedicated Account Manager via phone or email, supported by contextual based online help within the Jobtrain system. All applicants have access to a similar phone and email support service, should they require help with their applications.

Rachael Harvey, Head of Recruitment commented: ìWe implemented Jobtrain at the end of January after seeing a number of different providers. As we were changing the way we managed applications from being completely manual to using an e-system we needed a solution which we could implement quickly, seamlessly and a system that would mirror the manual processes that we had in place so that it wasnít too much of a shift for the users. We also needed a comprehensive support service to help us to implement the system quickly due to the impending influx of new applications for the New Store openings. With Jobtrain weíve received all that we needed and the support service that has been provided throughout the implementation of the solution has been fantastic.

Since we went live with the system at the end of January we have received over 55,000 applications. If we hadnít implemented Jobtrain when we did we would have really struggled to manage that kind of volume without having to draft in a team! Candidates tell us through online feedback that the application process via Jobtrain is professional, easy to use and that they are particularly pleased that they receive immediate feedback and regular updates on their progress.

The other key benefit that we receive from Jobtrain is that the system is bespoke for Iceland and very flexible so that we can add features and make alterations to the solution as we go along, something which other systems do not allow without significant cost.î

Giles Heckstall-Smith, General Manager with Jobtrain Solutions, commented: ìIceland conducted a thorough review of e-recruitment providers in the market and Iím delighted that they have chosen Jobtrain on the strength of our solution, its ease of use and the comprehensive support service available as part of the service. The solution was delivered and ëliveí in just 4 weeks and weíre very much looking forward to continuing working closely in partnership with all the team to ensure they realise maximum benefit from bringing their resourcing online with Jobtrainî.