Aramark's Secret HR Weapon: The New Recruiter
By Tony Petrucci
Find out how the multibillion dollar food- and facilities-management business has cut turnover in its sales force by 25 percent and boosted productivity to record levels. Tony Petrucci, vice president of human resources for refreshment services at Aramark shares details in this installment of HR at the Frontline produced on Veritude's Workforce Insights.
Radical change is needed for companies to recruit the best talent. With the Department of Labor predicting a shortage of ten million US workers by 2010, the employment market is moving closer to a state of chaos for employers. Many experts predict that a potential labor shortage that will be significantly more severe than in the dot-com era, so it may be a wild ride. Therefore I think that companies like Aramark that prepare now for this scramble for talent will be the ones best able to attract the lion's share of the best talent.
This is a tough message for many employers still maintaining the "recession mindset" to internalize since they feel that employees are lucky to have a job and prospective employees need a job – that the power lies with the employer. Given that and the need to be better equipped to staff than in the dot-com era, simply tweaking the existing process will not suffice: Most companies need a complete overhaul. That is why at Aramark Refreshments Services, we have been recruiting in a different, more inclusive way for some time.
The Recruiter of the Future is Emerging at Aramark – Today.
At Aramark Refreshment Services our recruitment team is led by Stacey Geist, our senior recruitment manager. Stacey fits the role of the new recruiter with a solid generalist foundation; with her detailed financial training and complete operational training in all areas of the business, she has developed the management and sales force onboarding programs for refreshment services. She is a certified sales trainer and has been through hands-on general management training. She has helped sell new business, participated in operating reviews, met with customers and has been a part of talent management reviews.
Before Stacey started doing any HR work, she went through an intensive three-month operational and management onboarding program to learn our business. She then studied the business models of all the Aramark divisions, and her first assignments focused on operational and financial projects. She later helped to develop our award-winning customer-service training. Later she became involved in client relations, operating reviews and the talent management process. After gaining this varied business experience, she then took over our recruiting department. This broad range of transferable skill sets makes Stacey a perfect model of what I think is the new recruiter.
Similarly, our corporate staffing function at Aramark is led by Jen Tracy. Jen has a degree in hotel and restaurant management and was in operations for several years prior to her current position. She has a complete understanding of the business; can describe operational barriers, has detailed P&L knowledge and understands financial levers and balance sheets. Jen and Stacey can describe the features of our products and services and how they are differentiated from the competition.
Just as you have seen some company presidents move into HR, and HR executives become presidents, you will see general managers become recruiters, and recruiters become general managers. The skills needed will become that transferable. So, today we look for recruiters who have the interest and aptitude in being a complete part of the business, and we work hard to track and develop them.
The New Mindset: Don't Recruit a Candidate – Sell a Brand.
Today, the model for internal recruiters is how they use processes to source and screen candidates. Some also apply branding and work hard to attract top candidates. In many ways the role today is that of a sales professional – prospecting for leads (sourcing candidates) and selling the brand or value proposition to the candidate (hiring). The future will include these components but the selling will be more in depth, more of a team-focused and strategic sale.
The knowledge of the new recruiter will be significant in order to successfully attract top candidates at all levels. After the sale, or hire, the recruiter will also become an account manager responsible for the management of the new customer – the new employee – and the members of the team that manage that customer.
For example, when we talk with a candidate today, the first thing we do is find out what is important to that individual by identifying their needs. This information goes on the interview notes form and is passed on to each manager in the hiring process. This allows everyone who interviews the candidate to know the candidate's needs and reinforce the benefits of Aramark relative to those needs.
This holistic approach takes time and money, but as the marketplace continues to change significantly and top talent becomes a more precious and scarce resource than ever, companies must be willing to reshape their staffing models to apply additional resources in a way that positions them to win. This applies even more at the lower and mid levels of recruiting than at the executive levels where much of this is already happening.
Following-Through During the Talent Life Cycle is a Must.
