RPO case study: increasing value with diversity recruiting and veteran hiring.
Automotive leader changes brand perception from manufacturing company to technology leader.
| 4 min read |
increased competition for technical talent
Despite being a giant in the automotive industry, today’s highly competitive hiring landscape has made recruiting top talent a challenge for this year.
The employer now requires more professionals in software engineering, IT, autonomous driving and analytics than it did before. As the nature of many of its positions has changed, the company faces stiff competition from technology companies. Changing perceptions of its employer brand from a manufacturer to a modern technology company became a top priority to recruit the best candidates.
Another important goal for the company was to increase its diversity and inclusion strategy. As it seeks to add qualified talent to its team, it recognized the opportunity to create a more inclusive culture. The goal was to become an employer of choice for candidates from all backgrounds, including military veterans. After all, everyone is a potential customer, so it’s important to have a workforce that represents all consumer groups.
At the same time, the company looked to scale its hiring in response to business fluctuations. In addition to other hiring imperatives, having the support to scale the team as hiring needs change has become crucial to success.
shifting gears to widen the talent pool
To address these new challenges, the company expanded its existing recruitment process outsourcing (RPO) program with Randstad Sourceright to include more strategic sourcing programs.
A talent acquisition manager at the automotive leader says, “We really value our partnership with Randstad Sourceright. Together, we have been able to effectively scale to address the ebb and flow of demand and align our talent strategy with business goals.”
Most (75%) of the company’s jobs are for high-demand, low-supply roles in the technology space. As a result, the RPO includes robust sourcing and recruiting strategies that are focused heavily on these areas. The company also benefits from using talent communities for niche roles, such as software engineering, to help with candidate engagement. This is especially helpful for attracting passive candidates who might not otherwise consider working for the company.
For diversity recruiting, robust dashboard reporting helps identify areas in which diverse talent is underutilized. The program also identifies which channels are better for sourcing diverse candidates and provides training for recruiters and hiring managers to help meet workplace diversity goals.
To reach its goal of hiring 7% veterans, Randstad Sourceright works with the company’s hiring managers to identify good matches between applicants and open positions. Meanwhile, recruiters engage with the veteran talent community on targeted hiring events to attract this demographic further.
The RPO program also helps to engage promising talent directly from college campuses. While the company’s recruiters go to campus events to recruit talent, Randstad Sourceright manages interview scheduling and offer letters for this initiative.
These positive changes have been made possible by TalentRadar, Randstad Sourceight’s talent analytics platform. TalentRadar allows the company to gauge its progress on meeting goals, whether tracking diversity, time to fill or other metrics of success.
steering in a new direction
Now in the second generation of its program, the RPO has a greater focus on employer branding strategy. And the company continues to evolve its image from a manufacturer to a tech company. That new brand has been achieved, in part, thanks to advanced technology platforms that deliver a more modern, transparent and tech-enabled candidate experience. This has been important in getting technical talent excited to work for the company.
The expanded RPO has also enabled the company to implement a more effective diversity and inclusion strategy to attract more candidates from diverse backgrounds, including hiring veterans. With this new approach, the company has been exceeding its diversity targets by 10% to date.
Throughout the ongoing RPO engagement, the company has continually met its annual hiring targets, which it hadn’t been able to do prior to the partnership. Both candidate and hiring manager satisfaction scores have increased considerably since the introduction of the program. Hiring manager satisfaction is now as 3.91 in 2018.
That’s because they’re spending their time with candidates who are a good fit for open positions. In fact, 89% of candidates submitted advance to the interview stage. And with more than 700,000 leads in its candidate database, the company benefits from a pool of qualified talent to join its team.
“Randstad Sourceright worked closely with our team to ensure smooth change management and a successful program launch," says the company's talent systems and operations manager, US Talent Acquisition. "Our RPO is highly scalable to address changing demands for talent. And, we're confident that our hiring managers and candidates are getting a high-touch experience, which is critical. Every candidate needs to be treated like a potential customer."
thinking about expanding your RPO to add value?
Whether you’re hoping to improve workforce diversity, transform your employer brand or start moving to a more holistic total talent model, you could be getting more out of recruitment process outsourcing.
Learn more about the added value you can deliver to your business in “expanding your RPO program.”