Streamlining Carrington West’s compliance process to deliver a faster and more accurate service
Carrington West is an award-winning recruitment company providing technical talent to the UK highways, transport & infrastructure, town planning, property, water & environmental, utilities, power & telecoms, building and rail industries. We recruit interim, temporary and permanent professionals from entry to board level across multiple disciplines for private and public sector organisations.
Challenge
- Cut down human error and repetitive actions
- Streamline the compliance process
- Deliver a faster and more accurate onboarding service to clients
- Keeping track of team output
Approach
- To work with a software provider who understood the business
- Implement a system that fitted into a planned growth model
Results
- Immediate savings around time saving and accuracy
- Less time chasing references and required documentation
- Reduced backlog of outstanding documents
- Less direct queries from candidates on the onboarding process
Searching for an automated screening solution
Our Access Recruitment team spoke with Ella Razzell from Carrington West. Ella is the Compliance Manager and ED&I Champion, and she joined the business in its early days. She has led the growth of the team to 10 people and is responsible for the compliance of over 1,000 active contract workers at any time.
When we started looking at software options to streamline our compliance process, we knew we wanted to work with a partner that understood our business, but who could also help us build a system that fitted into our planned growth model. In short, we wanted to make sure any system and partner we used facilitated our growth, not creaked under the pressure of increased usage.
Access came across our radar as we already use one of their other recruitment products, Volcanic, as our website provider. There was enough pedigree within the recruitment sector, and testimonials from existing clients for us to sign up to a demo. Once we had seen a demo, the easy-to-use interface and the seamless flow of the process for our candidates as well as our team helped us make the decision. Ultimately, the pricing then took us over the line!
What were the objectives that you wanted to achieve?
Carrington West had a long list of requirements. They researched the software options available and cross referenced each against the below;
- Cut down and human error or repetitive actions.
- Streamline the compliance process across the business.
- Cut down on time spent on chasing return of documents and general administration tasks.
- Deliver a faster and more accurate service to our clients in regard to candidate onboarding.
- Having everything in one place – portals for checks etc (DVLA/DBS)
- Better management of chasing and return of references (using automation where possible)
- Keeping track of the team output.
- Consolidating and management of data in one place to replace the many spreadsheets that documented candidates currently processing and expiry dates for example.
- Consistency across brands
What our customers say
Our background check time is much faster – having reduced from an average of up to a week to regularly returned within 48 hours.
Aside from the time savings and therefore overall improvement in team efficiency, perhaps the greatest impact is the speed we are able to onboard candidates into roles. When you work with interim and contract workers especially, time is of the essence. We are better able to service our clients if we are time efficient. Accuracy is also a major positive. There is less room for human error which makes for a smoother process all round.
There are always teething problems with any new implementation and partnership. But with open discussion and honest feedback (on both sides) we have resolved any of the early issues. As a general rule, any support issues are dealt with by Access quickly and efficiently.
Have you seen performance improvements since transitioning to Access Screening?
Carrington West saw immediate savings especially around time saving and accuracy. They spend less time chasing references and required documentation, and do not miss expiry dates. Their background check time is much faster – having reduced from an average of up to a week to regularly returned within 48 hours. Over time, Carrington West have also been able to reduce the backlog of outstanding documents.
The system has also benefited their recruitment consultants, with their client requirements able to be streamlined into one onboarding process, so quicker more thorough onboarding turnaround (especially when it comes to DBS etc) – much to their client's satisfaction.
The consultants also receive less direct queries from candidates on the onboarding process, due to a sleek – easy to use system.
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Supporting growth for a brighter future
Working with Access has helped Carrington West to keep up to date and informed of all legislative changes such as the introduction of IDVT. It has definitely made it easier for them to stay ahead of the curve and be able to adapt quickly. In terms of growth, they chose the system to be part of the infrastructure that they are building to facilitate growth. Since implementing Access, Carrington West have already increased their weekly contractor numbers by 6%, with no negative impact to the systems or team performance.
Carrington West have ambitious growth plans and are always aware that their suppliers’ products need to be able to stand the test of time. Access have experience in their sector, and we understand some of the unique challenges recruitment companies face, so are best placed to help evolve Carrington West. Increasingly, their supply chain has to stand up to the scrutiny of paying clients, so the reputation and overall integrity of Access is important to them and their commitment to best practice.
Carrington West has seen a wide range of benefits since implementing Access Screening
Here are some of the key stats:
Time savings
Carrington West’s background check time has reduced from 1 week to under 48 hours
Onboarding process
Everything streamlined into one onboarding process, so quicker more thorough onboarding turnaround
%
Working with Access
Since implementing Access, Carrington West have already increased their weekly contractor numbers by 6%
