Technology Enabling Better Recruitment Decisions – A Case Study from the Church of England

Our friends at TribePad are joining us at the Recruitment Technology Conference this year to showcase how technology can address some of the most common recruiter pain points, from talent shortages to Diversity & Inclusion. But ahead of their talk, they shared with us a special case study from their work with the Church of England. 

The hiring landscape is a tough environment, both for jobseekers and employers. In 2018, roughly 6.5m job applications were made through our platform, for a total of 167,463 jobs. That’s an average of 39 applications for every job listed.

And if we look at the really competitive sectors, this figure gets higher. Logistics roles were in the most demand, with 79 applications made on average, followed by hospitality with 67, tech, telecoms and media with 53, automotive with 50, and legal and retail in joint fifth with 38 applications on average each. Diving deeper, for the most popular jobs, this figure gets even bigger. For one role – a journalism trainee scheme – nearly 9,000 applications were made, while a Christmas retail associate role received 3,935 applications. These are huge figures showing that, despite ONS statistics revealing unemployment is at its lowest since the 70s, there is still fierce competition for new roles.

This situation is overwhelming for most employers who often need to fill roles quickly too. Add to this the additional responsibilities of those looking after recruitment and the fact that they are rarely just recruiting for one role, and you have a pretty stressful process.

Recruiters and hiring teams can struggle to keep up. They’re focusing on hiring talent that applies the quickest, and which is good enough, rather than the best. This eventually has a knock-on effect. Imagine what you could do with the best talent, rather than the bare minimum?

We believe technology is the answer. Employers have to ensure they have recruitment solutions that can cope by utilising technology to help manage and vet applications during busy periods, at scale.

We recently started working with the Church of England (CoE) supporting its recruitment processes. Prior to TribePad, the CoE had no digital presence or process when it came to managing applications, despite the fact that it consists of a 19,000 strong workforce of clergy, staff and volunteers. This process had also been largely managed through paper applications and notice boards, meaning that it was an exceptionally admin-heavy and analog process.

The Church would freely admit that a change was needed. Since using our Applicant Tracking System (ATS), the Church has seen an increase in job applications, a wider diversity of applications, improved perception as an employer, as well as a much improved user experience. While the volume of applicants has risen, the platform means employers can identify the right talent, at an easily manageable and scalable way by creating a digital first platform that is easily searchable for the employer, and easy to use for the applicant. The process gives employers more information, and helps candidates better demonstrate their skills and suitability using video-enriched applications, psychometric profiles and their social footprint, rather than a dull CV.

It’s also meant that the Church has been able to create a more streamlined cost-efficient workflow. TribePad enabled more than 75% of job searches and 30% of applications to be made on mobile devices by delivering an optimised, AAA compliant, intuitive candidate interface. Roles were made visible to candidates who might otherwise have missed these by failing to look at the parish noticeboard.

Technology such as ours is the enabling force for employers to manage the application process better. Because in a competitive business environment, it’s important you have the best staff for the job. And, in a world where the war for talent is increasing, and employers are creaking under the strain of applications, you need to have a recruitment platform, enabled by technology, that can cope with the fast-paced nature of recruitment.