Modernising the charity’s hiring processes through recruitment software and a bespoke careers site.
The Company
Sue Ryder provides hospice and neurological care for people facing a frightening, life-changing diagnosis. They do whatever they can to be a safety net for their patients and their loved ones at the most difficult time of their lives. They see the person, not the condition.
The Challenge
Sue Ryder’s recruitment function was using HR software which wasn’t fit for purpose; it wasn’t user friendly, there was no management reporting and hiring managers were unable to view new applicants until 24 hours after they had applied.
Webrecruit had previously approached Laura Sargent, Sue Ryder’s Head of Recruitment, to discuss the organisation’s recruitment advertising. The conversation naturally moved on to focus on the charity’s recruitment technology requirements.
“Not only were we looking for an ATS that was fully functional, we were also looking for a new way of displaying vacancies on our website. We were advertising our roles on an external site but it wasn’t properly linked to our system so there was a disconnect.”
One of Sue Ryder’s biggest challenges was finding an ATS that everyone in the business could easily get to grips with, regardless of their technical ability.
“We’re a large organisation with several sites; the system we chose had to accommodate users with varying levels of technical ability, from recruitment staff to nurses. It needed to be simple, clean and easy-to-use.”
The Solution
In September 2017, Laura and the team at Sue Ryder began using Webrecruit ATS to manage the organisation’s recruitment process. It matched their requirements perfectly due to its intuitive interface and ability to accommodate their 120+ user base.
Webrecruit’s technology team also got to work building a bespoke careers site for Sue Ryder, taking on board Laura’s specific requirements and ideas for the site.
“I had a very clear vision for the careers site and the Webrecruit team were absolutely brilliant at listening to what I wanted and creating it. The search functionality was really important to me; as we have multiple sites throughout the UK, I wanted candidates to be able to search for roles using their postcode as a base. I also worked closely with the Webrecruit team to ensure the site was scalable, so our own marketing team could expand on employer branding initiatives and feature employee-driven content.”
The Results
The team at Sue Ryder have noticed a huge difference since implementing Webrecruit ATS and the organisation’s new careers site.
“The careers site and ATS have pulled us into the 21st century. They’re both slick, modern and represent Sue Ryder as the organisation it actually is. Webrecruit ATS makes it much easier to keep track of our candidates and follow up on applications.”
Using the reporting functionality within Webrecruit ATS, Laura and the Sue Ryder team have been able to monitor their ROI on recruitment advertising and look forward to sitting down and planning where to invest advertising spend in the future.
Laura has also made good use of the talent pool search functionality held within Webrecruit ATS.
“The talent pool functionality is great; we receive over 15,000 applications a year from candidates and some of our retail positions have a high turnover. This means that we can now tap into applications that weren’t successful before and make candidates aware that positions are now available again.”
The team at Sue Ryder have also noticed positive results from their new careers site, particularly with the job alerts functionality, which allows potential candidates to register their interest to receive emails alerting them of relevant vacancies.
“The job alerts functionality on our careers site is a game changer. We have 3,500 paid members of staff working for Sue Ryder but also over 12,000 volunteers. Many volunteers seek paid positions with us, so we now encourage them to sign up for the job alerts, which is a great way of making them aware of new vacancies. Since our careers site was implemented, we’ve managed to place several voluntary workers into paid positions within the organisation, which is fantastic.”
Final Words
“I would absolutely recommend Webrecruit; I already do! If you’re looking for an intuitive, easy-to-use system at a cost-effective price point with a great level of after care, you should use Webrecruit ATS. Webrecruit is like a one-stop-shop for everything we need.”
– Laura Sargent, Head of Recruitment, Sue Ryder.
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