Industry: Government & Public Sector

City of London: Supporting Specialist Recruitment for Niche Roles

Posted on by cevans
City of London: Supporting Specialist Recruitment for Niche Roles

City of London: Supporting Specialist Recruitment for Niche Roles

Over the last eight years, City of London have partnered with PeopleScout to support on a number of recruitment campaigns for hard-to-fill roles.

Situation

PeopleScout have worked as the City of London Corporation’s media partner for the last eight years, and during that time, our sourcing team have supported them on a number of recruitment campaigns. City of London have used our specialist solutions to find candidates for various unique and hard-to-fill positions, including:

  • Assistant Director – Animal Health and Welfare Service
  • Port Health Assistant Director
  • Port Health Manager
  • Security Manager – Smithfield Market
  • Head of Commissioning
  • Assistant Director – Cemetery and Crematorium
  • Technical Manager
  • Head of Operations – Central Criminal Court

Solution

Our solutions are sourcing led, acting as an extension of the client’s own team, and focusing on amplifying the client’s brand to make passive candidates aware of great opportunities. We create bespoke solutions based on our client’s needs and budgets, and this is no different with City of London.

We have supported solutions such as:

Signposting

Advertising and marketing on LinkedIn with recruiter-led profile matching and messaging to raise awareness and encourage quality applications by signposting talent to your vacancy, advertised on your website. Applications are tracked and all engagement is recorded. This is later used to produce an end-of-campaign report with application activity.

Search and Selection

Full end-to-end recruitment support including briefing call, sourcing, screening, candidate management, shortlist submission, interview scheduling and offer management. Vacancies can be posted on your site, alongside any other media and directed into our ATS for us to manage. As part of this solution, client receives work in process reports as well as end of campaign report.

Results

Our partnership over the years with City of London has resulted in:

  • Consultative relationships built with hiring managers
  • High candidate outreach response rate
  • Shortlist of a minimum of five qualified candidates presented for each campaign
  • Market insights compiled and presented back

AT A GLANCE

  • COMPANY: City of London
  • PEOPLESCOUT SOLUTIONS: Recruitment Process Outsourcing
  • About City of London: The City of London, also known as the Square Mile, is the financial district of London. As the governing body of the Square Mile, City of London provides a range of services, from policing to green space maintenance. They offer varied career opportunities to a diverse range of Londoners.
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Recognising our Veterans

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In June, we commemorate Armed Forces Day in the UK to show support for the men and women who served for our country. Serving veterans is central to our mission here at PeopleScout. We connect tens of thousands of veterans with work every year, and we have veterans working at every level of our company.


At PeopleScout, we believe in connecting veterans with meaningful work. We understand the unique challenges veterans and their families face as they balance a military career or transition into the civilian workforce. This drives our internal hiring and the work we do to help our clients enrich their workforces with veteran employees. That’s why we’re committed to hiring and supporting veterans and their partners, no matter where they are in their military journey.


For organisations who want to start a veteran hiring programme or improve one they already have, we’re releasing the ebook, Best Practices for Hiring Veterans. This ebook provides insight on the veteran talent landscape and the best practices to build an effective veteran hiring programme.

13 Best Practices to Hire Veterans

Posted on by akessler

The veteran hiring landscape has transformed over the past few years, which means companies need to constantly evolve their veteran hiring practices to match the changing veteran talent market and the changing needs of veterans. To learn more, check out our ebook on, Best Practices for Hiring Veterans.

These are 13 best practices for hiring veterans we’ve developed working with our clients and nonprofit veteran groups.

Focus on the Entire Military Family

When building a veteran hiring strategy, start broad. While the veteran unemployment rate has fallen drastically over the past few years, veteran partners still have an unemployment rate of 18%. We live in a world where families need two incomes to get by. Military partners have valuable skills, including resilience and organisational skills honed through frequent moves.

