Delivering open-days to re-energise a struggling recruitment process
AUTOMOTIVE SERVICES
Challenge:
A leading business in automotive services was faced with significant challenges in recruiting for their sales and service roles. Located in a semi-rural area, they struggled to attract candidates due to transportation limitations and the nature of the roles, which involved phone-based customer interactions. With a limited pool of candidates, numerous drop-outs during the interview process, and a low number of interviews conducted weekly, they needed a solution to efficiently recruit and retain qualified staff.
Solution:
To address these recruitment challenges, the Vermelo team was tasked with creating a solution that would attract the right candidates interested in a long-term specialist phone-based role. Vermelo proposed the implementation of hosting open days for both the service and sales roles. These events, held between 10 am and 1 pm, provided candidates with an immersive experience of our client's workplace culture and job expectations. The agenda included interactive icebreaker activities, office tours, introductions to the team, an overview of the business by a current employee, basic skills assessments, and exposure to the company's training resources.
Results:
The introduction of open days has revolutionised the recruitment process, yielding numerous benefits:
Increased candidate flow: Open days enabled our client to engage with a greater number of candidates within a shorter timeframe, significantly boosting the recruitment pipeline
Enhanced candidate experience: Candidates felt more relaxed and engaged during open days, leading to a better assessment of their cultural fit within the company
Improved understanding of the role: Candidates gained a comprehensive understanding of the job requirements and daily operations. This created a higher satisfaction among the new hires as they knew what to expect and what was expected from them
Managerial involvement: Managers and team leaders enjoyed the interactive recruitment process and appreciated the opportunity to assess candidates first-hand, resulting in a more collaborative decision-making process.
Higher offer acceptance rates: On average, open days attracted around 10 candidates per session, with approximately 4-5 offers extended per intake, demonstrating the effectiveness of the new approach.
Enhanced staff retention: By attracting candidates who were better aligned with the company culture and job requirements, our client experienced improved staff retention rates and fewer drop-outs
Comprehensive assessment of candidates: Both managers and candidates expressed high levels of satisfaction with the open-day format, emphasising its interactive nature and its ability to provide a more comprehensive assessment of candidates.
Summary:
By leveraging Vermelo's innovative recruitment approach, our client successfully addressed its recruitment challenges and achieved significant improvements in candidate engagement, offer acceptance rates, reduced drop-outs and improved staff retention. The implementation of open days not only streamlined the hiring process but also fostered a positive candidate experience and strengthened the company's employer brand within the competitive automotive services market.
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