In 2016, the City’s Human Resources team began a review of its operations to identify ways to improve efficiency and the overall experience for employees.
This revealed that the previous and very manual on-boarding process was absorbing a significant amount of HR resources.
Formerly, the contract and other documents (such as employment packs, relevant policies, payroll forms and induction material), was mailed to candidates. The HR team would experience delays in getting the paperwork returned and there were often issues with incorrectly filled out forms, leading to further set backs.
City of Gosnells Mayor Olwen Searle said the City was one of only a few Western Australian local governments implementing online on-boarding and the new system, called HROnboard, had already provided a number of benefits.
“HROnboard has saved considerable time and money but, most importantly, it is making new employees feel valued throughout the recruitment process, not just at the interview,” the Mayor said.
Under HROnboard, once the successful candidate has been contacted by phone with a verbal offer, a text message is sent with a link to a customised City of Gosnells-branded portal within HROnboard, which can be accessed from a smartphone or computer.
The system has been tailored so that, before a candidate can accept their contract, they must download and accept the City’s policies and complete our online payroll forms correctly.
The City’s Executive team has system access to enable Directors to review and approve contracts online before they are sent to candidates.
Since the system’s launch, there has been a reduction in turn-around time between creating employment contracts to candidates accepting their offers and this, in turn, is expected to reduce the likelihood of prospective employees dropping out of the recruitment process.
HROnboard has also eliminated the risk of documents going missing or information being filed incorrectly.
The next stage of this project will involve building a link between HROnboard and the City’s payroll system to eliminate data entry tasks for the Payroll team.
