The challenge:
We were approached by our existing client, Nottinghamshire County Council, who we operated within a master vendor managed service programme (MSP) with to look after temporary staffing requirements, including critical areas such as social care.
When the contract came up for renewal, the council decided it did not want to specify a particular model at that time.
They were seeking a solution that could:
Deliver value for money
Utilise local suppliers and help small and medium enterprises (SMEs) develop
Drive continuous improvement
Despite being the incumbent supplier, we were heavily invested in a thorough implementation, with extensive analysis of requirements, supplier management and a dedicated focus on opportunities to innovate.
The solution:
During the renewal, we decided to implement a hybrid model using our flexible resources marketplace.
This included a dedicated, experienced account management function with added innovations such as the creation of steering groups, a flexible and expanded supplier panel, evolved pricing and management information (MI), and an aligned set of measures to deliver social values.
The continuation of a master vendor approach in areas such as admin and clerical, as well as technology, enabled us to implement a more cost-effective solution.
We were able to build a talent pool, something which was vitally important when we were tasked with staffing lateral flow test centres across Nottinghamshire. We sourced over 150 people across more than 10 locations, in a variety of roles, throughout the pandemic.
As part of our commitment to support local businesses, we identified opportunities for the council’s current suppliers to be added on to an existing supplier list for additional MSP’s that Reed provided to other local authorities, further developing their income stream and exposure.
In addition, we strengthened our neutral qualified social care panel by identifying additional suppliers who had proven capability within or at another 28 local authority contracts.
We devised the six pillars of success to develop a relevant, meaningful social value offering for Nottinghamshire. This helped to drive our social value activity, to put people at the heart of everything we do and to support the area’s care leavers.
Our experts also created steering groups in crucial sectors, such as qualified social care and IT, including a joint panel of account management, hiring managers, HR business partners and representatives from the supplier panel. This enabled a collaborative forum to discuss successes, local and national market trends, challenges, and solutions.
Some notable outcomes included the production of bespoke, captivating marketing material to promote children’s and adults’ services. This was created via a host of interactive meetings with the supplier panel and hiring managers to draw out the unique selling points and testimonials to bring the roles to life.
The process resulted in a greater submission rate and improved brand among the social worker community. Candidate testimonials were also utilised in the marketing for Nottinghamshire County Council’s direct permanent recruitment.
In addition, due to a combination of a bespoke adults steering group and account management expertise, we spotted the opportunity to reduce the pay rates for adult social workers without having a detrimental effect on attraction. This generated significant savings.
The results:
The new iteration of our contract with the council realised immediate savings.
We were able to provide even more competitive margins, challenging pay rates in the qualified social worker (QSW) sector in line with the memorandum of understanding (MOU) and tenure discounts.
In addition, through re-negotiation with our supply chain, we were able to drive over £120,000 of margin savings from September 2020 to August 2022.
To monitor and ensure we were delivering an excellent service and strong candidates, we created a new automated chat link to ascertain the service, and the candidate’s journey from their initial first day, week and month.
This enabled the account management team to pro-actively deal with any challenges, or upcoming recruitment needs, while also creating a new nomination for Reed Talent Solutions’ Temp of the Quarter.
The council said: “Reed Talent Solutions has been instrumental in the development of employability opportunities with the Achievement Service, which supports approximately 900 looked after children from post 16, 18-to-21 aged care leavers and 21-to-25 aged care leavers.
“The Achievement Service, in partnership with Reed Talent Solutions, has been able to access the current employment labour market picture in Nottinghamshire and the East Midlands, which has been extremely invaluable in our support, advice and guidance role coupled with then having this information when engaging our young people.
“Also, my Achievement Advisers have been able to contact Reed Talent Solutions about individual young people with their specific education, employment and training (EET) needs and this has been extremely invaluable for care leavers who have an employment history and established transferrable employability skills.”
Find out more about our managed service programmes, or get in touch with one of our experts to talk through your needs.
