Health and Care
Following a successful 5 years of working with NHS Scotland, we met with Anne MacPherson (Director of Human Resources and Organisational Development), Heather Silvester (Recruitment Workforce Planning Manager) and Colleen Ferguson (Recruitment Manager) to discuss how NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde is working with Jobtrain to bring in transformational recruitment.
Out of the 22 NHS Scotland Boards that use Jobtrain as their applicant tracking system, NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde is the largest health board in Scotland with 41,000 employees. Our work together began when NHS Scotland became our client in 2018 and we’ve closely collaborated with recruitment colleagues to build a bespoke ATS to meet NHS Scotland’s needs.
When we spoke to the then Programme Director, Neil Warbrick, in 2021, he told us that on a national scale, NHS Scotland saw a phenomenal 250% increase in applications between 2019 and 2020! Even more impressive was the ability to manage these greater volumes with even greater efficiency – this is evidenced by time to hire dropping by 31% over that same period. That saved nearly a month per hire!
But how are things going locally?
Anne: Values-based recruitment and standardised recruitment.
Every board is driven by the Once for Scotland policy and approach. We have a new Safer Pre and Post-Employment Policy under development that will inform our recruitment practice moving forward too. We’re also focussing on reducing duplication and standardising as much as we can.
We’ve had three years of Covid. During that time the concentration was on bulk recruitment to bring in colleagues who can help during the pandemic. Jobtrain was a good enabler of bulk recruitment campaigns.
We want to grow from these successes and continually improve our recruitment processes. Succession planning, looking at our talent pipelines and reviewing the quality of our applicants is our priority.
Colleen: If we put a job advert out for a Band 2 Healthcare Support Worker, we’ll have 300 applications within a week! So, we’re looking to make the most of the Shortlisting functionality to lessen the burden on our hiring managers. We’re using Assessment and Screening Questions, as well as establishing more rigorous competency questions.
Heather: 2023 was our most successful year hiring NQNs (newly qualified nurses)! The success of this volume campaign gave us the confidence to dive into the more niche roles that need specific skill sets – podiatrists, for example.
Anne: The candidates love the candidate experience! I think the biggest benefit we’ve seen since using Jobtrain is managing volumes and the candidate experience is a major contributor. We’re always fine-tuning to strike the right balance between quantity and quality. We’ve streamlined the candidate experience, so they only have to apply once. That’s where Jobtrain comes in.
Colleen: The first year we used the bulk recruitment tool by department, the second year we used it by hospital. Now we’ve gone back to splitting it by department because we found that was incredibly helpful! This year was probably one of the best years we’ve had using it. We’ve had 1300 applications, organising all the interviews and the panels and getting it all put through, it’s been great!
Heather: Even though we use bulk recruitment for our newly qualified campaign, the functionality has become business-as-usual (BAU). Right now, we’ve got our theatre recruitment campaign running board-wide and that campaign was built using this functionality!
Anne: The bulk recruitment tool was one of the most attractive things about Jobtrain when we were looking at suppliers. The whole idea is getting all 22 boards to hire the same way – making sure colleagues who manage sizable recruitment campaigns are comfortable with tools like bulk recruitment is a key focus for us.
Jobtrain can do so much, we want people to be confident that it can do what they want it to do.
Colleen: When a candidate applies, the way we operate is to have our own dedicated teams who can answer any of their questions or queries. We stay in contact with our candidates every day because the data is more visible about where they’re struggling or what we need from them to speed up the process.
Anne: Jobtrain provides a great service that’s very “can-do!”
Heather: Jobtrain brings us the people. Advanced Insights reporting brings the process. And the “track” of the “applicant tracking” is how we deliver our processes. We use Jobtrain’s automation features, but we don’t automate our entire process. The applicant tracking system Jobtrain provides helps bring us closer to our candidates. It still brings the individual into recruitment. You’re still speaking to candidates; whilst remaining transparent. We want all our candidates to know that we care.
Anne: Our time-to-hire has improved, but outside challenges remain. In 2018, our boards were taking on average 14+ weeks to hire. That wasn’t necessarily to do with the front-end system or the processes, it was primarily because we have so many pre-employment checks to undertake. Whether it’s Disclosure Scotland or the Home Office, there are potential delays outside of the process we control.
Colleen: NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde have managed to drop to 10 weeks from start-to-finish and that’s including the waiting times from third parties. Mainly we think that’s because of how we’re using bulk recruitment functionality, but we have the flexibility to be creative in our approach as well.
For example, we go to recruitment fairs and bring the ATS with us in the form of a QR code.
We tell people – “If you want to be interviewed, scan the QR code, submit the application form, then we’ll interview you”. We can pretty much offer on the day – so a quick turnaround!
We generate all this through Jobtrain, so people effectively leave the event with an offer!
Colleen: Any time we have contact with the Jobtrain support team they’re helpful, communicative and supportive. On a wider scale, when we were learning to use the bulk recruitment functionality, Jamie and Alica from Jobtrain joined us in the office to walk through it, it was very helpful. We’ve never felt unsupported.
Heather: I would echo this. As we maximise the use of the system and deal with the highest volume, NHS GGC can often be the first to identify something that needs a fix, with the support team responsive to any requests.
I believe Jobtrain’s ATS can do whatever we need it to. I am excited by some of the incoming enhancements that would make it even better! It’s been good to explore with colleagues across Scotland what else Jobtrain can do for us.
Anne: I have always been pleased by the flexibility shown by the senior team to adapt the product to work for NHS Scotland. A good working relationship makes change easier.
We know we’ve suggested some developments that you’ve taken away to build a stronger ATS and the enhancements you bring make a big difference.