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Royal Mail rolls out recruitment process to hire 10,000 workers every year

Royal Mail has today rolled out its new operational recruitment process to improve the way it selects postmen and women, drivers, sorters and data inputting staff.

With the process it expects to interview around 22,000 candidates each year. Around 10,000 will be hired annually.

The Royal Mail has 150,000 staff and its operational roles attract around 170,000 applications a year.

Talent assessment firm Talent Q has worked closely with Royal Mail's HR team to identify and hone new competencies for each role, following a modernisation programme last year that changed the job specifications.

The Royal Mail incorporated a personality questionnaire and verbal, numerical and checking tests, to assess whether applicants fit the chosen competencies.

A successful 12-week pilot was conducted at the end of last year, across three regions, involving around 3,500 candidates.

During the pilot, Talent Q supported the resourcing team in running webinars and presentations for hiring managers, as part of an internal communication campaign.

The new tests were then rolled out nationally in a phased implementation replacing the old tests.

Helen Chapman, manager of Frontline Recruitment Services at Royal Mail, said: "The tests may be short but they've proved to be reliable and robust."

Dianne Crookes, Royal Mail Group's resourcing supplier manager, said: "Our business now requires a greater degree of teamwork, flexibility and customer focus.

"Our operational roles attract 170,000 applications per year, so we needed to review the assessments we provided to ensure we were focusing on people with the right skills and attributes."

Crookes added: "Our operational staff play an essential role in ensuring that our customers receive the best possible service and, in many cases, they're the face of Royal Mail.

"In order to achieve our goal of being the best delivery and marketing mail business in the UK, we needed a more robust and consistent process for volume recruitment."