Remagining Recruitment

Original Initiative that Inspired your Project 

The Reimagining Recruitment project was designed and implemented across the shared services of Chorley Council and South Ribble Borough Council in line with the Local Government Association’s best practice approach to recruitment in local government which was initially trialled in 2023. The councils were particularly guided by the work of Dorset Council who had been supported by the LGA to implement an improvement programme called the Recruitment Maturity Model. This model included key areas of focus for councils to review their existing recruitment practices against. These were; promotion, policies, platforms, people, processes and performance. The councils undertook a self assessment exercise to identify how they could use and adopt the tools to improve our approach. 

The initial change started by the programme was to influence organisational culture by switching the emphasis away from recruitment as a transactional process to treating it as a specialism, rather than a subset of HR. This led to the acknowledgement that there was a significant skills gap in house, and therefore the brand new role of Recruitment and Talent Advisor was created. In appointing an experienced, agency recruiter, the councils were able to benefit from their understanding of the wider labour market and the Advisor was able to inform the wider development of the programme and the ongoing Strategy. The need was identified for the councils to invest in technology to support improved recruitment, and commenced a procurement process for a new applicant tracking system. The design of the Reimagining Recruitment programme created six workstreams: Master the Basics, Systems Implementation, Managers as Recruiters, Data-led approach and Competing in the Market. 

Adoption and Adaption 

The LGA approach of the 6 “P” programmes was used as a basis to form the 5 workstreams within the Reimagining Recruitment programme. Some elements were very similar, for example the LGA Platforms workstream, and our Systems Implementation workstream, however some other elements of the LGA programme were tailored to the needs and challenges of our councils, for example the LGA workstream on Promotion was developed into a wider workstream in our programme which had a focus not only on promotion but also on competing in the market and how we could research potential candidates. 

The workstreams developed within the Reimagining Recruitment programme across Chorley Council and South Ribble Borough Council were: 

Master the basics 

This involved a complete process review and streamlining of processes and policies, supported by refreshed training. Process mapping was undertaken and solutions developed for overhauling previous bottlenecks. This included improvements to the onboarding process, such as IT access, systems access, communicating with other teams. Reviewing the format and content of adverts and job descriptions and to be more user-friendly in supporting recruiting managers to develop these resources (including guidance and best practice tips). 

Systems implementation 

A new recruitment system, the ePloy recruitment system was procured and implemented, together with a front end microsite. This ensured high data quality to support future decision making and enables accurate data to be captured on applicants and recruited employees. This means that for all new employees recruited using the ePloy system we have accurate and robust data. The system enabled automation of processes to free resources in recruitment team for specialist activity (CV searching etc). An external careers website was built including resources and information to support the development of the employer brand.

Managers as recruiters 

This involved upskilling and engaging hiring managers to enable them to confidently and capably recruit, including Recruitment Masterclass Sessions covering a wide-range of topics including Advert/JD writing, EDI, recruitment system use, LinkedIn Content, Shortlisting & Assessment, providing opportunities for peer-to-peer support, sharing best practice and ideas, and adapting policies and processes in response to manager feedback. 

Data-led approach 

This consisted of developing a data led approach to inform future decisions by improving and interrogating data and the development of manager dashboards to ensure easy access to recruitment data. It also includes the ongoing monitoring of recruitment metrics to understand the impact of other recruitment strategy workstreams. 

Competing in the market -Following the implementation of the ATS and the development of a data-led approach, supported by managers with increased capability and confidence, the councils had the resources to commence the varied programme of recruitment interventions, with their success monitored using recruitment data. 

Employee referral scheme -The data demonstrated that the highest predictor of success for candidates, from application to offer, were those who had been referred by an existing employee. This is a cost-effective source of advertising and has the additional benefit of incentivising employees to become brand ambassadors. To capitalise on employee referrals the councils implemented a simple employee referral scheme, where referrers receive £150 once the person they referred commences in their new role. 

CV searching – This a source of candidates incurs a cost and had not previously been explored by the councils. Testing this through a range of hard to fill and varied roles, and backed up by data, enabled the development of tailored profiles for types of roles, which can be shared with managers. 

Skilled-Worker Sponsorship – Only 2% of all UK businesses have licence and only 31% of large businesses have a licence to sponsor skilled workers. https://migrationobservatory.ox.ac.uk/resources/commentaries/licenced-visasponsors/#:~:text=The%20type%20of%20licence%20required,established%20employees%20to%20the%20UK.) The councils are proud to have become skilled worker sponsors, which has allowed us to recruit into extremely hard-to-fill roles such as Software Development and Planning. 

Developing the employer brand – This is a sub- programme of activity to develop the reputation of the councils as a great place to work. Activity so far has included supporting officers to develop their LinkedIn presence and including employee stories and “day in the life” content on our microsite. 

Direct approaches – The Recruitment and Talent Advisor has the skills to identify, approach, and encourage applications from passive candidates. This has enabled the councils to appoint to hard-to-fill roles including recent examples in ICT, planning, and environmental health. 

Level of Impact 

At the beginning of the programme, data was baselined on the average time to fill vacancies and how many vacancies across the councils were filled on the first attempt at recruitment. The average time to fill a vacancy was 49.6 days, significantly higher than the average of most other organisations at 44 days (https://joshbersin.com/time-to-hire-benchmark-factbook/). 60% of roles were filled following one round of recruitment. 

The average number of applications per vacancy across both councils was 17.7. 

Following implementation of the Reimagining Recruitment programme the average time to fill a vacancy has reduced by over a week, by 8.3 days. The average time is now 41.3 days. The average number of applications per vacancy has increased by 10 applicants to 27.8 per vacancy. Over 90% of roles are now filled on the first attempt. 

Additional Evidence or Information

Employee feedback has been overwhelmingly positive on the new recruitment system and the process. This has been supported in the 2024 joint staff survey which especially highlighted progress in this area from 2023 to 2024. The Leadership team have recognised the benefit and value of have the Recruitment and Talent Advisor in post, who supports and guides recruiting Managers throughout the process and whose role includes researching and sourcing suitable candidates for hard to fill roles, a role commonly undertaken by commissioned consultants, rather than being directly undertaken by local authorities.