Ireland Public Appointments Service: Secure Online Job Application

In 2002, the Public Appointments Service launched a new service enabling the public to apply online for jobs in the Irish Public Service. The resulting website has enabled the Public Appointments Service both to provide improved customer service and to work more efficiently, reducing workloads for staff and client organizations.

The Government of Ireland's Public Appointments Service is responsible for hiring into the Irish Civil Service. It provides recruitment and selection services for client organizations within the public sector, as well as offering training, advisory and consultancy services.

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Each year the Public Appointments Service processes approximately 70,000 job applications for approximately 6,000 vacancies, which range from clerical and administrative posts to senior managerial appointments. Until 2002 this work was paper-based and involved significant administrative effort, not only for applicants but also for the Public Appointments Service staff and client organizations.

The Public Appointments Service was keen on improving the service that it provided by enabling people to apply for public sector jobs online. This would not only move the bulk of the work away from paper-based forms, but would also help improve public perception of a career in the public service.

In 2001, the Public Appointments Service selected Accenture to help plan and build an online solution, relying on Accenture's significant experience in other government departments in Ireland, and working closely with the Public Appointments Service business users and IT personnel. A key factor in the project was the innovative Accenture eGovernment Accelerator. This packaged online form processing capability enables government and other public service agencies to move their business transactions online quickly and efficiently, with no interruption to service. Crucially, the solution provides a flexible, extensible architecture that could be customized to meet the Public Appointments Service's requirements. It offers a set of tools and services that supports the development of eCommerce applications, and would allow the Public Appointments Service to move quickly beyond the simple publication of forms on the Web to Web-based transactional services.

We developed the Accenture eGovernment Accelerator by combining efforts with Avanade. Using the Avanade Connected Architecture, Microsoft.NET Enterprise Servers, and Adobe Accelio Capture technology, the Accenture eGovernment Accelerator is a groundbreaking offering. It enables government organizations to transform themselves and prepare for the dynamics of operating in today's electronic economy, delivering improved customer service and higher operational efficiency.

A joint team comprising of the Public Appointments Service and Accenture professionals embarked on a project to build a secure online job application facility using the Accenture eGovernment Accelerator. The team rapidly developed the service, drawing on Accenture's significant experience in configuring and testing a secure, robust, scalable, highly available production platform. Specifically, Accenture was responsible for the design and build of the application and post-live maintenance and support, as well as training the Public Appointments Service staff on using the new system. Accenture also needed to ensure that the system would be fully integrated with the Public Appointments Service's existing Oracle-based recruitment management system.

Accenture delivered the new online jobsite in the very short time of 19 weeks, which can be attributed to the valuable head start we gained by using a packaged processing capability. The new, fully integrated service, located at www.publicjobs.ie, enables job candidates to view employment postings, complete and submit application forms online, express an interest in positions not yet advertised, and receive electronic notification once a requested position is posted. In addition, the Public Appointments Service can communicate with all applicants via a message board, easily informing candidates of important information such as the extension of application closing dates. The system also provides multi-lingual support, with content available both in English and in the Gaelic.

We launched the site on January 28, 2002, and results to date have been impressive:

• In the initial weeks of live operation, the new site successfully hosted more than 40 job competitions.
  
  
• There were 4,000 registered users by the end of March 2002.
  
  
• In the Public Appointments Service 2002 graduate recruitment program, we successfully processed more than 700 applications online, a significant proportion of the total.
  
  
• All current Public Appointments Service job competitions are now hosted on the site.
  
  
• The system is highly scalable, and we can easily expanded it to allow the service to develop further.
  
  
• The success and speedy delivery of the new online job facility has been thanked largely to the Accenture eGovernment Accelerator.

Indeed, the powerful combination of Microsoft's market-leading technologies, Accenture's government expertise, and Avanade's integration skills, has delivered significant value for the Public Appointments Service. The infrastructure provided by the Accenture eGovernment Accelerator has enabled the Public Appointments Service to deploy automated forms quickly, thus saving design and development time as well as data processing and administrative costs.

Bryan Andrews, chief executive, Public Appointments Service, commented on the success of the site, saying that it "gives us the platform to allow for future developments, increased customer service and new levels of excellence in the area of public sector recruitment." The new site has enabled the Public Appointments Service to work more efficiently, reducing workloads for staff and client organizations, and providing the public with a new way to apply for jobs in the Irish Public Service.