Johnston Press plc, one of the leading community media groups in the UK and Ireland, announces today that it will be launching TheSmartList (www.thesmartlist.co.uk), a new fixed price recruitment service designed to help employers fill vacancies quickly and cost-effectively.

The service, to be launched this Autumn, allows businesses seeking new staff for mid-level vacancies to pay a fixed fee for a pre-screened short-list of qualified candidates.

Currently, businesses using traditional advertising methods often find that they receive very high volumes of applications that need to be sorted internally, whilst traditional Recruitment Consultancies can be costly. TheSmartList offers a great alternative, by combining Recruitment Consultancy type services with Newspaper and online Job Board advertising for one low fixed cost(£349 in the launch period, rising to £549 post launch).

Employers will submit details of their vacancy and TheSmartList team will then preparearecruitment brief against which candidates can be matched. Promising individuals are screened using a bespoke questionnaire and once TheSmartList is finalised, the employer can review the candidates and select the best for interview. A new B2B focused website (www.thesmartlist.co.uk) will go live in September to support businesses and to communicate this new service.

Johnston Press is one of the UK and Ireland’s largest publishers with access to over 200 newspapers, magazines and online platforms, including JobsToday.co.uk and Scotsman.com/jobs. Its websites reach over 10 million visitors per month. This new service will utilise the strengths of Johnston Press’ established recruitment platforms to generate applications and CVswill befiltered by industry professionals to guarantee quality.

Joe Slavin, Managing Director of Digital Classifieds, Johnston Press, commented:
“We are very excited to be launching this new recruitment service which will provide substantial benefits for businesses across the UK. During this tough economic climate, recruiting new staff can be a very time-consuming and costly process. TheSmartList aims to provide a cost effective, hassle free recruitment solution to businesses at a time when they need it most.”