Lee Smith,  Commercial Director of Select Education, explains how the very latest recruitment software is being utilised to streamline operations across 36 UK offices and show’s that,  with the right Partner and proper planning,  these benefits can be achieved  with minimal disruption.

Market Situation:
Throughout the industry recruiters are faced with the same universal challenges. With heavy operating and administration costs, often across multiple offices, there is a constant need to find the best way to enable employees to react quickly to changes in the marketplace and focus on their core responsibilities -- selecting the right candidates for the right jobs. In tough economic times, never before has it been so important to ensure that costs are reduced, operating efficiencies are increased and employee engagement remains high. The right Technology can facilitate better relationships between consultants and clients by streamlining the administrative workload.

To overcome the challenges faced and add value to the recruitment industry, technology providers have to keep pace with the latest software and techniques.  It is fundamental that the products and services they offer accurately fulfil specific market requirements and that the relationships between them and their clients are impeccable to ensure that the implementation process can run smoothly. These points are clearly highlighted through the growing relationship that First Choice Software has established with Select Education, soon to be Randstad Education, in rolling out its RDB ProNet Software solution across Select Education’s 36 UK offices.  As highlighted below, First Choice’s RDB ProNet Software not only enables increased productivity but also helps to attract the best new consultants who will subsequently benefit from an excellent and engaging working environment.

Select Education’s Requirements:
As the leading UK and global educational staffing specialist, Select Education, decided to update its whole front office IT recruitment system in 2007 – replacing a system that had been developed over more than ten years. With a requirement to provide quality, individual service to over 10,000 teachers and support staff, as well as 15,000 schools, Select Education realised the importance of building efficiencies to reduce operating costs and increase profits. As a result, Select Education can now provide an increasingly competitive service, helping to attract the best consultants and improve services to both clients and candidates.  
To do this successfully, Select Education understood that it was imperative to improve its customer relationship management (CRM), candidate registering and client information recording. As a result, to streamline the way it receives vacancies from clients and matches appropriate candidates to those vacancies, Select Education was looking for the most innovative, intuitive and easy to install IT solution.

Timeline:

• May 2008 – Development phase completed
• May 2008 – System implemented in the first office – Reading
• March 2009 – Implementation at all offices completed

The implementation process:
Following an audit of all providers, Select Education decided upon First Choice’s RDB ProNet software as it clearly offered the best functionality of any of the recruitment CRMs examined (nearly 100 products were investigated) and is built on Microsoft’s highly invested .Net platform. This meant that, following a developmental period, the product was easily tailored to meet Select Education’s specific needs. Although there are many different ways of accessing ProNet, Select chose to access the software from a central server cluster at a central location using Terminal Services.  This provides the “access from anywhere” capability that is so frequently demanded without having to compromise functionality by using a simple browser and website “application” to view and manipulate data.  In addition, whilst the financial benefits of this approach are obvious for even quite small companies they are dramatic for companies of the size of Select.
Unlike so many others systems integration projects that tend to over run and cost more than anticipated, this project was completed on budget and ahead of schedule giving immense satisfaction to the project team. The training of users was also straightforward as, due to the systems intuitive nature, individuals were able to easily utilise all of the systems key features. The product has now been licensed for around 200 users in all of Select Education’s 36 offices across the UK, reducing administration and automating major parts of the recruitment process.

According to Lee Smith, Commercial Director, Select Education: “ProNet has been incredibly well received by our business, and the users are highly complimentary about it. It is innovative and extremely intuitive which has made training a very quick process. Each user is able to make the most of the applications capabilities, enabling them to focus on their primary role of recruiting and placing the best candidates. Working in partnership with First Choice we were able to simplify an otherwise complex task and deliver on budget and ahead of schedule.”  Not only are the consultants benefiting from having a much better system to use on a day to day basis but the managers and Directors now have much better access to real time reporting tools – including RDB Mobile running on the iPhone – and consequently a more instantaneous understating of precisely what is happening in their business. 

The importance of building a successful partnership:
For any organisation thinking of changing its IT system the initial challenges that are often faced focus around the amount of time and energy that each individual will personally have to put in to it. This can be extremely off-putting and can often lead to old systems being used well beyond their sell-by date. The relationship established between Select Education and First Choice Software was therefore one of the highlights of this implementation. Since Select Education knew exactly what they wanted to achieve through the implementation, emphasis was placed on thorough preparation, clear and concise communication of its requirements and following industry standard project management methodologies.

Final thought:
Select Education’s adoption of First Choice’s RDB ProNet recruitment software clearly shows that innovative companies understand that they must provide their consultants with the best tools and time appropriate technology if they wish to continue to provide the best services to their clients and candidates. Unlike other organisations that may bee put off by the perceived upheaval required, Select Education is clearly benefiting from an intuitive, forward thinking solution. Select Education prepared in the correct way (taking close to a year to fully understand their requirements and tailor the solution to their needs before implementation) and consequently it went ahead without a hitch, even having a “best ever” week in their biggest branch in the week they switched to ProNet!
In an extremely tough operational environment, where the recruitment industry is being hit hard by the recession, Select Education has made a proactive move that will continue to place them firmly ahead of the competition.