Comic Relief uses Applied to hire across their entire organisation, from senior corporate roles to short-term campaign based opportunities. Using the system has allowed Comic Relief's hiring teams to focus on candidate potential, while also seeing a higher conversion rate from candidate to employee.
Comic Relief rolled out its implementation of Applied for all vacancies, helping to manage recruitment for both full time staff and short-term recruitment for its peaks of campaign activity such as Red Nose Day and Sport Relief.
Appliedâs use of behavioural science is transforming how Comic Relief handles its widely-differing staffing or short-term project resourcing needs while fulfilling corporate-level demands for improved diversity and inclusion in its hiring processes.
Charlotte Hillenbrand, Comic Reliefâs executive director of digital & innovation, says Applied has improved the recruitment process while enabling the team to seek candidates from more diverse backgrounds. âWith Applied in place, our hiring can be more strategic and focused. In addition, we can plan how and where weâre searching for talent across many different communities, job forums, regions or universities, so that our recruitment is diverse and ensures we get the best people for the roles available.â
The Recruitment teamâs adoption of Appliedâs customisable processes is a breakthrough at Comic Relief, because it helps optimise senior departmental colleaguesâ time in identifying high potential candidates through the job description, application and candidate interview processes.
In its day-to-day hiring work, Comic Reliefâs central recruitment team engages more closely with potential employees by scheduling reminders in Applied for applicants to complete their initial applications or alerting candidates to interview dates. Additionally, the charityâs management team has an overview of system data, so it can see which channels are bringing in the most candidates.
Comic Reliefâs recruitment manager Charlotte Cole explains: âWith the new applicant tracking system, our colleagues are finding it easier to assess a candidateâs potential.â
âApplied enables us to ask specific role-related questions in the application process. This lets us focus on the candidateâs skills, rather than trying to connect the dots between a cover letter and a CV and risking our own unconscious bias contributing to decision making. By only interviewing candidates that have demonstrated the combination of skills we are looking for, we find that our interviews are much more satisfying for candidates and managers and ultimately lead to a higher conversion rate, from candidate to employee.â
Comic Reliefâs team sees further potential with Applied to develop wider standardised processes and candidate descriptions for each management function. These advances will enable busy managers to spend more time on assessing the shortlisted candidates and building a high-quality âcorporate memoryâ that further supports diversity and inclusion in hiring operations.
Comic Relief is a major charity based in the UK which strives to create a just world, free from poverty. The charity started in 1985 and its mission is to drive positive change through the power of entertainment.
"ultimately lead to a higher conversion rate, from candidate to employee.â
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