About...
Wandle is a housing association that’s been working towards providing good quality, affordable housing to South London communities for over 50 years.
Having provided over 7,000 houses across nine South London boroughs, Wandle is committed to offering homes people can trust and be proud of.
per employee
not weeks
Wandle
Background check experience
Since stepping into the role of Talent Acquisition Partner at Wandle, Dale Taggart has been working towards one big goal: a human-centred candidate experience.
But as Wandle’s sole talent acquisition partner, Dale’s job quickly became overwhelmed with unavoidable, unnecessarily time-consuming tasks.
Whether it was requesting background checks from over 60 potential hires annually or chasing their referees to complete them, his to-do list was full of admin that prevented him from really overhauling Wandle’s candidate experience.
“The whole process used to take too long,” said Dale. “We used multiple systems but none of them were very candidate-friendly.”
With an incredibly unwieldy system that forced them to use a different provider for each background check, Dale was constantly chasing someone – candidates, referees, or customer support executives.
After spending all this time manually intervening in checks, chasing follow-ups, and uploading candidate data, there weren’t enough hours in the day to think strategically. With so much invested in making sure Wandle’s processes kept up with hiring, there was no leftover time to make talent acquisition at Wandle more streamlined, efficient, and human-centred.
When his previous background checking provider went into administration, Dale saw his chance to switch up their background checking for the better. His checklist included:
- All the checks, one platform: Wandle’s new provider had to meet their compliance requirements without forcing them to jump around different providers.
- Candidate experience front and centre: Dale didn’t want clunky, complicated, or counterproductive. He needed something that made the candidate's journey simpler and boosted their employer brand.
- Top-tier customer service: It was important for Dale to know that behind great tech, there was still a human being. Someone who was ready to swoop in and save him, should he or his candidates need it.
- Time for “good productivity”: Dale had little to no time for tasks that would help the business in the future. Their new provider had to free up vital time that he could use to identify great candidates, prepare managers, and develop an intentional employee value proposition and employer brand.
When Dale got on a call with the Zinc team, it was a perfect match.
“I liked what I saw, it all made sense. And actually having a human interaction was quite nice,” said Dale.
Results
Zinc’s job? Scrap Dale’s old to-do list and replace it with more time to help humanise recruitment at Wandle.
Here’s how we did it:
One consolidated system
Previously, Dale had to toggle through different providers to send and track each check, tacking on an undue amount of time to the process and stress for both him and candidates.
With Zinc, Dale is able to send all the necessary checks from one consolidated platform. Zinc chases references for him, and gives him real-time updates on the status of checks whenever he needs them. This has drastically reduced the amount of manual touchpoints needed to complete checks, and Dale now has more time for big-picture projects that allow Wandle to “get ahead in the future.”
The new system is so easy to use that when he went on holiday, he was able to explain the whole setup to a coworker in less than two minutes. Sounds like a win to us.
The best candidate experience
You never get a second chance to make a great first impression. And as Dale found out, sending multiple background checks through multiple platforms didn’t just drag out the process — it was a bad first interaction with new employees.
Since using Zinc, that problem is gone. Dale said it best: “When candidates log into Zinc, they feel they’re logging into a competent system.” And when candidate checks are finished in under an hour, that feeling only continues.
A future-first focus
When asked how Zinc has changed the way talent acquisition at Wandle operates, Dale said, “It’s definitely freed up more of my time.” Now, he can invest in developing an intentional EVP strategy, teaching managers how to interview better, and building a strong, exciting employer brand – all essential elements for making Wandle stand out as the best place to work in the housing industry
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