Duncan Claber

Said the following about Recruitment Team:

“Over the past 18 months, South Western Railway’s recruitment team have overseen the transition to a new Application Tracking System, eArcu, as part of plans by parent company FirstGroup. In doing so there was a period where two systems were running in tandem with each other. One system for jobs that were reaching their closing date, and another system for new roles at South Western Railway.

Despite this, all candidates were at the forefront of the team’s minds, ensuring that they progressed through the systems without any problems, and experienced the continual professional service of the recruitment team. In order to best understand the system, the team stress-tested it so that they could identify where the benefits were in the transition and the best ways to enhance the candidates experience during the transition period.

Alongside the pressure of learning a new system, the team also had 4 new team members join. Meaning increased time spent training and mentoring their new team mates whilst all the time considering the candidate experience.

The team have also looked at how they can attract more candidates to positions across the company, utilising features on the new recruitment system eArcu such as job alerts, enhanced the use of social media platforms such as LinkedIn, and simplified job opportunities. They have also taken steps to reduce waste by moving from paper assessment practice material to digital.

A particular challenge had been around introducing more train services and therefore recruiting additional Guard colleagues against a background of industrial action, the team have achieved this by engaging with career fairs, ex-military transitions and worked on Saturdays to aid the speed and volume of candidates coming into the business having planned for 12 courses in 2019 the team have to date filled 17.

As part of the Franchise change process, increased opportunities and new roles arose with in the business thus necessitating the recruitment team’s need to adapt and source new ways to find talent. The introduction of the Talent and Succession Manager to the recruitment team added overall vision of development of employees to fulfil current and future demands.

The recruitment team also support our work with the Princes Trust through attending initial induction days, supporting the participants throughout the program by running employability days, and continuing this support after the program, with 6 of the participants now in roles at South Western Railway.

Over the past year the recruitment team have seen an increase to the headcount at SWR with 578 new entrants to the business, with a further 236 internal promotions, holding 38 inductions to welcome new colleagues.

South Western Railway’s recruitment team constantly question themselves, their process and outputs. They are not scared of developing new ways of working and strive to make improvements, so they can achieve what is best for the company’s candidates and new starters and set the highest standards across the industry. Doing so has allowed them to open doors to candidates who in the past may have struggled to achieve their goals. Their work makes South Western Railway a more inclusive and diverse place to work.“