Devon upgrades to Recruit v5
Devon County Council is upgrading to Recruit v5 and, for the first time, has opted for the software as a service model (SaaS), with Abacus e-Media providing hosting from their secure environment.
Natasha Kitson, Workforce Development Team Manager, Devon County Council: “We had wanted to use more of the Recruit facilities, particularly work flow, in order to work more efficiently, but were concerned that with several thousand managers to train, this would have been a very time-consuming task, being such a large authority covering a substantial geographical area. However it was clear when we first saw the new user interface in v5 that it would greatly reduce the need for in-depth training as it is more intuitive with additional on-line help facilities. We believed that our managers could be largely self-taught.”
This new Ajax- driven user interface supports the fast and easy devolution of many processes from HR to the relevant department manager. Recruit has the flexible workflow module to enable processes to be undertaken throughout an organisation whilst ensuring that all the necessary checks are made and each step is authorised.
Devon County Council is currently putting the software through an intensive testing period, with the plan to pilot workflow and enable additional facilities in August. Natasha Kitson and her colleagues are already aware that workflows vary significantly within the different Council Directorates and that this will require time to put in place. However by December 2010, the Council hopes to have Recruit v5 fully implemented for two Directorates: Corporate Resources, Environment, Economy and Culture, and also within the Libraries department of Adult Community Services.
Natasha Kitson: “With the previous version of Recruit, we simply used it for job advertising. With the arrival of Recruit v 5 we are intending to use it to manage the majority of the recruitment process including advert requests and approvals, advertising, short listing, taking up references, job offers and contracts.”
Devon County Council's Recruitment Services team acts as a not for profit trading unit. In June 2010, they were advertising approximately 250 job vacancies at any one time using Recruit. Approximately, 50% of these were handled on behalf of external not-for-profit organisations for which Devon County Council handles the recruitment. It is intended that a full online recruitment service will be offered to external organisations and schools that once established for Devon County Council's own vacancies.
So far, Natasha has only received positive interest and feedback from managers and external customers. Everyone involved so far is excited about the potential savings to be made and is looking forward to coming on board.
