CASE STUDY
Transforming a net negative into a net positive.
"Our team of recruiters is understaffed and overwhelmed"
The Client
While the client asked to remain anonymous to maintain their competitive advantage in their market, this is their story of how they were able to transform their talent acquisition from a net negative into a net positive with their Randall Reilly Partners.
For the past 42 years...
Hiring Details + Challenges
With as many as 300 openings that needed to be filled, we began our partnership by identifying the major hiring challenges needing thorough solutions. Some concerns that were voiced include:
“Too many of our inbound calls are being sent to IVR.”
“Our team of recruiters is understaffed and overwhelmed.”
“Our recruitment process is too lengthy and burdensome on both recruiters and applicants.”
“Our core digital and brand needs have to be realigned to better serve the company.”
DISCOVERY
Diagnostic
After meeting and analyzing their process, our Partners team developed a custom approach to how they could solve their primary concerns and achieve the goals they put forth. Together we discovered the areas of feasible improvement were increasing hire volume, escalating the pace of the process, and streamlining the candidate experience. Specific areas of improvement included improving call quality and answering inbound calls in real time / near time, as well as securing Verifications of Employment (VOEs).
Prescription
In order to improve the overall call quality, Partners trained and certified recruiters to best represent the fleet and their brand. It was a requirement for all team members to complete this training as part of the account onboarding process. This ensured that every recruiter was armed with the specialized knowledge needed to sell and ultimately hire drivers specifically for them. Calls were distributed through automation that allowed for each recruiter to maximize their time with each candidate and never miss inbound calls. For example, if the first recruiter was not able to answer, the call would immediately ring onto the next recruiter in the queue.
In order to secure accurate VOEs, Partners designated a coordinator whose role was to manage and process all VOEs for pending drivers. The coordinator was responsible for closely following and updating all pending VOEs and informing of any red flags. This team member also stayed in close contact and followed up with candidates throughout the entire process, up until the applicant hit the 15 day mark. This granted access to any feedback that could be useful in regards to the onboarding experience while also ensuring the candidate was prepared on day 1 and ultimately increasing retention.
Implementation
Implementation spanned over a 6 week period wherein we seamlessly integrated the Partners team into their talent acquisition process. Tenstreet was also introduced in order to recruit via email and phone while also tracking the progress of applicants throughout the recruiting process.
This integration included installing specially trained Partners recruiters, a market sourcing specialist, a VOE coordinator, and a complete overhaul of their call-routing process.
The market sourcing specialist was responsible for mining the internet in hard to fill locations in an effort to find quality candidates in areas where skilled workers are scarce. In addition to actively seeking qualified applicants, the sourcer is responsible for running their Facebook by managing all comments and fielding any leads directly to the recruiters. With initial success in this endeavor we are now looking to manage their Indeed page in an effort to streamline all communications going out to candidates.
RESULTS
Our Partners team was able to generate:
1,106
318
HIRES
With the changes that they made to their inbound lead systems and the addition of recruiter resources, the client was able to realize a 20:1 lead-to-hire ratio with a 3.5:1 submit-to-hire ratio.
This means the new process was able to hit on more leads, while also securing a higher level of quality candidates for open positions. They were able to streamline their recruiting process to more quickly and successfully answer calls and fill positions. With these changes, we cut the time from application to hire from 14 days to 7.8 days.
Working together, we were able to achieve the goals that were established and improved the areas of concern that they approached us with. Through our combined efforts, we were able to turn a net negative of trucks in 2021 (-21) to a net positive in 2022 (37) as predicted.
Ongoing Improvements
The ultimate benefit is an overall improvement in candidate quality and speed to hire. Partners’ focus for 2023 has been quality of hire more so than scale. This sort of market sensitivity is easily enacted by working with our Partners team. By meticulously screening all drivers and bringing forward any red flags well before a candidate is slated to start orientation, we can focus on hires who are committed to staying for the long run.
The improved process design has permeated the company’s entire TA system. For example, they can now take advantage of timed reminders, mandatory notes, updated statuses in regards to driver interest or qualifications, Partners specific worklists to avoid double contacting the same leads, sharing industry knowledge on weekly calls or via email, and market analysis on specific hiring locations that could be hard to fill.