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Automated Applicant Tracking Solution Streamlines Recruiting Process and Enables Startup Organization to Support Growth Goals |
Entertaining the idea that consumers would like a movie to complement their Big Mac and fries, McDonald’s Venture test marketed a project that included placing automated DVD rental kiosks in several McDonald locations. The project proved a success and Redbox was launched, poised to become the nation’s leader in automated DVD rental services.
Like other startup organizations, growth is a major goal for Redbox and hiring qualified individuals is contingent to meeting that goal. While the project was still a pilot program and part of McDonald’s, Redbox was able to take advantage of resources offered through parent company McDonald’s Corporation. Once designated as a corporate spin-off, the leadership team needed to create their own footprint and build internal processes from scratch. Starting with the implementation of an applicant tracking solution to meet their hiring needs, Redbox chose PeopleFilter Technology’s applicant tracking solution. Through the solution, Redbox gained the ability to rapidly screen candidates, streamline their process and ensure resources were allocated to the right sourcing pipelines to meet company growth goals.
Launched in 2004, Redbox Automated Retail is a leading renter of DVDs through automated kiosks. More than 2,000 Redbox machines have been installed nationwide, mostly at supermarkets and McDonald’s restaurants. Featuring an unmatched price point and convenient rent-and-return anywhere policy, each machine holds about 500 DVDs, with more than 70 mostly new-release titles available for a $1 per night fee. Redbox recently launched online rentals that guarantee immediate access to newly released titles with no membership or postal carrier required, continuing to attract new customers and offer another entertaining option for movie enthusiasts. McDonald’s Corporation, the parent company of McDonald’s USA, LLC, indirectly owns a minority interest in Redbox.
“When I started with the company nearly two years ago there were about 23 employees and today we are 137 strong,” said Michelle Canada, vice president of People Matter for Redbox. “Growth is a key goal for us as is quickly finding the right talent with the right competencies. We have a progressive CEO who understands the importance of the HR element and that our talent is going to make us truly different than our competitors. Having worked with PeopleFilter Technology in the past, I knew I could create my own footprint and move very quickly to meet hiring goals.”
PeopleFilter is a web-based applicant tracking and hiring optimization solution that allows for rapid identification and ranking of the most qualified applicants based on employer-defined job descriptions. The PeopleFilter application employs a powerful, analytical scoring engine to rank and present the best candidates based on a proprietary Common Language Library of over 13,000 unique occupational skills.
Although Canada worked with PeopleFilter at two prior organizations, she did her due diligence and researched the other applicant tracking systems on the market. After reviewing offerings from three other vendors, she went with PeopleFilter based on her prior successes with the solution, their outstanding customer service and depth and breadth of experience and industry knowledge.
“One thing that encouraged our selection of PeopleFilter over other vendors we considered is their client service,” said Canada. “They understood what I needed and executed very quickly to help me achieve my goals. My process is totally paperless – they helped automate my employment application and competency based screening and worked with me to integrate my background check vendor, VanElla, allowing me to have a fully automated process to harness qualified candidates more quickly and in larger volume.”
Complementing their competency-based screening process, Redbox has a rigorous interview panel that each candidate is required to go through and must gain unanimous support to be offered a career with the company. Because the interview panel is so intense and time consuming, it is imperative that candidates are prescreened and meet minimum skill requirements before undergoing the arduous screening process. With chemistry and fit being of key importance, and the heavy coordination mandated to assemble the panel and potential candidates, average time to hire at Redbox is 52 days.
“Because I require a lot of labor on the backend after I find my candidates, I needed a solution that would enable me to narrow applicant pools very quickly,” explained Canada. “With the PeopleFilter Solution, I am able to go to the top five based on how they scored from a competency level and can start screening from there.”
In addition to screening quickly, Canada also appreciates the ability to close out with an applicant very quickly. PeopleFilter eases the process for the Redbox recruiting team to respond back to every candidate, delivering a high level of professionalism and a good user experience. Candidates are automatically notified of their status and ensured their information is entered into the company’s database. For Redbox, having a centralized database also delivers another sourcing mechanism for other openings that may come available at a later date.
“Another thing PeopleFilter allows me to do is track my source of hire,” added Canada. “It allows me to be a responsible HR professional -someone who has been given money to invest in sourcing strategies, understands where hires have come from, understands retention around those hires and then has the ability to allocate and adjust funds based on past successes with sourcing pipelines. When you understand where you are hiring from you can do so much more and PeopleFilter allows you to have that competitive advantage.”
With the solution in place long enough to deliver a full year’s worth of accurate data, Redbox plans on adjusting their sourcing strategy to meet their continued growth goals. Internal resource allocation can be maximized through the solution. This year alone, Canada indicates the company will add nearly 100 more individuals to its workforce and plans to do it with just one recruiting manager. Because the PeopleFilter solution fully automates the process enabling recruiters to focus on the strategic part of recruiting, Canada is confident they will be able to expediently fill open positions.
“The solution enables us to manage our applicant flow very well and because it is easy to use, I rotate my HR team, teach them how to use the system and how to interview and we have been successful on all those fronts,” said Canada. “The system has allowed me to give my HR team development opportunities and be able to recruit without any paperwork. In a startup situation, it is our people that are going to make a difference. The PeopleFilter solution has enabled me to find the right talent at the right time and will continue to help meet our growth needs.”
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