Drax Power Purchases Applicant Tracking Software Bond Talent to Reduce Recruitment Advertising Costs By 40%

WORTHING, U.K., Jan. 26 /PRNewswire/ -- Drax Power Limited, which owns the largest coal-fired power plant in the UK, has purchased Bond Talent – the online recruitment & talent management software solution – from stock market-listed Bond International Software http://www.bondinternationalsoftware.com The solution will provide an online recruitment web portal, applicant tracking software and also talent pool functionality ahead of the proposed construction of Drax's new biomass-fired power plants. The use of Bond Talent is also anticipated to reduce recruitment advertising costs by as much as 40%.

The Drax Group includes Drax Power Station, near Selby in North Yorkshire, which currently provides 7% of the UK's electricity needs and employs around 750 people, and also Haven Power based in East Anglia – an electricity supply company serving the needs of business customers, that has grown from a few hundred customers to around 23,000 in the last two to three years. The Bond software will be deployed across both of these divisions.

Richard Neville, Head of HR at Drax Power, explains, "We are intending to develop three biomass-fired power plants from 2011 onwards, each of which will employ a substantial number of contractors during the three and a half year construction phase and a direct operational workforce after that.  In order to ensure that we are sufficiently resourced, we are planning to set up a talent pool through Bond Talent that will enable us to store details of suitable applicants who contact us in the meantime. The resulting self-sufficiency the talent pool will afford us will allow us to reduce our dependency on recruitment advertising, and thereby reduce our costs by as much as 40%."

Neville continues, "In addition, Haven Power, which has enjoyed phenomenal growth over the last years, has a very high recruitment need – employing as many as five to ten new staff each week. We are currently managing this recruitment process through paper-based processes – CVs are received in hardcopy, photocopied and forwarded to the relevant line manager for review. As we receive lots of applications across both Haven Power and Drax Power, this is a time-consuming and particularly un-environmentally-friendly process. Through Bond, we will be able to receive applications via a new Drax-branded, user-friendly web portal on our website, track and manage the application process electronically and then replicate the recruitment data from successful candidates into our HR system. This will significantly reduce both our target time per hire, which is currently 70 days from vacancy opening to job offer, and our overall costs."

Bond Talent is a specialist application for the global recruitment and talent management markets which has been designed to greatly reduce recruitment advertising costs and hiring costs and to enhance the strategic capability of in-house resourcing teams. The system is user-friendly and flexible allowing for reduced paperwork and improved efficiency. This gives key recruitment staff more time to concentrate on development rather than administrative tasks.

Tim Richards, Managing Director of Bond UK, comments, "Richard previously worked at Yorkshire Water – one of our longest-standing customers – and as a result of seeing the power and functionality of Bond Talent there, has very quickly brought us into Drax Power to provide the same level of service and support. The cumbersome and expensive recruitment processes at Drax Power typify the situations for which the applicant tracking software was designed, so we are confident in our ability to help reduce costs and times per hire once again."

About Bond International Software and Bond Talent  

London stock market-listed Bond International Software plc is a global provider of recruitment and human capital management (HCM) software and services.

Bond is the largest provider of specialist staffing software for recruitment agencies worldwide. Is a rapidly growing provider of web-based e-recruitment and talent management software to the corporate market and provides HR, recruitment, payroll software and bureau services directly to both the public and private sectors.

Established in 1973 and quoted on the AIM market of the London Stock Exchange since 1997, the company has consistently achieved financial growth and maximised investment in the development of technology and service provided to its international client base.

It has over 35 years experience in the development and creation of products and services that have become industry standards. Headquartered in the United Kingdom, the Group also has offices in the United States, Australia, Canada, South Africa, Japan and Hong Kong with a global team of over 500 employees and 3500 customers.

Bond Talent is a powerful and versatile web-based application specifically developed for corporations who wish to streamline their in-house recruitment processes and save costs. It offers seamless online interfaces to deliver sophisticated workflow and accessibility for all stakeholders involved in the Resourcing and HR Processes, with multi-lingual and character set capability. Talent has been designed to complement rather than replace, important HR processes. It reduces paperwork and improves efficiency which frees up staff to concentrate on strategic development rather than administrative tasks. The solution is ideal for multi-site global offices where training, language and day-to-day business practices can benefit from both Bond's experienced support teams and the complete configurability and scalability of the product.

Bond Talent customers include some of the best known corporations and a large number of private sector organisations, including: HBOS, Habitat, The Co-operative Group and easyJet.

SOURCE Bond International Software plc