AMG Maximizes Technology for Recruitment Advertising

INTRODUCTION:
Many recruitment advertising agencies today claim to have solutions for all your recruiting needs. They claim to understand your business better than you do. But the fact is that most traditional agencies do little more than create and place ads. Some will tout their creative services, others their capacity to conduct market research. The bigger your ads (and the more frequently they run), the better the agency relationship is—from their perspective.

But Advertising Management Group has a different perspective. As the fastest growing recruitment advertising agency in North America, AMG helps clients fill job openings with enough of the right people in the shortest possible time, at the lowest possible cost. A familiar mantra? The difference is that AMG has invested millions of dollars and thousands of hours refining process management tools to help improve the performance of recruitment advertising. AMG’s innovative design philosophy typically links ads to a telephone- or Web-based response process to help reduce ad costs, reach better candidates, shorten hiring cycles, and achieve a number of staffing efficiencies.

Another result of AMG’s investments is AdManager a unique Web tool that helps maximize HR operating efficiencies. AdManager not only allows clients to place ads, but it monitors the performance of specific ads on a weekly basis. AdManager also features extensive archives on advertising placement history to help you make informed decisions about your recruitment strategy. AMG clients have embraced these capabilities to attain improved communications, continuity and bottom-line control.

PROBLEM:
As a leader in the car-rental industry for 50 years, National Car Rental established a solid reputation as a company with a strong commitment to providing quality service. For National’s human resource departments, finding qualified candidates to match that standard of service was a considerable challenge. With over 150 corporate locations expected to recruit and hire all field positions, it was a strategic imperative to find a system that could deliver results from virtually every large market in the nation.

National’s recruitment expectations varied from location to location. These inconsistencies were a main concern for Judy Rankin, National’s Central Florida market administrator. “Much of management’s time was spent on applicants who didn’t fit our culture or core qualifications,” she says. With no such standards in place, National locations filled openings with unqualified applicants, inducing a high turnover rate, which naturally formed a budget consuming cycle.

Consistency was the key to National’s successful strategy. Using the AMG pre-screening application ensured that each applicant across the nation was screened according to the same qualifications. This also served to be an effective discrimination-claim neutralizer. Still, not only was it a must for National to reach consistency on a qualification level, but on a method level, as well.

Even if all National locations used just the interactive-voice-response (IVR) system to establish core qualifications, there would still be no way to accurately measure the success rate of the system. Rankin’s next National objective was “to increase the applicants per ad dollar spent.” How was National to know what methods worked with no concrete system to analyze the return on recruitment dollars? Until AMG, there was no existing product available to harness this important data.

Response management is necessary because it allows, through evaluation of cost per qualified applicant, an accurate determination of campaign success. In the short-term, this response control system provided National with a quantifiable measurement of dollars spent per applicant in order to decide if change was needed. The long-term benefit echoed one of Rankin’s main objectives: consistency in recruitment methods—figure out what works and run with it.

SOLUTION:
National researched many different agencies before deciding to sign with AMG’s pilot program. AMG was the best choice for National because, according to Rankin, “National had to break away from the traditional recruiting methods and seek out a company on the cutting edge, using technology to increase quantity and quality of applicants.” AMG’s technological advances were twofold: the IVR script provided consistency in standards, while AMG’s Management Reports (including the innovative Web tool, AdManager ) provided response statistics.

AMG presented National with both the human and technological resources necessary for a successful program. As a full-service recruitment agency, AMG easily supplied eye-catching creative and strategy recommendations. The user-friendly AdManager tool took care of the rest. Ad orders came from a pre-approved online catalog with only a couple clicks of a mouse button. As always, customer service was available with any questions the National recruiters had. Rankin was impressed. “Great support. Lots of support. AMG created a partnership with National Car Rental that genuinely cares.”

IMPLEMENTATION:
National’s transition to the AMG program was smooth from the start. The Florida region was the target of the pilot, where Judy Rankin headed the program. She raves that AMG “met and exceeded our expectations.” The implementation was accomplished with little effort on National’s part. Rankin’s team assisted with IVR script development and dialogue, along with providing background information for creative. After the first placement, National was able to immediately acquire results of the combined effort with AMG. The results were spectacular enough to drive a national rollout only 6 weeks later.

IMPACT:
From an operational standpoint, AMG has developed a truly unique and efficient recruiting process for National, meeting Rankin’s original objective: “To create a more successful process using state-of-the-art recruiting tools in this very competitive environment.” The use of the IVR system with AdManager , on top of AMG’s extensive advertising experience, instituted a consistent methodology for National locations across the nation. Placing ads was easier, core requirements were clear, and applicants were invariably more qualified.

But the bottom line remains that AMG has made a substantial impact in reducing National’s return ratio on recruitment dollars per applicant. This fact has been proven by concrete data supplied and recorded by AdManager . Plus, interviewing time was replaced by the pre-screening function of the IVR script. Lengthy ads were replaced by short, professional ads free from unnecessary screening details. Placement services, which included time-consuming media research, were replaced by the ease of the AdManager tool. The guessing game of finding and using a successful ad strategy was replaced by tangible statistics.

When asked if she would recommend AMG to others, Judy Rankin replied, “If you want to increase qualified applicants, this technology is definitely worth the investment.” She continued to sum up her story in a few words. “When an applicant tells you they called all the ads in the same field, they felt there was a distinct difference in the National recruiting ad. They were so impressed by the professionalism and liked the quick questionnaire and information. They felt this separated National from the competition. That’s a success story.”

CONCLUSION:
AMG is shaping up the world of human resources. Over the years, we have invested millions of dollars and thousands of hours refining and improving the recruitment advertising process. We thrive on supplying quantifiable solutions to employers with large recruiting challenges. Our innovative tools, combined with our significant experience in staffing, provide a unique process analysis without equal. AMG is different. The fact is, we simply out-measure the competition. AMG is on the Web at www.amgadv.com