Transforming Basildon Council’s
Temporary Recruitment Service

Basildon Borough Council is the local government district in Southeast Essex. Like most local authorities, they faced workforce challenges resulting from funding reductions and growing demands on services. Additionally, their key services faced significant talent shortages which resulted in high agency spend. This is where Essex Shared Services could support.

Our implementation team worked with key stakeholders across Basildon Borough Council to understand their current model and key challenges. After noticing that hiring managers were not securing best value by using multiple suppliers, we implemented a direct hire model, utilising a partner’s timesheet and billing technology.

We worked closely with hiring managers to understand their requirements and proactively sourced candidates directly, minimising the use of agencies where possible. Utilising our own supply chain also allowed Basildon Borough Council to transfer temporary workers to permanent roles without incurring any fees.

The main challenge was ensuring that hiring managers were on board with the new service. We did this by engaging with key stakeholders during the implementation of the model, enabling us to tailor processes as required. We delivered multiple organisation-wide training sessions to ensure everyone understood the new system from day one.

We also noticed that their waste service worked differently across the organisation, and agency utilisation was key to ensuring workers were on site. To avoid service interruption, we aligned their recruitment process to a specific recruitment consultant and engaged with their key agency.

We worked closely with Basildon Borough Council to produce a tailored service. This included recruitment support for permanent vacancies and casework support. To further support the council attract the best talent in future, our offer includes permanent, end-to-end, recruitment services as well as video production and microsite talent attraction services.

In quarter one we reduced the council’s annual spend by £18.8k. By quarter two we exceeded our direct fill target of 20%, achieving 45%. By the end of year one we exceeded our direct fill target of 50%, achieving 60%, further reducing agency spend. There was no disruption to the council’s service on the go live date, and we continue to meet all KPI’s, including candidate satisfaction.

Basildon Borough Council have since chosen to extend our temporary worker services partnership for a further 2 years, recognising the strength, reliability and impact of the service we’ve delivered.

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