Author: Sarah Fister Gale

Two years ago, TriWest wanted to implement a recognition system that wentbeyond the cookie-cutter “employee of the month” programs, but managementwasn’t sure what it should look like. “It had to be something employeesthought would be useful and valuable,” says Mary Skor, executive director ofhuman resources. To be certain that what they came up with would appeal toemployees, Skor put together a team of people from across the company to createthe new program under the guidance of reward and recognition expert Pat Zingheim.

&nbsp   They created the Five Star Program, a multi-tiered reward system with a themebuilt around the company’s star logo. Each star represents a separate program,Skor says. The first two, which were already in place, are the bonus program andemployee service awards. The team added three programs that reward employees forexceptional customer service and teamwork, internally and externally.

&nbsp   The first, called the Shining Star, is a peer-to-peer certificate program.When employees experience or witness great service or teamwork, they giveShining Star certificates to show their appreciation. Employees can give thecertificates to anyone in the company, regardless of their title or location.One copy is delivered to the employee and another goes into a fishbowl forbimonthly drawings for gift certificates, logoed prizes such as T-shirts andcoffee mugs, and other small items.

&nbsp   About 10 percent of certificate recipients win fishbowl gifts. The teamconsidered giving every Shining Star recipient a small gift, but they wereconcerned that the program could be abused. With a drawing, there is no way toknow who’ll win.

&nbsp   “Employees like the Shining Stars because it’s not a top-down system,”Skor says. “They have a tool to thank each other.” Employees frequently posttheir Shining Stars in their offices or the common rooms, and Skor lists all thewinners each month at the company’s intranet site. “Our people are proud toget those certificates.”

&nbsp   The second program, called the Super Star award, is given by directors toemployees in recognition of great performance. As part of the program, each yeardirectors are given a pot of “Starbucks” coupons equaling roughly $40 peremployee in their unit, which recipients can use to buy logoed merchandise orexchange for gift certificates.

&nbsp   When directors see employees doing excellent work, such as going out of theirway to help customers handle claims problems, they can give them up to 50Starbucks on the spot. “The point is for directors to be able to reward greatbehavior the moment it happens,” Skor says. Directors are also encouraged touse the money at least once a year to throw a party in honor of team successes.

&nbsp   The final program, called the All Stars Award, is in recognition ofperformance above and beyond the scope of the job description. It’s based on acash incentive that allows directors to give up to $750 to an employee who makesmajor contributions to the corporation as a whole. To win this award, employeeshave to do something truly exceptional, Skor says. For example, if an HR persondoes great work during open enrollment, she might receive 50 Starbucks, Skorsays, whereas if a technical employee works late and comes in on the weekends tobe sure the new phone system is up and running on schedule, that would be worthan All Star. The awards have been given to teams that have improved companyproductivity, and to units that have been recognized by the government for doingexceptional work in the field of health-care management. “It’s a big deal towin an All Star,” she says.

&nbsp   It was the development team’s idea to make the All Star program cash-basedwhile keeping the other programs gift-based. “We didn’t want people toexpect payment for doing their jobs,” Skor says. And the development team didn’tthink cash was necessary for the other programs to be successful. “Employeeslike to be told they are doing a good job. It doesn’t have to be a large sumof money; they just want the recognition.”

Workforce, June 2002, p. 88 — Subscribe Now!

Last year the University of Southern California’s auxiliary department,which oversees all of its service employees in transportation, hospitality,housing, and the bookstore, implemented a program to recognize and celebrateemployees who perform above and beyond the scope of their jobs. “We are alwaysfocused on encouraging better customer service, internally and externally,”says Dawn Mugavero, HR director for the auxiliary department. In the past, thedepartment has had informal recognition programs for certain units, but theyweren’t organized or all-inclusive. “It’s important that everyone gets toparticipate.”