Meet Candidates on Military-Friendly Job Boards

79% of job seekers use online platforms during their search for a role. Organisations looking to hire veterans should identify which opportunities fit with the skill sets of veteran candidates and post those jobs on veteran job boards. Meet veterans where they are.

Write Job Postings in Military-Friendly Language

Any jobs posted on veteran job boards or targeting these particular candidates should be written in military-friendly language. Communicating with veteran candidates in familiar language demonstrates an organisation’s military welcoming culture and commitment to veteran hiring. It also drives more veteran candidates because those candidates understand exactly what the posting is looking for.

Gain Executive Sponsorship for Your Veteran Programme

A successful veteran hiring programme needs to have strong commitment throughout the organisation from the top down. Executive sponsorship of veteran hiring programmes empowers everyone in the organisation to implement many of these best practices.

Create a Military Hiring Microsite

A distinct veteran careers microsite gives organisations the ability to speak directly to veteran candidates about their veteran hiring programmes and commitments. By creating a page just for military talent, organisations can demonstrate their commitment and direct veterans to opportunities that fit well with veteran skill sets.

Highlight Veteran Employees Who Have Made a Successful Transition to Civilian Employment

On your dedicated veterans’ recruitment page, organisations should showcase successful veteran employees, especially those who have been promoted and are building careers within the organisation. Many veterans say they take their first civilian job to make ends meet. However, 44% of veterans leave that job within the first year, often for a position with better pay and more opportunity for advancement. By communicating other veteran success stories, organisations can show their commitment to veteran careers rather than just veteran jobs.

Develop a Veteran Talent Community to Capture Both Active and Passive Candidates

For active candidates, a veteran talent community provides information about the job postings.It’s more nuanced with passive candidates. We know passive veteran candidates are often nearing the end of their military career and starting to think about the transition. As they finish their career, they may also be anticipating a move, and that might be holding back their civilian job search.

A veteran talent community helps nurture veterans through that process. We know it’s important to capture and communicate with passive veteran candidates because the earlier a veteran starts their job search process, the more time they have to find the right position. That means they won’t feel as pressured to take the first job offer they receive, whether or not it’s the right fit.

Form a Dedicated Veteran Sourcing/Recruiting Team Made up of Veterans Who Have Made a Successful Transition to Civilian Employment

Veterans report their biggest challenge in job hunting is deciding which career path they want to pursue. Talking to someone who has already gone through this experience can help the veteran work through this process and find a job that can become a career.

These veterans on this sourcing and recruiting team can also help veteran candidates tailor their CVs and practice for interviews. They can pull from their own experience to offer better advice and support.

Educate Recruiters to Read Military Cvs And Translate Skills so They Can be Advocates for Veteran Candidates

One of the biggest challenges in veteran hiring is moving part the knowledge gap most civilians have about the military. Recruiters need ongoing training about military CVs and skill sets because they need to demonstrate to hiring managers why a veteran candidate is a good fit for their position.

Create a Process to Screen and Prioritise Military Candidates

This process can look different for different organisations depending on their veteran hiring goals. To identify candidates, organisations can make sure a question in the application process allows veterans to self-identify. Then, it’s up to the organisation how much it wants to prioritise those candidates. One option is to emphasise veterans behind internal candidates but ahead of all other external candidates. Organisations can also decide if they want to advertise this prioritisation. Publicising it can increase the number of military applicants.

Create one Designated Point of Contact for all Military Organisations That Can Funnel Military Candidates

Across the UK, there are nearly 500 charities that support the Armed Forces community of approximately 6.5 million people. All of them can help funnel veteran candidates looking to make the transition into civilian employment. Having one contact that all of these veterans’ organisations can reach helps funnel these candidates into your recruitment process more efficiently. This can yield hundreds of pre-screened candidates a week. It’s free to source candidates from these organisations. Someone just needs to manage it.

Use Social Media Marketing to Reach Veterans for a Greater ROI Over Traditional Career Fairs

While more traditional veteran career fairs prove to be successful for some organisations, they are expensive. Using social media marketing can put job openings in front of more candidates for less money.

