How Webrecruit worked with the leading student accommodation provider to attract, manage and hire over 100 housekeeping staff based in 21 cities throughout the UK.
The Company
Every year over 45,000 students choose a home with Unite Students. With 133 buildings throughout 28 key university cities and towns across the UK, they help their customers to get the most out of their university experience by providing homes that give them the freedom, comfort and facilities to succeed.
The Challenge
Unite Students needed to recruit over 100 housekeeping assistants, based within 21 different cities, who were required to commence work on the same day.
Unite Students wanted to keep the recruitment of these personnel in-house, rather than use outsourced temp agencies, leading to greater control of the people and processes that would, in turn, improve calibre of candidate.
Their main challenges included:
- Sourcing a high volume of candidates across multiple locations
- Screening and assessing a high volume of candidates over the telephone
- Advertising during periods that are traditionally quiet
- Sourcing candidates for roles with varying shift patterns
- The provision of a seamless candidate experience delivered by a third party
We had three months to attract, select, appoint and train over 100 staff¬ – all of whom would help us to deliver our renewed promise of providing exceptional customer service. The issues were the strict deadlines and associated pressures relating to a project of this size.
Because of the acute nature of the demand, we needed to flex up our in-house sourcing provision, without hiring an additional team. So we sought an add-on provision which could accommodate this sudden increase in resourcing requirements.”
With the University term-time fast approaching, Webrecruit was up against the clock to deliver these candidates ready for interview by Unite Students.
The Solution
Webrecruit created a project team that complemented Unite Student’s internal workflows. The team was tasked with the timely delivery of shortlisted and telephone-interviewed applicants to Unite Students who would carry out the final face-to-face interviews.
The volume recruitment solution included:
- The creation of a project team to manage the attraction and shortlisting of candidates
- Cost-effective job board advertising
- CV screening and telephone interviewing
- The delivery of qualified candidates, scheduled into Unite interview timetable
- Processes that would complement existing candidate experience procedures
All recruitment advertising was reviewed and tweaked, if necessary, on a regular basis to influence candidate attraction rates. Additionally, the project team ensured that all candidates received feedback, no matter what the outcome was, to reinforce Unite Students’ branding attributes.
The Results
The project lasted three months, in which the Webrecruit team filtered over 6,000 CVs, from all the UK’s major towns and cities.
Within this period, Unite Students delivered against its objectives, ensuring all 21 cities were equipped with staff ready to engage with its students. 99 out of 102 candidate placements were made, with 100% staff ready to commence within the same period.
Final Words
The thing with Webrecruit is, you’re easy to deal with, and you listen. These are two fundamental factors I look for in a recruitment partner. I knew what I wanted the end result to be from this project, and following the proposal you provided me with, I knew you could deliver it. You were every bit as invested in the process as me and my team. It was this shared energy which made it such a success.”
– Recruitment Team, Unite Students.
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