Every company wants to expand, right? Generally speaking, business growth is a good thing: more people, more industry clout, bigger profits. But what if rapid expansion leads to a hiring void? What do you do when traditional hiring processes break down in the middle of a remote work boom?
Last year, Canadian workers shifted to remote work en masse. Driven largely by the economic and physical challenges associated with the COVID-19 pandemic, many companies went from fully on-site to fully at-home in a matter of months. Some businesses transitioned effortlessly from traditional to remote, while others had trouble making the switch. When that happens, your work culture can take a big hit.How do you recover from a remote culture collapse? In short, that’s what this case study is all about.
the challenge
The subject in this case study is a major global call centre company. Before the pandemic, physical contact centres housed the majority of the company’s employees. When COVID-19 struck, the company started expanding very quickly — and as it did so, it needed more staff.
At this point, things started to go wrong. Their remote recruitment processes began to disintegrate, and fewer candidates applied for open positions. New hires stopped showing up, and turnover rates went through the roof. In a matter of months, the company’s reputation as an employer went from stellar to shaky. Things had to change — and fast.
adapting your HR processes to a remote setting
Some traditional recruitment processes don’t translate well to remote. Face-to-face interviews are off the table, for instance, and Zoom interviews aren’t a like-for-like substitute. You can’t evaluate candidates in person, either — which is where online assessment tools come in.
Weak remote employer branding coupled with a haphazard recruitment process breeds disaster. Poor hiring decisions cost companies a lot of time and a lot of money — bad news for the bottom line.
hiring during COVID-19
Low overhead costs compared to an office setting, better online project management tools, open hiring borders — the list of remote work perks goes on and on. Actually finding remote talent is another matter. It’s not as simple as placing an ad in the classified section or creating a LinkedIn post: you have to know your niche.
the right HR tech
The call centre in this case study worked with several different recruitment agencies. Unfortunately, none of their other staffing partners knew how to leverage HR tech. Remote recruitment processes weren’t standardized across the board: new hires were confused and didn’t know where to start.
partnering with an expert to tap into insider insights
After several failed partnerships between the call centre and their contracted recruitment companies, Randstad stepped in with a high-volume hiring solution. Randstad arrived on the scene armed with decades of HR experience in a number of industries, including the call centre vertical. Randstad’s team went to work quickly, tackling recruitment and onboarding issues as a matter of priority.
a personalized plan
The company had numerous contracts with Fortune 500 companies to fulfill. They had to hire and onboard hundreds of reliable — and in many cases, bilingual — remote workers every week to stay afloat. Driven by the emergent situation, Randstad created a personalized plan for the call centre.
a cohesive solution
Human resources tech tools, bilingual screening tools, proprietary HR programs and custom hiring strategies all came to bear in Randstad’s solution. Before partnering with Randstad, the company lacked an adequate remote HR structure; after, they had a brand new cohesive remote hiring and onboarding scheme.