Customer Stories 
Summary
Struggling to meet the varied recruitment needs of its very large structure that had been compounded in the post-pandemic era, Bupa decided it was time for an ambitious overhaul of its sourcing and hiring technology while maintaining the ability to operate business as usual. The best way forward was to devise a strategy to hit long-term objectives while achieving quick wins.
To turn their vision into reality, Bupa and Avature partnered to craft a phased approach to implementing Avature CRM and ATS. They focused on core functionality and then, over twelve months, expanded to take advantage of additional solutions and functionality, including agency and referral portals, a background check integration and a mobile app for recruiters and hiring managers.
Adopting this agile approach to implementing recruiting solutions offered numerous benefits, enhancing overall efficiency and responsiveness. It also ensured Bupa could fill critical positions promptly, maintaining high standards of patient care even in the wake of the COVID-19 health crisis.
About Bupa
Bupa, a leader in innovative and comprehensive health solutions, has a 75-year history of significant involvement in the global health insurance market, serving millions worldwide. With 23,000 employees and 6.8 million customers, they reported a revenue of $10.7 billion in 2021. This robust infrastructure supports Bupa’s purpose: helping people live longer, healthier, happier lives while making the world a better place.
The Challenges of Healthcare Recruitment
Bupa’s core pillar is its health services, a term that might sound simple but actually encompasses a vast and complex array of offerings. Bupa boasts the largest dental network in Australia and also provides optical and hearing services for various businesses and manages several government contracts.
With so many employees spread across diverse roles—from clinical carers to corporate executives—their recruitment needs are multifaceted. In 2021, they sought new technology capable of adapting to them, aiming to transform those challenges into opportunities to thrive in the new paradigm.
The Solution: An Agile and Phased Approach to Implementation
Working with Avature, Bupa defined a comprehensive roadmap that would see the speedy implementation of core functionality, empowering recruiters to effectively manage and engage candidates in the short term while building out more extensive capabilities over time. This approach helped them to break down an ambitious project and go live sooner with small wins that benefited key stakeholders.
I guess one of the challenges with implementing in an agile way is that you are live in the system while you’ve still got items to deploy. You’ve got recruiters using it, and new requirements are coming up. So, we must work quickly with our recruitment managers and be transparent: ‘These are all the items we’ve got. This is the capacity that we have’, and develop a standard prioritization matrix.”
Sarah Posselt
Employee Experience Manager at Bupa
First Phase: The Essential Features
Bupa went live with Avature in September 2022. From day one, ensuring seamless integration of Avature ATS and CRM with its existing tech stack was a priority. Bupa also wanted to focus on critical reporting, so the platform’s intuitive dashboards were an important quick win that enhanced transparency and efficiency for key stakeholder groups like recruiters and hiring managers.
With six recruitment teams comprising 80 recruiters, Bupa invested heavily in training to help users become familiar with the new technology. Comprehensive training was facilitated with support from Avature and internal resources to ensure all recruiters were adequately prepared. They also ran sessions with hiring managers to ensure they were up to speed with the new processes and technology that would ultimately make their lives easier.
Second Phase: Achieving The Ultimate Vision
Throughout 2023, the second phase focused on deploying the remaining functionalities they had earmarked to continue delivering efficiencies and reducing the administrative burden for the talent acquisition teams. Key initiatives included:
- An agency portal that automated the submission of candidates from 81 agencies, a process previously managed via email, significantly improving efficiency, reducing manual tasks and streamlining the visibility of progress across the board.
- An interview scheduling portal that enabled candidates to self-schedule.
- An SMS integration to empower recruiters to send and receive texts with candidates, enhancing communication.
- A referral portal to formalize the process through which employees could recommend candidates. Before implementing Avature, managing internal transfers and contingent talent required significant manual data entry into their core HR system. This was all automated during phase two, freeing up teams to invest time in more meaningful tasks like promoting referral campaigns, especially in high-need areas like clinical roles in the aged care business.
- The integration of background checks within Avature, an initiative that allowed for seamless initiation and tracking, resulting in 6,500 checks completed.
- A mobile app that allowed recruiters and hiring managers to manage candidates on the go, providing feedback and approvals from their phones.
- An integration with LinkedIn Recruiter System Connect to streamline work across both systems, enhancing recruiter efficiency.
We didn’t have a formal process for employees to refer candidates. The referrals portal created a simple process to link them to the workflow, leading to 2,000 referrals and 450 hires.”
Sarah Posselt
Employee Experience Manager at Bupa
The Results
Beyond the impressive results described above, Bupa’s agile approach to its Avature implementation instilled a continuous improvement mindset and facilitated rapid adaptation to new requirements. The organization now operates on a six-week release cycle, systematically prioritizing and deploying new features. Post-implementation, adapting to recruiters’ and managers’ necessities involves testing to ensure flexibility and transparency in addressing business needs.
Key lessons from the journey include the importance of transparency, stakeholder management and internal knowledge building through Avature certifications. Although Avature consultants shared great insights, the team strengthened this knowledge through the practical, hands-on experience they gained as they tested new ideas.
The system is flexible and scalable, and we have found that it meets our candidate experience, hiring manager and recruitment needs. So it’s been great.”
Georgine Gaynor
EX System & Process Lead at Digital People Solutions
After implementation, data analysis revealed significantly low internal mobility, far below expected rates, confirmed by employee sentiment that their skills were underutilized and lacked visibility into their internal community and talent pool. Employees often felt disconnected and needed clarification about navigating the organization. This emphasized the need for a more cohesive and supportive internal network to foster better mobility and utilization of talent across Bupa’s global operations.
To address this pain point, Bupa plans to establish a careers squad comprising talent acquisition, organizational development, policy and system specialists. The team will work to enhance internal recruitment policies and compensation guidelines and create an internal careers site.
Additionally, they have secured funding for a talent marketplace project that will increase talent identification across all organizational levels. These initiatives underscore Bupa’s commitment to leveraging innovative solutions to meet and exceed recruitment and employee engagement goals.
Bupa’s journey with Avature demonstrates how a phased approach to technology implementation can transform recruitment processes that align with their strategic vision while continuing to meet business needs. By focusing on flexibility, scalability and user experience, Bupa has set a benchmark for innovation in healthcare recruitment. As the organization continues to evolve, its dedication to improving lives through holistic healthcare solutions remains unwavering, promising a healthier, happier future for all its stakeholders.
