The UK’s London Borough of Barking and Dagenham has announced the implementation of StepStone Solutions Talent Acquisition to handle recruitment and to process the 120,000 applications it receives for the 600 vacancies it advertises each year – reducing the expected time to hire by a third and significantly cutting its advertising spend.
Before turning to StepStone Solutions the Borough relied on a time consuming and labour intensive paper-based recruitment process to handle an average of 200 applications it receives for each advertised position. Using StepStone Solutions Talent Acquisition the Borough can now rapidly identify relevant candidates, reducing time to hire by 20 days. It will also enable the council to provide tailored feedback on each candidate – something that proved to be a lengthy challenge with the paper-based system. In addition, the system will significantly reduce advertising spend by using the candidate information, now stored online, to be more selective and targeted in the placement of adverts.
Barking and Dagenham recently relocated to a new building and the implementation of StepStone Solutions Talent Acquisition has reduced the storage space previously required to support its paper-based recruitment activity. The project was also notable for a smooth implementation process – the council managed to complete the roll-out, from signing the contract to using it on a daily basis, in just 14 weeks. Looking forward, the Borough plans to integrate the solution with its existing HR systems to further reduce administration and help improve the candidate experience.
Adrian Molloy, HR Group Manager Recruitment, Health & Information explains: “We needed a quick, seamless integration of our online recruitment system and StepStone Solutions facilitated this. 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. The ability to save applications in a ‘talent pool’ also means we have candidate insight readily accessible when looking to recruit for further positions.”
Matthew Parker, CEO of StepStone Solutions, comments: “Public sector bodies are under pressure to keep costs to a minimum and demonstrate efficiency improvements. It’s great to see StepStone Solutions facilitating this by delivering both a lower administrative workload and a faster time to hire, as well as eliminating an old-fashioned, paper-based process.”
