Cityfield Streamline Recruitment with Culverdocs

Cityfield provides recruitment services, placing temporary and permanent workers for employers based in West Sussex & Hampshire. It was founded in 2009 to recruit workers for parent company Tangmere Airfield Nurseries, the UK’s leading producer of bell peppers. Today, Cityfield successfully recruits temporary and permanent staff across a wide range of disciplines, including GLA regulated, industrial, manufacturing and commercial industries.

In 2020, Cityfield Recruitment approached Culverdocs to see whether it would be possible to move to paperless processes. At that time, its recruitment operations were entirely paper-based. The recruitment team had implemented a dedicated recruitment system but had abandoned it several years earlier as it didn’t support the way they wanted to work.

‘We wanted to improve the speed and efficiency of recruitment processes, which were all paper-based,’ explains Henry Coles, IT, Automation and Maintenance Specialist at Tangmere Airfield Nurseries. ‘I had experimented with using HubSpot online forms, but they weren’t good enough and were too expensive. Furthermore, data in HubSpot was inaccessible and we couldn’t use it in the way we wanted.’

Henry began by looking for a CRM solution that would allow the team to track and manage candidates, applications and placements. However, it soon became clear that CRM solutions did not match the particular set of requirements of Cityfield Recruitment.

‘We began to look at the possibility of creating a solution based on a candidate portal and digital forms and that’s how we found Culverdocs. When we first spoke with the Culverdocs team, we felt their enthusiasm and energy was immense. They seemed like the type of people we like to work with. After a few phone calls, we stopped looking at other products. We were confident to go forward with Culverdocs.’

They seemed like the type of people we like to work with. After a few phone calls, we stopped looking at other products. We were confident to go forward with Culverdocs.

In November 2020, Henry started working with the Culverdocs team with the goal of creating an online application process for candidates. ‘Very quickly, Culverdocs had created a form and showed us how it would work on the portal,’ explains Henry. ‘Based on that, we shared a more detailed scope and began discussing licencing. We knew from the website what the cost would be and it was very affordable. Even as we have scaled things up, it has remained affordable.’

The whole project went live in April 2021. More than twenty online forms were created for candidates. Most of the forms were available in multiple languages: English, Polish, Bulgarian, Romanian, Lithuanian and Russian. This range of languages reflect the principal countries from which Tangmere nurseries recruits workers.

‘Culverdocs promised in their proposal that whatever they delivered would be better than HubSpot and that is certainly my experience,’ recalls Henry. ‘Whatever we have asked for, they are yes people. They haven’t said “no” to anything yet. Most importantly, they back up whatever they say. And they are always quick to deliver what they say they will. Culverdocs occasionally say “maybe” but often they have completed an update which delivers the required functionality while we are still talking!’

They haven’t said “no” to anything yet. Most importantly, they back up whatever they say. And they are always quick to deliver what they say they will.

As well as the introduction form that candidates complete when applying, the candidate portal also presents a further application pack, depending on the role being applied for, once the introduction form is received. All of this information is stored securely in the portal.

In addition, it was important for Cityfield that they had a complete record of each candidate stored locally. When an introduction form is received, a new file is created on the recruitment server in the name of that candidate. Each subsequent form that candidate completes online is then stored in that folder.

‘When the staff were first told about the system, they expressed reservations,’ explains Henry, ‘they said they would revert back to paper if they didn’t like it. But we’ve had no complaints. The only issue was being able to edit documents once submitted, but Culverdocs quickly solved that by saving the file as a Word document instead of a PDF. It’s definitely made life easier.’

Sandra Dimpere is Recruitment Manager at Cityfield Recruitment. She says that the new online application process is popular with younger workers and students. She estimates the process of onboarding those workers has saved around 85% of time for her staff. ‘Now we only need to spend five minutes with them talking about the job, because all the paperwork has been completed online,’ Sandra explains.

Those less confident with computers often come into the office so staff can work through the online forms with them. Even here, Sandra says the process now takes roughly half the time it did.

‘The system works very well and is easy to use,’ says Sandra. ‘The feedback is only positive. Everything has gone nice and smooth and we can now see all the data at hand and track candidates and their status. And it has saved us loads of time as we have started to go paperless.’

Henry particularly appreciates the clear reporting dashboard that the Culverdocs portal offers. ‘We can see who’s using the portal and how many applications we have coming in,’ he explains, ‘We have much more information now and processes are a lot more transparent.’

The success of the Culverdocs portal and web forms for Cityfield Recruitment operations has Henry wondering how Culverdocs can help to streamline operations for the parent company, Tangmere Airfield Nurseries. ‘We’d like to use Culverdocs to get digitalised,’ he explains, ‘For example, our purchase order processes use a PO pad and a scanner. And because Culverdocs are so clued up on APIs and integrations, we believe we can link with other business systems to eliminate paper and develop more joined-up processes.’

‘Culverdocs is one of the easiest and most efficient third parties I have worked with here,’ Henry continues, ‘and there is so much more we could do with them. I’d like to integrate the recruitment solution with a time and attendance system so that all the candidate details are fully integrated. Anywhere where we are entering details more than once or where there is paper involved, 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.’

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.