To be sure that employees would be on board and excited about the newrecognition program, it was created by a design team made up of representativesfrom all departments and positions, she says. They set the parameters and goals,made the forms, and named the two programs — Tommy Thanks and Super Tommy –after the school’s mascot, Tommy Trojan.

The first program, Tommy Thanks, is a recognition form given to employees bypeers, superiors, or subordinates to acknowledge a great act of customerservice. The giver fills out the form, summarizing the good deed, then gives onecopy to the recipient and another to the HR department. The form itself is a bigpart of the reward, Mugavero says. It shows employees they are appreciated andgives them documentation to hang in their office or save in their files.

The HR department puts its copy in a monthly drawing for prizes, such assweatshirts, coffee mugs, hats, and gift certificates. Each month Mugavero drawsabout 10 percent of the names from the pool of Tommy Thanks winners. The giftsare then wrapped and presented to the recipients at the monthly seniormanagement meeting. “We want to make a big celebration of the reward to showemployees that management recognizes and appreciates their efforts,” she says.Even though the gifts are small, the formal acknowledgment is what’simportant. “The employees value that.”

The Super Tommy is a similar acknowledgment form given by managers toemployees in recognition of exceptional behavior on the job. Along with theform, managers can include up to five Super Tommy coins worth $5 each. The coinsare redeemable for internal gifts such as event tickets or meals, or can beexchanged for gift certificates to stores off-campus.

The group had originally considered giving cash prizes for the newrecognition programs, which it does for its financial goals achievement program,but decided against it for several reasons. Union employees, who make up nearly half of the full-timeauxiliary staff, are excluded from participating in any cash-incentive program,and cash gifts have tax implications. Most important, the group didn’t wantthe focus to be on money. “It’s not about the value of the gift, it’sabout the value of the thanks,” Mugavero says.

The employees seem to appreciate the effort. After a small learning curve, itrequired very little effort to get them to take advantage of the program.Mugavero promotes it by placing form dispensers around the work space, by watercoolers, and in common areas, so that employees are reminded of it and have easyaccess to it. Now, with little prodding, she collects roughly 250 Tommy Thanksforms every month. “Once everyone understood what the program was all about,there was a very positive reaction to it.”

Workforce, June 2002, p. 90 — Subscribe Now!

When Teco Energy decided to migrate from an annuity-based plan to apension-equity plan, which is oriented to lump-sum benefits, it became clearthat employees would need considerable help understanding their options, saysDavid Bush, manager of retirement savings plans. As representatives from all theoperating companies within Teco were reviewing the plan, they realized howcomplex it was. “Management began to see the challenges that employees wouldbe facing as a result of the changes,” Bush says.

Previously, Teco had never offered financial education or advice to employeesin any of its 60 locations. “We didn’t have the time or resources to do duediligence on the providers,” Bush says. “Without that, we were reluctant toput our stamp of approval on any vendor.”

But in the wake of the plan changes, finding an investment adviser was deemeda high priority. After reviewing several vendors, Bush chose Edward Jones tooffer one-on-one counseling on-site during the immediate plan transition in2001, and financial-education workshops later on. They chose Edward Jones forseveral reasons. It is national and has offices in all 60 of Teco’s locations,which allowed the company to work with a single vendor to provide investmentadvice to all of its offices. Each location has a single contact who managesservices for that office, and there is one point of contact within Edward Joneswho oversees the entire relationship. That helps to maintain consistency andmakes monitoring easier, Bush says. Teco was also impressed that Jones deliversall workshops and on-site counseling at no charge. “They see it as anopportunity to build long-term relationships with employees.”

While most companies launch their financial-services program by starting withworkshops and easing into counseling, Teco took the opposite approach. Theybegan by immediately offering one-on-one meetings with investment advisers assoon as the relationship with Edward Jones was established. “Our incentiveswere different. We didn’t enter into this because we wanted to offer financialservices,” Bush says. “We needed to provide all the tools available to makethe plan transition as successful as possible.”

