Imperial Tobacco has launched has launched an online recruitment and talent management platform to reduce reliance on recruitment agencies and has saved 10,000 within weeks.

The international tobacco company is working with Bond International Software to deploy the fully hosted online recruitment and talent management software solution.

Imperial Tobacco, which manufactures brands including Lambert & Butler, Regal and Rizla, employs over 38,000 employees globally and in the UK sales and marketing function – where the new system has been rolled out – 30-60 vacancies are typically advertised each year, each one of which can attract 60-70 applications. This creates a huge administrative burden and potential cost that Imperial Tobacco was keen to reduce.

Previously Imperial Tobacco’s recruitment website had only been open to applicants twice a year using a basic email application approach. And the company was missing the opportunity to retain details of applicants on an ongoing basis and develop a candidate talent pool to call upon as and when vacancies arise.

The HR department wanted to develop the employer brand and raise awareness of the career opportunities available to enable Imperial to employ a high calibre of fast-moving consumer-goods (FMCG) candidates it required.

Rebecca Male, HR business partner at Imperial Tobacco UK, said: "By implementing online recruitment, we hope to see an ongoing reduction of the cost per hire and the dependence on recruitment agencies.

"Within a month of rolling out the new software, we successfully recruited an area sales manager directly which, on its own, avoided an overall recruitment cost of as much as £10,000. A typical sales recruitment campaign can result in five or six employees being appointed, at a cost of at least £6,000 each time. The return on investment potential is therefore substantial, and we are predicting the software to have paid for itself within six to 12 months."