Learn how ARI achieves great results, like less than average turnover in the first year of a call center new hire, with the help of a great ATS partner.
Q: What’s your role at ARI?
Erin Weaber (EW): I’m part of the Human Resources team, specifically managing Global HR Operations. ARI is a global vehicle fleet management organization that has more than 2700 employees but still retains an incredible family-oriented culture. I came to ARI two years ago and my first project was to bring the recruiting operation into the current decade by securing a robust ATS for our multi-division, global organization.
Q: How did you choose iCIMS as your partner?
EW: We performed our due diligence and evaluated several systems to make sure we had a good grasp of what was available in the marketplace. Having worked with iCIMS at a previous company, I felt it could be a good fit for our needs and our research confirmed it. One of our key requirements is to have a good onboarding capability. Usability is also very important and we have a sophisticated need for the corporate office, but an unsophisticated need for the field manufacturing facilities and iCIMS is capable of handling both. Our decision was also based on the fact that iCIMS has the same customer-focused vision we have at ARI. This is just as important to us as the technical piece. We want to do business with like-minded organizations.
Q: What was the ROI for the ATS?
EW: Since we didn’t have an ATS previously, the value proposition was easy to see immediately. Additionally, it was critical to our future plans to implement a system that could grow with us since we’re global and hiring in 12 countries. After ARI demonstrated great success with iCIMS, our parent company wanted to realize similar results so now we are all sharing the same ATS.
Q: How did you do the initial rollout?
EW: We did a soft launch with the hiring managers. We used the system to push out information to them via email. The managers are very pleased with the time this solution has saved them. From the HR perspective, we needed a configurable solution that could also track these activities.
Q: What other successes have you had?
EW: Using iCIMS has allowed us to operate our recruiting team more efficiently; provide more visibility to what’s happening with our over 17,000 candidates a year, and create a more seamless process and better communication and visibility to our clients, the hiring managers.
Q: Sounds like you’re having amazing success in retaining talent?
EW: Yes! Our people love our unique culture and fun atmosphere, we like to keep things interesting here which helps with ongoing engagement. Another thing that helps us keep our talent is earning a spot on Fortune’s 2015 100 Best Companies to Work For® list, which we have done for the past three years running. Also, since our parent company, Holman Automotive, has four core businesses with 4,200 employees globally, there are lots of opportunities for our employees to stay in one of our businesses while meeting their personal and professional goals.
Q: Are you able to measure your success?
EW: Yes – we have a number of custom reports that we use each week to send critical data to our business leaders. The system provides visibility to each step in the hiring process, and the ability to see that has been very well-received by hiring managers. The iCIMS dashboard also showcases typical metrics like time to fill and cost per hire, as well as the source of hire and from where the best hires are coming. The screening questions allow us to get to the best candidates faster – and makes our internal customers happier!
Q: Have these metrics and reports helped your company save any money?
EW: Yes, it’s helped us fine-tune some of our recruiting investments. A good example involves our three large call centers – one in New Jersey and two in Texas. We typically hire technicians that are looking to move out of the shop environment, and to reach them we used radio advertising. However, through the metrics we were able to determine that while radio advertising did help in attracting some new hires, the results were not in line with the financial investment we were making. So we cut that program and diverted those funds to other recruiting activity.
Q: So what’s next?
EW: Our upcoming challenges and opportunities mostly involve our exciting global expansion. For example, in Germany we have to present offer letters in a two column format, with English and German languages side by side. This is new territory for us, and the iCIMS development team is supporting us with this initiative. We’re also looking at opportunities to expand use of the onboarding module into other parts of our business – we recently launched it in Canada based on the success we experienced in the United States. We’re excited to roll out all of these great new capabilities around the globe.
Q: Have you had the opportunity to connect with your vendor partner in person?
EW: We attended one their client user group meetings in Philadelphia and participated in a panel, it was a great experience. Also, last fall we assembled our global HR team at our headquarters location and brought in an iCIMS trainer to facilitate a class. It was a great opportunity for all of us to be on the same page with our systems.
Q: Final thoughts?
EW: We just renewed our contract for three more years, and we’re very happy with our evolving partnership. Can’t wait to see what else we can accomplish together!
Erin Weaber, MS, GPHR, Manager, Global HR Operations for ARI
Company profile:
ARI, part of the Holman Automotive Group, is a global vehicle fleet management organization that drives the best results for each of its clients’ unique and complex needs by employing the industry’s best fleet professionals, processes, and technology. A workforce numbering close to 2,500 collaborates across offices located throughout North America, Europe, the UK, and Hong Kong to manage more than 1,000,000 fleet vehicles in North America and Europe, and combined with its strategic partners, more than two million fleet vehicles globally. A recognized leader in its industry and the largest fleet management company in North America, ARI was recognized as one of the “100 Best Companies to Work For” by FORTUNE magazine. ARI is headquartered in Mount Laurel, New Jersey.
Note to readers: iCIMS is an HR Tech Advisor sponsor, but other than the initial introduction had no direct influence on the content of the interview that became this Success Profile.
About iCIMS, Inc.:
iCIMS, a leading provider of innovative Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) talent acquisition solutions, is an Inc. 500 and Software Satisfaction honoree focused on helping businesses win the war for top talent through the implementation of easy-to-use, scalable solutions that are backed by award-winning customer service. iCIMS’ Talent Platform, the industry’s premier candidate management solution, enables organizations to leverage mobile, social, and video technologies to manage their entire talent acquisition lifecycle from building talent pools, to recruiting, to onboarding all within a single web-based application. With more than 2,200 clients worldwide, iCIMS is one of the largest and fastest-growing talent acquisition system providers with offices in North America, UK, and China. To learn more about how iCIMS can help your organization, visit http://www.icims.com or view a free online demo of the iCIMS Talent Platform.