Case study:

Portland School in Nottinghamshire was one of the first schools to start using HireWire. As soon as the school's personnel officer Katy Hughes heard about the service, she was on the phone to find out how it could save the school both time and money. The school has placed three adverts via HireWire so far and Ms Hughes has breathed a sigh of relief that her phone has finally stopped ringing off the hook due to a much simpler recruitment process.

'One of the reasons I signed up to HireWire was to cut down on interruptions,' she says. 'If we advertise a support staff vacancy, for example, we can get in the region of 150 applicants, so that's 150 telephone calls we have to field! I really wanted to reduce the amount of time and staff that this takes. Now when somebody registers an interest in a vacancy or lodges an application form, I've only got to touch a button to send a confirmation email, which is a nice thing to be able to do in the present climate. As an educational institution, we pride ourselves on being caring and encouraging - HireWire really helps us to achieve this.'

'Overall, it's just a much more efficient way of doing things,' Ms Hughes adds. 'HireWire allows us to provide a more professional service and, importantly, it brings a level of uniformity across the whole education recruitment process. Once applicants have registered on the site, all their details are stored for the next job they apply for. If applicants apply for different jobs across various schools, they'll get used to using the same system which makes it easier for all concerned’.