As one of the UK’s largest recruiters, Pertemps provides permanent, contract, and temporary staffing solutions across all sectors and industries. They operate across over 100 branches and work with brands to fill thousands of roles nationwide.
Support Services for the logistics and healthcare area of the business are responsible for multiple disciplines including payroll, compliance, shift management, and many more. Support Services were limited to just telephone and post as a way to reach contacts, which the business didn’t feel met the supplier motto of ‘Right Place, Right Time and Right Technology.’
Post didn’t enable Support Services to reach contacts quickly enough, and with over 1,000 contacts they simply didn’t have the time or manpower to speak to everyone individually over the phone.
There became an urgent need to find a quicker way of managing contracts, shift discussions, training sessions, and payroll queries. It was also becoming challenging to meet specific contracts where employers need a quick response, some as short as two hours.
SMS was introduced as the primary channel to support two-way communication. Using a Dedicated Inbound Number as the sender name, Pertemps can contact thousands of workers in minutes. Recipients can reply instantly, with the messages being forwarded straight to a Pertemps URL.
Through our API integration, messages can also be sent to specific groups of job seekers when a new posting is available, broadcasting the information directly, within seconds.
The Messaging service has also enabled compliance guidelines to be suitably met, as regulations are set for the business to have evidence that certain information has been received by the workers. The platform provides essential reporting that shows if a message has been delivered, which telephone and post could not provide.
Nearly 80% of all jobs are now booked via SMS within minutes. Previously, up to 50,000 jobs a month were handled via telephone, not only creating huge pressure on resource but increasing staffing and calling costs. SMS has generated a huge cost saving for the business and shifts are now being confirmed instantly.
Recently, 1,500 messages were sent for HGV drivers to apply for positions attaching a link directing workers to the application form. Over 900 applications were received into one manageable system. When this was done via telephone, not only was the response significantly lower but the process was unsustainable, not just from the call center perspective but also logging the applications.
A further advantage is that SMS can be used as a marketing tool to contact previous workers who are no longer on the books. There wouldn’t be any contact using the Pertemps app and previous experience has proven that calls aren’t answered. This has been a positive with the current demand for HGV drivers and the pressure on unemployment numbers.
