Robotic Process Automation to improve manual recruitment processes

Background

The Trust was faced with the challenge of reducing both the recruitment department’s cost and the trust’s bank and agency staff expenses. It also needed to fill vacancies more quickly and improve candidate and staff experience.

Situation

Traditional recruitment processes, which involved staff manually sending out paperwork to applicants and sorting and uploading it when returned, were labour intensive and repetitive.

The Trust sought to automate these high volume, manual, repetitive tasks in order to improve candidate experience, reduce costs and free up staff capacity to allow them to work on value adding tasks, thereby improving their employment experience.

Aspiration

To automate high volume, repetitive tasks to free up staff capacity and enhance candidate experience.

Solution and impact

Robotic Process Automation (RPA) uses software to complete repetitive, rules-based tasks such as administration to optimise the productivity of the existing NHS workforce and improve staff morale by enhancing human value and reducing task inundation, whilst also providing near-zero error rates, increased data quality, and reduced operational costs. The technology also enables data-driven decision making, improving patient and staff experience, clinical outcomes, and regulatory compliance.

The Trust implemented Speeds Things Up (STU), an RPA robot, programmed to automatically complete designated recruitment tasks.

STU sends recruitment paperwork to applicants via email, the applicants complete it online and send it back electronically, allowing STU to process it directly onto the system.

STU works with the e-recruitment system TRAC and the Electronic Staff Record system.

The Trust noted the following results after the implementation of RPA:

• Closed gap on nursing vacancies through faster time to hire.
• Reduced reliance on bank and agency staff.
• 95% of new starters in August 2019 said they were satisfied or very satisfied with their onboarding experience – up from 70% in 2017.
• 100% of junior doctors received a job offer in line with the code of practice target – up from 35% in August 2018.
• Headcount reduction target met, 20% reduction in WTE and a further 10% redeployed into value adding roles.

Functionality

STU, the RPA robot, is programmed to complete a range of recruitment tasks, the system:

• Sends out relevant applicant paperwork via email.
• When completed documentation is received electronically from applicants, STU processes this directly on the system.

Capabilities

• Enables a quicker, more efficient onboarding process and a more positive candidate experience.
• Frees up staff to speak with candidates on the phone, to respond to candidate queries and to proactively address blockages in the employment pipeline.

Scope of capacity

This RPA system could be widely used wherever office systems call for large amounts of documentation to be sent, received and processed.

Key learning points

Originally automating processes was a hard sell and it took time to explain the benefits of automation and how it could improve candidate and staff experience. The key to overcoming this was staff involvement in the design of both processes and future roles.

• Explore the benefits automation can bring to staff experience. This will help staff understand how the employment experience can be enhanced rather than threatened by automation.
• Identify HR processes that are manual and routine. These are perfect to automate.
• Calculate how much time can be saved by automating processes. Invest this time in value added tasks.

It was also noted that people have genuine and legitimate concerns over data security and integrity, and a reluctance to trust robots over humans to safeguard data. However, evidence shows that as robots cannot deviate from the task they have been programmed to complete, the security and integrity of data is enhanced, rather than threatened by automation.

The set up of a solution like this can have high up front costs for an individual organisation, which can be challenging for smaller trusts. Working as a collaborative means these costs can be shared, enabling more trusts to benefit from the solution. Since this project was rolled out within the Trust, its use has been widened to include 7 other trusts whose recruitment activity is now managed by North London Shared Services as part of a wider improvement programme across HR, delivering the same benefit to all.

• Speak to organisations that have already automated processes. The programming involved in automating tasks can be replicated, so you won't have to reinvent the wheel.

Digital equalities

Involving staff in the design and development of the project helped people to understand the role and process of RPA.

Key figures/ quotes

One candidate said of their recruitment experience:

Key contact

Gareth Jones, Director of Shared Employment Services, North London Partners Shared Services
gareth.jones12@nhs.net

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Page last updated: October 2022