OC&C Strategy Consultants

A fresh approach to recruitment

Securing the best talent through an improved candidate experience was a key driver in replacing OC&C’s original Applicant Tracking System and CV screening tool. The Gen Z graduate market is a competitive one, so there was a need to make sure OC&C were able to stand out from the crowd and ensure a great candidate experience. They decided to look for a complete e-recruitment system to support this. 

To find a more comprehensive recruitment platform, the Recruitment Team and key stakeholders developed a list of requirements that would better place them to recruit top talent. Some of the issues they wanted to address were the use of web application forms, Excel applicant tracking, non-global outlook with existing ATS, mail merge of bulk communications, interview slot phone calls, paper assessment forms and postal onboarding packs. 

The Recruitment Team carried out extensive market research and developed a timeline for the project. Eploy was identified as the best fit solution to deliver a joined-up approach for multiple workflows for graduate recruitment, internships and experienced hires.

Candidate experience at the forefront

Leading the project was Melissa Edmondson, Recruitment Manager at OC&C who commented “Unlike other vendors that had a model where the framework was rigid, Eploy could support our requirements and were flexible to our tight timescales that were dependent on the Milkround cycle and vital to engage with university students, and graduates. We had a smooth implementation of the core Eploy recruitment platform in just six weeks.” 

Eploy’s candidate portal is part of the OC&C careers site to support effective communication with candidates and provide a dedicated area to register with OC&C. Candidates can now search all available roles, find out more information about OC&C, apply online and check on their application status. Within the application process in Eploy, OC&C has introduced a name-blind CV policy that supports the organisation’s diversity and inclusion initiative to reduce any unconscious bias during the recruitment process.

Securing top talent

The implementation of Eploy also included integration with OC&C’s online performance-based assessment providers for added connectivity and seamless candidate experience. 

In the later stages following implementation, OC&C relaunched its online presence to enhance the value proposition and candidate journey. 

The changes clearly show career progression by role, the importance of diversity & inclusion at OC&C, forthcoming events and application tips. A major part of the relaunch was to communicate the company culture and share how OC&C provides a workplace that allows brilliant people to flourish, irrespective of background.

OC&C also streamlined the administration of manual onboarding with Eploy’s onboarding module, bringing offers and onboarding online to improve further engagement with new hires and the speed of response – all designed to secure the best candidates and mitigate losing talent at the final hurdle. The time saved in reducing administrative tasks has now been reallocated to more interpersonal interaction with candidates to improve candidate experience. This has delivered some fantastic results, increasing acceptance rates and seeing a more diverse pool of Associate Consultants.

“Having stakeholder support was key to developing a list of requirements to better place us to recruit top talent and following engagement of Eploy and scoping of requirements, we were able to deliver this effectively in just six weeks, which was a tall order. We have since won The Best Graduate Site (Onrec 2019), rolled out Eploy to our New York and Boston offices and created visual content that supports the OC&C online presence” Melissa Edmondson, Recruitment Manager

Results & Improvements

As OC&C approached the second round of graduate recruitment since the introduction of Eploy, they were genuinely delivering a transparent and smooth candidate experience to position themselves as an employer of choice - differentiating themselves from the competition. They now have a complete endto-end experience with branded and consistent communications throughout the process. Measures of success:

• A transparent and efficient process implemented that accurately reflects what it’s like to work at OC&C.
• Increased application numbers. Brand and online value proposition are aligned to the corporate proposition that clearly shows what it is like to work for OC&C. As a result, OC&C can compete for top talent, and great candidates are being recruited and know what to expect when they join.
• Online candidate portal to engage with candidates. Candidates now have visibility of the process stages and their application. This includes enabling candidates to choose their preferred interview slots.
• Reactive to requirements with real-time dashboards and analytics. For example, dashboards can show the number of applicants at each stage of the process, targets to achieve, source of a candidate.
• Reporting dashboards provide a more comprehensive measurement of those at offer stage and then those that accept – drilling down on drop-outs and mitigating this where possible.
• Name-blind applications enable OC&C to recruit without unconscious bias. For example, first-round interviewers don’t see CVs.
• Online onboarding eliminates the need for paper and a manual process.

The reporting capability now readily available to the team through Eploy provides a clear picture of each stage across the workflows. Having previously used Excel for reporting, the dashboards and Snapstats within Eploy provide an accurate view of reliable data that can be customised and shared, for example, with the graduate recruitment partners. Hence, everyone is aware and can visualise progress.

OC&C use the reports to analyse where candidates heard about them to fine-tune where their efforts are concentrated to deliver the right quality and quantity of candidates.

Next on the recruitment agenda at OC&C is to utilise the talent pooling functionality within Eploy to nurture talent and quickly match the most suitable candidates for vacancies.

Chris Bogh, CTO at Eploy, added “Providing OC&C with a best of breed recruitment platform to support their global recruitment strategy has helped them to improve the candidate experience at every stage of their recruitment journey. The Eploy team understood their recruitment challenges and offered a flexible solution and smooth implementation”.