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Save 800 manager hours and give your business an early
Christmas present!
Christmas for most is still, thankfully, a long way off. In retail though things are getting started as the end of August heralds the start of their campaigns to recruit Christmas temps and HMV are no exception.
HMV rely on an additional 2000 seasonal workers to help its 160 UK stores run smoothly over the critical run-up to Christmas. When it comes to recruiting those temps, they have never had any problem attracting sufficient numbers. They are one of the most ubiquitous brands on the UK high street and the mainstay for music fans young and old, games enthusiasts and DVD buyers. Many of these faithful shoppers would love the chance to work for the store. However how do they feel when, as a loyal customer and fan of the brand they get turned down for a Christmas job? Essentially rejection can damage customer loyalty and cause despondent applicants to shop elsewhere. The challenge for HMV therefore is to make sure they don’t alienate job applicants who are unsuccessful and give the best all-round experience of the brand as possible.
An additional challenge for them is the administrative burden of recruiting such a large number of people. Katharine Waterfield, HR Controller at HMV said, ‘We needed to find ways to eliminate the time-consuming manual elements of the process. We needed to provide our store managers with good quality applicants in a timely and cost effective way.’
HMV partnered with Changeworknow to develop a series of online
questionnaires which provide all candidates with immediate feedback as they
progress through the application process. The questionnaires are based
on selection criteria drawn up by HMV. Only
those fulfilling the ‘essential’ and ‘desirable’ skills are encouraged
to continue through the system. Those who don’t meet the requirements
are given feedback about the areas in which they aren’t suitable and can
at any stage choose not to continue. The majority of these unsuitable
candidates consequently de-select themselves and HMV don’t have to say
‘thanks but no thanks’ thus reducing alienation and retaining customer
loyalty.
Additionally, HMV’s administrative overhead is massively reduced. Quality applications can now be sent through to stores within hours rather than weeks.
By using the online system, HMV report that they have had a 65% reduction in advertising costs and have saved in the region of 800 hours of management time. Last year the system dealt with 57,357 applicants. 13% of these applicants were identified as an ideal match for HMV’s requirements which equalled 81% of the total volume they needed.
As HMV enter their second year of recruiting online they have started by contacting 1500 candidates who applied last year to work for them. Over 350 have replied expressing an interest to be considered again this year which means that before this year’s campaign even starts they have a healthy bank of interested candidates.
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Welcome to the first issue of
Changeworknow's e-zine. It is designed to keep our clients, contacts and
business partners up to date with how we are working with organisations to
achieve their business objectives along with the latest thinking and stories
associated with on-line recruitment. Initially we will be
publishing every quarter.
If you do not wish
to receive further issues please click here and type unsubscribe
in the subject field.
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New Research on Job Seeker's
Experience with Using the Web for Recruitment
Changeworknow is embarking on a major piece of
research to identify the extent that jobseekers judge an
employer by their online application experience. At present
employers are unaware whether their online application forms
affect their status as employer of choice. Your organisation
could attract more talented candidates simply as a result of an
improved online application process. Our research will help to
enlighten companies around the following issues:
Does the way in which a candidate is treated
during the online application process impact their view of a
prospective employer?
Does the way in which they are treated affect
their view of the customer brand?
What design features or components of an online application process are likely to be more successful in encouraging candidates to apply?
What design features or components will simply
turn them off?
If you are interested in receiving an Executive Summary of the results please email :-
lesley.nash@changeworknow.co.uk
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Effective 18th September we are expanding and moving to new offices in Henley. Our new contact details are below.
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Know your toolkit
‘On-line recruitment is no longer just an extra tool in the recruitment
toolkit, it is the toolkit’ says Lesley Nash, co-founder and director of
Changeworknow. However it is essential to make sure you know which tool
is right for your organisation’s needs and how to get the most out of
it. Here Lesley addresses some of the most commonly asked questions on
moving towards an online recruitment approach:
Q: Is using our corporate website the only way we can
recruit online?
A: No, not at all. Changeworknow conducted research in 2004 which found that 87% of companies that use their corporate websites to recruit also use job boards, while 56% of companies use more than three online options at the same time including online job fairs and advertising on general internet sites.
Q: We’ve recently spent a lot of money redesigning our
corporate website. Will this help us to attract good quality candidates?
A: It can do. A well designed attractive website will enable you to exploit a strong brand and attract candidates who might particularly want to work for your organisation. The key to success will be giving the candidates a good experience which also means providing a meaningful way for them to apply for jobs through an on-line application process.
Q: For the online questionnaire can I just adapt the questions that we use on our hard copy application form?
A: No. Often application forms are out of date.
If using a criteria-based questionnaire to sift out candidates make sure
your criteria are suitable – be clear about them from the outset and
spend as much time as possible getting things right at the beginning of
the process.
Q: Do I need to keep a candidate management system up to
date?
A: Yes, most definitely. The candidate management system is the most
important tool in an e- recruitment strategy. Most candidates don’t hang
around for long so make sure your database doesn’t get out of date. An
out of date database can become a heavy administrative overhead.
Q: Form over function – do the needs of the on-line jobseeker really
matter?
A: The competition for talented people shows no sign of abating. Consequently there is mounting pressure on companies to be regarded as an ‘employer of choice’. Essentially organisations need to find ways to stand out from the crowd and no one can afford to be left behind.
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