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Founded in 1855 as the first interracial and coeducational college in the South, Berea College charges no tuition and admits only academically promising students, primarily from Appalachia, who have limited economic resources. Berea offers rigorous undergraduate academic programs, leading to Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Science degrees in 28 fields. Improved Collaboration Between HR, Hiring Managers, and CandidatesIn academic environments, partnerships across departments are important. It’s no surprise that at Berea College, this spirit of collaboration extends to talent acquisition. Berea College’s People Services team works closely with hiring managers across the institution to recruit and hire the best possible candidates. |
After Berea College implemented Hyrell’s web-based applicant tracking system, the People Services team found that it was much easier to collaborate with hiring managers to develop targeted job postings and the hiring managers had greater visibility and control over the hiring process. Berea College particularly likes the following aspects of Hyrell:
It’s easy to create job postings that attract qualified candidates.
Hiring managers have the deepest knowledge about what information should be included in job descriptions. The People Services team works with each hiring manager to identify what should be included in the Hyrell job descriptions, including what “virtual interview questions” will be best suited to each position. With the qualitative answers to these questions, Hyrell ranks and scores applicants, offering an additional level of applicant insight to hiring managers. “When you write job descriptions with the perfect candidate in mind, you see better applicants come through the system,” noted Sheri Gordon, HR Technology & Training Manager, People Services.
Hiring managers are empowered to identify and select the best applicants.
Since Berea’s hiring managers and People Services have instant access to applications and resumes in Hyrell, there’s no need to email files back and forth or to circulate paper documents. Thanks to the virtual interview questions, the best candidates rise to the top which helps managers screen applicants quickly and efficiently. “I recently showed the Public Safety team leader how to score applicants in Hyrell which immediately improved the candidate pool by filtering out the less qualified individuals. He was very excited that the system does so much,” said Chantel Depp, Associate Director of People Services. In some departments, hiring managers have eliminated initial phone screens and simply focus on meeting with the top three to ten candidates identified by Hyrell. This saves time and streamlines the hiring process.
Hyrell is user friendly for both hiring managers and candidates.
Berea College’s People Services team has discovered that hiring managers find Hyrell to be easy and intuitive to use. This has increased user adoption throughout the organization. Hyrell also provides an excellent candidate experience, which is important as Berea College strives to attract the best talent. “One aspect of Hyrell which we like is the fact that the online application can be tailored to different types of candidates. For example, candidates for more senior positions who have a comprehensive resume don’t have to fill in many required fields in the online application. Candidates for entry-level positions, on the other hand, are asked to fill in basic information online,” said Erin Farrell, SPHR, Director of People Services. Berea College’s People Services team has firsthand experience with Hyrell’s candidate experience – Michelle Wasson, PHR, SHRM-CP was hired as a Human Resources Generalist at Berea after completing Hyrell’s online application! “I’d never submitted an online job application before, but it was easy to do,” Wasson noted.
Automated references promote collaboration between candidates, hiring managers, and People Services.
Berea College uses Hyrell’s reference checking functionality. When an offer is going to be extended, the hiring managers reach out electronically to the applicant and prompt them to obtain online references. This engages candidates, while streamlining the process and delivering information in a timely way.
