Holding The Hand Of Passive Candidates: How To Do It And Why You Need To
Just R CEO and Founder, Rachael Bagshaw, tells us about the Just R recruitment pipeline management (RPM) system, and how it can support your recruitment challenges.
Through our work with over 60 Trusts over the past 7 years, me and my team at Just R understand the complexities surrounding the NHS recruitment. A need we identified early on was a solution which would enable the engagement with and management of passive candidates.
It is no secret that many NHS recruitment teams still operate on a traditional, transactional basis with their focus being the processing of applications made through NHS Jobs or Trac. This may have been sufficient in the past but what has happened over the last 10 years is that the volume of these applications has become insufficient to fill the vacancies across all areas, therefore the need to do things differently is critical.
There is a need for NHS recruitment services to transform and this transformation needs to be centred around the candidate journey and reaching passive as well as active candidates.
Passive Candidate Attraction
Only 30% of workers are actively seeking a job at any one time, the remaining 70% of candidates remain ‘passive,’ it is in tapping into this passive audience that the key to transforming the outlook of the NHS workforce lies. This is how NHS teams will increase the volume and quality of applications needed to fill their vacancies.
The Difference Between Passive and Active Candidates?
Passive candidates require a greater level of engagement and communication than active job seekers, they aren’t actively seeking out a new position, instead they are open to having their heads turned. Therefore a greater level of support is needed to take these candidates from interest through to commitment.
Managing Passive Candidates
In order for the NHS to capitalise the opportunity presented through passive candidate attraction, the need is to adopt processes which will take candidates from ‘interested’ to ‘committed’. Given the high volumes of candidates and vacancies, there is an equal need for a system to manage these processes – this where Just R’s bespoke candidate management system RPM comes in.
How Does RPM Help?
The RPM (Recruitment Pipeline Management) system provides a single Trust Portal within which to manage a limitless number of passive candidates, prior to them entering the Trac system. It enables multiple colleagues as well as external partners (the Just R team) to collaborate in order to convert these candidates through to appointments matching them to vacancies and teams. RPM provides you with a 360 degree view of candidate progress, guiding them effectively through from interest to appointment.
How Does It Work?
RPM is our applicant tracking system which collects all candidate information from the point of initial interest via bespoke enquiry forms, flagging their interest in joining your organisation. The system then works to enable Just R and Trust teams to manage these candidates through a variety of features such as regular automated contact reminders, online short form application completion (to navigate around whilst also compliant with lengthy Trac / NHS Jobs applications) all built to support the candidates through to appointment within your organisation.
The Key Features Of The System Include The Ability To:
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- Easily share candidate profiles between users, enabling ease of communication between Recruitment and Clinical teams
- Assign candidates to talent pipelines for positions available now or in the future
- Effortlessly search, categorise and flag candidates.
- Enable multiple teams within a single organisation or multiple organisations within as ICS to collaborate to drive recruitment efficiencies
- Fully GDPR compliant
- Support EDI initiatives
What Makes RPM Different To Trac Or NHS Jobs?
The key difference between RPM and Trac / NHS Jobs is where the candidate is in the recruitment journey, RPM manages passive candidates whereas Trac / NHS Jobs manage active candidates. Once RPM has managed the candidate through the stages of interest to committing they can then move from RPM across to the Trac system, through a simple download and upload of application forms.
What Difference Does RPM Make?
Through the combination of proactive recruitment marketing paired with effective candidate management with the support of the RPM system, it is possible to transform the recruitment outlook of your organisation.
Success Stories
Over the past 12 months, Just R has successfully partnered with The Christie NHS FT and Tameside and Glossop Integrated Care NHS FT to achieve zero nursing vacancies. Not only that, but we have collaborated with Bradford Teaching Hospitals to provide a sustained pipeline of new to care candidates and Greater Manchester Mental Health to provide a steady stream of candidate interviews for Mental Health Nurse positions as well as many other successful case studies as can be viewed below!
