St Helens Borough Council: a year of transformation in local government recruitment

Public Sector and Government

St Helens Borough Council: a year of transformation in local government recruitment

What does a genuine recruitment transformation look like, twelve months on? At St Helens Borough Council, the answer involves a recruitment team that now leads with data, hiring managers who feel genuinely in control and a partnership with Jobtrain that has become a catalyst for wider cultural change – not just a system upgrade.

St Helens Borough Council replaced manual, paper-based recruitment process with Jobtrain’s applicant tracking system in February 2025. Within the first year, the council moved to data-driven hiring, reduced administrative workload, improved the candidate experience and empowered hiring managers across leisure, social care, schools and supported living to recruit more effectively.

Chapter 1 — the partnership today

Watch: St Helens Borough Council reflects on a year with Jobtrain

In this video, we hear from members of the St Helens team – from central recruitment to frontline hiring managers across Leisure, Children’s Social Care, Schools and Supported Living – on what the past year has really felt like and what they’re building towards next.

Diana Read

HR & Recruitment Manager

Ste Rigby

Operations Manager

Jenny Swift

Systems & Analytics Manager

Jane Ascroft

Hiring Manager, Go Active

Jim Flatley

Hiring Manager, Go Active

Tracy Sexton

Hiring Manager, Children’s Social Care

Tracy Pickering

Hiring Manager, Supported Living

00:00 – Introduction
00:14 – How St Helens Council transformed their recruitment
00:50 – Pre-Jobtrain vs now – what feels most different
02:54 – Go Active campaign and Values in Practice Award
03:55 – Silver medallists and working more efficiently
05:48 – What St Helens would tell other local authorities
06:35 – Hiring manager experience: speed, visibility, less admin
07:18 – Developing a positive candidate journey
11:57 – The partnership with Jobtrain
13:38 – Jobtrain is…

When you sign up for an ATS with Jobtrain, you don’t just get a great system – you also get the wrap-around support of a great team.

“

The Jobtrain ATS platform is at the heart of our recruitment modernisation journey at St Helens Council. Launched in February 2025 we are already seeing fantastic results. The relationship between St Helens and Jobtrain is a true partnership – I have had the good fortune to work with the Jobtrain team at every level and every stage of the project.

This is an intuitive system with enabling features and functionality that is giving us the flexibility and freedom to really bring our modernisation plans to life, helping to transform ways of working that best supports our hirers, candidates and internal teams.

When you sign up for an ATS with Jobtrain you don’t just get a great system, you also get the wrap-around support of a great team. Special mention to Julie Dunning, Kelly Mallett and Georgia Tallents – although I cannot praise the whole team highly enough for their professionalism, customer care and infectious energy and positivity. A genuinely decent and authentic group of people who clearly love what they do.

Diana Read

People Operations Service & Recruitment Manager, St Helens Borough Council

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Chapter 2 — the implementation journey

Video: St Helens Borough Council’s implementation journey with Jobtrain

When St Helens Borough Council was progressing through implementation and training, we caught up with the team to hear how the process was going. The video below captures that early journey – the challenges, the decisions and the moments when things began to click into place.

00:00 – Introduction
00:31 – The challenges recruiting with traditional processes
01:03 – Why they chose Jobtrain
01:35 – Hiring Manager experience now
02:06 – Partnership: two-way implementation and training process
06:30 – St Helens Borough Council’s final thoughts

What recruitment challenges did St Helens face before Jobtrain?

Before Jobtrain, recruitment at St Helens Borough Council was time-consuming, manual and largely paper-based. Hiring managers and candidates often felt out of the loop and the processes in place weren’t keeping pace with the council’s ambitions. To bring everything in line with a modern, data-driven recruitment strategy, the council needed an ATS built to flex across a wide range of departments – from Ground Maintenance and Supported Living to Catering and Finance.

What made St Helens Borough Council’s ATS implementation successful?

