Case Study:

Recruitment Technology Platform and Centralised Careers Hub to support Workforce

Stockport Jobs Match Recruitment Technology Platform

Following the impact of Covid-19 on the local economy, Grassroots Consulting was commissioned by Stockport Council to deliver a centralised recruitment platform to tackle immediate labour market supply and demand challenges, drive foundational jobs growth and serve as an innovative technology platform to support the local Economic Development Plan.

Providing a targeted programme of support over a two-year period, Grassroots Consulting developed a dedicated job board, training directory and careers hub as a single-access point connecting local jobseekers, employers, training providers, schools and colleges, employment support partners and target groups. During this time, the ‘Stockport Jobs Match’ service successfully supported 500 employers and over 7,000+ jobseekers. 

Feedback from Stockport Employers and Partners

Stockport Jobs Match have been pivotal in the development of relationships between Ingeus and a wide range of local and national employers. These relationships have produced life changing results for many local people we work with, who were experiencing debilitating barriers to employment. Without the always enthusiastic involvement of Stockport Jobs Match is our Job Fairs and other events, we would not have been able to achieve the success we have
Matthew Bowden, Employer Partnerships Manager at Ingeus
The team are great, they have really helped me to advertise our job roles and this allows me to free up my time to focus on other things. They have helped me to find out about local recruitment fairs and even advertise our job vacancies on their Facebook page. Really supportive and quick to respond.
Demi, HR Manager at Absolute Care & Support
From a local knowledge point of view, the team would be our “go to” for advice. Very helpful in terms of uploading roles if necessary. Always at the end of a phone / email. Very supportive of musicMagpie as a business.
Caroline Salt, Head of Talent Acquisition at Music Magpie
Effective recruitment is a tricky, time-consuming and sometimes daunting process. The team at Stockport Jobs Match were instrumental in helping us fill our vacancy role quickly and matched us with a candidate whose values are very much aligned with our here at FirstPlay.
Tom Fletcher, Managing Director at FirstPlay Dietary Foods
The Jobs Match team have really gone out of their way to support us with our recruitment campaign – and they continue to do so. Their free advertising and CV matching service has already connected us with an impressive number of applicants, so I would absolutely recommend this free service to local employers or jobseekers. It’s thanks to these local initiatives that jobseekers feel genuinely supported and listened to.
Georgie Parker, HR Coordinator at Creative Support
Thank you so much for your support with the recruitment process for our recent position – I’m actually not sure what we would have done without you… I really appreciate the fact that you took the time to review the job description, suggest tweaks and show real flexibility in promoting the position on our behalf. It was also really easy to reach you and have a chat, which isn’t always the case these days. The increase in applicants following these revisions was brilliant and we had enough to shortlist from and interview – and ultimately appoint! As recruitment continues to be very difficult, the benefit of your experience was crucial in Signpost being able to appeal to prospective candidates. I have already recommended you to colleagues and look forward to working with you again.
Julia Hewer, Director at Signpost for Carers
Stockport Jobs Match has been invaluable to John Sisk… helping to fill our vacancies and making the process so straightforward. We still have candidates from them working for our subcontractors who are doing so well. I have lots of vacancies to fill whilst our Weir Mill project is on site in Stockport and will definitely need the services of Stockport Jobs Match.
Christina Nichols, Social Values Manager at Sisk Construction
I cannot thank the Jobs Match team enough for their help as we are extremely busy, and they have helped us immensely not having to spend all the time recruiting ourselves. We look forward to working with the Jobs Match team more in the future. I hope the service continues as it is extremely service to employers like us, particularly when it comes to recruiting local individuals for our sites.
Louise Daly, Director at Premiserv
I have been dealing with Caroline and she has been amazing, helping me set up my page and keeping me informed of things coming up. I think the help they give to businesses advertising their jobs and spreading the word is great, amazing work well done guys.
Tom Scott, Manager at Terence Paul Hairdressing
Within 3 days of posting the job, I was sent a list of potential candidates to contact and discuss the opportunities we have in the business. The turnaround time was extremely quick! I have a few more candidates to reach out to this week, but the response so far has been brilliant. A fantastic service to help all those during these unprecedented times.
Sarah, HR Advisor at The Guinness Partnership
…Just wanted to let you know that we’ve recently managed to find 2 new employees through the Jobs Match service. One for a Production Operator who started with us 5-6 weeks ago, and one for a Stores Person due to start next week!
Louise, HR Manager at Trolex
Advertising our roles with Stockport Jobs Match service has been a smooth and easy process enabling us to get additional exposure for our vacancies in the local area. Helping Hands aims to recruit carers from the local area as much as possible and this service has been great in connecting us with people in the local area who are in need of work, both due to the Covid-19 pandemic and in general.
Abbey Clayton, HR Advisor at Helping Hands
The Jobs Match team have been vital in supporting recruitment in the last 12 months. The team have a clear understanding of the local landscape, vacancies and applicants and have made many successful matches to vacant posts.
Amanda Ward, Employment Support Manager at Stockport Homes
Thank you providing the Jobs Match service free of charge – it’s such an important resource to the VCSFE community and volunteer recruitment generally!
Claire Finch, Sector 3
I was really impressed with how responsive the service was. Within hours of calling you with a client with urgent barriers to starting work, you had put me in touch with a partner who was able to commence tailored support for the client immediately, which allowed her to start a job the next day. Without it, I have no doubt that she would have had to turn the job down.
Amanda, Service Manager, Stockport Women’s Centre
Huge thanks from SWGM for your ongoing support. We’re so proud to be part of the Stockport Community and appreciate all you do in helping us to reach out and connect wider within it. It’s been a pleasure working alongside the team since the commencement of SJM, you’ve really added value to the Stockport employment and skills area. From the Smart Works Greater Manchester team, just to say a huge thank you for all your help and support along the way.
Victoria Cronquist, Head of Smart Works Greater Manchester
We really appreciate and thank you for your assistance this past year – with your help, we managed to review the job to make it more attractive to potential candidates and have now recruited a salesperson to join us. We will keep in touch as this programme was really beneficial to help Viosec move forward and to have the extra guidance along the way when trying to recruit and find new potential candidates.
Olivia, Sales Manager at Viosec Systems
Stockport Jobsmatch website

