An Amazing Use of New Technology - that's Changeworknow!

Please forgive us as it is a week on and we continue to blog about the award win. Well rightly so we think as it was an amazing achievement. The offical photos of the night are now for public viewing on the Personnel Today website and we are particuarly proud of the judges comments:

"River Island combined traditional technology and social media in an innovative way - an amazing use of new technology in recruitment."

We think that your new technology lauched this year is "amazing" and good to think that others are starting to agree too. Only yesterday I received an email from an HR professional who said that " our team think Changeworknow's system is one of the best systems out there". How right she is!


Anyway back to last week's win and here we are collecting our award...

Personnel Today Award winners!

This morning the Changeworknow team and River Island are waking with huge smiles on their faces. Last night we were triumphant in winning the Personnel Today award for Excellence in HR through Technology at the annual awards dinner at the Park Lane Hilton.




It was a great night and we are thrilled that our work and partnership with River Island has been recognised in these prestigious awards. I know I am biased but it was so well deserved. The combination of great leading edge technology, super efficient processes and a forward thinking recruitment team at River Island led to this success.

Well done to everyone - great job!

Turning up the Heat for the Party Season........

..is the headline on River Islands website today. What a great strapline as we will certainly be doing that today! The snow may have arrived in Henley but that is not going to stop members of the Changeworknow team and River Island leaving work earlier than usual to prepare for tonights Personnel Today Award dinner in London.

We have enjoyed a two year partnership with River Island and are delighted that the work has been recognised in these prestigious HR awards. River Island are finalist in the category Excellence in HR through Technology and rightly so as they have achieved significant results such as:

• Reduction in screening amounting to a £300,000 cost saving



• Average time to hire of 19 days



• Removing one third of the work load for managers with an estimated £800,000 cost saving to the business

With results like these we are all looking forward to tonight's event. A chance to celebrate whatever the result. Fingers crossed and good luck!

Why even bad news can be good news!!

I received a letter earlier this week; from a travel company with whom I had entered a competition.

I’d been invited to take part in a survey earlier this year, on the subject of cycling holidays. Cycling and Holidays! Two things I love to do, and with the added incentive of being entered into a prize draw to win a holiday I was hooked.

Usual type of questionnaire, didn’t take too long. I hit ‘finished’ and thought if I win I’ll hear from them, if I don’t then I will resign myself to being marketed to unashamedly.

So imagine my surprise when the letter opened with: “I am writing to thank you for taking the time to fill out our recent cycling survey. I am sorry to say that you did not win the prize draw, however I would like to share some good news which may help get your holiday planning off to a good start for 2011”

The letter then proceeded to share the results of the feedback they had received, and what they were offering next year in response to this. Closing the loop.

Yes, it was a standard letter, but it was addressed to me! I suddenly felt strangely touched by the fact that they had bothered to tell me the news rather than leave me guessing. I suddenly felt that this company cared enough about their customer experience to continue to have a dialogue with me and demonstrate that my input had been of value.

I might not be ready to book a holiday with them now, but you never know I might be ready at some point in the future. And they clearly understand that.

Usually with competitions ‘if you don’t hear, you haven’t been successful’!

Now, where have I heard that phrase before? I couldn’t help thinking about the parallels with online recruitment.

All too often candidates who apply for a job are given the same message. Online recruitment technology makes it SO easy today to give candidates feedback on whether their application has been successful or not, so why wouldn’t you do it?

• It shows you care about the individual’s experience with your company and your brand
  
• It respects their time and effort
  
• It demonstrates a human touch, especially if you care enough to think about the content
  
• It keeps the door open for further interaction both as a candidate and a potential customer

And you never know a candidate might not be ready for a job with you now, but they might be at some point in the future.

Come and take a look at our website and see for yourselves the kind of organisations that we work with who care enough about their candidates to give them a positive and engaging experience. http://www.changeworknow.co.uk/

Lesley Nash, Managing Director

Zizzi's selects Changeworknow to put Passion into Online Recruitment

Zizzi, the restaurant chain known for hiring people that ‘love what they do’ has selected online recruitment specialists Changeworknow to launch an online recruitment process that will help it to bring people in to the business that have a love for food, service and customers.

