NHS Recruitment

[AXCS]

I’ve read a few posts regarding this but wonder if anyone has any experience with NHS recruitment or Trac.

I’ve been offered a band 2 post a couple of weeks ago now, about a week later I got a conditional offer letter. I immediately filled in all forms and sent back and had my pre employment ID check a couple of days later.
I’ve had notification today that my DBS is being processed so that’s progress.

one reference says ‘complete’ but the other just says it’s been sent and ‘awaiting reply’. This is my current employer and they’ve told me they’ve sent it back though HR at current employment only provide a basic letter stating basic details of employment dates, job titles etc confirming the employment. Will NHS require more info? Is this why if hasn’t been updated to ‘received’ or ‘complete’?

also waiting on Occupational Health, Trac just says ‘with OH’ after I sent back my OH forms and immunisation list. It’s a band 2 admin job and I didn’t flag anything in forms that would raise any concerns.

Any suggestions on how long those remaining tasks should take? I would LOVE to get a start date soon!

any NHS recruitment experience would be appreciated! I’m not currently in the NHS, and never worked for them before.

Thanks!

Good news. In my experience HR are usually overwhelmed and something as simple as a final audit can sit for weeks unless someone chases. I have a policy that every week I will Teams call my recruitment lead and chase every post and also email candidates with any actions they need to chase. We are a small NHS team and just one vacancy can cripple us but I am quite successful in getting people into post quickly. The key is to find an actual person you can speak to, like you did as often they do just need to press a couple of buttons to move things forward.

Yeah it's usually something like that. Every team is pretty busy at the moment as the backlogs are affecting everyone.

Thanks for the guidance, I know all teams are soooo busy there will be backlogs.

at least it’s one step closer, I was starting to worry about my reference as that’s something that can really hold up recruitment.

Does anyone know if for a Band 2 Admin role just filling in the forms for OH and sending an immunisation history is enough? Or do they often want a pre employment meeting too? Nothings been mentioned so far but I wonder if it depends what role it is you’re applying for?

I'm band 2. I think I was luckier than most in that I started within about two months of being told I had got it. But I did keep chasing them.
I got a call from OH a couple of weeks before starting the role. Just went over medical history, no face to face meeting.

I was told I need to hepatitis vaccination and blood tests. Nothing happened prior to starting. Six months down the line, still hadn't heard, so I phoned them. They had forgotten! Finally got an appointment and had all three jabs. Just waiting for an appointment for another blood test to see if the vaccinations have worked.

Ahhh that’s really interesting thank you. Sounds like OH will be the hold up, but they have back logs so will just chase regularly!

A further update! More progress! This morning the OH on Trac now says COMPLETE, as do all the other sections. Should I ring recruitment and ask for a start date or should they be in touch with me??

Trac and HR are complete pain in the bum, it’s so disjointed.
The problem is, you fill something in on Trac then you have literally no idea where it’s gone and who’s received it. The other problem for recruits in my trust , is there is no available phone number or email for HR. They really want to keep their heads down.
HR will be in touch, eventually with a start date.
Its a very frustrating process.

It does feel really disjointed! Like there’s no communication between the systems and the staff - and the messages/emails seem to just go unread! Trying to find a number to call is a nightmare too so it seems! Though the last person I spoke to last week was fairly helpful - though he basically said himself the system is useless

I have just completed this whole process and from the date I got offered the job to my start date will be exactly 3 months!

The communication between recruitment/ OH then to me took far too long and I was chasing things up throughout the process.

It's madness it takes so long IMO.

@AXCS I don’t know why they changed the system to use Trac , obviously some financial benefit! Possibly not requiring as many HR staff.
It really does make you feel like “ just a number “ .

Trac is just the name of the system! The people using it are the HR or recruitment team

once everything is complete they have to do an audit and then email your manager suggesting they set a start date with you. In my experience the audit will sit there not being completed unless chased so I would follow up with another email making sure you tick box for recruiting manager to be copied in, saying you notice everything is marked as complete and does that mean you can now set a start date. Hopefully this will prompt then and failing that, prompt the manager to chase them.

Thank you that’s great advice, I will chase up as I know they’ll probably sit on it otherwise!

Next update…
so hadn’t heard anything since Monday even though all checks on Trac have said ‘complete’ since then.
so I’ve just rang for an update.

The person on the phone said ‘have you got any certificates of your qualifications?’
so, to put this in context when I went for my ID check a few weeks ago, the lady doing the checks said ‘demonstrable experience’ was fine, even though I brought my degree certificate, A level certificate and gcse extricate with me…so she didn’t take copies.

so now apparently they have to email the recruiting manager and check that’s ok before it goes to audit… and then I’ll get an email asking me to book my start date. I think I’ll give it a couple of days and ring again as I don’t think theyll Smoothly complete those steps without a push!

so frustrating!

Oh the joys of NHS HR. The one thing that seems to happen to everyone I recruit is that they are asked to send a photo for their ID card, but without fail, when they arrive, they are all asked to go to ID suite to have their photo taken! Sounds like you are getting close now!

Have you got your DBS back?
I started as band 2 bank & interview was December, I started the March that year.

When I went for a job & was successful at the same job took 2 months to start that.

It is frustrating how slow it is.

Yes got my DBS in the post last week, all clear. Everything is ‘complete’ on Trac.

Fingers crossed it’s not too long now!

It makes me wonder how NHS recruitment works. When a position comes up do they just muddle through without anybody doing the position for 4 months whilst the process is happening?

Ds took 9 weeks in the summer. His reference send the same for ages and when he chased it up it was because he had the reference request but just hadn't dealt with it.
It's quite normal for the NHS to take a long time to process. My last nhs job took 3 months. I wouldn't be to worried at this point however it doesn't harm anything for you to chase up with hr (as long as your not on the phone pestering to often!).

Yes, there is often a period of months between the person leaving and the post being advertised so there are unfilled posts for significant lengths of time.

maternity leave is uncovered in many cases too.

Good luck, I changed NHS jobs last year and eventually got started with only 1 reference as 1 went missing and the manager who completed that one went off. I have worked for NHS for over 20 years and new job was in the same trust and the HR process was still a nightmare

My daughter's application took 4.5 months !

Does anybody know if the NHS pay goes up when minimum wage does? I'm thinking more the band 2-3 who are only slightly above minimum wage at the moment. I believe the MW goes up in April and will very nearly match band 2 pay.