Case Study: National Trust achieves faster, easier HR and recruitment processes with Applaud

Delivering an enhanced user experience with a return on investment in the first year

National Trust, the UK’s largest membership organization and a major charity, needed to refresh its Oracle-based MYplace HR system to improve usability, trust, and adoption across a workforce of around 14,000 employees. Employees and managers struggled with overly complex screens, limited mobile access, and error-prone HR and recruitment processes, while the external candidate experience in Oracle iRecruitment was unbranded, unintuitive, and causing applicants to abandon the process.

Applaud worked with National Trust and Oracle consultants to deliver the refresh in phases, using Applaud for employee and manager self-service, timecards and payroll support, and recruitment/external job board improvements. The new experience delivered a 175% increase in self-service absence entry, a 367% increase in personal details entry, a 600% increase in job applications, and a 237% increase in recruitment site visits, while reducing vacancy response time from 4–5 days to 1–2 days and achieving positive ROI within the first year.

National Trust

Jackie Noorden FCIPD

People Services Director