Recruiting the right people

New recruitment platform and processes to help us

David Jones-Isaac
Head of Resourcing & People Projects

At a time when many social care and support organisations are facing tough financial challenges, it is more important than ever that we use our resources effectively.

A year ago, after months of design and development, we launched our new recruitment and onboarding platform: Page Up (previously known as Earcu). The platform was designed to make applying for a career with Mirus easier, faster and more welcoming – for candidates, our teams, and the people we support.

Page Up has helped us to become more efficient, without losing sight of what really matters: finding the right team members to support people to live good lives.

The difference the changes have made

One year on, the results speak for themselves:

• 48% reduction in the cost of hiring each new team member
• 29% reduction in the time it takes between offering and hiring a new team member
• 42% increase in the number of new team members recruited compared to previous years.
• 25% reduction in average numbers of vacancies across Mirus.

How we’ve achieved this

We haven’t just put a new system in place – we’ve redesigned how we think about recruitment.

• We designed and created straightforward and engaging online application and onboarding process.
• We automated most of our attraction processes, simplifying how and where we attract people.
• We automated much of our compliance processes like referencing, data capture and Disclosure and Baring Service checks. Now our Resourcing team have more time to focus on conversations and relationships instead of paperwork.
• We redesigned interview processes and improved our approach to selection, asking simpler, better questions to make sure we are recruiting the right people to work at Mirus.
• We employed people supported in our Resourcing team to help us with hiring decisions.
• We redesigned robust compliance processes to ensure we are recruiting talented people in a safe and efficient manner.

The positive impact on people

Abbie and Wendy attending a careers fair

Page Up has helped us to make the recruitment process more efficient, but our focus has always been on making sure people have choice and control over who supports them. Every improvement we have made to our processes has a real, positive impact on people’s lives.  People are supported sooner, by people they choose, teams feel more complete, and candidates enjoy a better experience.

People we support are closely involved in choosing their own team members – sometimes helping to interview candidates, sometimes by describing the kind of personalities, values or hobbies that matter most to them, and sometimes by meeting potential team members to see if the fit feels right.

In June  Wendy joined our Resourcing team as a paid employee. Wendy is supported by Mirus, and first became involved in helping us with interviews because she had such a passion for recruitment. As part of our Resourcing team, Wendy has helped us to attract new people by attending our recruitment events, and interviewing people to make sure that the people we recruit share our values and are the right people to join Mirus.

The experiences of our candidates

We now send out an anonymous onboarding survey to ask people who join us what they thought of their recruitment experience.  The results speak for themselves.

• 94% of new team members said our application process was easy
• 95% of new team members said our onboarding processes were easy
• We score 4.73 of 5 stars for candidate experience at their interview. A fantastic score given that interviews are often nerve-wracking!
• Our Recruitment Employee Net Promoter Score is +63%. This is a measure of how likely the candidate is to recommend us as a great place to work, based on their experience so far.  Our score is considered excellent, and gives us an amazing measure of advocacy.

Some of the comments we received from our candidates about our recruitment and onboarding process:

“The application was done online and was straight forward. The interview was very pleasant and recruitment were in continued contact with me until my start date.”

“Everything was so smooth from applying for the role to a really nice interview which made me feel relaxed and whatever nerves I did have was quickly lifted”

“Everything worked, was clear, helpful and quick. Best experience of onboarding before starting I’ve ever had.”

“I felt at ease and comfortable in my interview and liked that one of the individuals Mirus support was interviewing me also, gave good insight regarding the questions individuals would want to ask and what mattered to them.”

What’s next?

It’s been a big year of change for recruitment at Mirus. Building and embedding new systems is never easy, but the results show it is worth the effort. Most importantly, Page Up is helping us bring the right people into Mirus. People who share our values and can support people to live good lives.

Over the coming year, we’ll be using Page Up to make even more improvements:

• New processes for volunteers and trustees will be live on Page Up by the end of this year so that our volunteers and trustees get the same onboarding experience as paid members of our team
• Internal recruitment will move on to Page Up, making it easier for team members to apply for new roles within Mirus, improving our employee experience
• Agency engagement and compliance will be moved into Page Up in early 2026, giving us better oversight and stronger relationships with agency partners.

A big thank you to our Resourcing team for making this happen, and to everyone – team members and people we support – who have helped shape how recruitment at Mirus looks today.