Local government recruitment team used Hireserve ATS to empower Hiring Managers, enhancing onboarding and improving satisfaction
Lincolnshire County Council (LCC) has over 4,500 employees and delivers a range of services and support to residents across seven districts.
Since implementing Hireserve’s Applicant Tracking System, LCC has transformed its recruitment processes. The Council has secured significant time and cost savings whilst also seeing user and candidate satisfaction levels peak.
At a glance
Lincolnshire County Council already had an ATS in place, but the Recruitment team were growing frustrated with its lack of flexibility. They weren’t confident that it could sustain their longer-term plans.
The Council selected Hireserve ATS in 2015. Alison Miller, Talent and Resourcing Manager at LCC explained: “As soon as we began using Hireserve ATS, we understood how we could shape the system to enhance our existing workflows… We also knew we would be able to introduce new processes.”
Top of the list was to embed a self-service model for Hiring Managers. The Council’s 300+ Hiring Managers now drive a large part of the recruitment process, enabling the Council’s Resourcing Advisors to provide a more service-focused role.
“The Council has reaped significant time and cost benefits from empowering Hiring Managers to take control of recruiting new staff … In our Recruitment Administration team, we have been able to save c. £25,000 through automation and a refreshed team structure.” – Alison Miller
With a wholly automated hiring and on-boarding process, Lincolnshire County Council has saved, on average, 18 days off the end-to-end recruitment process.
The Resourcing Service now receives exceptional feedback in its monthly Staff and Candidate satisfaction surveys. These rate speed and service, and the most recent results boasted scores of 95% for staff and 97% for candidates.
The full story
Before Hireserve ATS…
Lincolnshire County Council already had an Applicant Tracking System (ATS) in place, but the Recruitment team were growing frustrated with its lack of flexibility and were not confident that it could continue to sustain their longer-term plans and ambitions.
The Council selected and implemented Hireserve ATS in 2015. Alison Miller, Resourcing Service Delivery Advisor at Lincolnshire County Council explained:
“As soon as we began using Hireserve ATS, we understood how we could shape and change the system to both support and enhance our existing workflows. Longer term, we also knew we would be able to introduce new processes.”
“As soon as we began using Hireserve ATS, we understood how we could shape the system.”
Transforming processes with technology
Top of the Resourcing Team’s list was to embed a self-service model for Hiring Managers.
“The premise of a self-service model had always been in the back of our minds, but we had to ensure that the Council was ready for such a shift in process. When we selected Hireserve ATS, we weren’t ready to go self-service but we were confident that we would be able to implement the process in the future.” – Alison Miller
The team began to break down the recruitment process, identifying which elements would be handled by the Council’s 300+ Hiring Managers.
They also held briefing sessions with Hiring Managers to understand what they wanted to get out of the proposed new model, before working with Hireserve to configure the ATS to meet their requirements.
What does the self-service model look like?
Since the new process has gone live, Hiring Managers drive a large part of the local government recruitment process, enabling the Council’s Resourcing Advisors to provide a more qualitative and service-focused role.
Resourcing Advisors support Hiring Managers with the initial job copy and advertising, but Managers then go on to manage the shortlisting process themselves with candidates using the self-select function for interview slots.
At the point of conditional offer, a Recruitment Administrator is alerted and steps in to support the onboarding process.
Alison explained further:
“Our end-to-end recruitment process is managed entirely within Hireserve ATS, with workflows and triggers set up to perfectly reflect our roles and procedures.”
“Our end-to-end recruitment process is managed entirely within Hireserve ATS. [It is] set up to perfectly reflect our roles and procedures.”
Tangible results
“The Council has reaped significant time and cost benefits from empowering Hiring Managers to take control of recruiting new staff. Our Resourcing Advisors now have time to focus on research and sourcing, which in turn strengthens the perception of us a valued service provider within the organisation.
Perhaps the most significant changes can be seen in our Recruitment Administration team, whereby we have been able to save c. £25,000 through automation and a refreshed team structure.”
Not content with transforming its hiring process, the team have also used Hireserve ATS to enhance the Council’s onboarding stage – starting with reference collection:
“As a public sector organisation, we have a range of references to collect, and have subsequently built 7 different request forms within Hireserve ATS! Now, as soon as a conditional offer is made, our Recruitment Admins step in and the automatic reference collection workflow is triggered. We also use Hireserve ATS to collect new starter information.”
With a wholly automated hiring and on-boarding process, Lincolnshire County Council has saved, on average, 18 days off the end-to-end recruitment process.
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Enhancing relationships
Relationships and visibility across the organisation have also improved, as the Resourcing team now provides Hiring Managers with a weekly status update for their candidates and jobs.
“We are always looking for ways to continue saving time and money for the Council, and to increase efficiencies in the Resourcing Team.
With Hireserve ATS, I am confident we can do this. The system seems to have endless capacity for change.”
Since implementing Hireserve ATS, LCC shaved 18 days off its time-to-hire. The Council also saved £25,000 through automation.
Impressive feedback
Alongside the time and cost savings Hireserve ATS has helped to deliver, the Resourcing Service now receives exceptional feedback in its monthly Staff and Candidate satisfaction surveys.
These ask contributors to rate speed and service, and the most recent results boasted scores of 95% for staff and 97% for candidates.
“Be brave”
Alison left us with some words of advice for other local government recruitment teams:
“Be strong. Be brave. When I look back at the changes we have made at Lincolnshire County Council, they’re pretty radical for a Local Authority. So step away from the norm and your comfort zone, talk to your technology partner and explore what new processes you can embed. Change can always happen if you want it to.”
“The system seems to have endless capacity for change.”
Here at Hireserve we look forward to what’s next for the ambitious Lincolnshire County Council team – and we’re delighted to continue supporting their fantastic work.
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The Ultimate Hiring Manager Handbook
If you would like to learn about how you can better engage your Hiring Managers in the recruitment process, our guide is packed with practical advice to assist you.
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