One of the elements of HARBOUR that we are most proud of are our Hiring Manager Portals. These are distinct interfaces which give Hiring Managers clear sight of their own aligned vacancies and candidates, pulling actions together in an easy to use, one-stop-shop, whilst still allowing central teams oversight and control over recruitment as a whole.

Since its go live in 2013, New Look’s HARBOUR system has evolved significantly to keep up with changing times. An example of this would be the addition of an award-winning Retail Manager Portal back in 2018. Almost 10 years after the original launch, New Look  are still continuously looking to get the most out of their ATS, and this year, they took the decision to enhance their existing user interface even further.

For a number of years, New Look's Retail Managers had actioned all their own recruitment for their stores through the existing portal, from sifting applications to booking in interviews and offers, alongside contacting unsuccessful candidates. This was – and continues to be - highly effective for the high volume roles and fast paced environment of recruiting Sales Advisors.

However, other parts of the business had a more limited workflow, which allowed them to log in to the system to raise the original request, with the rest of the process being actioned by the central recruitment team.

New Look were keen to allow ALL Hiring Managers to take on the ownership and autonomy enjoyed by their Retail Managers, working in conjunction with the in-house recruiters to provide a "best in class" recruitment model. They were also looking to bring their procedures up to date and introduce efficiencies within the recruitment and onboarding workflow. This included eliminating any GDPR concerns by keeping any and all recruitment data within the one system, be it direct or internal candidates, or candidates submitted via an external PSL.

Working together, we scoped, built and implemented the new portal so that Hiring Managers could request, manage and view progress of their vacancies, from shortlisting candidates, diary management of interviews and the provision of feedback, through to the onboarding progress of new employees. This in turn allows the HR ops teams to focus more on daily talent acquisition and time taken to hire and onboard successful candidates.

This new portal has been implemented on a phased launch within one function for now, with the remaining Hiring Managers to follow on soon. However, it has already been well received by the people it was built to help.

But don’t just take our word for it!

Jennie Field – Business Analyst Manager:

• I can see the benefit of having us working off one system and not relying or emails etc
• It’s useful to be able to see the requests and the applicants in one system/view
• Very simple and logical – should make us more efficient once everyone is working within the portal