In parts one and two of this series we covered the best practices of the winner and finalist in the employee referral, employer branding, and corporate career site categories of this year’s ERE Recruiting Excellence Awards. It’s hard to capture using just a few bullet points the degree to which organizations selected have thought through their efforts, but as you are reading through the series, I hope you are comparing your organization and contemplating how you stack up. The one thing that separates nearly all winners from the rest of the pack is the relentless application of learning to improve existing processes or devise new ones.
This installment will cover the college recruiting, retention, and strategic use of technology categories.
While many with the economy in mind might think that not much happened in these areas this past year, the truth is that a good number of award applicants worked hard to innovate in each of these categories.
This award goes to the recruiting department that has best demonstrated its excellence in all aspects of college recruiting. Worldwide there has been a reduction in the volume of college recruiting taking place, but fortunately there has been no letup in innovation in the tools and strategies used. As a turnaround begins, updated college recruiting plans and strategies must already be operational.
Winner — Ernst & Young
As one of the “big four,” Ernst & Young’s thirst for new talent to fill the ranks of its professional service workforce is unending. Despite noticeable economic impacts on their business, Ernst & Young invested as usual, hiring 2,700 new graduates from over 300 of the best colleges and universities in North America. Over the years Ernst & Young have pioneered new approaches, been early adopters of technology, and demonstrated unwavering commitment to seeking out the best and brightest. Some of its key college recruiting accomplishments include:
Finalist — Rosetta
This 700-employee privately held interactive marketing and advertising firm is a global leader when it comes to designing award winning, innovative solutions for their clients, so it should come as no surprise that their dedication to excellence carries over into their recruiting effort. Rosetta puts a heavy emphasis on college recruiting, as 44% of all hires at Rosetta are sourced from college campuses. Their college recruiting program is led by two dedicated recruiters and supported by approximately 125 alumni team members. Some of its key accomplishments in college recruiting include:
Many organizations don’t think about retention programs in a formal way, but more often than not they do engage in practices that drive retention. This award goes to the function that has best demonstrated its excellence in programs and practices that support employee retention as part of the recruiting function. Despite a turbulent economy, organizations should develop ways to retain talent they have invested heavily in or that provide industry-leading performance in specialized areas. When the economic recovery picks up, many organizations will find themselves fighting attrition issues and will not be prepared.
Winner — PNC Bank
PNC Bank has been on an aggressive growth curve for more than 20 years, most recently acquiring National City. In response to changing economic conditions, it repositioned its recruiters into an expanded role to help with retention and internal mobility. Some of its key accomplishments in employee retention include:
Finalist — Paychex
Nearly everyone has heard of this New York-based payroll and HR service provider with more than 100 offices throughout the U.S. To help stave off attrition and retain client serving professionals, Paychex reengineered its new-hire engagement processes to better support rising performers. Some of its key accomplishments in employee retention include:
Technology has become pervasive in recruiting, and progressive organizations are finding a near endless range of possibilities when it comes to applying technology to enable innovative practices. Because it can be difficult comparing the merits of one approach to another when they are focused on radically different things, this year’s judges ERE opted to highlight the practices of three organizations this year, including a winner and two finalists.
Winner — KeyBank
KeyBank, a major U.S. bank with a growing footprint, headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio, now has over 1,000 full-service branches and 15,000+ employees. This past year it employed technology to improve quality of hire and retention by developing a virtual job tryout for high volume client facing roles. The virtual job tryout allows candidates to learn about the organization, job role, and to experience the job through interactive scenario simulations. A majority of those who have completed the VJT indicated that based on that experience, they would gladly tell their friends about opportunities with Key Bank. As a result of this realistic job preview and assessment process, it realized a multi-million dollar cost savings in teller turnover in year one, simply by making better hiring decisions, reducing training costs, and increasing quality of hire. The bank also statistically linked performance on the VJT with critical outcomes including service delivery, referral generation, transaction efficiency, and cash drawer accuracy. (More info will be in the Journal.)
Finalist — AT&T
AT&T is a telecommunications giant headquartered in Dallas, Texas, employing nearly 300,000 employees. With a staggering array of vacancies in field roles to fill each year, this year AT&T turned its attention to supporting potential applicants who don’t sit behind a desk all day and might not have access to the Internet at home. AT&T developed an overall mobile platform recruiting strategy empowered with a series of tools to facilitate mobile recruiting efforts. This new strategy and structure allows it to create mobile web pages and SMS (text messaging) campaigns to support recruitment events. It also developed a first of its kind iPhone application that links job seekers to career opportunities, events, multimedia, and mobile opt-in programs for alerts related to job categories of choice. This iPhone application has been downloaded 29,000+ times and has consistently ranked in the Top 40 most popular free business applications on iTunes.
Finalist — Tata
You may never have heard of Tata, but chances are someday you will have a direct connection to this Mumbai, India-headquarted global conglomerate. The group has more than 357,000 employees worldwide and is ranked 13th among the ’25 Most Innovative Companies according to BusinessWeek. The Reputation Institute also recently rated Tata 11th on its list of world’s most reputable companies. Some of the key elements related to its use of technology include:
Advancing an organization’s capability during times of economic turmoil is a characteristic of highly successful organizations. While many believe that corporate treasure chests grow during times of economic growth, the truth is that the seeds that make such dramatic growth possible are planted when most are struggling to survive. All of the organizations highlighted via the awards should be commended for their efforts. If you have questions for those mentioned, post them here and engage the ERE community to fuel your innovation efforts.
Up next, in the final installment of this series, I’ll cover the practices of the two organizations highlighted by the Function of the Year Award.
