Too many people were applying for prison officer roles, and the Ministry of Justice needed to ensure the right people applied based on the realities of the role, rather than what they had seen on TV. Many were not fully aware of what was involved, from shift working to gang culture. This meant they were dropping out part-way through the process, without realising that there may be other HMPPS opportunities they would be suitable for.

The brief was for a tool that would cut through careers site content, promote the wide range of opportunities and enable people to see the right ones for them. The Match Me Tool helps candidates to understand different roles and directs them to the most suitable positions. To build it, TMPW began with extensive research into the different role responsibilities and required behaviours. These job analyses were then translated into coding, creating a tool that is more of an insight generator than a “sorting hat”. It is based on Java as this requires all variables are checked and errors caught when the source code is converted into executable code.

It shows candidates a cluster of highly tailored roles and complementary paths based on how they think and behave, rather than what they have done. Total website traffic has surged and more importantly, the share of total visits across the least popular roles has increased, while the number of people looking at prison officer roles has decreased. The user experience is front and centre and the tool even won an innovation award at the Ministry of Justice awards in 2024.