Selected for their passion and commitment to providing a great candidate experience and a highly efficient and user friendly applicant tracking system Changeworknow’s solution will enable Zizzi to provide a high touch approach to all candidates throughout the process and hire talented people who are passionate about their jobs. The first phase of the implementation is for management recruitment with team member planned to launch in the new year.

Changeworknow’s new on line resourcing and talent platform incorporates some of the most innovative functionality of any solution on the market today and is already providing substantial benefits for both recruiters and candidates. Zizzi’s are the latest organisation to benefit from this offering and in doing so join Changeworknow’s growing portfolio of blue chip clients.

To see the new system in action please click here

Changeworknow team continues to grow

We are delighted to announce that we have a new addition to our team here at Changeworknow. Nolwenn Balavoine has joined our Client Services team as Implementation Consultant.

No stranger to the online recruitment industry Nolwenn comes to us with six years experience of working with leading companies to implement technology solutions. Formerly at Stepstone Solutions working in a similar role Nolwenn has a wealth of expertise in recruitment, project management, client relationship and consulting having worked with clients such as Boots and Gala Coral Group. She joins us at a very exciting time as we continue to launch the new technology platform with existing and new clients.

Nolwenn is a great addition to our team and we are all very excited that she has joined us!

PizzaExpress yourself!

Everyone at Changeworknow is delighted to be working with PizzaExpress as they launch their new restaurant in Richmond. We began a partnership with them in July to develop an online recruitment system and so far the key highlights include:

• Delivering the system from start to finish in just 4 weeks
• 500 applications in the first week alone
• Just over 1000 applications received for this one restaurant including applications from fire eaters, jugglers and ballerinas (this must be down to the creative and quirky attraction strategy in place!)
• Restaurant fully staffed and opened last week
  

We like to support our clients here at Changeworknow so last week we ordered pizza take away for our company meeting - PizzaExpress of course (although we will have a dilemma next week when Zizzi go live with their online recruitment system!)

The next step will be management recruitment online. However before that some of us here in the office are really hoping for a visit to the new restaurant to be "flirted with" and to see what all the hype is about. Watch this space!

A New Addition to our Team!

We are delighted to announce that we have a new member of our team. Kavin Nijhawan joined us a few weeks ago and is already establishing himself as a force to be reckoned with in our IT team. If anyone can keep those servers up and running then Kavin can. With a strong background and experience in systems administration working for a US software provider Kavin is quickly getting involved and immersed in the robust Changeworknow infrastructure that we provide for our team and our clients. He has even been spotted with a Ruby on Rails manual on his desk!

Welcome Kavin!

Changeworknow’s new recruitment system set to create a seismic shift in the online recruitment market

Changeworknow has launched a new ‘smarter’ version of its highly successful e recruitment and talent acquisition solution.

Built on a brand new platform, and using the most advanced technologies available, the system’s intelligent prioritisation capabilities enable recruiters and managers to easily and readily see which activities they need to focus on – drastically reducing administration and, consequently, the time to hire.

The system incorporates new generation features such as graphical interactive dashboards, tag cloud capability and extensive use of tooltip for the user interface, as well as all the features expected from a best-of-breed e recruitment solution: vacancy management, sophisticated candidate screening, full candidate management, response handling and tracking, on boarding and talent and succession management.

Already in use by two leading high street organisations, the solution maintains Changeworknow’s candidate-centric philosophy, significantly enhancing the overall applicant experience with an interactive candidate career portal for candidate relationship optimisation.

The system has already received great acclaim from HR users: “The system is easy to use and incorporates what can only be described as technical genius in much of its functionality – far superior among many of its competitors in the marketplace and, believe me, I have seen a few.”

The system includes functionality for the mobile environment, including the iPhone and handheld PDAs. It also offers a high degree of flexibility for users, allowing them to configure the system to suit the way they work.

Lisa Proctor, Changeworknow’s Sales and Marketing Director, explains: “The new system will create a seismic shift in the recruitment technology market. It is already revolutionising online recruitment for the organisations using it, who say that in just a matter of weeks it has reduced administration workload by 60%, on top of the average 40% reduction already achieved with the first version.”

