SLA sets new standards for Statsbygg’s recruitment function
When the Norwegian Directorate of Public Construction and Property (Statsbygg) recruited Ola Melby as HR advisor, the directorate was already harboring ambitions for the quality of its in-house recruitment function to equal that of leading third-party providers.
“Top management has two stated objectives,” says Melby, “operational efficiency and completeness of delivery.” The same applies to the directorate's recruitment function.
To further its goal of an internal recruiting function able to compete with the best in the market, Statsbygg has opted to implement a Service Level Agreement (SLA).
As main contractor for the construction of Oslo's new opera house, Statsbygg imposed the most stringent requirements on third-party suppliers. Conditions imposed on in-house providers are equally rigorous.
Setting binding standards with an SLA
“An SLA is a binding agreement between an organization's recruitment function and the function’s in-house clients,” explains Melby. “An SLA is a very effective tool for managing an organization’s internal functions. By imposing a commitment to an external stakeholder, it generates accountability for compliance with quality standards.
“From a historical perspective, SLAs first emerged as a concept in the IT and telecoms sectors, but they have generally proved very well suited to quality management in businesses where delivery is process based.
“An organization has to measure its performance in order to operate efficiently. In HR it's often difficult to measure performance in financial terms, so other performance indicators have to be employed. An SLA enables variables such as time and quantity to be measured effectively.
“This is the context where using an SLA is appropriate. By defining standards and committing to compliance, internal functions are able to benchmark their internal processes against leading players in the market in general.”
Melby’s background with one of Norway’s leading recruiters enabled him to contribute to accurate best-practice benchmarking.
“Robust in-house competence and WebCruiter technology gave us the confidence to aspire to the highest professional and quality standards,” he says.
Clear communication on workflow and task allocation
“At Statsbygg we have defined seven sub-processes for which we are accountable to our in-house clients. We also use these sub-processes as performance indicators. Time frames are central in this context,” Melby explains.
“Time frames apply, for example, in relation to the expected time from receipt of a job advert to publication on the internet, from first consideration of a proposed hire to completion of quality assurance, from submission of a hiring proposal to the recruitment board to dispatching the job offer, and so on.”
“It is important to let our in-house clients know what they are entitled to expect,” says Melby.
“The straightforward performance indicators we have put in place are communicated actively to middle managers so that they can see what constitutes an acceptable time frame for delivery. This allows us to clarify expectations early on in the process.
“An SLA also represents an opportunity to ensure optimal task allocation. We have two different service levels, with middle managers having different levels of responsibility for different parts of the recruitment process. Consequently the SLA also contributes to middle-management accountability where this is relevant.
“It is important that task allocation is completely clear-cut.”
SLA support via WebCruiter’s reporting center
Melby anticipates that WebCruiter’s reporting center will generate a continual process of efficiency improvement through use of the SLA.
“The reporting center enables us to apply advanced reporting filters that allow us to analyze very varied factors, such as, for example, where candidates are originating from or the number of hires being handled per consultant,” explains Melby.
“Eventually we also want to use the reporting center to analyze the flow of recruitment processes."
“The reporting center has a very logical construction and is so easy to use that you can’t go wrong, even when creating very advanced reports. The course we attended on the new reporting center opened our eyes to the many standard reports available. The certification course for the reporting center module was inspirational and we now see many new possibilities for specially tailored reports in relation to our SLA agreement.”
From administrative system to analytical tool
“The reporting center lifts WebCruiter from administrative system to analytical tool – and that’s important for us,” concludes Melby.
