How Merseyrail implemented an ATS hiring managers wanted to use

Rosy, the project lead, didn’t start with a checklist of features. Instead, she worked with her HR team to define what they wanted to achieve with a new ATS.

Some goals were about hiring manager and candidate engagement, such as:

• Centralized communication. A single platform to track progress and manage candidate engagement for every role.
• Speed up tasks. The old ATS provider took nine days to create each job post, and Rosy described using the platform as a constant struggle. Merseyrail needed to be able to execute tasks quickly, easily, and independently.
• Win hiring managers back. The team wanted a modern, “aesthetically pleasing” platform that hiring managers would actually enjoy using.

Other goals were in support of the organization’s broader transformation. For example, Merseyrail wants to stay true to its progressive values. In Pinpoint, the team saw several features that would support this focus on equity, diversity, and inclusion (ED&I):

1. The anonymization feature reduces unconscious bias, “creating a meritocracy,” as Rosy says.
2. The seamless, single-page application form improves accessibility.
3. The careers site uses imagery and video to improve accessibility and engage neurotypical and neurodiverse candidates.
4. The reporting then tells you what’s working and where you still have sticking points.

By quizzing providers about how their tool supported each goal, Merseyrail could identify “the best of the best.”

With the right tool signed off on, Rosy now faced implementation. This wasn’t an isolated project step, though. Implementation with Pinpoint became part of how Merseyrail engaged hiring managers and the HR team.

Instead of adapting to a rigid, pre-built system, Rosy built her own custom setup with Pinpoint’s guidance.

Each week, Rosy followed Pinpoint’s onboarding tutorials, practiced in the system, and met with her CSM to address any questions.

Once she came to roll the system out to other users, Rosy could say, “This works because it’s built for us, to make our lives easier.”

Rosy broke onboarding into bitesize steps to save time and avoid overwhelming hiring managers:

1. Hiring manager guides. To create a hiring manager guide, Rosy personalized Pinpoint’s help center guides with screenshots and captions tailored to Merseyrail’s implementation.
2. In-person training. Rosy ran small training sessions for the hiring managers most likely use the system in the coming months.
3. Getting stuck in. The HR team set up test jobs and encouraged hiring managers to go through the recruitment process as hiring managers and candidates. Rosy told them, “try to break the system”.

Because Rosy had built and learned the system, she could say, “The more you do now, the more I can change if it needs changing.” This was critical in giving hiring managers the confidence to dive in. And the feedback from hiring managers speaks for itself:

Implementing Pinpoint and building Merseyrail’s new careers site took four months. Since going live, the new careers site has received nothing but praise from across the business and in the local press.

Within three weeks of launch, 200 candidates registered through Pinpoint’s talent pipeline feature.

So, what is Merseyrail looking to achieve next?

1. Make sure people are comfortable, happy, and confident using the system. “Once we’ve got more templates built, I want hiring managers to start building actual job adverts… the HR team will still have final sign-off, but it’s about promoting and pushing for hiring managers to take more ownership of the jobs they’re hiring for,” says Rosy.
2. Use the reporting capabilities to (slowly) introduce more change. Rosy has started working with her People Analytics and Data Manager—who already thinks Pinpoint’s reporting is “excellent”. They want to find ways to better ”attract an employee base that really represents the wider Merseyside population”. And build data-backed business cases for that change.

To achieve its strategic goals, Merseyrail needed to re-engage hiring managers and stand out to candidates. By interrogating how a new ATS could help, Rosy found a tool, a partner, and a path to success.