In the fall of 2000, as the plan was being rolled out, financial adviserswere brought in to meet with employees aged 55 and over, because they had themost urgent need for retirement planning and had been given the choice to staywith the old plan. “The only way they could make informed decisions was ifthey had someone there to help them,” Bush says. “They didn’t needgeneralized lunch-and-learns. They needed to meet with a financial planner rightaway.”

The following quarter, employees aged 40 to 55 had the chance to meet withadvisers to discuss their retirement planning and get investment advice. Theywere encouraged to bring their spouses, who were also able to get advice ontheir retirement incomes, so that as a family they would be able to see theirwhole investment picture, Bush says.

In the third quarter, employees under 40 were invited to meet with the Jonesrepresentatives.

In July 2001, once all the employees had had the chance to receive counselingand the new plan was rolled out, Jones representatives began offeringfinancial-education workshops. The first three sessions cover investment basics,retirement planning, and company plan distribution options. After those arecomplete, each location will choose which topics it wants delivered according tothe needs of the employee population.

“It’s ironic,” Bush says, reflecting on the activity surrounding theplan transformation and the decision to offer financial advice. “These planshave been in place for a long time, but they’ve never had so much visibility.”

Workforce, May 2002, p. 69 — Subscribe Now!

This 34-year-old company considers itself a family organization. The leaders feel a sense of responsibility to the employees, which is why they’ve offered profit-sharing from the beginning, says David Carnahan, vice president and general manager of operations. But in 1995, the executive team decided that profit-sharing wasn’t enough. “The employees needed to be more involved in investing in their own future,” he says.

Until that time, the company made all the decisions about where profits were invested. Employees couldn’t contribute their own money, and the funds weren’t growing fast enough, Carnahan says. The situation could have placed the company at risk of legal action if retirement funds didn’t increase properly.

To give employees more control and reduce their liability, Penna Flame added a 401(k) package to its retirement program in 1995 with a partial match of funds. “It was an opportunity to shift the burden and let employees customize investment choices based on their personal needs,” Carnahan says.

To support the new program, and to give employees the confidence and knowledge to make shrewd investment decisions, Penna Flame developed a partnership with a local bank to host on-site seminars and investment workshops. Together, they explained equity, risk assessment, and fixed-income management, and handed out literature. It still wasn’t enough.

Carnahan wasn’t permitted to provide investment advice, which is what many of the employees wanted. “Our people are blue collar. Investing is not something they are necessarily good at, but they know it’s important.”

To help solve the problem, Carnahan invited Brad Thomas, a local investment representative from Edward Jones, a securities firm headquartered in St. Louis, to meet with employees. Because of shift schedules, it didn’t make sense to hold one large employee meeting, Thomas says. Carnahan introduced Thomas to employees during several short meetings held directly on the shop floors. At the end of each meeting, employees were given a sign-up sheet for individual counseling sessions.

Over two days, nearly all of the employees met with Thomas, free of charge, to discuss their investment portfolios. “We took a snapshot of where each employee was financially and what their goals were,” Thomas says. Then he made investment recommendations based on their situations. “People want specific advice for their particular circumstances,” he says. “Education alone doesn’t tell people whether a fund is right for them.”

The employees were thrilled, Carnahan says. “It’s a win, win-win situation.” Employees get sound advice, Thomas makes business contacts, and the company shows its concern for the welfare of its people, which affects retention. “Heat treating is a selective skill set. We don’t want to lose valuable employees because we are not dealing with their retirement needs. That’s a big issue for our people.”

Workforce, May 2002, p. 68 — Subscribe Now!

Turnover rates for hourly employees at Outback Steakhouse range from 40 to 60percent annually. That’s impressive in an industry where rates of 200 percentaren’t uncommon, says Paul Avery, president of Outback Steakhouse. Heattributes the low rates to a customized pre-employment assessment testing toolused by the hiring managers at all of the 700 restaurants in the chain.