Establish a Veteran Affinity Group to Create a Supportive Environment for Veteran Employees

The process of hiring a veteran is just the first step. Think of the transition to civilian work as a process, and not just a job offer. A veteran employee resource group (ERG) helps veteran employees become a part of the culture and the team. Of the 44% of veterans who leave their first post-military job within one year, nearly one-third say they had difficulty relating to their coworkers and to the company. A veteran resource group provide support for recent veteran hire from people who have been through similar experiences and can boost veteran employee retention.

Want to know how PeopleScout recognise our UK veterans?

Dig Deeper

Best Practices for Hiring Veterans

Get the guide

Best Practices for Hiring Veterans

Posted on by cevans

Best Practices for Hiring Veterans

If you want to hire veterans, you can’t just wait and hope it happens. Veterans won’t apply through your one-size-fits all careers page. Their skills and experience don’t fit into a standard application. And if veterans do apply, do you have a team that can understand the military language? Can you translate their achievements and place that veteran in the best position for their skill set?

In this ebook, Best Practices for Hiring Veterans, you’ll learn:

  • The most important and effective steps to take when creating a veteran hiring programme
  • The veteran hiring landscape
  • The unique challenges veterans face as they transition into the civilian workforce

The London Borough of Hounslow: A Collaborative Partnership Increased Their Offer Acceptance Rate to 87%

Posted on by akessler
The London Borough of Hounslow: A Collaborative Partnership Increased Their Offer Acceptance Rate to 87%

The London Borough of Hounslow: A Collaborative Partnership Increased Their Offer Acceptance Rate to 87%

The London Borough of Hounslow were looking to source candidates that shared their values and vision as part of delivering their ambitions for a new Corporate Plan. For this, they required a RPO partner to develop a high-quality campaign to help build a new team. A key aspect was to build high performing teams from a diverse background with shared values.

87 % Acceptance Rate
65 % of New Hires Identify as a Person of Colour
39 % Boost to Social Media Engagement

Situation

In July 2022, the Cabinet of the United Kingdom approved a new Corporate Plan and the first version of a new Delivery Plan for the London Borough of Hounslow. The Delivery Plan sets out the first set of programmes to enable the Council to deliver its ambitions over the term of the new administration. This was large-scale, initially incorporating 19 programmes of work, with more to come in future iterations of the plan. To make this happen, they required a high-quality workforce to be execute on their ambitions.

Hounslow were looking for a recruitment partner to develop and deliver an innovative and high-quality recruitment campaign that would enable them to recruit across a range of roles in the corporate Project Management Office (PMO) and the Service Design and Transformation team, as well as other roles that were vital to programme delivery. It was critical that candidates aligned with the Council’s values and that the campaign reached those with diverse backgrounds and experiences from local communities and beyond.

Hounslow didn’t have the internal capacity or market knowledge to do this on their own. However, previous outsourcing interactions had been with agencies with a very transactional relationship. Hounslow felt this didn’t meet their needs, so they partnered with PeopleScout for a consultative approach, utilising RPO for the very first time.

Solution

In winning a 12-month award with the Council, our initial focus was on six key job profiles, hiring between 35 and 40 individuals. It was imperative for Hounslow to build a team with the right skills, experience and ambition to deliver the Corporate Plan.

Due to our initial success, we will continue to support Hounslow’s recruitment needs for another 12 months under the award.

A Consultative Approach

Our dedicated and skilled senior recruiters acted as brand ambassadors and became an extension of the in-house team, optimising and managing Hounslow’s recruitment process from attraction to offer. We managed each position in its entirety, from briefing through to verbal offer acceptance, including creating a sourcing and attraction plan for each role profile.

Keeping Candidates Engaged

Historically, the public sector has struggled to engage candidates. We utilised many touchpoints to improve engagement and retention rates throughout the candidate journey. Our dedicated recruitment marketer focused on creating engaging copy and provided recommendations on the best supplementary media options for the target audiences. This included a sourcing-led service, in which the focus was on brand awareness, targeting candidates within niche roles. This sourcing approach gained an engagement rate of 39% on LinkedIn.

