In 2021 we launched a new website for the County Wexford Community Workshop (Enniscorthy) – https://cwcwe.ie/. Recently we’ve completed a process improvement exercise for CWCWE where we transformed a paper based recruitment application process to a digital process. This has resulted in increased efficiencies for the organisation.
Background
The recruitment application process is an important process for CWCWE. They advertise jobs frequently for roles within the organisation. Candidates would email the recruitment team to show their interest in a role, the recruitment team would then email the candidate out a MS Word based application form that the candidate would print out physically, fill in and then send it back to the recruitment team. This process worked – but had deficiencies such as:-
- Not every candidate had access to MS Word or a compatible Word Processor
- Not every candidate had access to a printer
- There was scope for applications to go missing in the post or internally within CWCWE
- Some applications were difficult to read (poor handwriting etc.)
- There was scope for applications to be incomplete
The CWCWE contacted us in early 2022 to see if we could help improve this process and indeed we could.
Solution
We could see straight away that there were weaknesses in the pre-existing paper based process and we set about capturing all of this data digitally over their website. This has the following advantages:-
- No need for candidates to have access to word processing software or a printer. All they require is access to the internet
- Applications could not go missing. We developed the solution in such a way that the candidate would get emailed immediately confirming their submission. The recruitment team within CWCWE would get emailed immediately with the submission AND the submission would be saved internally in the website database where it could be accessed for years to come
- Removed the possibility of undreadable or messy applications
- Removed the possibility of incomplete applications with verification logic (e.g. unable to progress without completing mandatory fields)
There were hundreds of fields to be captured for each application. Having these fields presented in a single form and expecting the applicant to work through these fields from top to bottom would have been a mistake. With this in mind we split the application form into 14 distinct bite-sized sections and assigned each section a page. Applicants can navigate through the form with ‘Previous’ and ‘Next’ buttons – and progress is tracked visually through a progress bar at the top of the form. So while the application is a long process with many fields to be filled out, it is extremely intuitive and there are visual cues advising the applicant of where they are in the process. On the final step, all of the submitted fields from all sections are shown to the candidate where they can review and amend as they require
One of the big areas of weakness in the paper based system was around incomplete forms. Candidates could misread the form and not fill out certain sections, or they could choose to omit certain sections. This can’t happen with the new system as we have implemented strict form verification that prevents the candidate from progressing to the next section without satisfying the required criteria for certain fields.
Digital forms also allow for conditional logic. So we can display certain fields based on answers to previous questions in the application process. This again helped us to streamline the forms and only display fields required by the candidate.
The recruitment team can view all submissions at the backend of their WordPress website. Here they can view the submissions, categorise them, delete them or print them out as they see fit.
Summary
Since the introduction of productivity tools like word processing and spreadsheet apps in the early 80’s, business have been able to implement processes and procedures around how they gather and store information. No doubt we’ve all heard the expression ‘If it aint broke don’t fix it’. And while this expression has it’s merits for sure, very often it’s sentiment can result in the persistance of very inefficient processes. The recruitment application process for CWCWE is a good example of this – the old process worked but definitely had weaknesses and areas for improvement.
The final result has been a game changer for the organisation and has streamlined their application process giving a better user experience for applicants and delivered a much improved process for the recruitment team within CWCWE.
If you have a process that’s driving you mad or is costing you time or money, there is a good chance that could be digitised or rationalised with technology. That’s what we do at ClearSoft so call us to see how we might be able to help you.
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