The Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (COSLA) has won the award for ‘Best example of shared services in practice’ at the UK Public Sector Digital Awards through the creation of its www.myjobscotland.gov.uk career site. COSLA estimates that the site, which receives around 2.5 million visits from jobseekers each year, saves over GBP12 million in advertising costs alone annually. Today all 32 Councils and all 8 Fire and Rescue Services in Scotland use the site for their vacancies. Lumesse has worked with COSLA to build a site that not only saves a great deal of money, but also improves the candidate experience, raises the profile of public sector employers and expands the available pool of jobseekers.
Myjobscotland has transformed the market in Scotland, reducing annual advertising spends from £16 million plus prior to 2006/7 to less than £4 million in 2009/10. From its launch in 2008, usage of the site has grown massively. Projected annual savings of 50% in press advertising have been scaled up to 80% and are rising. At present, an average of 1,500 jobs are posted each month.
Counsellor Michael Cook, COSLA’s Spokesperson for Human Resource Management, who has responsibility for strategic HR across the entire Scottish local government workforce, said, “I am delighted that myjobscotland has been recognised in this way. The way that councils recruit their workforce has been completely transformed. We have had councils and government departments from across the UK and indeed from Europe coming to see how we have achieved this success. There is immense scope for other partners in the public sector, from NHS to higher education, the Civil Service to the Police, to make really substantial savings while providing an improved service.”
Paul Arkwright
Publisher
