- Hub's main objectives for using JTGO
- What recruiting was like before using JTGO
- JTGO ease of use
- How JTGO has impacted other areas of the business
- The most important parts of JTGO for Hub
- JTGO reporting functionality to help with growth
"JTGO has been a key part of our growth strategy"
Hub implemented and began recruiting with JTGO, their first applicant tracking system, in September 2021. We talked to their Chief People Person, Isabel Odlin, about how Hub is using JTGO to help meet their growth targets.
What were your main objectives for using JTGO?
Half of it was about timesaving and cutting back on the amount of time we spent on administration, but we also needed JTGO to help with our growth plans. We knew we were about to embark on a period of growth, and knew that meant lots of recruitment. JTGO has enabled us to do that in a much more streamlined way.
What was recruiting like before you started to use JTGO?
As Hub is a relatively small business, I am in a standalone role within our HR function, so recruiting was a slow and incredibly labour-intensive process. We relied on spreadsheets and manual processes - for example when it came to shortlisting, we would work through an average of 80+ applications. So, the more successful the advertising of our vacancies were, the more administrative work we were making for ourselves!
JTGO has cut that time by more than 50%! It means we can pool more time into managing both the candidate and the employee experience.
How easy have you found JTGO to use?
We’ve been using the JTGO system since September 2021, and in the short time we’ve been recruiting with it, I’ve found it to be very intuitive. I am not the quickest when it comes to learning new technology systems, so I think that it's a good test of whether or not a piece of software is easy to use - if I can use it, anyone can! In the short time I’ve had with it, a lot of the processes have become second nature, and the support we’ve been offered has been a real bonus.
How has JTGO impacted (directly or indirectly) other areas of the business?
JTGO has helped us save money that we can now push into initiatives in other areas of the business.
Prior to JTGO, we sometimes used recruitment agencies for hiring, which would cost our business thousands of pounds in fees. With JTGO, we’ve now been able to implement a new recruitment strategy where we are not going to use agencies at all, which will save around £6-10K per hire!
This is mainly because of the advertising reach JTGO gives us. When I post a job as live it’s advertised much further than where it would have if I did it manually. For instance, our jobs are now posted automatically to Indeed and we’ve found some really great candidates through this channel.
That extra reach has been so successful that we’ve interviewed candidates that we definitely wouldn’t have seen if it wasn’t for JTGO! We’ve also found it useful if a candidate applies for one role but is actually more suited to another, as we can more easily manage that process..png?width=1600&name=%23JobtrainImplementation%20(2).png)
It’s really helped us fill gaps in some of our more difficult-to-fill vacancies that, historically, we would have struggled with before.
We’ve also had international candidates apply too, which has enabled us to bring in a whole new level of knowledge and expertise - and that wasn’t something I expected at all when we were looking to implement a recruitment system.
What are the most important parts of JTGO for you?
The first is that we now have a recruitment facility on our website that looks like our website and uses our branding. It’s enhanced the standard and professionalism of our job advertisements.
The second is the consistency of the candidate experience. I can now easily communicate with every single applicant, whereas in the past I may not have been able to track and contact those that hadn’t made it through to the shortlist, because of the manual actions required. When a new candidate applies now, I can look at their application and either shortlist them for an interview or send a personalised rejection email quickly and simply. No candidates will ever fall through the cracks!
There’s an added and unexpected bonus to this as well. With JTGO, I can quickly find incomplete applications with just a couple of clicks and help those candidates complete their applicant journey! We have found some real gems that way.
The third is how easy it is to just switch a job advert back on! If the Account Director tells me we need a new Account Manager, I don’t need to recreate the job advert from scratch and upload it to all the different advertising channels like we did before. Now I can just switch it back on with a touch of a button to advertise again.
How have you found the reporting functionality?
At the same time that we implemented JTGO, we embarked on a growth campaign at Hub. One of my project tasks within that growth team is to look at our recruitment strategy as part of our growth – and that obviously has to be measurable.
We’re going to rely heavily on the reports in JTGO like Time to Hire and Candidate Sourcing to keep that focused. Without question, it’s going to play a key part of our growth!
What are your final thoughts on JTGO?
JTGO is perfect for us. We initially looked at Jobtrain Pro but as an SME, we felt a full-blown ATS with all the bells and whistles was too big for us at this stage. However, JTGO is a perfect fit. It’s a lot cheaper than hiring an HR or Recruitment Assistant. I can’t recommend JTGO enough for SMEs, particularly for HR Leaders that are in standalone roles.
Interview with Isabel Odlin
Chief People Person at Hub.
About Hub.Hub is a full service marketing agency with an in-house production team committed to creating content that works for their clients. They help organisations with every step of their marketing journey, from research-led strategy to content creation and distribution as well as performance analysis. They are an insight-led content agency with 18 years’ experience of creating original and memorable work that accelerates growth.