Outback instituted pre-employment testing in 1991, two years after thecompany was launched. When the company was smaller, it was easier to hire peopleon the basis of interviews, Avery says. But as the chain grew, it became morecritical to control turnover and to understand and build profiles for exactlythe kind of people they were looking for.

“Our people exude fun. They are spirited and gregarious, and they are teamplayers,” Avery says. Outback’s culture is also big on volunteerism andindulging customers beyond what is normally expected. “People come to ourrestaurants for the experience. It’s not uncommon for customers to say theywere blown away because an Outbacker made a significant impression on them.”

To create that sort of atmosphere, Outback has to hire people with specificcharacter traits. They must be sympathetic, adaptable, highly social, andmeticulous, Avery says. To narrow the search for these candidates, Outbackmanagers tested all of the existing Outback hourly employees with apersonality-assessment tool from DeCotiis Erhard. Using the data they compiled,they created a new test specifically designed for hiring people who fit theOutback Steakhouse culture.

The test, which is part of a three-phase interview process, helps recruitersidentify people with personalities and skill sets to fit that mold. “There’snever a shortage of candidates,” Avery says. “The test isolates who amongthem is the most competent. We can’t unearth those qualities through interviewquestions.”

Candidates’ results are compared to the group profile for Outbackemployees. If they rate below certain levels on important traits such ascompassion and initiative, they are cut from consideration.

Candidates that fit the profile are then interviewed by two managers, who aska series of behavioral questions such as, “What would you do if a customerasked for a side dish we don’t have on the menu?”

“This helps us find out how they will treat customers,” Avery says.

Assuming that managers adhere to the cut score, the probability of success isconsiderable. It’s not uncommon for hourly employees to be with the companyfor six or more years, and 95 percent of Outback’s management were internallypromoted from hourly staff jobs. “When you hire people who fit your culture,they enjoy working for you and they want to stay.”

When a restaurant doesn’t use the tool, however, turnover rates go up. “Whenapplicants are hired whose scores fall outside the range of the team profile,they have a 75 percent failure rate,” says David Hyatt, customer leader atDeCotiis Erhard.

And turnover isn’t just apparent among the bad hires. It affects the entirestaff. “They become a cancer in the system,” Avery says. Fortunately, mostmanagers see the value of the tools and use them consistently. “We’ve usedthese tests for 14 years, and I’m always proud to present our turnover ratesto the board of directors.”

Workforce, April 2002, p. 69 — Subscribe Now!

Companies that outsource their customer-contact support to Telvista expectcustomized service to be provided to their customers by teams of dedicated callagents, says Mary Jo Lichtenberg, executive director of professional services.That means Telvista has to train groups of reps to specialize in specific typesof calls, based on the client’s products, services, and support offerings,which can vary greatly. For example, 25 percent of Telvista’s calls come fromCompUSA customers, who may be using one of three different support offerings.Telvista handles CompUSA’s 30-day free general-support calls; dial-a-tech cardcalls, a pay-for-support service; and all of the dispatch requests and technicalproblems. “Each service has a different set of reps with a unique skill set,”she says.

Telvista works with each client to develop an agent profile and a detaileddocument outlining the tasks that agents must be able to perform and why. Theprofile lays out hard skills, such as mainframe experience, certifications,computer interface, and specific software expertise, as well as communicationand customer-service skills. Potential candidates are asked to role-play phonescenarios and demonstrate their knowledge of the necessary technology to provethemselves before being offered a position.

Once they have been chosen, they are put through a rigorous training program.All candidates get the same training on the company’s computer interface andcommunication skills, but the rest of the course is customized to the agentprofile. For example, dial-a-technicians spend three weeks in training, whichincludes eight hours of customer-service skills, three days of operating-systemtraining, five days of hardware training, and five days of troubleshooting majorsoftware applications.

Most of the new-hire training is done with a live instructor in a lab, asopposed to Web-based training, Lichtenberg says. “Trainees have a lot ofquestions when they are learning how to support new applications or hardware. It’simportant they have access to a live instructor who can give them immediateanswers.” Otherwise, they end up with gaps in their knowledge. “If they don’thave a good foundation of training, there will be trouble on the floor.”

