Briefing

Hackney Homes came to Jobsgopublic with an exciting proposition. In a first-of-its-kind move for the organisation, they had devised a new training programme that would provide young people with a step-up into careers within the public sector.

As opposed to an internship or apprenticeship, the scheme would see successful candidates take on full positions within Hackney Homes, be paid accordingly and receive thorough on-the-job training.

With eight vacancies available across six positions, Hackney Homes wanted to attract ambitious, creative and hard working young people. Having heard about the highly successful partnership between Jobsgopublic and another Hackney Council department, Hackney Homes approached Jobsgopublic in order to commission them to assist with the entire campaign, from attraction all the way through to appointment.

The objectives were to create a campaign which would speak directly to the target audience, this would be particularly aimed at local jobseekers within Hackney with the aim of giving back to the community. High priority was placed on creating a smooth candidate journey, ensuring that retention levels were high throughout the process. The biggest challenge of all would be the timing, with just a six-week timeframe between advertisement and appointment.

Solution

A multi-stage process was devised.

The initial use of a talent pool allowed candidates to quickly register their interest and be filtered against minimum criteria. Successful candidates would then be invited to apply in full through Jobsgopublic’s Applicant Tracking System (ATS). Those who met the more complex criteria would then be taken through to an assessment centre and, finally, interview.

Jobsgopublic created a purpose-built microsite to act as the face of the campaign with the running theme and tagline ‘Your journey starts here’. The tagline represented candidates taking their first steps of their career journey with Hackney Homes.

The microsite provided a flexible and modern central hub for the campaign rather than attempting to adapt Hackney’s main site.

With research showing that 92% of candidates in the target audience still used Google as their first port-of-call in a job search, Google advertising played a significant part in the attraction campaign. This ran alongside a highly targeted social media advertising which utilised imagery from the microsite to create a cohesive campaign.

On top of the digital attraction campaign, Jobsgopublic contacted a number of London universities in order to have the positions promoted to recent local graduates. This resulted in the scheme being advertised on a number of university job boards, their social media and alumni recruitment pages.

Results

The attraction campaign was live for just three weeks but received a huge number of applications to the talent pool. These candidates were quickly filtered and those meeting minimum criteria were invited to apply through Jobsgopublic’s ATS.

This resulted in:

• 214 full applications to the ATS
• 37 applicants shortlisted and invited to assessment centre
• 16 invited to interview
• All 8 positions filled

The campaign was considered to be a resounding success with 100% of the roles being filled in the limited timeframe at a significant saving to Hackney Homes. Jobsgopublic were commended for their innovative approach and the overwhelming figures achieved as a result.

The success of the campaign was highlighted when it was shortlisted for the ‘Recruitment Innovation’ award at the In-House Recruitment Awards 2015.

“We knew simply advertising on our site would be insufficient. We turned to Jobsgopublic, having worked with them before and fully confident of the level of professionalism they would bring to the project.

Throughout this campaign we were regularly updated on the progress being made and their attention to detail was faultless. Every aspect of the project displayed their flair for creativity and their understanding of our needs. They also provided us with comprehensive training to help manage our assessment and interview stages, which saved us so much time.

As we have come to expect, Jobsgopublic delivered excellent customer service and we will have no hesitation in using them for our next round of recruitment.”

Faisal Pirbhai, Resident Participation and Communities Manager

“This was the smoothest campaign to date from start to finish – working with an experienced company who have the ability to find the right calibre of candidates first time round was highly beneficial, time saving and cost effective.”

Emma John Francis, Project Manager, Hackney Homes

“I think the programme is a fantastic first step into local government/housing because you have the opportunity to learn as you work, which makes you more aware of your own development and identify what behaviours are expected of you. I think that the programme paves a new and less-traditional route into local government/housing that was much needed.”

Kelsey Comrie – Customer Services Officer – Leasehold Services (new recruit)