Hayley, SAMMS Project Manager, tells us how her team worked smarter by using Office 365 to recruit a new member of staff on Skype.
About the Bird Wise project
Bird Wise is a project to reduce recreational disturbance to birds on the North Kent coast between Gravesend and Whitstable.
How we worked smarter
Each winter we employ Seasonal Rangers to patrol the coastline providing face-to-face engagement with the public. This year we had an excellent response to our recruitment advertisement with applications received from all over Europe.
We wanted to ensure we were able to interview as many suitable candidates in 2018 and looked to technology to help with this.
With the introduction of Office 365, and technology in all of the Gun Wharf meeting rooms, we were able to offer candidates from further afield the opportunity to have their interview using Skype.
We interviewed nine candidates for the posts and four of these were carried out over Skype from France, Sweden, Ireland and Cornwall.
The interviews contained both verbal and visual questions, so to ensure fairness, the pictures were emailed to the Skype candidates five minutes before their start time.
Benefits of the project
The project was a win, saving time and money for candidates and the council.
By using Skype technology we removed any geographical restrictions and ensured we had the best possible candidates available for interview.
We made better use of time and resources as we were able to complete all of the interviews in one day and without travel expenses.
It saved time and money for the candidates too, as interviews could be held in a location that suited them.
We will definitely use Skype again when we look to recruit for winter 2019.