To build on that foundation, Telvista uses a suite of training and supporttools called eQuality from Witness Systems, Inc., a software-solution firmlocated in Chicago. The tools enable supervisors to monitor and record calls anddeliver online training modules directly to agents.

Supervisors use the monitoring tool to capture voice and data for at leastfive calls per agent per month. They judge the agents’ personal interactionwith customers, as well as the accuracy and consistency of their data logging.”It’s important to be sure agents are entering the correct customerinformation into the CRM system,” Lichtenberg says. “Just listening to acall wouldn’t provide that level of detail.”

While monitoring calls, supervisors use an online evaluation form, based onthe client’s criteria, to rate the agent’s performance. If the score fallsbelow the standard established for that account more than twice in a month, theeQuality system automatically sends the agent a link to one of 25 onlinecustomer-service courses.

Supervisors also meet regularly with agents to discuss their performance andto play back some of their calls so they can hear themselves in action. Alongwith feedback on where they can improve, supervisors often play calls that areexamples of good behavior, Lichtenberg says. “We never view monitoring aspunitive. It’s an opportunity for us to work with the agents, to commend themon doing a good job, or to help them get better.”

Workforce, March 2002, p. 66 — Subscribe Now!

At Halloran & Sage, services to help employees recover from alcohol anddrug abuse aren’t commonly needed. The highly paid, busy professionals on thestaff are more interested in support services from an EAP, such as finding elderor child care.

To meet their needs, the firm developed a Generations Program. It is ahotline referral service through Family Care and Workforce Diversity Consultantsthat helps employees find care, schools, community centers, housing, andscholarship programs for members of their families. The company’s diversityreps help employees research cultural or work/life questions that come up, suchas finding a school or community center with a diverse ethnic makeup.

Many employees use the program to find concierge services and to handletravel and cultural questions related to business, such as how to addresscolleagues from another culture, or where to get basic foreign-languagetraining. The reps also help employees find financial services and resources forfinancial planning.

Halloran & Sage launched the program three years ago as a stand-alone EAPservice to meet the needs of the growing number of women in the workplace. Womenfeel more anxiety about their personal lives when they are away at work, saysJuliana McMeans, HR manager. The service was originally developed to help womendeal with those pressures so that they spend fewer hours on personal businesswhile they are at work. However, the program quickly became popular among allemployees as a tool for managing work/life issues.

“Because our people are so busy, they have little time off to handle theirpersonal issues. They don’t know where to go to find the resources to handletheir family responsibilities,” she says. From the beginning, the program hasbeen widely used.

After two years, the utilization rate is a respectable 13 to 14 percent,which means that is the percentage of employees who have used the service atleast once. Best-practice rates for the program are 7 percent or higher,according to benchmark studies conducted by Family Care and Workforce DiversityConsultants.

It’s not just a feel-good service, McMeans says. The program wasimplemented because it saves the company money. “We are always looking forcost-effective benefits, and this is one of them.”

Halloran & Sage pays $9.50 per person per year for the program, or atotal of about $2,000 annually. In exchange, the company saves hours of time.”We are always finding new ways to use it,” McMeans says. One such exampleis a homework program for employees’ children, who can call the servicedirectly.

The program also saves McMeans and her staff time because they no longer haveto field calls and conduct this kind of research. When employees come to herwith personal and family problems, she now directs them to the GenerationsProgram.

Workforce, February 2002, pp. 67-68 — Subscribe Now!

We compete for the best talent from all cultures and genders,” saysOssie Reid, director for diversity at United Technologies. The company strivesto be rated on business magazine best-employer lists. To achieve that, it has tooffer a culturally diverse environment. In response to changing employeedemographics, United Technologies introduced diversity programs in the early1990s.