Our recruitment marketing strategy included a social media attraction campaign to further increase Hounslow’s brand in the market. Social content included showcasing projects and testimonials from current employees. We also built a a landing page, for which we worked with Hounslow to understand and showcase their employer value proposition to boost talent attraction. This helped to increase brand awareness, bringing in higher quality candidates.

On top of these attraction efforts, we directly sourced passive candidates to raise Hounslow’s profile in the market and increase diversity within the talent pools.

“The London Borough of Hounslow has shown through their recruitment process that they are keen to remove unconscious bias and attract a diverse pool of candidates.”

Candidate feedback

Utilising Technology

As part of the project, we utilised our tech stack to enable better data capturing, to make better data drive decisions, to track and monitor their DE&I agenda and to provide a better overall candidate journey.

Throughout the project, we gathered market feedback and tracked hiring metrics, presenting data through bespoke dashboards to guide hiring decisions and educate. Hounslow received weekly reports from us, including regular analysis of market insights, salary benchmarks and candidate feedback.

Results

Our consultative approach to hiring and tailored strategies for each role resulted in:

  • An 87% offer acceptance rate.
  • An enhanced candidate and hiring manager experience, through a consultative approach.
  • Increased diversity within roles filled, with over 65% of candidates hired identifying as non-white.
  • 2:1 to interview-to-hire, exceeding the average of 3:1.
  • Increased social media engagement to 39%.

We have become an embedded and trusted partner to Hounslow, due to our effective articulation of their brand story, ambitions, and values to their target audience.

“PeopleScout ensured that communication and planning were at the forefront. What really set them aside is the time they spent listening and understanding what the roles were and what type of people we wanted.

The end result is that we trusted PeopleScout’s shortlisted candidates. The Hounslow Service Design team is now full of talented people with the mindset and values we share as an organisation.”

Mike Burch, Head of Service Design and Transformation

“The collaborative approach was key. PeopleScout took the time to fully understand our requirements and source quality candidates. We now have fantastic teams in place delivering great value to the organisation and residents of Hounslow.”

Kieron McQuade, Head of PMO

AT A GLANCE

  • COMPANY: The London Borough of Hounslow
  • PEOPLESCOUT SOLUTIONS: Recruitment Process Outsourcing, Talent Advisory
  • ABOUT LONDON BOROUGH OF HOUNSLOW: The London Borough of Hounslow is an area of West London, England, governed by Hounslow London Borough Council.
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Reducing Time-to-Hire for a British Charity with a Bespoke RPO Solution

Posted on by akessler
Reducing Time-to-Hire for a British Charity with a Bespoke RPO Solution

Project RPO

Reducing Time-to-Hire for a British Charity with a Bespoke RPO Solution

A higher education charity partnered with PeopleScout for a bespoke RPO solution, reducing time-to-hire for professional and academic roles, with a challenging four-week timeframe.

82 % offer acceptance rate
extended partnership beyond initial project
extended partnership beyond initial project
44 days from brief to offer acceptance

Situation

Our client, a charity, works with higher education institutions across the world to improve higher education for staff, students and global communities. The charity organisation needed to fill 30 roles across a range of job families and levels, including professional and academic positions.

They had a challenging timescale of just four weeks to go-live. Plus, they were facing several challenges, including an ambitious growth strategy to support their multi-year plan for which filling these roles was critical.

They engaged PeopleScout to augment their small in-house team, increasing capacity and boosting speed, through project RPO.

Solution

Our skilled senior recruiters acted as brand ambassadors and became an extension of the in-house team, optimising and managing our client’s recruitment process from attraction to offer for a four-month bespoke RPO solution. PeopleScout managed each role in its entirety, from briefing through to verbal offer acceptance, including creating a sourcing and attraction plan for each role.

