RPO case study: meeting aggressive hiring goals to staff a new plant.
Faced with a tight timeline, an automotive manufacturer fills nearly 80 roles in just two months by expanding its recruitment process outsourcing program.
the need to hire new talent, quickly
The opening of any new location often requires a company to ramp up hiring to quickly fill the facility with talent. A large automotive manufacturer recently faced this challenge when opening a new plant in the Midwest.
Designed to improve overall efficiency and support operations of the main plant, this modern, state-of-the-art facility includes innovative technology and numerous amenities to benefit employees, such as multiple break rooms and a gym. Since the new facility is so integral to carrying out company operations, finding new talent to fill key roles at the plant was a priority. The talent acquisition team was tasked with filling 77 new positions in a short period of time – only two months.
While this might have been a challenge for most organizations, the company already had a head start to meet this lofty goal. Since 2016, the company has worked with Randstad Sourceright as its recruitment process outsourcing (RPO) provider to help find and hire top talent. The program was expanded to fill these positions under the tight deadline.
driving company goals with RPO
With the RPO program in place, the company relied on Randstad Sourceright to handle many of the sourcing and screening activities, enabling the company to focus on other HR priorities associated with opening the new plant.
Through this arrangement, the RPO expanded its team to support recruitment for the new plant, while also continuing to provide exceptional results for the organization’s existing recruitment program. They used several innovative sourcing strategies and technologies to find talent, including GR8 People’s talent platform, re-engaging “silver medalist” candidates from previous openings, tapping into the company’s retiree talent pool, and seeking emerging talent from universities. Randstad Sourceright’s global recruitment center also helped deliver greater efficiencies and work across time zones, and with a shared services approach, to meet the deadlines.
The RPO sourced the right talent, presented candidate resumes to the company’s talent acquisition team and then conducted phone screenings. Following on-site interviews with the company’s hiring managers, the RPO managed offer presentations and onboarding to prepare new hires for their first day.
This approach allowed the teams to quickly and efficiently hire for a broad range of positions, including specialized roles, such as occupational health nurses, plant supervisors, maintenance supervisors, engineers, process engineering specialists and quality supervisors.
filling positions on time, today and in the future
As the company opened its more technologically advanced plant, it was important to have the right talent in place to support its operations. Expanding the existing RPO program proved to be a successful strategy. With this approach, the company filled 100% of the roles needed for the plant opening.
What’s more, this new hiring initiative didn’t impede ongoing talent acquisition goals for the rest of the company. During this project’s time frame, the automotive manufacturer and Randstad Sourceright remained focused on filling many other open positions across the organization. In addition to the roles filled to open the new plant, more than 1,200 roles were filled in the second half of 2019 alone.
Key to this successful partnership were daily meetings to discuss progress, challenges and candidate status. Even today, the two organizations meet twice a week to review current status and remaining positions to be filled. Such collaboration was key to meeting a demanding hiring project, and this approach continues to support the company’s overall hiring goals.