Bupa’s Story

How We Improved Bupa’s Online Recruitment Tools

Challenge: A recruitment system that was time consuming and hard to manage

For over three years Bupa struggled to formulate an effective in-house recruitment system. The HR Recruitment team worked on building internal systems that would manage their process better, but the outcome was not satisfactory and it still involved too much administration. Every step in the process was time consuming, and with over 1,500 applications flying in every-month, the workload of the HR Recruitment team was increased ten-fold.

Recruitment Manager at Bupa, Natalie Yakas, says her team spent most of their days reading hundreds of applications and replying to emails.

“The system was a nightmare; it turned our HR Recruitment team into CV readers and took them away from their real jobs, slowing the entire process down.”

Not only did the time consuming process take her team away from other important elements of their jobs, but it had little quality control, says Natalie.

“With so many areas to be filled, the system became a numbers game due to volume which seemed to push the focus to bums on seats instead of what our care homes needed, which was quality in.”

The Bupa team experienced constant issues, dealing with errors in the software, lack of flexibility in regards to staff access and a lack of enhancement in the entire process.
“We threw out thousands of dollars on a system that failed, created bad communication and could never be altered to suit our needs, “ explains Natalie.

Better system communication and flexibility required

Due to the size and structure of Bupa, the software had problems creating clear communication workflow to all involved in the employment process, not just those within the HR Recruitment Team.

“The system we created caused poor communication within the different business areas of Bupa, especially those offsite. There was a requirement for better visibility and transparency between the business areas” explains Natalie.

As well as poor communication, the software was unable to be tweaked and changed to suit the users’ capabilities and necessary access.

Natalie knew the Bupa in-house system was never going to suit the companies growing needs, and says she realised they needed outside help to bring their employment process into the 21st Century.

QJumpers arrive

BUPA were ready and waiting with a challenge: they knew what they wanted, how they wanted it to work, and exactly what they wanted it to look like. Natalie says she knew the QJumpers team would have a challenge in front of them, trying to figure out what she needed and then figuring out how to make that happen.

“QJumpers bent over backwards to accommodate everything we wanted. Through a collaborative approach we hacked out the bones of what we wanted in a two day workshop, the turnaround was unbelievable, they built and delivered the system beyond what we could have imagined.”

What Bupa found great about the QJumpers team was their ability to be creative and pioneering, coming up with new applications and alterations before Natalie and her team even realised they needed them.

“The QJumpers team kept coming up with leading ideas and software applications. Even now they call me up with the latest technology and new digital ideas,” explains Natalie.

QJumpers built Natalie and her team a fully customised recruitment system that is simple to use, effective and has dramatically reduced the amount of time the HR Recruitment team spend on the employment process.

“We asked big things and QJumpers delivered 100%. Within 10 weeks of coming in, QJumpers had nailed the software, the system and the implementation,” says Natalie.

BUPA love their new recruitment system “Q”

The new online recruitment system built by QJumpers and affectionately named Q, has been a continual success. Recruitment Manager at Bupa, Natalie Yakas, says her team enjoyed working alongside QJumpers.

“The QJumpers team was innovative, focused and flexible. They built us a customised system that is so simple to use, so effective and has given our team the time to do their actual jobs.”

Time assigned to recruitment has been halved, the system automated, personified and it has delivered a sigh of relief for the entire HR Recruitment team.

Natalie says the whole company raves about their new “baby” Q, personifying the system and even giving members of staff their Q license.

“We love it, and to be honest, we can’t imagine life before Q.”