As the client was a first-generation RPO client, we were able to quickly identify the need to make proactive recommendations based on labour market analysis and recruitment best practices, working collaboratively with the hiring managers. As part of the project, we utilised Avature to enable better data analysis. This helped the client to make better data driven decisions, monitoring their EDI agenda and improving the candidate journey.

Throughout the project, we gathered market feedback and tracked hiring metrics, presenting it through bespoke dashboards to guide hiring decisions. The organisation received weekly reports and regular analysis of market insights, salary benchmarks and candidate feedback.

We also leveraged the expertise of a dedicated PeopleScout recruitment marketer to create engaging copy and advise on the best supplementary media options to target our talent audiences. Our recruitment marketing strategy included a social media attraction campaign to further increase brand awareness in the market. Plus, we built a custom landing page, which showcased the charity’s employer value proposition (EVP), which help to attract high quality talent.

On top of these attraction efforts, our recruiters directly sourced passive candidates to further raise our client’s profile in the market.

Results

Our consultative approach to hiring and our tailored strategies for each role resulted in:

  • An 82% offer acceptance rate.
  • An enhanced candidate and hiring manager experience, which led to the charity extending the partnership.
  • An increase in diversity within the roles filled.
  • A reduction in average time from briefing to offer acceptance, which dropped to just 44 days

AT A GLANCE

  • COMPANY: UK-Based Higher Education Charity
  • PEOPLESCOUT SOLUTIONS: Recruitment Process Outsourcing, Talent Advisory
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Civil Service Fast Stream: Boosting Diversity with a Bold New Influencer Campaign

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Civil Service Fast Stream: Boosting Diversity with a Bold New Influencer Campaign

Civil Service Fast Stream: Boosting Diversity with a Bold New Influencer Campaign

As one of the largest employers in the UK, the Civil Service doesn’t struggle for applications for its Fast Stream graduate programme. However, as the entity that supports the government in implementing policies, it fights against perceptions that it only employs people from elite backgrounds. The Civil Service Fast Stream turned to PeopleScout for a bold new recruitment marketing campaign to improve diversity amongst its early careers talent.

3,200 + Increase in Applicants from Diverse Backgrounds
18,056 Views of Influencer Video on YouTube in Less Than 48 Hours
351,304 Impressions Across Social Media via Nano-Influencers

Situation

The Fast Stream aims to be the most inclusive graduate scheme in the UK and has a goal for the diversity of its workforce to help ensure that every government department reflects all of the communities they serve. However, research they commissioned revealed a misperception, particularly amongst those within underrepresented diversity groups, that the Civil Service Fast Stream represents the elite and is not diverse.
Whilst they weren’t in need of more applicants, they needed to increase the diversity of their candidates.

They turned to PeopleScout for a Talent Advisory solution that counteracted the perceptions of the Civil Service as being ‘stuffy’, ‘outdated’ or ‘inaccessible’. The campaign needed to show the Civil Service Fast Stream as accessible to all graduates, regardless of their background, and increase representation of applicants from specific diversity groups to better reflect communities in the UK.

Solution

Taking a Cue from Consumer Marketing

Given the high number of applications the Fast Stream receive year-on-year, and the campaign objectives to diversify them, we made the strategic decision not to proceed with a traditional graduate media campaign.

Instead, we turned to online influencers.

Whilst widely used in consumer marketing, influencer marketing is relatively new to the recruitment space. It was certainly innovative for the Civil Service and definitely not one our target audience would expect them to use.

Finding the Right Influencer

Identifying the right influencer, with the relevant following, would help us to:

  • Increase credibility with underrepresented groups
  • Remove perceived barriers around government work and the type of people who can get involved
  • Ask the right questions—those on the minds of the target audience

We found Vee Kativhu, an author and influencer who fit these criteria. Vee started her YouTube channel after getting into Oxford University and realising that, as a black woman, she was a minority. She uses her platform to help those from lower socioeconomic backgrounds get access to the best information and advice so that anyone can achieve their dreams, no matter their background.

