Solving high volume hiring in facilities management

Challenges

High volume hiring is highly competitive

A food service and facilities management provider faced significant talent challenges in its healthcare division with both candidate quantity and quality. The organization’s business model relies on proper staffing levels to meet client agreements, commonly requiring overtime pay so there are enough on-site employees.

In the healthcare space, each employee can impact a patient’s experience and care delivery. Because of this, the organization focuses on hiring quality talent with the right level of emotional intelligence to handle stressful situations. The labor market for hourly hiring is incredibly competitive, so standing out from the competition requires a quick and easy application and interview experience.

The company realized its traditional hiring channels, online advertising and hiring events prevented it from meeting the demand – inhibiting growth. Cielo’s experience in healthcare hiring paired with its High Volume RPO solution made it a strong partner to support a talent acquisition approach for food service, housekeeping and environmental services roles in the healthcare setting.

Solutions

Market insights & consistent high volume hiring process

With hundreds of hiring managers across 50 different locations, a consistent process within a decentralized structure was essential. Customization based on location was also key.

The team created an easier, consistent recruitment process – for both candidates and hiring managers. With guidance from Cielo’s experts, the company built standard processes to power repeatable outcomes.

A true partnership

Also important was educating the organization’s hiring leaders on current labor market trends to set expectations on available talent and competitive recruiting pressures. Together, the team worked to align on clear definitions and qualifications for each common role, as locations have unique terminology and expectations for their jobs.

To improve candidate flow and quality, Cielo made the organization’s existing attraction and application process quicker and mobile-optimized. Cielo’s High Volume RPO solution provided one integrated system to support hiring – from advertising, assessment, interview self-scheduling, to reporting.

Programmatic advertising and a mobile-based application allowed the organization to geo-target desired candidates and quickly move them through to on-site interviews. The same mobile tool supported hiring managers in reviewing and accepting candidates for interviews based on assessment data points. Ongoing candidate nurturing and communication kept talent engaged, working to reduce drop-off.

Customized service & continuous improvement

The partnership goes beyond providing the technology to support candidates and hiring managers. Cielo also provides a service layer to make sure the right points of human interactions for all stakeholders, overall program management to improve ongoing processes, and experts to uncover and fix unique challenges at specific locations.

For example, during implementation, Cielo quickly noticed two roadblocks slowing down the hiring process:

1. Hiring managers offered limited near-term availability for onsite interviews. The lack of options deterred quality candidates, and no-show rates for interviews increased dramatically when interviews were scheduled more than five days out.
   
   With coaching, Cielo showed hiring managers the importance of flexible calendars to compete for in-demand talent that may already be employed.
   
   
2. Once an interview was scheduled, the next challenge was working through the logistics for each location to ensure a candidate could get to the on-site interview. Some locations had on-site HR staff, while others didn’t.
   
   Cielo built two sets of protocol, so candidates and the responsible on-site party were prepared and informed for the interview. For candidates, this included highly detailed instructions for where to go, whom to ask for, and where to wait. In large, complex hospitals, clear directions are crucial to delivering positive experiences.

Results

Together, we shine

The improvements to interview scheduling and on-site interview procedures kept the provider from losing candidates due to an inefficient process, saved money through expenses like advertising and saved hiring manager time through tech-enabled and service support.

The refreshed high volume hiring strategy and process was a success. Some key highlights:

• Supported over 50 locations and 430 hiring managers with 5,000 total annual hires
• Generated an average of 64 candidates per job posting, compared to 19 prior to Cielo partnership
• Improved time to fill to less than five days, compared to 10 days prior to Cielo partnership
• Saved 1.4 hours of on-site and HR manager time per job opening