Hiring managers at Wescom Credit Union are able to immediately get their hands dirty during the recruiting process. The credit union, one of the country's largest, has dropped manual faxing and e-mailing as part of the recruitment process in favor of an application tracking system.
"Our hiring managers can be more involved in the recruitment process," explained Michelle Esser, vice president of Human Resources and Development at $2.8-billion Wescom. "They can track the status of their own current requisitions."
This month, Wescom starts using Kenexa Recruiter Express to track applicants through each step of the hiring process. Headquartered in Wayne, Penn., Kenexa Corp. offers talent acquisition and performance management solutions.
Kenexa will allow Wescom's 75 hiring managers to check the number of resumes posted for each open position, and to verify whether Human Resources has contacted a selected candidate for an interview, for example.
And from the employment page on Wescom's website, applicants will be able to apply for jobs, update information and receive automatic notification of an application's status as part of Kenexa's Career Center feature.
"We want to make sure that the same mantra of excellent service that applies to our members also applies to those who submit an application with us," Esser said. "We want to make it easy for people to apply."
Without Kenexa, Wescom staff wastes a lot of time faxing resumes between departments and informing candidates about the application process, Esser continued.
No More 'Floods'
"A lot of Kenexa is automated response," she explained. "Much of that back-end work is taken care of so that you can spend time interviewing and looking at resumes. You can spend time matching that position to the applicant."
Wescom couldn't hold out much longer without Kenexa, said Esser. The CU is growing in leaps and bounds, adding 10% to its employee base every year, she said. "Sometimes, depending on the economy and unemployment, we just get flooded with paper," she said.
The 230,000-member CU adds at least four branches every year, which will bring the total number of branches to 37 by the end of 2004, said Esser.
"Adding new branches is a challenge because it requires more back-office support," she explained. Last year Wescom had about 590 employees, whereas this year there are about 650 employees and next year there could be more than 700, she said.
The next step in making the hiring process more efficient is to get available jobs posted faster. To that end, Esser plans to enable managers to use electronic signatures instead of requiring them to approve requisitions with pen and paper.
How The Process Is Working
"Right now, our managers at various levels have to sign off before an open position gets posted. The process can be as quick as one hour, but sometimes it can take up to two weeks."
CUJ Resources
For more info on this story:
* Wescom CU www.wescom.org
* Kenexa at www.kenexa.com
