TO get the best talents in the market, Transcom Worldwide Philippines Inc. tried every recruitment method in the book, but these strategies failed. Fortunately, there’s an app for everything. And the company developed one that changed its talent search scenario.
“Our recruitment strategies have evolved from traditional job caravans, job boards and face-to-face interviews, to a wider use of social media and online conversations. Sadly, though, most of these strategies still rely on manual or labor-intensive processes that don’t contribute much to push the hiring success rate upward or at least to decrease the candidates’ ‘no show’ rate,” Transcom Vice President for Talent Acquisition Wilfred Julius Abo Jr. said in an e-mail interview with the BusinessMirror.
Abo recalled that Transcom conducted a technology search in the market to get the appropriate tools. Moreover, it was looking for tools that can enhance their capability to increase reach and interactions with potential hires, to provide them with real-time hiring data and statistics based on their day-to-day activities and engagement with candidates and other features that would ease out time-consuming, repetitive and manual recruiting processes.
Then they developed a recruiting app wherein Transcom automated the filtering and shortlisting of candidates. Moreover, it has reduced the wait time and people traffic in their recruitment hubs and devote time for in-depth interactions with quality applicants.
“Also, because of the enhanced experience of the applicants, we are able to easily track their feedback and drive referrals,” Abo said.
As far as the millennials are concerned, Abo said Transcom’s employee retention strategies do not necessarily single out millennials. Nevertheless, Abo said, the overarching objective of these strategies basically touch on the essential concerns of this particular age group.
“In a study we conducted about a couple of years ago, we learned that millennials put premium on coach-oriented leaders, a brand they can identify with, career opportunities and useful perks,” Abo explained. “All of these are included in our talent development, employee engagement and total rewards designs.”
In recruiting millennials and other talents belonging to other age groups, Abo said Transcom cannot just limit compensation to monetary benefits, stressing it might limit and affect in a negative manner the way the company manages its talents as well as their work environment.
“You have to use a ‘total rewards’ perspective,” he said.
While monetary benefits are useful in attracting talents at different job levels, Abo said companies cannot simply dismiss or diminish the value of non-monetary offers insofar as attraction and retention are concerned.
“Your employees might be receiving high pay but are not inspired by their leaders [or] not proud of their company brand, hate the culture, and see your company simply as a milking cow,” he said. “Compensation is ‘total package’ and your company’s ‘overall impact’ for being aspirational and attractive.”
Abo explained that a company’s attrition rate is just an indicator of how it has been investing in its people. He suggested that management should remind themselves that their employees don’t decide to quit in an instant or on a whim.
“Most of decisions to quit build up over time, over certain instances and moments of dissatisfaction. These are those instances and moments that you need to capture as they happen,” he said.
“One thing that we are pushing at Transcom is to give employees safe and worry-free platforms where they can freely and trustingly express their dissatisfaction digitally, at their fingertips, as much as possible; then, acknowledge and respond to them as appropriately and quickly or as timely as we can,” he added.
To keep them in the company, Abo said employees, whether millennials or not, must be treated fairly and made to feel more valued before they go.
“Even if you know that they will eventually go, you still have to make it your passion to invest in upskilling them, inspiring them and caring for them.”
Image credits: Transcom Worldwide Philippines Inc.