The Port of Dover in Kent is the UK’s business International ferry port. It handles 33% of all UK trade with the EU and transports more freight than all other UK ports.

Ensuring its port and marina work efficiently requires a broad range of skills and expertise. From Civil Engineers to Project Managers and Accountants to Human Resources, the Port of Dover is always hiring to stay ahead of its competition.

“It’s a busy place and smooth running is essential to support the UK’s trade with the continent” says Natalie, who is the Internal Recruiter for Port of Dover. “With so many moving parts in such a complex business, there is always pressure on recruitment”.

In-house recruiting had its successes, but the Port of Dover relied upon recruitment agencies. “We used several agents because of time pressure and their access to skilled candidates. We were convinced that attracting top talent on Kent’s eastern coastline justified it”. Natalie says. “Now we know differently!”

Why take CVMinder ATS?

An executive decision had been taken to implement a suite of Oracle’s solutions. They include HR, Accounting, Engineering and an Applicant Tracking System (ATS). The planned ATS implementation was scheduled some months into the future but a recruitment management solution was required sooner.

“We turned to CVMinder ATS” says Natalie. “We needed something that was easy, robust and relatively inexpensive. Somebody in our team had previously used CVMinder ATS so we contacted them. Now, after using it, I truly wish we had called them sooner.”

Implementation

CVMinder ATS was fully implemented within a couple of weeks of ordering. Natalie says that training was straightforward and using CVMinder ATS has been very easy. It allows Natalie to share recruiting with Managers across the business and, based upon positive feedback, some Managers have reached out to request access. “That is unheard of, but the Managers really seem to like using it” says Natalie.

Results

The outcomes are significant. “We used CVMinder ATS for 18 months and it has been so much more successful than we expected”, says Natalie. Here’s a summary of the biggest gains:

• Agency recruitment almost nil
  During a 12-month period, Port of Dover recruited more than 60 new employees. Just one was recruited via an Agency and the remainder via CVMinder ATS. Natalie notes that “prior to using CVMinder ATS, we recruited approximately half of our people via recruitment agencies. This was a big and unexpected cost reduction for us.”
  
• Easy collaboration
  Prior to using CVMinder ATS, Natalie distributed applications to Managers by email and internal systems. Distribution and tracking was time consuming. “Now everything is in one place. Managers can shortlist their own applicants online.” Natalie and her team can work in different ways to suit each manager. “They commonly like us to reject the weakest applicants first. I can do some of that automatically in CVMinder ATS so the whole job of recruiting is totally streamlined.”
  
• Incredible time savings
  “I save so much time with every task in CVMinder ATS.” That starts with automated posting to jobsites and our website. Applicants are organised in the correct jobs and have answered the right questions. Managers are notified when there are new applications too. Professional templates help Natalie to communicate with every applicant, including the people they decline. “That is so important to us at Port of Dover because we want everyone to feel valued in the process.” Natalie finds interviews and offers quick and easy too. “I like receiving confirmation that people are coming to interview. It makes everything feel more reliable when Manger diaries are being booked.”
  
• Immediate Management Reporting and Corporate Responsibility
  Monthly management reporting is essential, but researching and processing all of the recruitment data took many hours to collate. Natalie tells us that management reporting with CVMinder ATS now takes minutes. “I can tell you where our best applicants come from, how many applicants we have received for each vacancy, reasons why we have rejected applicants and so much more. We have Equal Opportunities data too. We can hide protected characteristics during shortlisting and meet our corporate responsibilities more easily too.”

Natalie recommends CVMinder ATS

“CVMinder ATS is a great system. It was easy to implement, it is simple to use and Managers like it. CVMinder ATS is inexpensive compared with other options and it has saved us a fortune on agency fees. We haven’t even paid for external advertising.” But what about the service? “Support has been great when we needed it and the CVMinder Team was genuinely receptive to new ideas too. They even developed a new feature for us and without charge. They’re just good at this. I would highly recommend CVMinder ATS to any company.”

Find out more

If you want to recruit more successfully and reduce recruiting costs, then contact us now for a confidential discussion. Our best recruitment system for in-house recruiting is low cost and is easily tailored to support small and larger companies. We are here to make recruiting easy for you.