Changeworknow has developed a solution that meets the needs of today’s multi-generational workforce by combining its ten years of experience in the online recruitment market with listening to customers’ current market needs, observing market trends and using some of the latest and most exciting technologies available.

Only 15 weeks to go til Christmas but the rush has started

Well from a recruitment perpsective it has anyway. September normally sees the start of the seasonal recruitment for most retailers. Our clients always seem to be ahead of the game here with some peak recruitment kicking off in August.

This week we have seen with a few clients a huge amount of activity with one high street retailer receiving almost 2,500 applications yesterday. How do we know? Well our new platform has some very sophisticated and dynamically produced reports which within a matter of seconds and at the touch of a button (literally!) gives information such as the image below.



This is management information that most organisations can only dream about. Maybe a few HR professionals should consider putting a meeting with Changeworknow on their list for thie Christmas?

PizzaExpress Restaurants selects Changeworknow to deliver online recruitment and talent system

PizzaExpress, the nation’s favourite Pizza Restaurant has partnered with Changeworknow, the online recruitment specialists, to develop a recruitment solution that will support the business in its continuing mission to recruit ‘People with Passion’.

Changeworknow’s new and exciting recruitment platform will enable PizzaExpress to deliver a fantastic candidate experience, in order to attract the very best people; and recruit a workforce, with ease and efficiency, that is serious about making a difference and WOWING its customers.

Changeworknow was selected because of its strategic partnership model and unique approach to online recruitment, which builds core organisational values and motivations into the selection process.

Lesley Nash, Managing Director at Changeworknow comments “The online recruitment solution for PizzaExpress is totally aligned to the strategic direction of the business and will play an important role in their recruitment strategy, putting Pizza Express ahead of their competitors in an intensifying war for talent. The cutting edge candidate management system is built on our brand new platform which challenges the paradigms of traditional ATS’s allowing recruiters and hiring managers to engage super-efficiently with candidates and hire perfectly matched people”.

Working on the principle of ‘one size does not fit all’ the solution will be flexible enough for Restaurant Managers to recruit team members with ease and minimum effort and for Central Recruiters to manage more sophisticated campaigns and talent pools.

Louise Gallant, Recruitment Manager, explains “PizzaExpress have been working with Changeworknow for only a matter of weeks so far in which time we completed the first phase of implementation. We wanted a recruitment system that would not only manage a smooth candidate journey for us and provide state of the art functionality, but a provider who understood the people they were working with whilst providing us with the best people for the job. The online process provides a seamless and pleasurable experience not only for the user but considers the feelings of any potential candidate and guides them through the application process with ease and confidence, even if they are not quite right for the role they are applying to. The online questionnaires work effectively to select the right candidates time after time and make our life very easy”.

Personnel Today Awards 2010

We are pleased to announce that River Island has been shortlisted as a finalist in the Award for Excellence in HR through Technology or Social Media category of the Personnel Today Awards 2010.

With results such as £300,000 saving on screening applications and an estimated £800,000 saving as a result of process improvement using the latest recruitment technology developed by Changeworknow, we are delighted that our partnership with River Island has been recognised by the biggest and best awards in the HR profession.

The winners will be announced at the Awards ceremony in November. Members of Changeworknow and River Island will be attending so fingers crossed!

River Isand - leading the way in fashion and online recruitment!

River Island the leading high street fashion retailer has expanded its online recruitment system to incorporate head office roles. Following on from their highly successful retail online recruitment activities River Island is now looking to recruit all vacancies within the business using our solution. The head office online system has been launched using Changeworknow’s brand new platform launched in early summer.

The new system features the latest and most advanced technologies on the market and will enable River Island not only to drive down agency costs but create greater efficiencies in the recruitment process with features such as tag clouding, activity prioritisation cues and extensive use of tooltip for a much improved recruiter and manager experience.

The retail team have been using the new system since May and the productivity gains have been outstanding and immediate. An amazing 400 quality hires were made in just two weeks by one recruiter alone.

Lesley Nash, Managing Director, explains “This new system has been designed to give recruiters and managers significantly more efficiencies in how applicants are managed and communicated with. The system interface is highly intuitive and challenges all the existing paradigms of how a traditional applicant tracking system should be used. River Island have seen the benefit of these efficiency changes in a matter of weeks”.