Continuing our theme of telling real-life stories, Vee spent a day with three Fast Streamers and produced a ‘day in the life’ video, which she posted to her YouTube channel with over 250,000 subscribers. She also promoted the video through her Instagram and LinkedIn profiles.

We also engaged 12 diverse nano-influencers, with targeted followings, to reshape and share the video amongst their networks—further expanding the reach.

Results

The campaign boosted applications from their target demographics by over 3,200, including significant increases in interest from candidates from ethnic minority backgrounds, from lower socioeconomic backgrounds, from the LGBTQ+ community as well as those with disabilities.

Vee’s video received 18,056 views in less than 48 hours. It went on to achieve over 36,000 views with over 1,200 likes. Over the four-week social media campaign, Vee and the nano-influencers achieved a combined reach of 351,304 impressions and 2,436 engagements.

“Such an amazing video, Vee! Super informative, and I love the positive approach to a more diverse Civil Service.”

YouTube comment

By taking an innovative approach to reach their target audience, the Civil Service Fast Stream received a cost-effective campaign that delivered on their diversity recruitment goals.

“Our new attraction strategy, particularly in the innovative use of working with influencers, really captured our vision of a skilled, innovative and ambitious Civil Service equipped for the future—one that reflects the country we serve.”

Talent Acquisition Leader at the Civil Service

“I love the new look and feel of Fast Stream attraction, especially as it’s generating feedback that ‘you don’t normally see this kind of thing in the Civil Service’. Bold, different and refreshing.”

Talent Acquisition Leader at the Civil Service

AT A GLANCE

  • COMPANY: The Civil Service Fast Stream
  • PEOPLESCOUT SOLUTIONS: Talent Advisory
  • ABOUT THE CIVIL SERVICE FAST STREAM: The Fast Stream is an award-winning graduate programme for the Civil Service, developing talented, high-potential people to become future Civil Service leaders. Annually, the programme recruits approximately 1,000 people nationwide across 15 different leadership and specialist development schemes.
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HMRC: Creating a New Virtual Assessment Centre for Greater Diversity

Posted on by akessler
HMRC: Creating a New Virtual Assessment Centre for Greater Diversity

HMRC: Creating a New Virtual Assessment Centre for Greater Diversity

Every year, His Majesty’s Revenue & Customs (HMRC) hires 40 lawyers in an annual campaign. Ahead of their annual hiring effort, they turned to PeopleScout to help them modernise their assessment centre to secure more qualified talent.

56 Qualified Candidates Found for 40 Vacancies
40 % of Offers Made Were to Candidates Who Identified as an Ethnic Minority
33 % of Offers Made Were to Candidates Who Identified as Being from a Lower Socioeconomic Background

Situation

The HMRC team was concerned that their current assessment centre was no longer a good predictor of performance in the role. They had also received feedback from a number of candidates who said they’d experienced functionality and formatting limitations while completing the written exercise. 

The HMRC wanted PeopleScout to evaluate their assessment strategy to ensure they were evaluating for the right traits, to improve the candidate experience, and to reduce potential hidden bias within the process since diversity was a critical goal for their recruitment programme.

Solution

Reassessing the Assessment Centre

Our tech team and assessments experts had several sessions with the HMRC team. The HMRC team was able to share the skill and behaviour requirements for the legal roles. Each skill and behaviour was weighted to ensure the online assessment was tailored to their specific needs. This collaborative approach gave the HMRC team opportunities to provide direct input into the direction of the assessment centre and develop trust in the outcomes as well as PeopleScout.

The new assessment centre consisted of a behavioural test which also assessed for verbal and cognitive aptitude. This combination gave HMRC the opportunity to evaluate a broader skillset to better judge a candidate’s fit for the role. The new assessment was accompanied by tweaks to the technology platform which created a smoother experience for candidates.

Our PeopleScout team trained HMRC’s internal teams on administering the new assessment centre as well as a new video interviewing tool. In addition to the training session, each interview panel member received a detailed guide to minimise the likelihood of any disruption for the candidate.

