British Energy
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British Energy is the UK's largest producer of electricity and employs 5,500 people across 14 sites in the UK.
Early 2006, British Energy contacted Independent RPO: even though their recruitment processes were very robust, particularly in the area of equal opportunities, the company recognised that changes were needed.
Independent RPO introduced an outsourced strategic recruitment team covering all permanent hiring for British Energy.
Changes to the Recruitment Strategy included:
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Introduction of account managers.
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Greater use of employer brand.
By maximising the British Energy brand in recruitment advertisements and on the careers page, it better reflects the strengths of the organisation and the opportunities that exist. This, combined with the other tactics has enabled British Energy to reach a much wider audience with a stronger proposition than ever before. -
Launch of new careers webpage.
British Energy's website has undergone dramatic changes. Gordon Bell, Corporate Reporting Advisor at British Energy has worked closely with the Independent team to create a careers site that is genuinely informative. -
Introduction of a great range of tools for Hiring Managers to provide more routes to the candidate marketplace through:
1. Targeted use of web advertising
2. Audited and managed preferred supplier lists
3. Strategic use of agencies/headhunting operations
The Outsourcing of the Recruitment Function
Independent RPO introduced a team of four Recruitment Specialists to British Energy's central operations centre in Gloucestershire as an outsourced function.
The team was involved in the hiring of over 40 new staff every month, across all disciplines. Through the use of direct routes to hire, it saved BE over £600k in the first 6 months alone.
Working closely with internal and station HR teams/hiring managers across the UK, they managed all permanent recruitment activity within the organisation. However, this didn't limit our client's choice of whether to 'insource' or to 'outsource' at any stage of our agreements.
BE incorporates the outsourcing team
In February 2007, BE accepted our offer of taking the team on permanently as members of staff and as their central in-house recruitment function.
The team has made considerable cost saving month after month through the use of direct routes to hire.
Sarah Johnson, Head of Organisational Development at British Energy explained why the company chose to work with Independent: "Recruiting high calibre staff is essential and in order to meet our future resourcing plans, we needed to be more competitive as an employer of choice. We have ambitious plans to further strengthen our recruitment processes and realised that we needed additional expertise to audit and then implement any changes that were necessary... Independent identified a number of areas where we could make improvements. Perhaps the most pressing of these has been to introduce account managers to provide the necessary subject matter expertise and to work with our supply chain teams to establish efficient and cost effective recruitment tools."
"www.british-energy.com/careers is an excellent example of the progress we have made in presenting British Energy in a more positive light to potential employees... It provides plenty of hard facts about specific vacancies at British Energy and offers an overview of future career opportunities within the organisation."
Gordon Bell, Corporate Reporting Advisor -
What our clients say
“ Recruiting high calibre staff is essential and in order to meet our future resourcing plans... Independent identified a number of areas where we could make improvements. Perhaps the most pressing of these has been to introduce account managers to provide the necessary subject matter expertise and to work with our supply chain teams to establish efficient and cost effective recruitment tools. ”
Sarah Johnson, Head of Organisational Development