The E-recruitment partnership project in Derbyshire

Derbyshire County Council has launched an innovative e-recruitment solution for seven partner organisations, with a further two also committed to joining the project this year. The partnership arrangement has provided a cohesive, standardised approach to recruitment across the county and consequently attracts a wider pool of applicants to all partners.

The introduction of e-recruitment for Derybshire has cut recruitment costs at the county council by 90,000 per annum and reduced printing, stationery and postage costs by a further 75,000 each year.

The council sets the standard
The new partnership solution is based on Abacus e-Mediaís Recruit product which has been installed for Derbyshire County Council since 2003.

It had always been intended to extend this to members of the Derbyshire Transformational Partnership, a group of thirteen partners (Derbyshire County Council, Derby City, eight districts and boroughs, the constabulary, Fire & Rescue and the Peak District National Park Authority) whose principal aim is to provide seamless and cost-efficient access to information across the county. The enthusiastic reaction of some of the members of the Transformational Partnership to the Recruit system for the county prompted the development, in March 2006, of a business case for rolling out an e-recruitment system to interested partners. And although a number of the partners already had their own e-recruitment system, the success at county level of the Recruit system, and the opportunity to be part of a county-wide solution, proved very attractive.

Partners join the project
The seven partners who are now live with their own e-recruitment system are:

North East Derbyshire District Council
Amber Valley Borough Council
Chesterfield Borough Council
South Derbyshire District Council
High Peak Borough Council
Derbyshire Dales District Council
Erewash Borough Council

They have all been trained by Derbyshire County Council, which provides first line support and technical support for all applicants. The county council is also responsible for communicating with Abacus, ensuring that the partners can concentrate solely on their use of the system.

Two further partners, Peak District National Park Authority and Bolsover District Council are scheduled to join the project during this year

Individuality and commonality
Under the auspices of the partnership project, all partners have their own individually branded, stand-alone e-recruitment site which operates within the framework of a multi-agency system. All partners have agreed to adopt a standard approach, whilst retaining their own online application forms and associated terms and conditions of service.

The use of a common template as the basis of the design for all the sites, together with the other standardisation procedures, has enabled the administration and running costs of the system to be kept to a minimum.

Realising the benefits
Each of the partners now has a cost-effective e-recruitment solution which enables them to easily manage their e-recruitment process. The multi-agency element of the system brings benefits both to the authorities and to the potential applicants. These include:

- the pool of applicants across the county is cost-effectively widened

- a consistent and very accessible service is offered by all partners

- applicants simply complete one set of registration details which apply across all partners

- advertisements from all participating partners are included in a standard format within Derbyshire County Councilís job sheet publication, which has substantially simplified the previous procedure

- significant recruitment efficiencies for both the partners and the county council have been achieved

- there is a common link with back office systems to provide additional options for future new services

- the system provides a ëportalí type approach for all jobs being offered by the majority of Derbyshire authorities

- job seekers can receive a single daily email alert for all jobs which are relevant to them, regardless of which organisation has the vacancy

- the provision of a clear message to the community that the partners are working closely, and successfully, together

e-recruitment for Derbyshire has resulted in significant cost and time savings. Recruitment costs within the County Council have reduced by 90,000 per annum and printing, stationery and postage costs are 75,000 less each year than before the installation of the system. The same day publication of vacancies on the web site, and the time to place hard copy advertisements on the shared jobs bulletin has been reduced from a minimum of nine days to just two days.

Looking to the future
Programme Manager for the Derbyshire Transformational Partnership, Mark Whelan commented: ìThe project has worked very well, and is another example of the success of collaborative working in Derbyshire. It was very helpful for the partners to be able to see the success of the Recruit system at county level before committing to the project.

ìThroughout the course of the project, Abacus has worked very well with the partnership and has been very responsive and helpful to our needs.î

As part of the ongoing development of the project, the county council is considering the possibility for applicants to submit telephone applications.

With the introduction of scanning software, and integration with CRM software, the input and retention of all applications on the system (including hard copy and word attachments) would be possible. This would further improve the sharing of information with the recruitment panel and reduce timescales for handling applications.

It may also be possible to enhance the system to aid the redeployment of potentially redundant staff through the sharing of vacancy information, prior to going live.

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