LONDON, September 18, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --

Johnston Press plans to extend its recruitment offering with its new fixed price recruitment service - TheSmartList.co.uk - designed to help employers fill vacancies quickly and cost-effectively.

A pilot, launched this week, 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, which help to eliminate the time spent sifting through CVs, can be costly. The SmartList offers a great alternative, by combining Recruitment Consultancy type services with Newspaper and Job Board advertising for one low fixed cost.

Employers are able to submit details of their vacancy and The SmartList team will then prepare a recruitment brief against which candidates can be matched. Promising individuals are screened using a bespoke questionnaire and once The SmartList is finalised, the employer can review the candidates and select the best for interview. A new B2B focused website to support businesses and to effectively communicate the offering has now gone live at TheSmartList.co.uk.

Johnston Press is one of the UK and Ireland's biggest publishers with access to over 200 newspapers, magazines and online platforms, including JobsToday.co.uk and Scotsman.com/jobs. This new service will utilise the strengths of Johnston Press' recruitment platforms and their national coverage to generate applications and CVs which can be sorted and then filtered by industry professionals to guarantee quality.

The SmartList service is also being offered at a special reduced rate during the launch phase. Instead of the standard £549 per vacancy, businesses can take advantage of filling their job roles for just £349.

Stephen Anderson, Group Digital Recruitment Category Manager at Johnston Press, said: "Since launching The SmartList this week, we've already generated a great deal of interest for the service. We're really pleased to be able to offer this recruitment alternative which can help reduce costs and time for employers looking for new staff in a challenging climate. It's encouraging to see so many businesses getting involved. We look forward to working with many more in the coming months."

For more information on The SmartList, please visit TheSmartList.co.uk, telephone +44(0)1733-427182 or email stephen.anderson@jpress.co.uk.