Dec 2009: Mamas & Papas to streamline recruitment process using Bond Talent

Mamas & Papas prepares for growth by implementing Bond Talent to streamline processes, reduce costs and create effective talent pools

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 to deploy 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 system. 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 £130million 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.”

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.”

Tim Richards, Managing Director of Bond International Software, comments, “Mamas & Papas is a large, well known retail organisation with specific recruitment requirements. Bond Talent’s ability to tailor to Mamas & Papas needs will enable the organisation to cost-effectively automate processes yet maintain personal control.”

Bond Talent is a specialist application 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 system is user-friendly and flexible allowing for reduced paperwork and improved efficiency. This gives key recruitment staff more time to concentrate on development rather than administrative tasks.