Introducing the My Applicant Details portlet
Following on from our article in the September edition of ESR News, about how a number of Trusts in the North West and Yorkshire have used the ESR Applicant Dashboard during the COVID-19 pandemic to speed up recruiting of additional staff, in this month's edition we focus on the latest enhancement to the dashboard - the My Applicant Details portlet.
The Applicant Dashboard allows future employees access to the information held about them, with the ability to confirm this is accurate or update and provide further details where amendments are needed prior to starting their employment.
The information about the applicant is taken from source data wherever possible to maintain accuracy and integrity. This means that the information displayed to the applicant when they login to the portal is predominantly that which they have already entered and which is subsequently transferred either through the recruitment system interface or taken from the previous NHS employments using the Inter Authority Transfer (IAT) process.
A recent new addition to the ESR Applicant Dashboard was the introduction of the My Applicant Details portlet. This new portlet has a step-by-step process flow taking the applicant through key items which are required as part of the recruitment process, including the confirmation or correction of personal details, emergency contacts and bank account details.
Depending on the role, the latest information regarding any immunisations and vaccinations the applicant has received can also be displayed, together with the ability to confirm or provide equality and diversity details.
Some of the driving principles behind the ESR Applicant Dashboard are to reduce the reliance on paper based forms in the NHS, lend some consistency to the key information requested of applicants during the recruitment process and to help ensure the experience of transitioning from applicant to employee is a positive one.
Much of the information now available to applicants was identified through an NHS England and NHS Improvement reference group which was established to review new starter forms used across the NHS and to recommend process improvements.
There is more information available about the Applicant Dashboard in the functional brochure which you can access by clicking here. For additional information there is also a guide to customising the Dashboard that organisations can use to display (for example) any additional information applicants might need, or a welcome message from the Chief Executive. You can access the guide here.