Case studies

Context:  The London Borough of Sutton approached Osborne Thomas to devise an evidence-based Employee Value Proposition (EVP) and subsequent branding materials for Sutton’s Adult Social Care team. As part of their brief, they wished us to identify and provide solutions to any potential barriers in their hiring process and create an effective recruitment media campaign to recruit to multiple roles.

Methodology: Our approach to this project was four pronged: EVP Discovery and Research, Stakeholder Collaboration, Creative Outputs and Media Scheduling.

EVP Discovery and Research: EVP research and discovery was conducted by Osborne Thomas and included interviews with social workers, managers, and leaders from multiple ASC teams. The results enabled Osborne Thomas to not only produce evidence for EVP construction, but also a suggested internal communications plan, including some ‘quick wins’ to enhance the overall recruitment experience and prevent future attrition levels – which were high. We were able to use the research to produce evidence-based EVP pillars that aligned with the existing organisational vision and values.

Stakeholder Collaboration: Following presentation of the EVP pillars and Sutton’s agreement by senior stakeholders, a collaborative briefing process was followed to produce employer brand concepts for attraction. It was also agreed that an alternative destination for initial applications was needed to better inform candidates of the features and USPs of working for Sutton’s Adult Social Care team, therefore, it was agreed that a campaign microsite was needed.

Weekly meetings were held between all parties throughout, with coordination by a central Project Manager from Osborne Thomas. 

Creative outputs: The chosen employer brand concept built on the new EVP pillars and the statement ‘We take pride in …’, PRIDE being at the heart of Council’s existing values.

Headlines were produced encouraging potential candidates to imagine the difference at Sutton using the typographical device ‘InSutton’. For example, ‘See yourself InSutton’, ‘Progress your career InSutton’, ‘Feel supported InSutton’ etc.

The design execution was simple but colourful, with clear bold fonts. It was consistently executed across the microsite with a dedicated URL and across the advertising collateral.

Media Advertising: To coincide with the launch of the dedicated microsite, we produced a number “InSutton” branded images to be used as part of a targeted social media campaign including banners across job sites, which would direct audiences to the microsite.

The specific roles for the campaign were advertised across a range of media to ensure we reached as wider market as possible which included Guardian Jobs, Community Care, BASW, Jobs Go Public Indeed, RCOT and also in print for the Professional Social Work Magazine and Occupational Therapy News Magazine.

Outcome: The commitment to a fast-track interview process, better informed applicants and a clear understanding of the EVP resulted in 34 permanent roles being recruited, 16 of which were temporary workers who converted to permanent employees.

These roles were across Social Workers, Occupational Therapists and Team Managers.

The advertising produced 3,883 clicks across the entire campaign, with 3,900 visitors come through to the microsite. An overall huge achievement in these really unprecedented and difficult times for recruitment, and for this particular sector.

In addition of course, the recruitment of 18 additional Social Care professionals to fulfil the current gaps has resulted in an overall happier Adult Social Care workforce at Sutton with fewer Social Workers leaving the Council than ever before.

Context: Our customer approached ourselves in conjunction with Leading Kind to develop a comprehensive people strategy to support their anticipated and significant growth over the coming five years. Specifics of the brief included exploration of their current management team’s collective strengths and areas for development, and to make recommendations around future recruitment requirement and being “fit for purpose.”

Methodology: By using profiling assessment methodologies, we were able to understand and present back to their management team the particular strengths within the group and how they could build upon these to embrace their vision and objectives as laid out within their ambitious new business plan. Equally through our identification of their development needs we were able to put forward an action plan with focus on growing green skills and diversifying the organisational workforce.

Alongside this and having comprehensively reviewed their business plan we identified specific skills bases for future recruitment to feed their People Strategy and respond to the needs of their business. This included our recommendation for the recruitment to a new HR Manager.

Outcome: A new HR Manager was sought and recruited by us. And the development a new People Strategy ensured the organisation’s recruitment and retention methodologies were realistic and effective. We continue to be retained by our customer and are working on a couple of further projects including the upskilling of their people managers.

Our customer says:
“Osborne Thomas with Leading Kind fully understood our brief and have been central to us moving our business forward to the next level in line with our new business plan. Thank you, team!”
Managing Director, a property & construction trading arm of a local authority

Context: IR35 legislation despite coming into effect in 2017 continues to have significant impact on the way authorities handle interims. Enfield approached us for our assistance to educate managers on the themes of IR35 and its implications, and to develop documentation which would assist managers in determining IR35 status when reviewing their current workforce and recruiting.

Methodology: following the design and development of a “specification” document and accompanying training workshop we delivered 10 seminars to raise awareness of the legislation and discuss specific cases within departments across the Council.

Enfield say: –

 “Osborne Thomas delivered enlightening workshops and provided us with clear, succinct advice regarding IR35 legislation. They even made it sound exciting!”

Context: coming towards the end of their agency staffing contract Islington was looking for some independent advice with regards to reviewing their particular needs of the contract and the shaping of the new specification.

Methodology: we worked with Islington to create the new specification and go to market with a client-led approach, not a market-led one. This resulted in us asking for a ‘bespoke’ service, not one which fitted into the supplier’s ‘model’, i.e., a blended approach which suited Islington and that met organisational requirements, the needs of hiring managers, and reduced spend.

Islington say: –

“Osborne Thomas have done a great job advising us and project managing the procurement of our £35m agency staff contract. Very knowledgeable and professional, and they get things done. Thanks very much!”

(Sixty Bricks is the local authority housing development company of Waltham Forest)

Context: having established a brand-new Shareholder Board to ensure appropriate governance and management arrangements were in place Sixty Bricks assigned Osborne Thomas to ensure that in the future their permanent employees would be appropriately recognised and rewarded and that equally the organisation had best practice employment polices/practices in place.

Methodology: we focused our work on 3 key workstreams, namely: – financial benefits, non-financial benefits and HR T&Cs and policies. In doing so we tailored the overall remuneration philosophy, reward policy and performance scheme to reflect the desired behaviours that Sixty Bricks was seeking to instill in its people whilst taking into consideration appetite to develop more of a total reward approach to set out the cost and value of the whole package, and not just pay. This was key to them enabling them to monitor the reward policy going forward.

Sixty Bricks say: –

“We appointed Osborne Thomas to provide HR Consultancy expertise to finalise the company’s new Benefits Package including pay, performance bonus, non-financial benefits and operational HR policy infrastructure. We have found the team to be professionally insightful, diligent, flexible and importantly able to deliver to a high standard within agreed timescales”.