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Network Rail Case Study
Signaller Volume Hire for Early Careers at Network Rail
The Background
Network Rail are the leading rail companies in the UK, existing to help people and goods get where they need to go. With over 20,000 miles of track, 30,000 bridges, tunnels, and viaducts, and thousands of signals, as well as tunning 20 of the country’s largest stations, significant labour is required to keep the country up and running. A future-proof workforce is needed to deliver this for years to come.
Our Objective
Amberjack and Network Rail have worked in partnership for many years. Throughout the partnership, Network Rail have prioritised an efficient, effective process, which delivers the best candidates and maintains candidate experience, while ensuring the fairness and inclusion they champion.
With the consistent need for new signallers to fill the safety critical role, promotion, realistic job previews, and the ever-crucial good candidate experience is required. At the same time, the process needed to effectively assess and screen candidates for safety requirements; with so many variables and various levels, expert process management was essential to a smooth yet successful recruitment process. The previously disjointed process and lack of technical integration made this difficult.
With the consistent need for new signallers to fill the safety critical role, promotion, realistic job previews, and the ever-crucial good candidate experience is required. At the same time, the process needed to effectively assess and screen candidates for safety requirements; with so many variables and various levels, expert process management was essential to a smooth yet successful recruitment process. The previously disjointed process and lack of technical integration made this difficult.
Our Solution
Amberjack partners with Network Rail to provide:
• Provision of dedicated inbox, phone line, and webchat for candidates.
• Streamlined registration and application process, with clear signposting.
• Requirement screening, based on location, travel times to desired job destination, and more.
• Integrated with AON reaction speed test to establish candidate suitability, with scores passed back to Amberjack for next steps.
• Video interviews to gain an understanding of their motivation, and their understanding of the role. • Pre-assessment calls to prepare candidates for assessment centre exercises while ensuring candidates are enthusiastic about their upcoming opportunity!
• Mixed assessment centres (some virtual, some face-to-face, some two-stage) comprising of group exercises, interviews, and individual exercises.
• Provision of dedicated inbox, phone line, and webchat for candidates.
• Streamlined registration and application process, with clear signposting.
• Requirement screening, based on location, travel times to desired job destination, and more.
• Integrated with AON reaction speed test to establish candidate suitability, with scores passed back to Amberjack for next steps.
• Video interviews to gain an understanding of their motivation, and their understanding of the role. • Pre-assessment calls to prepare candidates for assessment centre exercises while ensuring candidates are enthusiastic about their upcoming opportunity!
• Mixed assessment centres (some virtual, some face-to-face, some two-stage) comprising of group exercises, interviews, and individual exercises.
The Impact
The Network Rail and Amberjack partnership has had significant success. Network Rail are receiving a high calibre of candidates with which to build their future-proofed workforce.
A seamless relationship between Network Rail and Amberjack teams, allowing for easy communication and collaborative work.
Signallers pipeline is now cohesive and more efficient, significantly reducing time-to-hire.
11,221 applications processed for signalling roles between September 2023 and April 2024, with 120 offers and 84 reserves for signalling roles, with only 4 declined offers over 6 months.
