DWP appoints Monster to overhaul Jobcentre Plus online services

The contract is worth up to £20m

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has selected job hunting company Monster to deliver an overhauled set of online facilities for the government's Jobcentre Plus labour market services.

The new solution is set to deliver online services for 1.6 million jobseekers, and will manage over 10,500 new vacancies and over 1 million job searches each working day.

The online award notice indicates that during the tender process DWP was made offers between £14.4m and £20.4m to carry out the work, but the notice does not specify the amount Monster is being paid.

The service will be used by people receiving out of work benefits, those looking to change jobs, and by employers who want to place vacancies with Jobcentre Plus.

The award notice reads: "The solution will extend the Jobcentre Plus job search facility to enable individuals to search a wide range of vacancies from those placed directly with Jobcentre Plus, as well as those from employers' own websites, by aggregating vacancies directly from HR systems, or other vacancy and file stores, and from other job boards, as a single search."

The new facility will also provide a self-service option for employers without an online recruitment system, enabling them to create a vacancy and manage potential candidate responses to vacancy notices.

The notice continues: "[The website will] offer an enhanced and intuitive job search service provided by Jobcentre Plus by enabling individuals to self serve and create an online profile, detailing skills, qualifications, competencies, work history and job criteria, via a secure online account.

"[It must also] provide a match between individual profiles and vacancies, each party receiving an automated match, including relevant information, such as public transport links and location information."

It is expected that the service will be available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, with the exception of planned downtime.

Monster began working in online recruiting in 1994 and now has a presence in about 50 countries around the world.