ROYAL NAVY CASE STUDY
As common with many employer in 2020 the Royal Navy moved away from
traditional ‘face to face’ recruitment methods and introduced a number of virtual
processes to maintain the inflow of new recruits into the service, post the outbreak of
Covid-19. This was prompted by the introduction of social distancing policies but this
technology and virtual interviewing has now become a mainstay of the Navy’s
recruitment process.
Recruitment then and now
Initially the Navy used an ad hoc collection of several different
platforms to conduct their interviews, but quickly commenced the process of
procuring an enduring single virtual interviewing platform. Any such capability
needed to meet the rigorous security requirements of the MOD, support enhanced
supervision and remote assurance options, whilst providing a reliable service and
offer sound value for money.
The Royal Navy engaged the services of Shine Interview, whose technology was
contracted using the G-Cloud, in order to deliver against its requirements and
support the digital transformation of their recruitment processes. They implemented
two-way interviewing first, giving them the facility to record an interview in a fully-
branded, secure environment replacing their traditional ‘face to face’ interview. This
was quickly flowed by the introduction of a ‘pre-recorded’ sift interview as they
developed an understanding of the technology and explored means to exploit its full
potential.
How Shine helped the Royal Navy with their recruitment
Within the first six months of rolling out ‘Live video interviews’ the number of
candidate interviews successfully completed had increased by 140%, when
compared with the same period in the previous year. At the same time, candidate
satisfaction levels with the overall Royal Navy recruitment process increased by 7%
to 78%.
Virtual interviewing technology has enabled the Royal Navy to interview candidates
from all over the world at a time to suit. By doing so it was clear real benefits has
been found by employing video interviewing to delivering an innovative solution to
reduce workloads, costs and most importantly improve candidate experience.
Looking ahead with Shine Interview
The Royal Navy recruitment processes now accommodates both pre-recorded and
live interviewing elements and they continues to explore options to grow this
capability. As a domestic and international employer, drawing candidates from
across the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth, the use of video interviewing
has allowed candidates to further their applications from the comfort of their own
homes.
Over 11,000 applicants have been invited through Shine to complete an
interview, with over 8,500 completions, and these numbers are continuing to grow.
The initial scope was to streamline the recruitment process and the feedback from
the Royal Navy users and candidates is very positive. The Royal Navy have digitised
a previously traditional recruitment process which has been used across the entire
Royal Navy base.
In difficult circumstances during COVID they were able to
completely transform the recruitment process and reduce time to hire significantly,
whilst saving hours of recruiter effort but not compromising candidate experience.
What does The Royal Navy have to say?
Feedback from both candidates and Royal Navy users has been received and is
used to constantly update procedures and processes.
“Being able to work with a UK based company was important, for obvious security
and compliance reasons. With only a small number of vendors in the marketplace
being able to fully meet all of our requirements it has been really beneficial to find
such an experienced provider, as Shine, who has been able to support us on this
transformation journey.’
Tom McKay, Deputy Head of Recruitment, the Royal Navy
Innovation leads to recognition
The Royal Navy, supported by Shine Interview have been shortlisted for The FIRMS
awards for ‘Outstanding Impact Transformation Change’. We wish the Royal Navy
the best of luck and are very proud to call them a client.