Affirmative-action laws demanded that the company employ people from avariety of races and religions, he says. The diversity programs, which includementoring, forums for women and minorities, and training, ensure that everyonefeels appreciated and supported in the UT culture. And Reid is not justconcerned about diversity related to cultural makeup. Intellectual diversity isjust as important, he says. “People with varied educations and philosophiesbring different experiences to the table. It makes the company more flexible.”

To create an environment that accommodates cultural, religious, andintellectual diversity, his department’s primary focus is on inclusion. “Wewant to make sure everyone has an opportunity to participate in theorganization, regardless of their gender, background, or race.”

The diversity group is involved with succession planning and performanceappraisal training. It offers scholarship programs, relocation services, and ahotline for help with personal and family issues through the EAP. It alsosponsors forums and symposiums for women and minorities throughout the companyto celebrate employees and create mentoring networks. Because of these efforts,UTC received the Department of Labor’s Opportunity 2000 award for advancementof women and minorities in the workforce. “We’re proud to have created anenvironment that draws upon the experiences of so many individuals, and that canonly expand the possibilities for our customers and employees alike,” Reidsays.

In the future he hopes to add diversity modules to the emerging-leaderstraining program that employees take at the University of Virginia businessschool. “It’s a big opportunity for leaders to have the right discussionsabout what is expected of them.”

Reid sees all of these programs as critical to the company’s success. “Wework our people pretty hard, so they need to be in a place where they feelcomfortable.” It isn’t an easy task in a conservative New England city. “Hartfordis tough, especially for single people. It can be very cliquish.”

As part of its diversity program, UTC contracts with FCWDC’s Life Choiceshotline. Employees can use the service for information about places to go afterwork or perhaps to learn about an alumni group in the area. It’s all part ofthe effort to create a supportive and diverse environment.

“When we lose people because they aren’t happy, it costs us a lot ofmoney,” Reid says. UTC’s scholarship program, for example, covers completetuition for degree programs and gives employees $10,000 in stock options whenthey graduate. “If they leave, we lose that investment.”

Union workers are skeptical
Employee reaction to the programs has been promising. Utilization rates ofthe Life Choices program range from 13 to 25 percent, two to three times betterthan the established “best-practice rate” for this kind of service, Reidsays. The higher you go in the company, the more likely employees are to takeadvantage of the diversity programs, he says. Utilization by corporate personnelis 25 percent. “There’s a lot of pressure on corporate, and they will takeadvantage of any service that they think will benefit them.”

Union employees, on the other hand, are more reluctant to use the programs.There is still a fear that if they use EAP services of any kind, “corporatewill know their business,” he says. “It’s a very macho environment,especially for a technology-driven company.”

To increase use among union workers, Reid stepped up marketing efforts,better explaining what the program offers and how it works. He also sent homeinformational postcards to employees’ spouses. “Some employeesdon’t take materials home, so spouses have no idea that the service isavailable.” Reid says in the weeks following the postcard mailing, calls tothe Life Choices hotline went up dramatically.

Workforce, February 2002, pp. 68-69 — Subscribe Now!

When Rhonda Delph started working at AnnuityNet in 1997, it was just her and founder Shane Chalke. They outsourced payroll, and Delph handled all of the HR issues on paper herself. “It worked fine in the beginning,” she says, “but as the company grew, we needed an HR system.”

In 2001 they planned to buy an HR software application and continue to outsource payroll, but their relationship with the payroll company wasn’t going well. There were frequent errors, some of which resulted in tax penalties, she says. The payroll company also had originally promised to provide AnnuityNet with Web access to payroll reports, but it never launched its Internet platform. “It was a very manual process. We weren’t getting the service that we were paying for.”

She realized that it made more sense to bring HR and payroll together into one system. So in June of 2001, AnnuityNet installed an integrated HRMS and payroll software package from Ceridian, which immediately started saving them money.

