NHS Test and Trace: scaling to 11,000 hires in just three weeks

The client

Sitel is a global leader in customer experience (CX) management, delivering outsourced sales, technical support, customer service, and business process solutions. With more than 80,000 employees, Sitel connects some of the world’s best-known brands, from FTSE 100 companies to local start-ups, with customers across 27 countries and in 48 languages. 

With over 30 years of experience, Sitel are experts in redefining and transforming the contact centre experience. Their people understand that the best outcomes are achieved when real, human connections are made,  delivering rapid solutions that leave lasting impressions. 

Background

In March 2020, the UK government announced a nationwide lockdown to combat the spread of COVID-19. To ease restrictions and reopen the country, a national Test and Trace system was launched critical to containing the virus and enabling a safe return to a new normal. 

The government committed to recruiting 25,000 contact tracers to deliver the service and turned to leading BPO providers, including Sitel, to support the initiative. 

The challenge

On 28 April 2020, Sitel was informed they had been selected as one of the suppliers tasked with recruiting, screening, onboarding, and training thousands of contact tracers all within just three weeks and during a national lockdown. 

Their incumbent screening provider could not scale fast enough to meet this demand. In addition to identity, Right to Work, and criminal record checks, Sitel also required support with wider compliance elements of remote onboarding, such as digital contract signatures and working-from-home risk assessments. 

Sitel needed a partner who could: 

• Implement a solution almost instantly 

• Deliver high volumes of checks within weeks 

• Support compliance and onboarding activities in full 

• Provide a truly outsourced process, allowing internal teams to focus on candidate management post-screening 

The Solution

Sitel partnered with Giant Screening, drawn by our reputation for innovation and ability to mobilise quickly. 

Within days, we deployed a bespoke process to manage identity verification, Right to Work, and criminal record checks, while also handling contracts and onboarding packs in one smooth, mobile-enabled journey. With no time to integrate systems, Giant Screening provided a bulk upload solution into SAP, ensuring daily candidate progress was tracked and visible. 

The results

• A fully bespoke process implemented within days, dramatically reducing time to hire. 

• Same-day turnaround for the majority of criminal record checks. 

• Mobile-friendly candidate journey, enabling secure information uploads and e-signatures, branded with Sitel’s identity. 

• Dedicated candidate support, via live chat, email, and phone, helping applicants through every step. 

Sitel was initially tasked with deploying 4,500 contact tracers. With Giant Screening’s support, they scaled far beyond this, ultimately delivering 11,000 compliant hires in just over three weeks. 

The speed and scale of Giant Screening’s mobilisation enabled Sitel to deliver Test and Trace staffing at a critical time for the UK. Impressed by the approach, Sitel expanded the partnership moving their business-as-usual screening to Giant Screening on a global basis. Both organisations, leaders in their respective fields, are committed to building on this success and continuing to redefine screening and onboarding at scale.