National Heavy Vehicle Regulator

The challenge

The National Heavy Vehicle Regulator (NHVR) is the single, national regulator of heavy vehicles in Australia. Employing over 800 people across the country, NHVR’s headcount has grown exponentially in recent years, as they have transitioned the different states and territories’ frontline heavy vehicle regulatory services to the NHVR. This growth has spurred large-scale organisationalorganizational change, a dynamic new culture —and the urgent need to modernize processes and streamline operations.

“As we grew as a regulator —especially with the transition of New South Wales last year — that nearly doubled the size of our workforce. That meant our systems and processes that supported the organisationorganization had to change as well.”

—Rita Ho
Remuneration and Resourcing Lead, NHVR

The talent team at NHVR wanted to overhaul their recruitment workflows —steering away from manual, spreadsheet-heavy processes. The staff were spending hours manually tracking and processing applications and this labour-intensive approach was draining precious time and resources. It hindered the team’s ability to focus on more strategic recruitment priorities.

“One of our challenges has always been attracting a diverse range of talent. Our applicants traditionally have come from other government departments or agencies as we are perceived as similar. But, in the past two years, we have gone through significant change and we are committed to being a modern regulator through our strategy and culture.”

The antiquated manual processes also meant there was limited visibility into what was really impacting their recruitment strategy. To keep up with their demand for talent, NHVR was funnelling a substantial portion of their budget into external job boards. But, without proper analytics, the effectiveness of this strategy was difficult to track. They needed a way to pinpoint what was working, and what wasn’t, to help inform decisions around future recruitment efforts.

This confluence of rapid growth, inefficient manual processes, lack of analytics —and the strategic desire for cultural transformation —demanded a comprehensive solution. It was time to embark on a journey towards modernisationmodernization and efficiency that would help NHVR to redefine its image in the industry, and attract the best talent.

The focus

When setting out to transform their hiring processes, the team at NHVR identified some key focus areas: firstly, the Regulator’s growth had provided a golden opportunity to reshape their culture. But, they needed to convey this culture effectively to potential hires. They needed a platform —a shopfront —to sell their employer brand story to candidates.

Secondly, the team aimed to modernize internal processes, replacing labour-intensive, manual tasks with streamlined automated workflows. This transformation would also provide them with access to detailed reporting, enabling data-driven decision-making for the future.

They sought a highly configurable, user-friendly solution to enhance their capabilities and provide a stand-out experience for candidates, hiring managers and users alike.

The solution

NHVR partnered with PageUp on its digital transformation journey. Using the PageUp Talent Acquisition suite, a comprehensive solution including Recruitment Marketing, an Applicant Tracking System (ATS), and Onboarding tools, the team are now equipped with the tech they need to elevate their hiring.

PageUp’s Recruitment Marketing feature empowered the team to take control of their online presence through a dynamic, self-service careerscareer site. Now, NHVR has a virtual ‘shopfront’, which has allowed them to move away from an over-reliance on job boards, and showcase their vibrant company culture directly to potential candidates.

“Before this, we really didn’t even have a careerscareer website capability at all —it was a static page that redirected to external job boards if they wanted to apply. People started to believe that the external job boards were our website. But now, we can show EVP information, they can apply directly with us, and the site gives people a real sense of the ‘people’ side of NHVR.”

The team have enjoyed the user-friendly nature of the PageUp products. Highly configurable, NHVR was able to build a solution tailored precisely to their needs —and in alignment with their current supporting software. PageUp integrated seamlessly with their preferred reference checking software, meaning a smooth transition for staff, and consistent end-to-end experience for candidates.

What’s more, immediately post-implementation, the team were able to start collecting data to help with their future decision-making —and keep all their applicant data in one central, secure location.

“I think a huge goal for us was to have a single source of truth —something that will track everything for us and to have a careerscareer website. Before, everything was manual and it was difficult to get any data. Time to fill? What types of roles? Application source? It was spreadsheets upon spreadsheets, and very difficult to keep track of or no data recorded. Now, I can easily see where we’re spending, and where our applicants are coming from. With the website candidates can now also see what it means to work at the NHVR —the improvement is clearly visible.”

Next, Rita and the team are hoping to expand the impact of the solution —with scope to build on their Recruitment Marketing strategy and use this enhanced visibility of analytics to set baseline metrics for future performance goals.

“I think it’s been great for us to see this information so we can plan ahead for next year’s budget. Now, we’ll have the data to show what’s a good investment and what’s not —we’ll have the data to see what’s driving the best candidates, which means we’ve got better facts to take back to leaders. I’m also excited to do more with the Recruitment Marketing module this will be key in our proactive sourcing strategy.”

Want to see how PageUp can help you on your journey to recruitment innovation? Get in touch today to book a free demonstration, to see PageUp in action.