A medium-sized European market leader (automotive/logistics) is repositioning itself for a diesel-free future and a planned IPO in the medium term. The new CEO and the new HR Director are on board. They want to develop a successful and profitable team into an agile, professional and more digital future. The HR department is to be supplemented by a new recruiting and organizational development team and will be set up more professionally. The HR business partners are to focus more on supporting their areas.
More than 100 approved new positions and many positions that had remained vacant for months called into question the implementation of the growth targets and the satisfaction of the hiring managers. A typical situation for the interim manager. His task was to support recruiting in critical areas, contribute recruiting expertise and establish active sourcing while building up the team. And then came the coronavirus lockdown on the second day of the mandate.
All employees were immediately sent to work from home
Under lockdown conditions, the usual introduction to organizational charts, products, services, company-specific culture, applicant management system, drive organization, stakeholders, templates and much more was cancelled. Instead, it became clear on the very first day that everyone would be working from home from the next day onwards and that the office location would be almost completely closed.
Luckily, the company had decided at the beginning of the year to equip all workplaces with MS Teams. Three weeks before the lockdown, the roll-out was completed on schedule - just in time! The need for everyone to familiarize themselves intensively with MS Teams facilitated acceptance in an unforeseeable way. With the help of the experienced interim recruiter, it was also possible to switch the selection process completely to recruiting from the home office, so that recruitment could continue without delay. The expected resistance of the HR business partners to the gradual transfer of competencies to the future recruiting team and to the modernization and standardization of processes was thus eliminated. Change was the order of the day during the lockdown.
Process for remote recruiting developed and implemented in a very short time
It is clear that, in addition to the smooth use of technical possibilities, the candidate experience is an important success factor. To this end, the interim manager worked with the HR team to develop a five-step digital standard process that could be communicated transparently to applicants and hiring managers. This process replaced the "individual" and traditional processes of the HR business partners.
- Pre-selection by the recruiter and check by the hiring manager
- First video interview with hiring manager and recruiter
- Existing but rarely used online tests, tailored to function and level
- Second video interview with case study and other interview partners depending on role and area in consultation with the hiring managers
- In approx. 50 percent of cases in which the candidate or hiring manager requested a face-to-face meeting, a distanced walk was arranged, for example along the Rhine or at the hiring manager's place of residence.
Guidelines for video interviews - application cases adapted for digital formats
In order to be able to apply the new standard procedure, it was necessary to change a number of processes in a very short space of time. For example, all cover letters from the applicant management system were adapted to the remote process. The interim manager optimized the cover letters and processes with an outside perspective and a focus on the best possible candidate experience.
Video interviews present a number of stumbling blocks, e.g. when the technology gets stuck, interviewers don't coordinate, perception channels are missing or appointments are simply scheduled too tightly because hiring managers (have) one appointment after the other while working from home. And a delay in a video appointment is more unpleasant than a face-to-face appointment. So video interviews had to be better prepared and coordinated. The interim manager also implemented this possibility of standardization and optimization.
Instead of a variety of cases that were written by someone at some point, the interim manager also developed a new case system for remote presentations. With just a little input from the hiring managers, the case can now be adapted to specific areas and positions. The candidate receives the case exactly 30 minutes before the second interview, but thinks about how they would like to present their results in the video interview beforehand. Whether on wallpaper, cupboard wall, flipchart, scribbled on paper or PowerPoint - it was up to them. The variety is great and provides additional observations and insights about the candidate.
Follow-up interviews result in a highly positive candidate experience
The creation of contracts with up to four signatures was digitized and accelerated with the help of "Docusign". Onboarding was also digitized with the help of the business partners, IT and many creative ideas under pain.
The end result was a process that was not only standardized, objective and transparent, but also reduced the time-to-hire by an average of two weeks. Clear decision-making principles on the one hand, faster scheduling on the other and the often laborious room planning were obsolete. No one had to travel or take vacation, everyone was easily accessible from their home office and contracts were quickly created and signed.
Just as important: follow-up surveys revealed a highly positive candidate experience and, ultimately no wonder, the acceptance rate for accepted contracts rose to more than 90 percent.
Active sourcing in times of crisis is different
The "TalentManager" and the "Recruiter" from Xing and LinkedIn were already in place. However, they were not used by the HR business partners as there was little success in the test phases and the time required was high. The interim recruiter therefore concentrated on a few critical positions that had been advertised for some time and on passing on his active sourcing expertise in short training sessions to those recruiters and HR business partners who showed a high level of self-motivation and interest. Positions in HR controlling, payroll, change management, digital payment and IT demand were filled in this way.
In his search for suitable profiles, the interim manager initially focused on employees from companies that had stumbled due to the coronavirus or were at least severely restricted in the implementation of their goals. He hoped that potential candidates would be more interested than in normal times. These were, for example, companies from the trade fair sector, the travel industry, system catering, event management or stationary retail. The approach was correct, but the opposite effect of the crisis period was also evident. In uncertain times, people are less willing to take the risk of leaving a (supposedly) secure job. The lesson: the proportion of those interested was higher than in normal times. At the same time, however, the willingness of those approached to actually change jobs fell after some reflection and consideration in their private lives. The process was broken off more frequently than before. Although not statistically relevant, both effects canceled each other out in the end.
New digital recruiting process is maintained even after lockdown
With the help of the interim recruiter's external expertise, it was possible to make recruiting more digital, efficient and candidate-friendly in the midst of the coronavirus lockdown. The targeted recruitment goals were achieved. Active sourcing was introduced, reducing the budget for the use of headhunters and increasing the recognition of HR within the company. The new, successful recruiting process was maintained even after the lockdown: Except for the second round of interviews, which are once again held as face-to-face meetings - and the "walk along the Rhine", which one or two hiring managers now miss.