By bringing payroll in-house, Delph eliminated a $30,000 expense from the annual budget, which amounted to 1 percent of payroll. AnnuityNet pays a monthly fee to Ceridian for each of its 60 employees plus processing fees, but the cost is insignificant compared to the savings of bringing payroll in-house, she says. And the cost of bringing in the new system was minimal. “The savings was so significant it paid for itself in days.”

Now Delph manages all of the employee files online. She can process and submit payroll reports in hours instead of days. While she opted to keep open enrollment off-line to create “a paper trail,” employees can access their data online and make updates, such as address changes, reducing her administrative tasks.
“It’s the kind of system the employees had been promised with the old company but never given,” she says. Even though it’s added some responsibilities to Delph’s role, because she handles payroll herself now, in many ways it’s made her job easier. Once data has been entered, it flows through the whole system, so she doesn’t have to make multiple updates of the same information. She can also print reports instantly and verify that bills are accurate against her own data.

The result is a virtually error-free process, she says. “It’s very user-friendly, and it’s a great service for our employees.”

Workforce, January 2002, pp. 64-66 — Subscribe Now!

A born-and-bred-on-the-Web company, Amazon.com is no stranger to online recruiting. “We’ve always recruited online,” says Carmen Hudson, manager of technical recruiting. “We’re Amazon; people expect it.”

Amazon has more than 20 employees dedicated to recruiting, three of whom specialize in filling tech positions. It sounds like a lot, but it’s a slim staff when you consider the hundreds of résumés that come into Amazon every day, Hudson says. “It’s tough, but we are committed to looking at all of them.” She estimates that they fill 40 percent of the tech openings through online recruiting efforts.

When a job opens, Hudson works with the hiring manager and a writer to craft the announcement. “We are trying to get recruiters to be more creative writing their job descriptions,” she says. “We want them to write more candidate-friendly ads that lay out our expectations and what the job entails, but it’s a constant battle.”

Once the ad is written, she posts it on Amazon’s career page, which features 50 or more job opportunities on any given day. She and the manager then decide where else online they might find prospective candidates. Depending on the type of job, they post ads at Monster.com, CareerJournal.com, Hhnet.com, and niche sites. Amazon recruiters also actively search the Web for résumés.

“It sounds like overkill, but we have a highly sophisticated set of skills and a high hiring bar,” Hudson says. “The people we want may not come to us.” It’s not uncommon for her to take two months or more to fill some of the tougher positions, such as software engineer. “To be a recruiter at Amazon, you have to like the thrill of the hunt.”

To help recruiters sort through the hundreds of candidates they consider for every position, Amazon is implementing a new tool that pre-sorts and categorizes résumés before recruiters see them. Right now, applicants e-mail résumés to one of the seven recruiting departments’ e-mail boxes, but there could be 20 jobs posted for any given department, she says. That means recruiters have to wade through all the applications, scanning for keywords or skill sets, to find the ones relevant to their postings. “All the recruiters suffer when one of them posts an ad at Monster,” Hudson says.

With the new system, which is a combination of PeopleSoft v. 8 and MagnaWare, an HR solutions software, applicants enter their résumé data directly into an applicant-tracking system that automatically organizes the information according to the ad resource number or job title. Recruiters access the database online and can instantly review the candidates for each position. “We love it. It helps us manage the flow of résumés and eliminates the need for e-mail.”

When she’s not sorting through online applicants, Hudson also relies on word of mouth, campus programs, and as a last resort, employment agencies. She hesitates to use agencies because they charge several thousand dollars to fill one position. In comparison, it costs hundreds of dollars or less to do it online. “My job is not only to deliver the best candidates but to do it in the most cost-effective way,” she says. “If we can find a candidate that matches our needs online, we can save the agencies for the really hard jobs to fill.”

Hudson has an agreement with the limited number of agencies she does use that they cannot recruit online. “It’s a sourcing strategy. We’ve already paid to get access to those candidates; we want to utilize their other resources.”

Workforce, December 2001, pp. 76-77 — Subscribe Now!