Rank Group Case Study

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RANK GROUP CASE STUDY Candidate Attraction From Beginning to End

In order to support its business operations, an organisation should develop an overall recruitment strategy that is aligned with its annual workforce plan and employee vision. Integral to the recruitment strategy should be a multi-channel candidate attraction methodology aligned with technology and processes that ensure a ‘best in class’ candidate experience.

The Rank Group is a diverse organisation in the hospitality and entertainment industry. Rank includes bricks and mortar operations in two separately branded businesses across the UK, a portfolio of strong online brands, an IT development division and a Head Office operation that provides the support and professional functions to all business divisions. Candidates are sourced across a highly diverse skill set, from customer service, food & beverage and gaming, to digital, HR, finance, sales and marketing. During 2010/11, Rank’s Executive Team decided to place employee engagement as the central strand of the organisation’s DNA, adding value to the company experience for its 9,000 employees, tens of thousands of candidates and millions of customers. The new joined up employee engagement strategy touches every point of the employment life-cycle at Rank, from initial candidate attraction through to onboarding and career advancement.

To achieve that ‘engagement vision’, Rank needed to create a compelling, consistent engagement experience across the whole employment lifecycle, starting with the most effective candidate-centric set of recruitment processes possible. The end result is a best in class candidate experience, a seamless application process and a clear and consistent message regarding its various brand identities and the company’s value proposition. Technology became the enabler – both in respect of its internal systems and communications and its external candidate and customer facing products. Throughout 2011/12, Rank, alongside RPOZONE, its consulting and technology partner, completely overhauled the existing recruitment processes to deliver a candidate attraction and recruitment methodology that worked across all brands and was aligned with all candidate communities.

Supporting the process and technology changes, Rank implemented internal work-streams to deliver in-depth employee segmentation, refreshed its employment brands, created a full set of recruitment advertising guidelines, developed its first ever social media recruitment strategy, set up a cross business approach to campaign recruitment and structured a best in class on-boarding and induction process.

Little Windrush Salperton Cheltenham Gloucestershire GL54 4EE Tel number: +44 (0)1451 850811 Mobile number: +44 (0)7971 864620

e-mail: [email protected] [email protected] www.abtechpartnership.com

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Rank’s consulting partner developed a technology platform capable of delivering a seamless candidate journey from initial application via a portfolio of branded recruitment micro-sites through to application management on a customised candidate management system. Only functions essential to the moving of a candidate from attraction to application through to offer efficiently and effectively have been incorporated. Key features include brand aligned recruitment sites, social media channel integration (Facebook and LinkedIn), video interviewing, communities for new candidates and existing employees, and an on-line induction portal.

Brand aligned recruitment micro-sites Each brand within Rank has a separate recruitment micro-site with its own distinct URL (internet address), reflecting the reality that candidates identify with individual brands rather than Rank as an entity. Each microsite follows a consistent design that walks the candidate through an intuitive and engaging application process. Innovative use of imagery and video profiles of the company, featuring individual employees ensures the candidate remains involved and positive about the brand and the application experience.

Recruitment channel selection At the moment of vacancy approval, hiring managers define the recruitment channels best suited to the role, timescale to fill, urgency of the need or other strategic factors. The manager uses the fully automated system to select the most appropriate options for attracting candidates: • Post to internal talent pool • Post to the recruitment microsite • Post to the external talent pool (via job alerts) • Post to social media (integrated jobs posting via the Work4Us application on the Rank Facebook pages or via job listings on the company pages on LinkedIn) • Post to approved job boards • Advertise via other mediums (online banners, print publications, posters in business venues) • Release to the recruitment agency network

Customised interview staging An integral part of the new Rank candidate management process is the ability for Hiring Managers to define the most appropriate recruitment stages for each position, such as online testing, telephone screening and video. Unique to its industry sector, Rank encourages video screening. Candidates are provided a secure online website destination to record responses via video to pre-defined questions. This ensures consistent questioning across all candidates, saves travel costs, is environmentally friendlier and saves both candidate and interviewer time.



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Engaging with graduates and school leavers As part of its community commitment, Rank looks to colleges and universities as potential sources for candidate applications. Rank is establishing stronger ties with providers that can tailor training and education of potential candidates to suit the specific needs of its industry. It is trialling an external interactive CV portal where students can present themselves using video, images, personal statements, accreditations, references and more – in other words a shop window that goes far beyond the traditional one-dimensional CV. With automated system matching of ‘suitable’ students, Rank can now see the quality of student applications and gain a greater insight into communication, presentation and vocational capabilities before arranging interviews. Students can differentiate themselves, provide evidence of attained skills and qualities and present a more complete view of what makes them ‘right’ for a particular job.

Talent Pooling Central to the new Rank vision was building more effective direct self-managed channels of applicants and to gradually reduce the reliance on recruitment agency supply. Two channels that are key to achieving this aim are an external talent pool and an internal talent pool.

Any external candidates that are unsuccessful in an application but are recognised as ‘potential talent’ for the future are ‘invited’ by the recruitment manager to join the relevant brand talent pool (which is accessible across all Rank brands). Application information already entered by the candidate is used to populate the candidate profile. Job alerts, company news, newsletters and other ‘general interest’ information is posted to candidates holding a talent pool profile as an ongoing candidate engagement programme. This encourages candidates to keep their profiles up to date and to remain engaged with the business.

As with most organisations, Rank had limited capability to view existing employee skills and capabilities; instead relying on individual managers to recommend staff for roles in other parts of the business, based on a bulletin board posting area on the organisation’s Intranet. All sections of the business are now able to offer employees the opportunity to build their own talent profile that can be pro-actively ‘searched’ as the first stage priority to identify any internal resource that matches the requirements for new roles within and across brands. Transitioning between different brands and locations is now actively encouraged, a rare occurrence in the hospitality and entertainment industry.

In addition, the internal ‘talent pool’ includes Talent Pool dashboard alerts and emails sent to ‘opt in’ accounts ensuring all relevant employees can be advised of opportunities, training and development or social activities as soon as they arise.



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Induction and On-boarding Portal A key element of the overall candidate and employee engagement programme was to ensure the positive and inclusive candidate experience continued through from the active ‘recruitment’ phase to induction and on-boarding. With the period between offer and start date being recognised in all businesses as ‘high risk potential’ in terms of candidate drop out, elements of the new employee induction are now presented online via an interactive portal. All offered candidates are provided a login with their offer letter that grants them access to ‘pre-induction’ content. This is a combination of documentation to review, forms to complete and videos to watch as well as a range of company collateral that helps build a positive employee bond. Early completion of non-confidential (but mandatory) induction materials reduces the time spent during the initial days and weeks in the new job and means new starters are better informed and more engaged from day one.

Delivering on the business case for effective candidate attraction and management In addition to the enhanced candidate and hiring manager experience delivered by the innovative mix of technology, direct sourcing channels such as social media and dedicated resourcing functions, the new processes delivered significant value in the key recruitment metrics that are critical to the business. Rank realised reduced hiring costs through better managed and more diverse candidate application channels, greater flexibility in approach and access to new previously untapped candidate sources and significantly reduced time to hire. The more highly focussed sourcing and candidate selection processes also significantly reduced staff ‘churn rates’ in the physical locations.



Rank Group Case Study

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