Re-engineering a HR workflow

The Limes is a small community centre that does big things in Walthamstow east London. Over the years the Limes relied on Word documents as part of their recruitment processes.

Applicants would apply for a job by email, and have a Word document sent for completion by reply, or have one posted to their land address.

The Limes asked us to make the Word form downloadable as part of our work in a site redevelopment.

Defining the workflow

We talked with the Limes about how they process their application forms and their applicants. From our conversation it became obvious that there were inefficiencies, inconsistencies and a lack of control over the process. We helped to define a new workflow that would leverage their investment in the website, and more importantly in CiviCRM.

Defining the user journey

We then had a conversation about what a typical user journey might be, from the point of seeing a vacancy to completing an interview. We then identified the touch points between The Limes and the job applicant and looked at how we could create a low-effort interaction that provided a positive emotional response from the applicant, and that provided value to the Limes. For example, we decided it would be better for an applicant to call for further details rather than be sent an email.

Putting it together

We firstly got rid of the Word form altogether. We created an online form with the bare minimum required to give the Limes the ability to shortlist. We used Webform CiviCRM to re-create the form online, paginated it, and used Bootstrap Layout to make the form work well on mobile devices. We used CiviCRM to create an Activity for each application and a series of Scheduled Reminders for each stage in the activity to send appropriate messages to the applicant and to members of the shortlisting panel. We also created email templates for successful and unsuccessful applicants.

We also looked at how the vacancies were advertised on line and in traditional and social media to maximise response from job applicants.