Creating an Excellent Candidate Experience

We designed and delivered a webinar to engage candidates and educate them about the new virtual assessment centre. This gave them the opportunity to ask questions and feel confident going into the testing stage.

A PeopleScout assessor was present during all virtual assessments to support the HMRC team with their assessment expertise and ensure a consistent experience for all candidates.

Results

Of the applications received, 62% were passed to HMRC for sifting and to complete the assessment centre. Just under half passed and completed a virtual interview with HMRC. Ultimately, 56 qualified candidates were identified against 40 vacancies, giving HMRC a talent pool to draw upon for future openings.

Great strides were made against HMRC’s diversity recruitment efforts. Of the offers made:

  • 7% of candidates stated “yes” to having a disability
  • 60% of candidates identified as female
  • 40% of candidates identified as minority ethnic
  • 33% of candidates identified as being from a lower socio-economic background

Feedback from candidates was positive with many saying they felt the new platform was easier to navigate.

AT A GLANCE

  • COMPANY: His Majesty’s Revenue & Customs (HMRC)
  • PEOPLESCOUT SOLUTIONS: Talent Advisory
  • ABOUT HMRC:: His Majesty’s Revenue & Customs (HMRC) is a department of the UK Government responsible for administration of taxes, national insurance contributions, the national minimum wage and more.
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Reducing the Time Investment from Hiring Managers by 80% for the Legal Ombudsman

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Reducing the Time Investment From Hiring Managers by 80% for the Legal Ombudsman

Reducing the Time Investment From Hiring Managers by 80% for the Legal Ombudsman

The Legal Ombudsman were finding it difficult to attract the volume and quality of candidates for legal investigators in a highly competitive candidate market. Plus, a time intensive recruitment process meant their hiring managers were spending hundreds of hours on recruiting rather than their daily work tasks. They turned to PeopleScout for expert candidate management and branding and attraction help.

80 % Reduction in Time Investment by Hiring Managers
87 % Satisfaction Rate Amongst Surveyed Candidates
5 Stars from Hiring Managers

Scope & Scale

The Legal Ombudsman (LeO) is a regulatory organisation that holds the UK’s legal profession to the highest standards by resolving consumers complaints about legal services providers. The organisation was growing and turned to PeopleScout for a candidate attraction campaign and partial-cycle recruitment process outsourcing (RPO) to fill approximately 40 complaints investigator roles.

Situation

The organisation was struggling to get engagement with their target audience and attract the volume and calibre of investigator candidates they needed. The market was highly competitive, with multiple organisations recruiting for similar roles. This put the LeO behind their hiring target by approximately 20%.

In addition, the recruitment process required the LeO team to invest significant time—400 operational hours per campaign—which was taking them away from their important work supporting consumers.

Solution

PeopleScout and our in-house creative agency, TMP, built a recruitment marketing campaign and followed this by sifting candidates, scheduling assessment days and supporting an assessment centre.

Attracting the Right Candidates

Our team started by doing a deep dive into the roles and existing employees who were successful as legal investigators. This helped us understand the kinds of candidates we should target and their needs and motivations. Armed with this information, we developed messaging and content that resonated with key audiences and stood out in a highly competitive market. This was used in digital advertising through job boards, search engine ads and social media campaigns which pointed to a bespoke landing page.

Supporting a Streamlined Recruitment Process

With a focus on improving the candidate experience and creating efficiencies in the process, we built a bespoke application form which connected to the Legal Ombudsman’s existing application tracking system (ATS). Upon our suggestion, the LeO added a written exercise to the application process which helped them assess writing competency and assist with the sift process.

PeopleScout completed the first sift. In fact, the attraction campaign generated so many applicants that we extended the time allotted for sifting to accommodate them. We also advised the client to adjust the scoring after the first round of sifting, because candidate quality was so high.

