Public and Commercial Services Union saves up to 4 whole days of time per vacancy with CVMinder ATS

Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) is the largest Civil Service trade union in the UK.

It represents members working for the government, both in civil service departments and those employed by private companies delivering government services. Members may be handling benefit claims, collecting tax, issuing documents like driving licences and passports, plus a whole range of other vital services.

PCS is an industry champion for fairness, equality and diversity in the workplace. It is also the leading union embracing digital technology, reflecting the world of work post pandemic.

PCS doesn’t just headline its values for member benefit. Its values run through the DNA of its operation. “Our internal policies and commitments are rigorous here”, comments Wendy Smith, HR and Personnel. “We maintain the highest possible standards which results in positive impacts throughout our organisation and beyond.” For example, when PCS considers new suppliers and partners it reviews their approach and policies for equality and diversity. “We are most likely to work with organisations that fully embrace our values” says Wendy “and we have encouraged positive change in other companies.”

Living up to high standards

Recruitment is managed rigorously at PCS. “We recruit to our values”, says Wendy. That means that equality, fairness, inclusivity and consistency remain central to the PCS recruitment and selection process. 

Wendy explains what’s involved. “We use application forms and not CVs because we withhold personal details from those who shortlist. Guiding applicants to demonstrate the skills and experience we are looking for helps them to show us their best selves. Each role involves a panel of up to five people, each trained in the recruitment and selection process. Each panel member scores all applicants to pre-agreed measures. The combined scores are reviewed by HR in the final selection.” As a ‘Disability Confident Employer, PCS generally offers an interview to applicants with a declared disability who meet the minimum criteria. “The whole process is managed by the HR team. That includes updating applicants at every stage.”

Whilst quite manual, the whole process had been optimised to maximise efficiency. “Speed and accuracy are both important to us” says Wendy. “It is essential that every applicant has a good experience with PCS.”

Finding a recruitment system

Wendy and team had been looking for a recruitment system for almost two years before finding CVMinder ATS. “We would occasionally review a system on the basis that it would improve the experience for our candidates and our managers” says Wendy. “None seemed to give us what we needed without compromising our process“.

Wendy and team wanted to tighten access to personal information. “Adhering to the strictest interpretations of GDPR was important to us” says Wendy. “We also wanted to limit sharing of personal information with our panels during formal shortlisting.” Shredding is a Data Protection policy requirement, but printing and shredding fell short of meeting sustainability objectives. “Keeping things online could help us to square that circle”, says Wendy.

PCS selects CVMinder ATS

PCS found CVMinder ATS, an in-house recruitment system that supports:

• electronic forms,
• recruiting without CVs and
• formal panel selection.

“From the time of our first discussion, they seemed to understand exactly how we recruit”, says Wendy. CVMinder ATS supports name blind recruiting in addition to withholding protected characteristics and other sensitive information from shortlisting panels. It also supports panel based scoring.

It would have been remarkable if every detail of PCS’ requirement was fully satisfied, but there were one or two gaps. PCS required accessibility improvements and some tweaks to support a very specific scoring scheme. “We didn’t want to compromise our process and the CVMinder Team was very receptive. They added our scoring system and started a relationship with Recite Me to improve accessibility. For example, Welsh language support was essential on our website, including any job listings delivered by an ATS.”

Good for both PCS and their applicants

“This has been a genuinely positive move for us”, says Wendy. She summarises, as follows:

• We have improved the candidate experience by eliminating technical obstacles and offering online access to applications. Applicants have told us that the system is easy to use and we are able to send every applicant personalised updates quickly and easily too.
• We also received positive feedback from panel members. They told us that shortlisting is much easier and faster with CVMinder ATS. 
• We are satisfied that we are maintaining our commitment to equality during the selection process.  Panel members are making their decisions on the quality of candidates, without being influenced by personal characteristics.
• Posting jobs to our website, intranet and several job boards has become so simple. Some Job sites we support, because they align to our values have signed up to work with CVMinder. This enhances the benefits.
• Incomplete applications are immediately obvious without opening them. It is quick and easy to turn those around.
• Interviews are easier to organise and confirmations start arriving quickly after we send invitations.

Our HR team has saved so much time that it can reinvest into campaign preparation. “Everyone is now briefed before we start a recruitment campaign. That improves the detailing around job specification, candidate questioning and expectations of the panel. This helps to accelerate our reaction speed and further improves the candidate experience. Once an advert has been published, HR gets involved again only after panel shortlisting is complete.”

Surprising gains

PCS believed that its previous approach had been efficient, despite some manual processing. “We thought we knew where we would save most time with CVMinder ATS, but we were not expecting such large gains across the process”, says Wendy “We calculate that we are saving up to 4 full days of time on each vacancy. That is a very welcome surprise to us.”

Would PCS recommend CVMinder ATS? “Absolutely! The product really helps our team. It helps us recruit fairly, consistently and in line with our values. The candidate experience is improved, our managers like it and the support is great too. The CVMinder Team has listened to our suggestions and made improvements that have helped us to tighten our controls even further. We are extremely happy with the product and the company.”