As a result of the COVID pandemic, our client experienced unprecedented product demand but suffered from inconsistent labor availability and an absenteeism rate of approximately 20%. Our customer has a very successful corporate culture and the quality of its employees is a decisive competitive advantage. Despite the circumstances, we could not compromise on the quality of the settings. We knew that the best candidates are not available for long – various industry sources indicate that top talent is off the market within 10 days. The company needed a solution to find, interview and then hire high-quality applicants in the shortest possible time.
With growing workforce needs, HR managers needed to focus on production and sales rather than hiring. It was calculated that the client’s HR managers spent a total of 90,000 hours per year interviewing applicants for entry-level and lower-skill positions. Redistributing this time back into production and sales was a top priority.
Pontoon’s solution was to centralize the entire recruiting function within our team. Since we have been assisting the client in hiring full-time employees for several years, our experts knew exactly the client’s hiring needs. By developing our end-to-end (source-to-hire) solution, we have eliminated the bottlenecks in the process and taken a scientific approach to applicant selection. When sourcing, we applied our Talent River methodology to ensure just-in-time delivery. Our chatbot recruiting assistant searched the internet 24/7 for candidates that matched the personas we developed to meet the client’s staffing needs. The chatbot spoke to candidates and invited them to join the talent community. When a new request was created, we immediately tapped into that talent source and invited suitable candidates to apply. They proved to be very engaged, which was reflected in exceptionally high open and click rates. To check quality, applicants answered a series of questions and completed tests specific to the position; less than half made it to this stage. We then invited the successful applicants for an interview with our centralized team of interview experts. The team used specific interview guides for each position, developed based on targeted selection principles. The hiring decision is supported by a composite score that incorporates the applicant’s assessment and interview results. Applicants with a positive overall result received a verbal offer within 24 hours. In most cases, we extended the offer the same day, further reducing the time to hire.
We have also created a talent pool with backup profiles that we can draw on when opening new positions.
Pontoon launched the expanded solution in early 2021 and filled all job postings opened on Monday, January 4th by the end of the week. We reduced time to fill from over 40 days to 5 days in the first week of delivering the revised service. Our experts have developed a rapid hiring solution that rivals the speed of staffing services. Within the first two weeks of launch, Pontoon made offers to 62 applicants for 88 open positions. In the current process, it only takes 2 days from application to a scheduled interview, while the average time to fill a position is just 7 days. Applicants go through the process quickly because we no longer have to wait for a hiring manager to select and interview candidates. Instead, our experts assess applicants as quickly as they go through the process. The speed of our Rapid Hire solution ensures that the customer gets the best talent the market has to offer, ahead of the competition. While the current solution addresses entry-level positions, phase two will expand it to additional positions with higher qualifications. Further iterations will also include pre-recorded video interviews to improve applicant experience and further reduce time to fill.
To find out how Pontoon Solutions can help you get the job done right, contact us at info@pontoonsolutions.com