The roll-out was described as “nothing short of outstanding” by the St Helens team. Three factors made it work:

Open communication – regular contact between our Client Success team, St Helens’ People team and their key stakeholders ensured the process stayed on track and achieved buy-in from across the organisation.

Tailored training – a combination of virtual and in-person scoping and training sessions provided support and helped users feel confident with the new ATS.

Ongoing input – managers and teams were involved every step of the way throughout implementation and training, ensuring the ATS matched all their needs and more.

“It has been nothing short of outstanding… seamless from start to finish.”

Ste Rigby

Operations Manager in People Management and OD, St Helens Borough Council

How has Jobtrain changed recruitment at St Helens Borough Council?

Since going live in February 2025, St Helens Borough Council has seen real improvements across their recruitment operations. Processes are more efficient, recruitment cycles are shorter and the administrative burden on the People team has reduced significantly. Hiring managers now have real-time access to recruitment data and onboarding updates – and candidates experience a more engaging, transparent journey from application to start date.

The council is now making data-driven decisions as standard, using advanced reporting tools to measure success and identify areas for improvement. Features like social media integration and our Job Board Marketplace have helped attract the right candidates more quickly – including for hard-to-fill roles.

Chapter 3 — project spotlight

Reimagining Leisure & Services recruitment

Powered by Jobtrain, a look at St Helens Council and Go Active’s event-led recruitment campaign that resulted in resounding results.

What can other local councils learn from St Helens’ recruitment transformation?

Twelve months into their Jobtrain journey, what can other local government and public sector organisations learn from how St Helens Council approached their transformation?

Focus on user experience

Prioritise both your candidates and your internal teams – what goals do you have to improve their experience?

Engage your teams early

Involve key stakeholders, such as hiring managers, from the start to help drive adoption and success.

Use data

Measure before implementing the ATS and set targets you want to achieve. Recruitment metrics will help track progress and highlight areas for improvement.

Start small, think big

Choose an ATS that will scale and adapt to your organisation’s needs as you grow and evolve.

Frequently asked questions about ATS for local government

+Can an applicant tracking system work across a whole council with multiple departments?

Yes. A well-configured ATS can manage recruitment across a wide range of council departments simultaneously – from social care and leisure to schools, finance, NHS and facilities management. St Helens Borough Council uses Jobtrain across this full range of services, with different workflows, approval structures and compliance requirements handled within a single system. The key is choosing an ATS built with the flexibility to accommodate the complexities of a large local authority.

+How long does it take for a local council to implement a new ATS?

Implementation timelines vary depending on the size of the organisation and the complexity of existing processes, but most councils go live within three to six months. St Helens Borough Council completed implementation and went live with Jobtrain in February 2025 having worked through a structured process of scoping, configuration, tailored training and stakeholder engagement.

+What results can local authorities expect from a modern ATS?

Results vary by organisation, but councils that move from manual or legacy systems to a modern ATS will see shorter recruitment cycles, reduced administrative burden on HR teams, greater visibility for hiring managers and a more consistent candidate experience. St Helens Borough Council saw improvements across all of these areas within their first year of using Jobtrain.

+How does an ATS help with hard-to-fill roles in local government?

Modern applicant tracking systems help with hard-to-fill roles by building and managing talent pools of silver medallist candidates, by extending reach quickly and by providing data insights that help recruitment teams understand where previous campaigns have and haven’t worked. St Helens Borough Council has used Jobtrain’s talent pooling and data capabilities to improve outcomes in difficult-to-recruit posts.

+What does good candidate experience look like in public sector recruitment?

In public sector recruitment, a good candidate experience means timely communication at every stage, a straightforward and accessible application process, clear pre-employment and compliance steps, and an onboarding journey that feels joined-up. St Helens Borough Council uses Jobtrain to manage the full journey from application to start date, ensuring candidates stay informed and engaged throughout.

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Interested in learning how Jobtrain can support your organisation?

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