Health and Care
The UK’s healthcare backbone, the NHS, is grappling with recruitment challenges. Giles Heckstall-Smith chatted with Ruth Saunders, Assistant Director of Talent Acquisition and Recruitment at NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT), to shed light on their ongoing revolution in NHS recruitment, bolstered by the Jobtrain ATS.
NHSBT, a national organisation with a team of over 6,000 dedicated individuals, is committed to “save and improve lives”. Their focus is to deliver vital blood products and blood-based therapies throughout England, as well as providing essential organ and tissue transplantation services across the UK.
“We deliver 1.4 million units of red blood cells, 250,000 units of platelets, and 200,000 plasma components to 260 hospitals,” Ruth elaborated.
With a team of 20 recruiters, Ruth highlighted that the conventional recruitment process at NHSBT was overly transactional and relied on a one-size-fits-all approach. With the rapidly changing market dynamics, especially in the aftermath of the pandemic, a pressing need developed to revolutionise their TA strategies. This transformation is an integral part of their overarching strategy and has secured support at the highest levels of leadership.
“The market has changed rapidly, especially post-pandemic. There was a need to reinvent “how we attract talent”, she explained. This transformation is part of the organisation’s broader strategy and is supported at the board level.”
The NHS Workforce Plan highlighted crucial metrics that the NHS is prioritising to enhance its recruitment efforts, including reducing time-to-hire. To meet the outcomes of that plan, change was needed.
Detailed insights on how to turn the Workforce Plan into a reality can be found in our comprehensive discussion paper – Making the NHS Workforce Plan a reality.
To kickstart the process, Ruth engaged with hiring managers, key stakeholders and trade union representatives to gather insights into the obstacles and opportunities that lay ahead.
“We focused on securing the foundations for the first 12 to 18 months. This involved looking at technology, data and brand presentation” Ruth said.
The central theme of NHSBT’s new recruitment strategy is to put the candidate at the heart of everything. “In this market, that’s where you win or lose” said Ruth.
Expanding on the ‘Candidate First’ strategy, Ruth pointed out that candidates today have different expectations.
“Candidates are used to shopping online, doing one or two clicks to do things. We need to get enough information from candidates that’s relevant and that candidates are happy to give when they’ve got many other opportunities that could be of interest to them,” she explained.
The emphasis lies on simplifying the application procedure and ensuring the pinnacle of user-friendliness is achieved, all while collecting the essential information to help us make well-informed recruitment decisions.
“There is an opportunity to reduce the length of the application form. We’re focusing on what information we need and when we need it” she said.
NHSBT is often confronted with high-volume recruitment campaigns for positions such as healthcare assistants and donor carers. Ruth found an interesting challenge they’ve had to overcome:
“The term ‘donor carer’ was not commonly searched for because it’s unique to NHSBT”. Following A/B testing with the job title “Healthcare Assistant for Donation,” they saw a substantial increase in the volume of applicants.
Ruth went on to discuss the complexities of high-volume recruitment. “What’s challenging about the role is that it doesn’t matter what your background is, so long as you’ve got great customer service skills” she said. Ruth went on to say:
“We’re working on how we simplify that process. We’re looking at some further automation in the future to automate that process through so that fundamentally we can be quicker, get better-matched candidates through the process and take some of the heavy lifting away from the hiring managers”
Towards the end of the webinar, Giles and Ruth took questions from the audience.
“NHSBT uses Jobtrain,” Ruth said. “It’s been a key part of our recruitment transformation journey.”
Giles continued to share insights on our collaboration with NHS Trusts. “The majority of Trusts typically use NHS Jobs or Trac for their recruitment needs. Over the past five years, Jobtrain has been a steadfast partner to all 22 boards of NHS Scotland and we are excited to be expanding our client base to include more NHS organisations and Trusts in England too.
An essential aspect of Trac’s historical success lies in its integration with NHS Jobs and ESR. Jobtrain has followed suit, offering these integrations seamlessly as part of our standard package. We’ve also observed a shift in recruiters’ preferences towards detailed reporting and a holistic recruitment approach.”
“This is a tough one,” Ruth said. “There’s so much work to do, there’s so much to deliver, there are so many conflicting priorities for recruitment teams. There’s no magic wand, but every interaction that we have with hiring managers is looking for opportunities to look at what your process at the beginning of every vacancy looks like. It can be quite illuminating for hiring managers.”
Looking for some additional advice? Download our guide on how to create successful partnerships with hiring managers – download a free copy here.
Ruth mentioned that they are working on their Employer Value Proposition (EVP) and are in the process of rolling out a new brand and career site. “We’re trying to be a bit more deliberate and a bit more data-driven about how we go and attract candidates to our organisation,” she added.
The groundbreaking evolution of NHS recruitment led by NHS Blood and Transplant is truly revolutionary. Under the insightful leadership of Ruth and her team, the organisation is setting new standards in recruitment, not only for themselves but potentially for the entire NHS. Through a focus on the candidate, the utilisation of cutting-edge ATS technology and a commitment to data-driven decision-making, NHSBT is attracting top-tier talent who resonate with their mission of saving and enhancing lives.
Ruth’s closing comments capture this perfectly: “Recruitment transformation is within our strategy and it’s a real ambition of the organisation to make changes.”
NHS Blood and Transplant help people donate blood, organs, tissues or stem cells to save someone in need. They offer a number of services including, blood services, transplantation services, diagnostic and therapeutic services, as well as clinical & research where they produce new and pioneering products and services that improve patient health.