Upon passing the sift, our RPO team scheduled candidates for a virtual interview with the Legal Ombudsman team. From there, candidates participated in a virtual assessment centre. We supplied 15 trained assessors to support LeO interviewers in conducting a role play for 104 candidates. The role play mimicked the type of calls and inquiries investigators field in their daily work and gave both the organisation and the candidate a sense of how they’d perform in the position. The assessors’ involvement let the LeO representatives engage more with candidates without having to worry about taking notes or keeping an eye on the clock.

“Every assessor I was partnered with was welcoming, easy to talk to and genuinely cared about the candidate experience.”

– LeO Hiring Manager

We handed back a cohort of candidates that were successful in the selection and assessment process and were ready for LeO to extend offers to. The offer and onboarding process was handled by the LeO HR team and supported by our recruitment delivery team.

Results

The client was so happy with the quality of the applicants they received that they increased the number of hires from 30 to 40. In the end, a total of 42 offers were accepted as a result of this campaign.

In feedback surveys, candidates gave a satisfaction rating of 87% for the recruitment process. Many said they enjoyed the assessment centre, which can often be stressful for candidates.

“Different by actually enjoyable.”

“Very professional and informative. Enjoyable experience even though it was an assessment. Positive day with some very good staff.”

Legal Ombudsman staff gave the process 4.9 out of 5 stars. They particularly appreciated that the assessment was a true-to-life reflection of the skills required for the role. By streamlining and taking over parts of the recruitment process, we were able to reduce the number hours LeO staff were putting into recruiting by approximately 80%.

AT A GLANCE

  • COMPANY: Legal Ombudsman
  • PEOPLESCOUT SOLUTIONS: Recruitment Process Outsourcing, Talent Advisory
  • ABOUT THE LEGAL OMBUDSMAN: The Legal Ombudsman (LeO) is a regulatory organisation that holds the UK’s legal profession to the highest standards by resolving consumers complaints about legal services providers.
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Filling Niche Roles: How a Webinar Improved Candidate Experience and Application Numbers

Posted on by cspivack

How do you persuade valued, highly sought-after professionals to move jobs in this market? By providing an opportunity to engage with the employer and understand the work and culture – before applying.

The Chemicals Regulation Division (CRD) of the Health & Safety Executive (HSE) is regulatory science at its best. Work here is forward-thinking, strategic and connected to decisions made by both Central Government and large-scale business.

SOLUTION HIGHLIGHTS

  • SIGNIFICANTLY INCREASED AWARENESS OF HSE AND THIS NICHE DIVISION WITHIN IT
  • 55 QUESTIONS SUBMITTED FILLING THE CANDIDATES INFORMATION GAP
  • 70% OF ATTENDEES MORE LIKELY TO APPLY SINCE THE WEBINAR

SCOPE AND SCALE

In undergoing significant change, our client was evolving and working hard to meet the challenges ahead. This required the recruitment of a significant number of Scientists to help ensure the safe and sustainable use of chemicals. This is science with a scale, scope and influence few organisations can match.

SITUATION

The vacancies were based in Bootle and York and market mapping was undertaken into the number of suitable candidates with the relevant skills and qualifications for these roles. This highlighted the scarcity of candidates available. In addition, there was the challenge of how to engage with the target audience and give them the insight and opportunity to better understand the organisation, the vital work they undertake and the opportunities for career development. A recent national study found the number one question from candidates was “What’s it like to work there?”

SOLUTION

With this in mind, we devised and developed a webinar to introduce the work of the CRD. The webinar featured a panel of existing employees, giving the participants an opportunity to hear first-hand what the job would entail. Alongside this we offered a live Q&A so that each person could ask questions. The webinar brought the organisation to life and painted a picture of what it would be like to work there.

RESULTS

The webinar significantly increased awareness of HSE and the niche division within it. The attendees were able to view the webinar remotely and on-demand. During the Q and A, 55 questions were submitted. These filled the candidates information gap and gave them insight as to how they would fit in. 70% of attendees said they are more likely to apply since attending the webinar.