Overview
Cityfield is a specialist recruitment agency placing temporary and permanent workers across West Sussex and Hampshire. Culverdocs helped them eliminate paper processes, simplifying candidate applications, improving compliance, and transforming how candidate data is managed.
Founded in 2009 to recruit for its parent company, Tangmere Airfield Nurseries – the UK’s leading producer of bell peppers – Cityfield now recruits across a wide range of disciplines, including GLA-regulated, industrial, manufacturing, and commercial sectors. When it approached Culverdocs in 2020, its recruitment operations were entirely paper-based.
The Challenge
Cityfield’s recruitment was entirely paper-based, and the team wanted to improve its speed and efficiency. An earlier dedicated recruitment system had been abandoned for not supporting how they worked, and experiments with HubSpot online forms hadn’t worked out either.
‘We wanted to improve the speed and efficiency of recruitment processes, which were all paper-based,’ explains Henry Coles, IT, Automation and Maintenance Specialist. ‘I had experimented with using HubSpot online forms, but they weren’t good enough and were too expensive.’
The business needed a solution to:
- Move its paper-based recruitment processes online.
- Track and manage candidates, applications, and placements in one place.
- Make candidate data accessible and usable, unlike its previous tools.
The Solution
Off-the-shelf CRM systems didn’t match Cityfield’s particular requirements, so the team built a solution around a candidate portal and digital forms with Culverdocs. Work began in November 2020 and the project went live in April 2021.
The project delivered a full online application process, including:
- An online application process for candidates.
- More than twenty forms, most available in six languages (English, Polish, Bulgarian, Romanian, Lithuanian, and Russian).
- Role-specific application packs, issued once the introduction form is received.
- Secure local file storage, with a candidate record created for each applicant.
- Health and safety forms.
By replacing paper with a candidate portal and digital forms, Cityfield gained a faster, more transparent recruitment process with all candidate data in one place.
The Impact
Faster Candidate Onboarding
Recruitment Manager Sandra Dimpere estimates the online application process has saved around 85% of her staff’s onboarding time, with candidates completing paperwork before they arrive.
‘Now we only need to spend five minutes with them talking about the job, because all the paperwork has been completed online.’
Easy for Staff and Candidates
Despite early reservations, the response from staff and candidates has been entirely positive, with extra support on hand for those less confident with computers.
‘The system works very well and is easy to use. The feedback is only positive. Everything has gone nice and smooth.’
Clearer Reporting and Transparency
A reporting dashboard gives the team visibility over portal usage, incoming applications, and candidate status.
‘We have much more information now and processes are a lot more transparent.’
A Responsive Partner
Cityfield has found Culverdocs consistently quick to deliver and open to every new request.
‘Whatever we have asked for, they are yes people. They haven’t said “no” to anything yet, and they are always quick to deliver what they say they will.’
The Results
Culverdocs has become a trusted partner for Cityfield, with parent company Tangmere Airfield Nurseries now exploring how it could digitalise its own processes and integrate further systems.
‘Culverdocs is one of the easiest and most efficient third parties I have worked with here, and there is so much more we could do with them… We can rely on Culverdocs to have an answer to “what can we do to get rid of that?”. And they are really great people to work with.’ — Henry Coles, IT, Automation, and Maintenance Specialist, Tangmere Airfield Nurseries.
Time Saved Onboarding
Languages Supported
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