Hereford & Worcester Fire and Rescue Service is transforming how it attracts and recruits talent. Built on a culture of safety, wellbeing and inclusion, the Service joined the West Midlands Talent Acquisition service in 2024 to modernise its e-recruitment approach. Through a focused eight-week rollout with WME and Tribepad, HWFRS streamlined processes, empowered hiring managers and enhanced the candidate journey. The impact has been clear, with more than 600 applications for its latest firefighter campaign. Now, the Service is building on this momentum, embedding digital onboarding, strengthening insight through data, and creating a seamless, inclusive end-to-end recruitment experience.

 

Hereford & Worcester Fire and Rescue Service operates as one professional team, delivering high-quality, sustainable services to local communities.

Its culture is grounded in safety, wellbeing, and inclusion, creating a workplace where all staff feel valued, supported, and able to thrive.

The Service delivers safe, inclusive and professional support that builds public trust, saving lives every day, not only through emergency response but across a range of essential functions. One function that has achieved significant positive change over the last year has been recruitment, in particular e-recruitment, which has been imperative to continue delivering the vital functions in a modernised, digitalised and faster way.

HWFRS were one of 16 public sector organisations who made the switch to the West Midlands Talent Acquisition (WMTA) service (powered by Tribepad) in 2024 and are seeing excellent results.The WMTA has supported HWFRS to achieve a smoother, more intuitive journey for applicants while supporting hiring managers and the recruitment team to achieve greater efficiencies and insights.

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The Approach

Working with West Midlands Employers (WME) and Tribepad, HWFRS focused not just on technology, but on embedding smarter, more efficient ways of working.

An eight-week implementation plan provided a clear roadmap to transition to the new service, with online workshops, in-person sessions, and regular check-ins. The Service benefited from peer learning across the WMTA network, while hiring managers were engaged through hands-on guidance and a peer-support model that helped build confidence in using the system.

HWFRS also introduced new ways to attract candidates, including register your interest jobs and taster sessions as part of a warm-up campaign for wholetime firefighter recruitment. A key lesson from implementation was the importance of involving multiple recruitment team members and hiring managers to ensure resilience and continuity.

Following the implementation it’s been important to establish a true partnership approach and HWFRS have benefited from a customer success model as part of the service, all parties set out the key goals and work together to achieve them.

The customer success approach aims to ensure the system is used to the best of its ability and the team offer recommendations and ideas to support the recruitment team to achieve results.

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The Results

The partnership with WME and Tribepad has transformed recruitment at HWFRS.

  

These changes have freed up officer time, enabled hiring manager self-service, delivered a more professional candidate experience, and supported a fair, inclusive and accessible approach through anonymisation features and accessibility functions. Application numbers have increased significantly, with over 600 for the most recent wholetime firefighter campaign.

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Future Focus

HWFRS is now looking to embed digital onboarding, reduce paperwork further, and create a seamless, end-to-end candidate journey. Strengthening its use of reporting tools remains a priority, helping track time to hire, conversion rates and representation across candidate groups – help identify trends and drive continuous improvement.

The Service remains committed to delivering high-quality recruitment, focusing on inclusive and accessible processes, using data to support workforce planning, all while maintaining agility through its trusted partnership.