The Challenge: Employment Demand and Labour Shortages during Covid-19 and beyond

Due to labour market supply and demand challenges arising from the Covid Pandemic, Stockport Council required an urgent, crisis-response digital solution to support foundational jobs growth now and promote education, training and employment pathways to drive future economic recovery.

The programme needed to provide local job seekers with access to a high volume of jobs and employers with a free recruitment service; increase awareness and uptake of local skills development initiatives (including Apprenticeships, Skills Bootcamps and the Kickstart Scheme); and provide comprehensive careers advice to support targeted groups of jobseekers with identified barriers to employment.

The Solution: Supporting 7,000+ jobseekers and delivering £500K Social Value

Following the initial brief from Stockport Council, Grassroots designed and launched a digital platform within 3 working days to provide immediate support to jobseekers and employers from the outset of the Covid pandemic. Due to the early success of this initiative, we were then commissioned as a resource partner for a further two-year contract to ensure that the ‘Stockport Jobs Match’ website acted as an innovative technology platform working across multiple stakeholders and in support of the local Economic Development Plan.

The scope of the project was extended to incorporate a series of job fair events and candidate engagement campaigns to support disadvantaged jobseekers – including older workers, those with SEND needs, veterans, care leavers, previously homeless, refugees, displaced career changers and long-term unemployed – as well as local employers. During this period, we supported more than 500 businesses with a free recruitment service and no-fee job board advertising enabling them to attract local talent to boost business recovery and growth. Attracting an average of 6,500 website visitors per month, there were over 7,000 active jobseekers using the service applying to 450+ job vacancies each week.