29 APR 2019

Leeds College of Building - Innovative Recruitment Through 'Speed Interviewing'

A great case study written by Fozia Baz, Administrator at Leeds College of Building. So good, we couldn't resist sharing:

At a glance

Leeds College of Building have explored alternative recruitment methods to fill ‘hard to recruit’ roles such as their Estates Assistant/Catering Assistant roles (salary ranges from £15,402 to £16,204 per annum).  Previously, the College had advertised both vacancies 13 times in total from 2017 to 2019 with no success, but through the 3 hour ‘speed interviewing’ events, the College managed to fill 2 Estates Assistant posts and 4 Catering Assistant posts with a £4,500 saving in recruitment costs.   

What’s happened and why?

Since 2017, the College had been struggling with recruitment of Catering Assistants and Estates Assistants, with two posts remaining vacant for over a year.  It was felt that the need to complete these applications online may have been a barrier to applying as these posts do not require confidence in IT skills.  An innovative solution was needed to address this issue and in response the idea of ‘speed interviewing’ was introduced, with the College running its first trial event in June 2017. This focussed on two Catering Assistant roles with these both successfully filled following the event.  The second event in 2019 advertised for two Catering and two Estates Assistant vacancies which were all filled.

The event was publicised through the College social media pages (Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn) along with an advert being placed through onlyFE - an advertising agency specialising in the FE sector.  They advertised the event through their vast network of job boards and streamlined the process by engaging with potential candidates, as well as collating and submitting candidate CVs to the College.  Over 200 people expressed an interest in the roles and in total, 37 turned up to the event.

Candidates were required to attend between 4pm-7pm and to have a short interview with their potential manager (10 minutes) in an informal setting. Candidates were encouraged to bring their CV to the event, with them also completing a simplified application form which included basic information such as right to work in the UK, contact details and current/recent job role.  Pre-employment checks were followed up, along with asking them to complete a paper-based application form if they were successful. 

Results:

Key benefits have included:

• A net cost saving of £4,500, which takes into account the costs of advertising on various job boards, administration time, interview time and cost of resources.
• A simpler process, with candidates getting to know their potential manager in an informal setting which the College found worked extremely well with some vacancies – especially the Catering and Estates Assistant roles.
• Time-saving – on average 42+ hours were spent advertising, creating resources and interviewing on the 13 occasions the College didn’t appoint, compared to just 5 hours for the speed interviewing event.
• A quicker turnaround for pre-employment checks as all candidates turn up on the same day.

Find out how onlyFE can assist your College with alternative recruiting methods.