The verdict in three sentences
A banking group with 6,000 employees handling 25,000 applications a year through mailboxes and spreadsheets loses top candidates to faster competitors and leaves internal mobility across entities to personal networks. A dedicated recruitment platform combines ATS, internal talent pool and video interviews while meeting UK GDPR and the screening duties of the FCA Senior Managers and Certification Regime. This is a Kolonell institutional project: it is quoted on request, after scoping with HR, IT and compliance.
The diagnosis: where candidates get lost
In a London banking group with 9 entities (retail, private banking, asset management, insurance, overseas branches), recruitment is often fragmented. Each entity has its own channels and group HR has no consolidated view. Indicators seen in 2026 at comparable groups:
| Indicator | Without a platform | Target with a platform (2026 estimate) |
|---|---|---|
| Average time to hire | 50 to 70 days | 30 to 40 days |
| Applications reviewed within a week | 30 to 40 % | 90 % or more |
| Roles filled internally | 12 to 18 % | 25 to 35 % |
| Screening time per recruiter | 15 to 20 hours a week | 5 to 7 hours |
| Candidates left without reply | 50 % or more | Under 5 % |
| Consent and retention traceability | Partial | Complete, time-stamped |
The cost of a vacant banking role is often estimated at 1 to 1.5 months of salary per month vacant. Across 400 professional hires a year, cutting 20 days changes the equation.
Enterprise ATS or dedicated platform
Major ATS vendors handle external hiring well. For a London banking group, the questions are cross-entity mobility, regulatory screening and integration with the existing HRIS:
| Criterion | Enterprise ATS (2026) | Dedicated platform |
|---|---|---|
| Annual cost for 6,000 staff | 25,000 to 80,000 GBP a year | Initial build + maintenance, quoted on request |
| Mobility across 9 entities | Often an add-on module | Built around group rules |
| Data hosting | Vendor cloud, often US or EU | Your choice, UK region included |
| UK GDPR and international transfers | Transfer assessments required | Simpler if data stays in the UK |
| SM&CR certification and referencing | Third-party integrations | Workflow built into the hiring circuit |
| Languages | Depends on vendor | Languages are set in the quote |
| HRIS integration | Standard connectors | Custom connector |
The regulatory point is central: regulated roles require regulatory references covering 6 years and annual certification, and UK GDPR requires a documented lawful basis and retention period for every candidate record.
Modules of a banking recruitment platform
- Careers portal across entities, with roles filterable by function, location and entity.
- ATS: skills-based screening, scorecards, hiring manager approval flows.
- Internal talent pool: employee profiles, mobility wishes, alerts on open roles, minimum tenure rules.
- Video interviews, recorded or live, with automatic scheduling.
- Compliance: consent, retention (often 6 to 24 months for unsuccessful candidates), subject access and erasure requests, regulatory reference tracking.
- Dashboards per entity: time to hire, sources, cost per hire, diversity reporting.
Integration usually covers the HRIS for employee data, the identity provider for single sign-on, and the background screening vendor, so recruiters work in one place instead of four. Each of these connections is scoped in the discovery phase and tested on a pilot entity before group-wide rollout.
The project follows our institutional practice: dedicated project manager, two-week sprints, weekly reviews and a security audit.
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Charlotte, Group HR Director of a 6,000-employee banking group in London, oversees 650 hires a year, including 400 professionals on an average salary of 6,500 GBP a month. Average time to hire is 62 days today. If the platform brings it down to 40 days, each professional hire saves 22 days of vacancy, about 0.7 months. Taking a vacancy cost of one month's salary per month vacant, the gain is 400 x 0.7 x 6,500 GBP, i.e. 1,820,000 GBP a year.
Internal fill rate rising from 15 % to 28 % also avoids around 85 external hires a year. At an average external cost of 5,000 GBP per hire (agencies, adverts, recruiter time), the extra saving reaches 425,000 GBP. These gains are the basis for sizing the project budget during scoping.
FAQ
Can the platform be hosted in the UK?
Yes, hosting is chosen during scoping, including a UK cloud region or the group's own data centre. Keeping data in the UK avoids transfer risk assessments for candidate records.
How do we keep internal applications confidential?
An employee applying internally can hide the application from their line manager until the final interview stage. Around 80 % of banking groups that structure mobility apply this rule.
How long does such a project take?
Typically 4 to 6 months from scoping to go-live, with a 6 to 8 week pilot on 2 entities. The exact schedule is set in the quote.
Can we migrate existing applications?
Yes, provided the lawful basis is documented. Records older than the retention period, often 12 months, are usually deleted rather than migrated.
Why is no price shown?
Budget depends on the number of entities, HRIS integrations and hosting requirements. Kolonell issues a detailed quote after a half-day scoping workshop.
Let's scope your project. A scoping workshop with your HR, IT and compliance leads sets the scope, pilot entities and schedule. Detailed quote within 48 h. WhatsApp +221 77 596 93 33.
Mohamed Bah
Fondateur, Kolonell
Passionate about digital and entrepreneurship in Africa, Mohamed has been helping Sénégalese businesses with their digital transformation since 2020. Founder of Kolonell, he believes every SME deserves a professional and accessible online présence.
