StepStone Solutions, a provider of talent management solutions, has been chosen to implement an e-recruitment strategy for Banque de France, the French national bank, which has approximately 15,000 agents throughout France. This prestigious project reinforces StepStone Solutions’ strong position in the European banking sector, which already includes customers such as the BPCE group, BNP Paribas Personal Finance, Banque Postale, RBS and the European Central Bank. StepStone Solutions has been working with Banque de France on talent solutions since June 2009.
“We chose StepStone Solutions for its implementation capability and expertise. In addition, this is a solution that effectively meets the recruitment needs of a Central Bank,” commented Belabed Mourad, head of educational relations and communications at Banque de France.
Banque de France had particular recruitment requirements because it recruits competitively for both executives and non-executives. It meets other needs by recruiting contract staff and higher education students under training contracts. In total, the bank needs almost 400 new recruits per year and receives about 15,000 applications, spontaneously or in response to job offers.
“This new project underlines our ability to deliver talent acquisition solutions that are closely tailored to very specific needs,” said Matthew Parker, CEO of StepStone Solutions. “Banque de France joins a growing list of major financial institutions worldwide that have chosen to work with us to enjoy a combination of extensive functionality and configurability, years of expertise in talent management, and the ability to deploy global solutions that still recognise local needs.”
As part of a broader global strategy, the Human Resources Department at Banque de France has decided to simplify and optimise its procedures for recruitment, setting up an e-recruitment solution in both French and English on its website. This will make life easier for the HR function through the automatic publication of all Banque de France jobs on its preferred job boards, and will allow it to perform reporting and statistics, including recruitment time, the profiles of candidates, trainees or recruits, and hiring sources. Banque de France currently advertises more than 300 jobs each year.
The Human Resources Department at Banque de France also wanted to improve communication on the diversity and richness of its jobs and its hiring process in the context of improving recruitment among specialists in areas such as economic research, financial stability or IT. To attract good candidates it was essential to implement an improved employer brand, based primarily on improved communication and streamlined recruitment procedures. At the same time, and to attract young graduates to jobs in the Bank, the process will be revised to become more attractive and significantly faster. The objective is to reduce the average hiring cycle from six to three months, with priority given to the management of online applications.
Another key objective for the Bank is to facilitate the recruitment of disabled workers. For many years Banque de France has promoted access to employment for people in need as an enterprise policy. This undertaking relates to hiring, inclusion, retention in employment and career development. Banque de France plans to recruit 50 workers with disabilities from 2009 to 2011. Thanks to the extensive capabilities for web accessibility in StepStone Solutions Talent Acquisition, the entire recruitment site of the Banque de France should provide disabled people with special features and simplified access by the end of the year.