Birthday celebrations at the Henley Festival

Last week Changeworknow took a break from online resourcing and headed to the Henley Festival to celebrate our end of year and the start of our tenth year as a company. A lot has changed in the ten years that we have been in operation and over the next year we will be celebrating this milestone with some special events.

But first off a night at the Henley Festival of Music and Arts with the team to sample some fabulous food at the Albert Roux restaurant and to watch Will Young perform. Our two founders were more than delighted to have their picture taken with Michel Roux himself!



One can never be sure of the weather on these occasions but we were blessed with perfect conditions for the team to enjoy the delights of Henley at its very best. The consensus was that we should do it all again next year and with our new year off to a great start there should be no reason why not!

Finding candidates with a "teachable fit"

With records levels of unemployment some organisations are still struggling to fill key positions. Simply the skills required and the people available do not always match up.

Flexibility and agility is a key part of success in today’s world of work, and individuals often now experience several career transitions during their working life. Employers must adapt and take advantage of this flexibility to ensure they have the talent they need. Employers should consider candidates who may not meet all of the job specifications, but whose capability gaps can be filled in a timely and cost-effective way. A commitment to re-skilling and up-skilling current and potential employees will enable organisations to expand the available pools of talent (both internal and external), ensure that their workforces continue to be appropriately skilled and keep employees engaged in their work. The key to this new mindset is the ability to identify a “teachable fit.”

So how can you use online recruitment to identify this "teachable fit" and what role can it play? Lesley Nash explains:

"I agree whole heartedly with the notion of "teachable fit" when recruiting and have to admit that the increased use of online recruitment systems with automated screening has, in many cases just made matters worse and encouraged organisations to become narrow minded in their search for perfection. ‘In’ or ‘Out’ is the order of the day for many organisations.

Online questionnaires, in inexperienced hands are often used as blunt instruments to find perfection and reject the rest. The ubiquitous use of killer questions, or showstoppers give no room for highlighting those candidates who don’t quite match the specific skills set needed but DO have a ‘teachable fit’.

Killer questions are the quick and dirty way to get a questionnaire set up and start to sift volume. And yes, they can help you find the top stars, but an awful lot of talent can get overlooked when the bar is set to perfection.

We have been helping clients for over 10 years at the very beginning of the selection process to not only identify the star talent ie the A candidates, but also to identify those with potential, with a ‘teachable fit’, ie the B candidates. What is needed are flexible questionnaires and sophisticated scoring tools along with a good dose of common sense when it comes to questionnaire design.

So City Inn and Mitchells and Butlers are both able to be flexible and agile when it comes to recruitment and filling their capability gaps by having a pool of candidates who can be identified as either star performers, or those with potential worth investing in. Long may that continue."

High Street Agencies - their new role

Lesley Nash, MD, contributes to an article in this months ONREC magazine. She discusses how the role of the high street recruitment agencies is changing in today's recruitment landscape.

http://tiny.cc/j7cfw

Barratt Homes build dream workforce

Recent press coverage about Barratt Homes discovering the ideal time to build their dream workforce http://tiny.cc/52lnj

Hiring the A players from GenX/Y - make sure you broker the job honestly!

Hiring the A players..How do you do this when we a staring generation x / y and now generation me in the face? what changes do you need in your attraction and recrutiment strategy to get the best?

One important perspective is around how you define 'the best' and what you are looking for from 'the best'. More than ever with this generation, clarity about what will be required in the job is crucial as the first part of the quid pro quo. The clearer your brief is, the more effective it will be as a self selection tool. And then, for this generation 'me', your proposition needs to make clear 'what's in it for me?'. In addition to good website content, both sides of this equation can be addressed very effectively with well designed online screening questionnaires that help applicants from this generation assess for themselves job content and the values needed; and then give candidates immediate feedback. Make no mistake generation x/y will not hang around if they see early on that a job is not going to fit with their goals, needs or wants. On the other hand the sooner the A players get a sense of how close a match your offering is, the greater the chance you have of engaging them in the selection process and hiring them before anyone else gets to them.