Coventry Building Society Enhances Candidate Experience with Digital-First, Human-Always Onboarding

Coventry Building Society has transformed its onboarding process with the launch of a new digital-first experience powered by Eploy. The initiative enhances candidate engagement, reduces manual administration, and reflects the Society’s commitment to bring together the efficiency of technology with the empathy of human connection.

As one of the UK’s largest building societies and a top ten savings and mortgage provider, Coventry Building Society employs over 3,000 people and is dedicated to protecting and supporting its members. Since first partnering with Eploy in 2016 to implement its complete Talent Acquisition Platform, the Society has continuously evolved its use of the system to meet business and industry changes.

The latest collaboration focussed on redesigning the onboarding experience through Eploy’s Onboarding Module and flow automation builder. The project aimed to enhance the candidate journey, streamline processes, and provide clearer, more inclusive communication for both internal and external candidates

“This project is about blending technology with human connection,” said Laura Richardson, Manager - People, Coventry Building Society. “Our new onboarding experience helps every new colleague feel welcomed and supported from the moment they are offered a role. We can now manage feedback and workflow changes ourselves, ensuring the process continues to evolve with our people.”

Delivering Measurable Results:

A smoother digital experience for candidates

• Once a candidate has successfully passed through the recruitment journey, they complete their onboarding journey through Eploy, enhancing their digital experience throughout the recruitment process. Candidates get information quicker, with a more personal approach.

Reduced manual data entry and admin time

• Introduce streamlined digital recruitment processes to ensure effective and efficient recruitment practices, with a more sustainable, paper-free process reducing the Society’s carbon footprint.

Improved accessibility and inclusion

• Designed in a way that makes the content easier to digest for neurodivergent users and those that use accessibility tools.
• We provide information to improve accessibility and support, including signposting the support available to all colleagues such as our wellbeing passport. The 'passport' follows employees through their career with the Society, supporting inclusivity and helping managers provide the right support for every employee.

Streamlined approach across systems

• Use Eploy's RESTful API to facilitate the digital transfer of new starter data, captured during the onboarding process, from Eploy to Workday. Data transfer enables Coventry Building Society to introduce a more streamlined recruitment and HR admin approach across both systems.

Improving Onboarding

Previously, the onboarding process took place outside of Eploy, consisting of an offer pack being created and emailed to the People Services Team. The Team would manually key the information into Workday, and following that, the candidate would then be emailed a large onboarding pack.

Once the candidate had completed and returned all the documents, the responses were manually keyed into Workday. The length of time it took to create the placement, make the verbal offer, and get a candidate the contract could take up to two weeks.

Now, the process is much improved. Candidates get a personalised welcome email with all the information they need to understand the process and manage expectations, such as length of time for regulated references. They now see everything using digital forms rather than multiple attachments. This saves time, reduces errors, and delivers a consistent experience across the organisation - all completed within approximately one hour.

A partnership of success

The partnership between Coventry Building Society and Eploy continues to evolve. The Talent Acquisition Team can now manage and adapt workflows internally, responding to feedback quickly. Each new joiner is also assigned a dedicated point of contact, creating a “buddy system” that supports them from offer to start date.

“We’re already exploring more visual elements within the onboarding journey. It’s all part of our commitment to continuous improvement and keeping people at the heart of our digital transformation.” Laura Richardson, Manager - People, Coventry Building Society.