With over 22,000 employees and more than 900 stores, Iceland Foods is one of the country’s fastest-growing and most innovative retailers, and is among the UK’s top 10 organisations for customer satisfaction.
The frozen food retailer’s clear focus on delivering excellent on-line and in-store customer experience and its continued growth in both existing and new market areas demands effective management of staff recruitment in all operations at all times. Typically, this entails thousands of identity checks being completed by store managers across the UK every year.
Continued expansion of the business was compounding the difficulties of monitoring and managing an increasingly complex recruitment process and ensuring store vacancies were filled promptly. The company recognised that decisive action needed to be taken to eliminate any risk of non-compliance with Right to Work regulations and to protect Iceland’s reputation as a progressive employer and one of the best companies to work for in the UK.
The Challenge
Iceland wanted to:
• ensure that all recruitment policies and procedures for compliance are adhered to at all times and in all areas.
• ensure new starters are not employed in advance of establishing a statutory excuse
• raise HR visibility and engagement in the Right to Work checking process, before confirmation of employment.
• eliminate the considerable time wasted by the company’s central HR team in chasing evidence before and after an individual’s employment.
• minimise the burden on store managers in terms of recruitment processing and constant refresher training to reflect changes in immigration legislation.
• minimise reputational risks within the recruitment and employment of staff.
The Solution
Iceland Foods appointed NSL Checking to provide a fully managed Right to Work service. The NSL Valid8 service provides a candidate-driven recruitment process where the authenticity of identity documents and an individual’s Right to Work status are confirmed in advance of employment. The secure service uses market-leading technologies and the world’s most comprehensive database of identity and immigration documentation. A dedicated Help Line is also available to provide expert guidance and support.
Significantly, the solution has eliminated risks and potential loopholes in the recruitment process while also delivering a convenient, prompt and effective service for both candidates and local store managers. It has also enabled the creation of a central electronic repository of RtW evidence and status reports for all candidates. This helps to ensure compliance not only at the point of recruitment but also throughout an individual’s employment.
According to a Regional Manager at Iceland Foods: “Store managers now have much more time to concentrate on business development and customer service. There is far less risk in the recruitment process and we are avoiding civil penalty liabilities every year.”
The Benefits
As well as minimising risks and having confidence it is operating in full compliance with all immigration and Right to Work legislation at all times, Iceland Foods has also reported significant operational benefits following introduction of the NSL Valid8 service.
• The problems of ensuring compliance with company recruitment procedures and employment regulations at a local level have been eliminated.
• Experts at NSL now ensure Right to Work compliance for new starters as well the expiry dates of identity documentation of existing employees.
• Administrative workload on store managers reduced considerably giving them more time to manage store operations and to deliver a great customer experience.
• The central HR team is now able to provide much more visible and proactive support for all recruitment in all local stores. It also no longer wastes time chasing documentation and now has additional capacity to develop and introduce improved HR practices and new initiatives.
• Iceland’s Learning and Development team is now able to deliver training that is more tailored to the needs and roles of individual employees.
• Iceland benefits from the specialist insight and expertise of NSL’s Immigration and Right to Work team and is now able to make informed decisions in all areas of recruitment and employment.
NSL Valid8 provides verification of an individual’s right to work within 24 hours. The results have been outstanding and have greatly increased the visibility of Iceland’s central HR team in supporting the recruitment process at both existing and new retail outlets,” added a Retail Manager at Iceland Foods.
