Understanding and improving the recruitment process

By Edmund Glynn, Senior Improvement Advisor for ICS

ELFT is committed to developing a process for recruiting new staff that is smooth, fast and efficient. Delays in a recruitment episode risk frustrating managers and applicants alike. The recruitment team at ELFT have known this more than anyone, and work extremely hard to make the process work. They have been using a process map to better understand the recruitment process and identify areas for improvement.

A map describing the recruitment process has been developed by the Head of Resourcing  Sonia Kaur, along with Senior Resourcing Managers Ismail Arabley, Yemi Okubadejo with the involvement of Team lead Tosin Ogunduyile.  This has resulted in a clear visual representation of the recruitment process (see below).

Several managers across the Trust were invited to take part in the exercise of putting the map together, and their input has ensured that the challenges of recruitment from the managers’ perspective have been included. For example, Carol-Ann Sargent, Consultant Clinical Psychologist and Clinical Lead described the challenges for her team in the Bedfordshire and Luton Complex Needs Service.

“It is a real challenge to take time out from people’s busy work schedules to participate in recruitment, so it is important to make the process as streamlined as possible.”

The exercise of mapping out each step in the process has helped them identify areas of duplication, waste, and unnecessary steps. By involving a range of people from across the pathway, the team has been able to discuss in detail the actual steps taken through the pathway from their own perspective and take the time to think through what works well or less well at the moment.

Ismail Arabley has been surprised at how useful the mapping exercise has been:

“It has been great to take a step back and look at the process we have, and looking at each step of process in detail. We have already identified opportunities to improve the process, for example making amendments to Trac, enabling its functions to automate and use to its full potential as well as through potentially automating steps in the process that we perform manually.”