Walsingham Support - Outsourced Recruitment
A two-year partnership providing a trusted source for end-to-end social care recruitment expertise and insights.
Overview
Walsingham Support are a charity that has been supporting people with learning disabilities, autism, brain injuries and complex needs across England and Wales since 1986.
The Solution
In December 2021, Walsingham Support partnered with Cohesion to
implement an outsourced model aimed at improving recruitment
and retention outcomes through data and candidate-driven
approaches.
Central to the solution was the introduction of an Applicant
Tracking System and the deployment of specialist expertise for
recruitment and compliance processes. These measures played a
pivotal role in driving better results by establishing consistent
approaches and messaging across various aspects such as
advertising, reporting, and values-based recruitment practices.
Recruitment and compliance specialists at Cohesion facilitated the
hiring process for all frontline roles spanning North, South, Central
England, and Wales. In addition, Cohesion successfully hired 9
Service Engagement Managers within a 9-month period.
Retention interviews were conducted at weeks 2 and 8, providing valuable early feedback from new starters. This approach ensured a positive onboarding experience while also gathering insights to enhance induction programmes.
Cohesion’s attraction specialists shared local attraction surveys and crafted engagement plans to effectively engage with local communities. Online advertising and proactive sourcing methods were deployed to nurture a stronger recruitment pipeline.
Results
Over the course of our two-year partnership with Walsingham Support, results included:
- 435 new starters successfully hired
- Interview to Offer conversion: 75%
- Interview Attendance Rate: 75%
- Offer to Start conversion: 74%
- Application to Offer in 9.5 days
- Compliance checks completed in 26 days
- Retention of starters measured after year one: 91%
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Walsingham Support has since developed expertise and infrastructure internally, effectively adopting Cohesion’s process and approach with success.
Candidate Feedback
“Every level of this process was epic, the level of communication, responsiveness and information is admirable. Quick updates carry you along each step of the process.”
“Excellent, could not have asked for more help. All information given and communication was first class.”
“I think the experience I had was a great one. There is nothing to improve on because the recruiter was very polite, friendly, and made me feel at ease during the interview process.”
Client feedback
“Cohesion came in and partnered with Walsingham Support at a time when our internal systems and processes around recruitment were failing to deliver. They successfully introduced better processes and candidate experience, substantially improving all of the key recruitment metrics with an approach that we have largely mirrored now that we have created our own in-house team.”
Brian O’Donoghue
Director of People and Engagement