Jim Burke Ford Lincoln Improves the Candidate Experience and HR Team Efficiency with Hyrell
About Jim Burke Ford Lincoln
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Jim Burke Ford Lincoln has two locations in Bakersfield, California. The dealership began in 1964 when Jim Burke acquired Haberfelde Ford – a Bakersfield institution since 1913. Burke had worked at Haberfelde in various management capacities since 1948. At the time of the acquisition, the dealership name was changed to Jim Burke Ford and today it is one of the biggest Ford dealerships in the United States. Although Jim Burke passed away in July 2006, the dealership is still family owned. Dan Hay, Jim Burke’s son-in-law, serves as President and attributes the company’s success to its employees who have built lasting relationships through great customer service.
Finding a More Transparent Applicant Tracking System
At Jim Burke Ford Lincoln, employees are committed to four core values: integrity, respect, professionalism, and excellence. These values serve as the lens by which every function, including Human Resources, behaves and makes decisions. Human Resources at Jim Burke Ford Lincoln takes the candidate experience very seriously and wanted to make the recruiting process more transparent to applicants.
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“We had an applicant tracking system, but it wasn’t easy to let candidates know about their status. We had to look up their information and then send them an email. It was very cumbersome,” said Maria Paine, SPHR, Vice President of Human Resources.
The company wanted a simpler and more transparent hiring solution. Paine evaluated a variety of applicant tracking solutions and decided that Hyrell was the best alternative. Implementing the system was straightforward and the HR team quickly came up to speed. “The initial training that we received was methodical. Every week, we were introduced to a new feature. We felt like we could peel the onion without becoming overwhelmed. Hyrell’s customer service team was great – our account representative offered us service that was customized to what we needed,” Paine noted.
Filling the Candidate Pipeline
Hyrell is enabling Jim Burke Ford Lincoln to deliver on their promise of a great candidate experience, as well as to fill the candidate pipeline. Bakersfield, California isn’t near any major metropolitan areas and that presents a double edged sword to the organization. On one hand, the competition for talent isn’t as high as in some cities. Yet, on the other hand, the labor pool is fairly limited. As a result, Jim Burke Ford Lincoln often finds it a challenge to fill positions that require technical expertise, such as body shop and service employees. The company is also always on the lookout for strong sales people, even though turnover among the sales team is low.
To continually attract new candidates for open positions, Jim Burke Ford Lincoln relies on several features in Hyrell:
- Auto Refresh enables the HR team to automatically refresh selected jobs on internet job boards, like Indeed, every 30 days. According to Paine, “Posting positions regularly to Indeed has been so successful that we are reducing the number of jobs that we post to Craigslist. We recently received over 150 applications in one day for a parts driver opening.”
- The HR team can post jobs by location. This is important because even though two positions may have the same job title, they often have different responsibilities based on location. For example, a parts driver in the Downtown location has different duties than a parts driver at the Automall location.
- The HR team emphasizes communication with applicants throughout the hiring process. Hyrell sends an automatic message to candidates when they submit their application. “If we have a question, it’s great because we can email the candidate right from Hyrell and the system will keep track of that communication for us,” observed Paine. Interviews are also easy to schedule online using Hyrell. Once the hiring process is complete for a position, Jim Burke Ford Lincoln sends a message to candidates through the system to notify them.
Paine noted, “One of the best things about using Hyrell is that it shows candidates that we are engaged in the recruiting process and are interested in them. We have received so many positive comments from applicants about the hiring process.”
Improving the Hire Ratio and Quantifying Hiring Activity
Hyrell has helped Jim Burke Ford Lincoln’s HR team members streamline what they do. “The Virtual Interview functionality is awesome and we can tailor the questions that are asked,” praised Paine. Filtering and scoring candidates based on their hard and soft skills has allowed the company to identify more qualified applicants. The HR team also appreciates the ability to sort applications based on where candidates are in the process, such as rejected or active candidates. “The hiring process is more efficient now – our hiring ratio has improved and our coach from Ford corporate has noticed a change for the better in our new hires,” Paine declared.
The HR team is using data from Hyrell to create a Hiring Report which summarizes information for different positions, including the number of applicants and the number of candidates rejected. This report provides greater transparency to the organization about how hard HR is working for its internal customers.
The Bottom Line
Hyrell has met all of Jim Burke Ford Lincoln’s expectations for an applicant tracking system. From the system functionality to the customer service team, Hyrell offers the flexibility needed to satisfy the company’s needs. Paine finished by stating, “We’ve been in business since 1913 and have a good reputation in the community. Hyrell helps us reinforce our brand with candidates and recruit more efficiently. I’d definitely recommend Hyrell to other auto dealerships.”
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