Mamas & Papas To Streamline Recruitment Process With Applicant Tracking Software Bond Talent

WORTHING, England, Jan. 12 /PRNewswire/ -- Mamas & Papas, the UK's leading brand for baby products, nursery furniture and maternity fashion, has signed a four-year contract with stock-market listed Bond International Software http://www.bondinternationalsoftware.com to deploy flexible recruitment software Bond Talent - a fully-hosted online recruitment & talent management software solution. Bond Talent will provide Mamas & Papas with an online web portal-based recruitment application and applicant tracking software. This will enable the company to streamline processes, save on costs and time per hire and create effective talent pools whilst maintaining a personal approach to recruitment.

Mamas & Papas is a UK-based retailer and wholesaler supplying maternity and baby clothing, prams and pushchairs, car seats, highchairs, nursery furniture and decor, gifts and toys. Mamas & Papas consist of 38 stores within the UK employing approximately 1300 people. With a turnover in excess of GBP130million and plans for continuous global expansion, the company were in search of a suitable recruitment tool to ensure they had top quality colleagues working within their organisation. There is a constant need for recruitment activity within the company, so Bond Talent will be able to help relieve the administrative burden and allow colleagues to concentrate on developmental tasks.

Karl Brown, HR Director, comments, "Previously we had a strong agency biased recruitment background but decided to take our recruitment in-house. We required a package that would supplement our internal skills and streamline the recruitment process whilst proving cost effective. The company needed something that could automate processes yet integrate with our brand to allow us to continue giving the personal touch, improving the overall candidate experience. With Bond Talent's flexibility we believe we can achieve this."

Bond Talent is a specialist applicant tracking software and fully-hosted online recruitment tool for the global recruitment and talent management markets which has been designed to greatly reduce hiring costs and to enhance the strategic capability of in-house resourcing teams. The flexible recruitment software is user-friendly and adaptable 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 International Software, comments, "Mamas & Papas is a large, well-known retail organisation with specific flexible recruitment software requirements. Our applicant tracking software and fully-hosted online recruitment tool, Bond Talent, can be tailored to Mamas & Papas' needs and will enable the organisation to cost-effectively automate processes yet maintain personal control."

Brown continues, "Owing to the present climate, most companies are currently not investing in headcount increases. We have noticed, whilst not at the levels seen previously, the pace is picking up. Due to this and in order to meet our growth demands we believe more than ever that it is a good time to be implementing new systems whilst we have the capacity to do so, to then be able to cope in more hectic times. One of Bond Talent's key advantages is that we can generate a talent pool, creating a bank of suitable individuals which could prove useful in the future for recruitment. We currently have our own manual paper-based talent pool, but this is particularly hard to maintain and keep up-to-date and reliable. Bond Talent will provide us with one central system that can cope with all elements of recruitment and bring it all together."

Brown concludes, "Using Bond Talent we will be able to integrate with our pre-existing HR software and work alongside job boards, integrating candidates coming through Bond into the HR system to reduce administration. With the number of applicants per vacancy on the rise, it is increasingly important to ensure the candidate experience is the best it can be, so integrating a sophisticated recruitment system like Bond Talent will be a worthy investment for the future."

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 flexible recruitment software, web-based e-recruitment, fully-hosted online 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 30 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 and Hong Kong with a global team of over 400 employees and 3500 customers.

Bond Talent, the applicant tracking software and fully-hosted online recruitment tool, is a powerful and versatile web-based flexible recruitment software 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 applicant tracking software 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 flexible recruitment software.

Applicant tracking software and fully-hosted online recruitment tool, 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.

About Mamas & Papas www.mamasandpapas.com

Mamas & Papas is a family owned business based in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire - United Kingdom and is currently celebrating 28 years of trading. The business that started as a small independent nursery specialist in 1981 and which now enjoys over 200 worldwide wholesale accounts, 38 stores in the UK with further launches planned for 2008. Mamas & Papas currently has 1,300 colleagues, over 2500 products in the range and had a turnover of over GBP130 million pounds sterling in 2007.

The business was inspired by Luisa Scacchetti, one of the UK's premier female entrepreneurs, when she discovered that many products available to her during her pregnancy and motherhood did little to meet her expectations.

"When we first came to the nursery industry and we were looking for products for our first child, we were surprised at the very few concessions to style and fashion. We believe that these elements, along with comfort and safety should be inherent in every Mamas & Papas product.

We always strive to understand and anticipate the needs of pregnant women and their partners, their babies and young children to facilitate the design and development of a range of innovative and stylish nursery related products.

By anticipating the ever changing needs of the pregnant mother and their families whilst remaining true to our core values, we are proud to be the UK's number one nursery brand."

Luisa Scacchetti, founder and partner of co-founder David Scacchetti

Mamas & Papas has a fervent celebrity following in-keeping with its designer cachet such as fashion designer Stella McCartney, pop star and fashionista Gwen Stefani as well as many international sports, music and film stars.

Mamas & Papas has 50 stores worldwide and exports to a further 35 countries. Further store openings for Autumn Winter 09 included Liverpool, Aberdeen, Rotherham, Hull and Moscow.

SOURCE Bond International Software