Discover how we transformed high-volume hiring in the private prison sector in partnership with Mitie.
We partnered with Mitie Care & Custody, the UK's leading facilities management provider, to deliver an end to end, streamlined, inclusive, and highly efficient hiring process for their first ever private Prison mobilisations. With a project requiring over 360+ Operational hires across Prison Custody Officers (PCOs), Prison Custody Managers (PCMs), and Operational Support Grade (OSGs) roles.
Key challenges
- Scale & speed: prisons face constant staffing challenges, where shortages impact safety, security, and efficiency. High turnover demands continuous, large-scale hiring, often within tight timeframes. Traditional methods such as manual screening and traditional interview processes cause delays, leaving facilities vulnerable.
- Quality & retention: filling vacancies isn’t enough, new hires must be equipped for the demands of correctional work. Roles require emotional resilience, strong interpersonal skills, and the ability to handle high-pressure situations. Poor hiring leads to high attrition, increased training costs, and operational disruptions.
- Diversity & inclusion: The MoJ and HMPPS mandate diversity benchmarks for private prisons, requiring a workforce that reflects the communities they serve. Balancing these goals with efficient hiring is challenging. Employers must minimise bias through process and use targeted outreach to attract underrepresented groups.
- Candidate experience: A complex or outdated recruitment process can deter qualified candidates, leading to higher drop off rates and a smaller talent pool. Given the nature of correctional work, many candidates may already have reservations about joining the sector. A traditional application process, unclear communication, or excessive delays at each stage can reinforce negative perceptions and cause candidates to seek employment elsewhere.
TLDR
Our work with Mitie has set the standard for the future of recruitment in highly complex, high volume environments. Mitie’s prison mobilisation has delivered 250+ exceptional hires so far, but more importantly, it has set a precedent. The blueprint now exists for fair, fast, scalable hiring. By mixing technology with human expertise, efficiency with inclusion, and assessment with candidate insights, Equitas has redefined what it means to hire the right people, for the right roles, at the right time.
Efficiency
Results using Equitas
Equitas' interview as a service offering and partnership with Mitie, helped deliver data driven recruitment strategies and a streamlined onboarding processes.
Explore how we reshaped hiring practices in the private prison sector and how we are paving the way for a more sustainable and effective workforce.
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45% reduction in time-to-hire Cutting average time to hire to less than 5.7 weeks.
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82%+ assessment centre attendance rate Up from a historical 50% average.
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40%+ assessment pass rate Doubling the traditional 20% benchmark.
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48% increase in diverse hires exceeding MoJ/HMPPS targets, * 35%+ non-white British hires. * 25%+ female representation. * 9%+ veterans recruited.
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5,000+ applications Generated through targeted social attraction campaigns.
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90%+ ITC fill rate ensuring training cohorts are maximised and fully utilised.
Our partners
Seamless integration & execution
Automated ATS workflows
Reducing sifting time from 10 days to 2.
Interview as a Service model
Enabling application-to-assessment centre in under 5 days.
Real-time data dashboards
Tracking diversity, time-to-hire, and regional hiring trends.
Ensuring seamless execution across six key partners
4.9/5 Candidate satisfaction - thousands of candidates receiving near real time feedback after interviews.
Stay ahead of the curve with
Equitas
Simple but powerful
Remote or F2F. 1-2-1 or panel interviews. No downloads required, simple in-browser technology.
Collaborative scoring
Anonymous collaborative scoring for interviewers reduces conformity bias, seniority bias and groupthink.
Data Protection
Robust, industry-leading protocols and end-to-end encryption for any data transfer to keep your information safe.
Effortless data capture
Never take notes again thanks to our audio capture and transcription technology.
Support at every step
Dedicated support team and account managers, in-app chat support with lightning-fast response times.
All-in-one partner
Need help hiring at scale, delivering interviews or training staff? Talk to us on how we can help meet your goals.
