Enquiries to: Kevin Symm
Your Ref:
Our Ref: FOI/434187 /
Ms Lisa Hobson
Email: / 25 January 2016

DearMs Hobson

Freedom of Information Act Request 434187

Thank you for your recent request received12 January. Your request was actioned under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 in which you requested thefollowing:

  1. Which department/person(s) deals with Employment References at your company (or the name of company if outsourced)?
  1. What is the average annual salary of the person(s) dealing with Job References? or hourly rate? (If outsourced, how much does your company pay annually for this service?)
  1. How are Employment References requested for new starters? How are they chased up? (email/telephone/postal service/fax)
  1. How are Employment References completed for ex-employees (email/telephone/postal service/fax)?
  1. How many hours (on average) does your company (or the outsourced company) spend, each month, requesting and chasing employment references for new starters?
  1. How many hours (on average) does your company spend(or the outsourced company), each month, completing employment references for leavers?
  1. How many leavers (on average) does your company have per month?
  1. How many starters (on average) does your company have per month?

Response:

Liverpool City Councilholds theinformation requested and can confirm the following:

  1. References are delegated to recruiting managers.
  1. This is difficult to quantify, as salaries for recruiting managers would differ significantly depending on the level of role being recruited to. However, an estimated average salary for a recruiting manager is £35,662.
  1. References are requested electronically via our e-recruitment system
  1. Employment references for ex-employees are completed by our HR Service Centre and the format will depend on how they come in i.e. electronic if received electronically, posted if received in hard copy and no e-mail address provided.
  1. Again, this is difficult to quantify due to the fact that the responsibility for references is spread throughout the organisation with recruiting managers. An estimate of average hours spent per month is 4 hours.
  1. On average the team spends 17.5 hours per month processing references for leavers this includes email and postal correspondence
  • In response to points 7 and 8 please see below, please note the actual figures were used based on the period April 15 to date

Month / Leavers
Apr-15 / 55
May-15 / 45
Jun-15 / 45
Jul-15 / 50
Aug-15 / 44
Sep-15 / 51
Oct-15 / 21
Nov-15 / 22
Dec-15 / 69
To Date (Jan 16) / 18
Month / Starters
Apr-15 / 19
May-15 / 21
Jun-15 / 16
Jul-15 / 16
Aug-15 / 25
Sep-15 / 39
Oct-15 / 18
Nov-15 / 55
Dec-15 / 17
To Date (Jan 16) / 19

This concludes our response

TheCity Council will consider appeals, referrals or complaints in respect of your response and thesemust besubmitted these in writing thin 28 days of receiving your response.

The matter will be dealt with by an officer who was not previously involved with the response and we will look to provide a response within 28 working days.

If you remain dissatisfied you may also apply to the Information Commissioner for a decision about whether the request for information has been dealt with in accordance with the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

The Information Commissioner’s website is and the postal address and telephone numbers are:-

Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House

Water Lane, WilmslowCheshireSK9 5AF

Telephone 01625 545745 Fax number 01625 524 510

Email – (they advise that their email is not secure)

ÿYours sincerely

Mr Kevin Symm

Senior Information Officer

Information Team Municipal Buildings Dale StreetLiverpool L2 2DH

Telephone 0151 233 0418Email