We believe that our recruiters must have a thorough understanding of what happens to a new hire once he starts. It must be detailed and not superficial. In order to accomplish this, our recruiters are involved in developing training and onboarding. They have ownership for the programs that new managers will experience so they can talk about them with unparalleled passion, and they also have ownership for quality control. It is not enough to have just gone through the training that new hires will experience. They must be developers and quality control managers of the training program; they are involved in frequent follow-up with new hires, own the success and are rewarded for the performance of their hires.
Currently the recruitment team for Aramark Refreshment Services conducts a 90-day survey with all new hires. This ensures that the onboarding went according to the plan and that the new hire has a high level of initial job satisfaction. The survey was developed by the recruitment team with operations and is focused on detailed technical information and not just general satisfaction. Conducting the survey ensures that we are doing more than being nice to the new hires; we are giving them what they need to be successful. It is also a great mechanism to obtain referrals.
Our recruiters must be able to assess and attract talent simultaneously. In addition, they must be able to teach managers to do the same on an ongoing basis. Top talent is always assessing his situation – the interviewer and the company from the first minute of an interview, his manager from day one on the job. If recruiters and hiring managers follow the traditional method of assessing first and attracting later, they will miss out on top talent. It must be an integrated and interactive process, because top performers want to work for – and stay with – a company that has the best talent, a company where people are passionate and can clearly differentiate themselves.
Going Beyond Business as Usual.
One other key area that is changing is how recruiters will use the Internet to initiate contact with and attract top candidates in a way that can highlight the in-depth knowledge of the business they bring to the table. Progress will continue to be made with recruiting technology that will help recruiters access the candidates with whom they want to build a strong relationship. Successful recruiters must figure out ways to highlight their knowledge and deliver attractive impact statements through electronic contact that will entice the candidate to engage in a conversation.
The Aramark Refreshment Services staffing team incorporates impact language in e-mails they send to potential candidates or networks they have found through Internet mining. This language is the type that spells out what it takes to be the best and what the reward is for being the best. An example of part of a contact e-mail for a sales candidate:
Top performers utilize "best in class" product knowledge to match prospect needs with relevant product benefits to exceed targets and join an exclusive club of over-achievers where the perks are substantial. If only the best is good enough for you, give us a call.
In addition, we put an emphasis on talent management. While our recruiters may not have frontline accountability, they will have input into a hiring manager's performance review relative to attracting, developing and retaining top talent. Managers who do not meet the standard will not be eligible to receive subsequent candidates from the recruiter. The recruiter then becomes one of the most valued members of the senior leadership's team.
Many external search firms will also have to reshape the way they think about their markets. These firms will have to become more focused on becoming part of their client companies. They may even need to become "certified" by the companies they serve to ensure they represent the company in a way that differentiates them from their competition in going after top talent. More firms will need leadership that comes from a corporate staffing background and will then be more in touch with the needs of the corporate customer.
In the near, future top talent will become a scarce resource and will remain scarce for quite some time. Companies that radically change the way they recruit to create a competitive advantage will be rewarded financially. Given the "recession mindset," the investment needed will seem significant. Given the pending shift in the labor market, not making the investment will seem significant very soon.
Our model at Aramark has allowed us to achieve significant success. Our sales force turnover is down more than 25 percent, our sales productivity is at record levels and our open-sales-position days have been cut in half. Therefore, we will continue to work to hire and promote recruiters with an aptitude for business. In addition, we will continue to onboard and develop them in a way that enables them to fit profile of the new recruiter.
About the Author
Tony Petrucci is vice president of human resources for Aramark Refreshment Services in Philadelphia, Pa.
About Veritude
The article originally appeared in Workforce Insights on www.veritude.com. Veritude provides strategic human resources – the talent, technology and tactics that growing firms need in order to anticipate and adapt to changes in the workplace. Veritude is a wholly owned subsidiary of Fidelity Investments Company. Headquartered in Boston, the company serves clients throughout the United States and Canada and is part of Fidelity's ongoing investment and leadership in outsourced HR services. To review other articles, research and expert analysis relevant to HR professionals seeking to stay informed, please visit www.veritude.com. For more information, contact: inquiry@veritude.com or call: 1-800-597-5537.