1.1 This report updates the Smart City & ICT Partnership Elected Member Sounding Boardon progress with the implementation of the Scottish Recruitment Portal within the Council and proposals for reducing the costs of press advertising.

Benefits

4.1 Although the Scottish Government has funded implementation, the annual support and development charges will be paid for by local authorities. The Improvement Service has provided indicative costs based on the size of authority. The initial charge to the City of Edinburgh Council is £27k (2008/09) with an ongoing annual charge of £37.5k (2009/10 and 10/11).

4.2 The project provides an opportunity to further review and reduce the costs of press advertising of job vacancies. The savings which could potentially be achieved will far outweigh the annual charges of the web portal outlined above.

4.3 Departments are already benefiting from advertising controls put in place and managed by HR since Autumn 2006 as part of the e-HR project. Actual departmental savings in reduced advertising spend have exceeded targeted contributions to the E-HR project and have been retained by departments.

Year Costs Dept Saving e HR contribution

2005/06 £1,100,000

2006/07 £845,000 £245,000 £150,000

2007/08 £555,400 £544,600 £320,000

In 2008/09, a contribution of £332,570 is targeted to be achieved for the e-HR project. On the previous year's performance, this target should easily be achieved.

4.4 The Council has successfully reduced the cost of recruitment advertising mainly by restricting the size of the composite adverts in the Scotsman and Evening News. There has also been some reduction in the use of press advertising, although there is no evidence that the volume of recruitment is reducing. Further action is proposed which will reduce these costs even further.

4.5 The Council routinely collects data from job applicants on where they have seen our adverts. This strongly indicates that most posts do not need to be advertised in the press, since the majority of applicants look for vacancies on the internet. See Appendix 1. Not only does the internet generate sufficient applicants, but in many cases the Council is generating too many applicants through over use of press adverts. This involves HR and management resources in handling more applications than we need. Furthermore the process takes at least a week longer where press adverts are involved.

4.6 The introduction of the online application strengthens the case since the experience of other organisations is that the availability of an online application drives people to the internet. It is therefore recommended that, unless there is evidence to support a press advert, all posts should be advertised on the internet only. The Times Educational supplement does still attract a reasonable number of applicants, but it is proposed that TES online only is used in the future.

4.7 It is also proposed that where a press advert is justified, it should contain only the post title, department, salary and location, in order to encourage applicants to use the internet. This is increasingly the approach being taken by other organisations, including our neighbouring Councils.

4.8 The availability of an online application should also reduce the number of manual application forms. The Council currently provides a Word application form which applicants can save and complete electronically and e mail to the recruitment team. However, the HR Service Centre still receive 20% of forms through the post. It is proposed that initially for professional and admin posts the Council only accepts online applications. We will continue to accept paper forms for manual and craft posts but will monitor the usage of the online application.