Cambridgeshire Community Services experience of implementing the Applicant Dashboard
At Cambridgeshire Community Services NHS Trust, we started our Applicant Dashboard project in May 2023 and planned to go live date on 31st December 2023.
A project group was established with representatives attending from all departments that are involved in ESR. This included Recruitment, Learning and Development,
Workforce, Communications, HR and the Executive Board, as well as the NHSBSA ESR Service team who provided support and guidance.
Our aim was to give applicants ‘a taste of who we are and what we do’. The initial discussions identified content that would be added to the dashboard, along with how this would look and feel. There was an emphasis on making it look attractive and interesting without trying to overload the applicants. It was important for the dashboard to be part of the candidate experience model and to encourage them to complete their mandatory training, personal information etc. before they commenced working for the trust. The ESR Central team presented examples of local web portlets that had been developed previously to provide additional ideas of what could be achieved and included.
Process
An initial mock-up was created of how the dashboard would look and what would be included. It was agreed that a portlet detailing the different and wide range of services would be beneficial to add, as well as a picture showing the vast geographical area that is covered as a community trust. To include this information, a separate project group was created with a nominated representative from each service to drive the project.
By the end of the Summer 2023, the majority of the content for our applicant dashboard had been agreed. The Content and Portal Administrators attended training to commence the build with the support of the ESR Central team. The ESR Central team supplied the code to the portlets whilst supporting the Content Administrators to understand how to update the code so updates could be made, as required after the go live date. The build was completed, and all portlets were moved into appropriate positions on the dashboard to make them easy to navigate. For example, the welcome video from the Trust’s Chief Executive Officer was positioned at the top of the dashboard as the first thing an applicant would see.
A soft launch started in December 2023 to 15 applicants across all services. Feedback was obtained for both the recruitment process and the dashboard itself to understand what was liked by the applicants and what could be improved upon for easier navigation or understanding for future users of the applicant dashboard. There was no negative feedback received, with the primary message being that it was easy to access and provided a useful overview of information.
From the go live date, guidance on how to access the applicant dashboard is now sent out with all final offer letters, as well as a link to a New Starters Survey to allow continuous monitoring of how the applicant dashboard is perceived.
Benefits
The benefits that have been realised to date include;
- Provides applicants with relevant information about the organisation as a whole and its values.
- Facility to provide an overview of the full range of services provided by the organisation.
- Data quality and assurances as applicants update personal information via the national portlets.
- Ability to customise the design to the organisation’s colours and branding.
- There is opportunity for applicants to complete training prior to start date, though this is something that will be a focus for the future.
Learning Points
Throughout the journey, several lessons were learnt. With hindsight, including all services from the beginning of our conversations to secure commitment and understanding would have been beneficial in gaining further opinions on enhancing the candidate experience. We would also have included all potential contributors from the beginning to gain their insights and collect everything needed earlier in the process. Additionally, introducing boundaries on what could be included on the dashboard as well as timelines to ensure the project kept on track and the content streamlined.
Considerations need to be made from the beginning about accessing the applicant dashboard from different devices and using accessible colours that also fall within your trust branding. It is great that trust branding can be used to make the dashboard feel like part of our organisation.
We would recommend continuously reviewing the content on the system to ensure that it is always relevant and is being well received by the applicants. A review is completed every 3-4 months by providing each Service with a copy of the current dashboard and requesting any content updates or additions.
Moving Forward
The applicant dashboard is now very well embedded within our organisation and an integral part of the onboarding process. In September 2024 a total of 85 applicants accessed the dashboard, making over 450 dashboard interactions. The intention is to continue to develop the applicant dashboard to ensure the information remains relevant and helpful to new starters and encourage the uptake of completing statutory and mandatory learning.
If you would like to contact Cambridgeshire Community Services to discuss their work on the Applicant Dashboard, then please contact alex.james7@nhs.net
Please visit the ESR Hub to access our helpful Applicant Dashboard Factsheet.