UPS: Optimas Gold Winner for Recruiting

During its heaviest day during the holiday season, UPS Inc. will ship about 34 million packages. In order to handle the big load of gifts and goodies, the company needs to hire about 55,000 employees nationwide between October and December.

A mobile recruitment program allows UPS to hire that many people more quickly and efficiently than previous methods.
After initially getting involved in social media recruitment in 2009, UPS decided it needed to get involved in mobile recruitment “because the two go hand in hand,” said Matt Lavery, UPS managing director of corporate talent acquisition.  

Starting in 2010 the Atlanta-based shipping giant optimized its website to be mobile-friendly, which means candidates can search for jobs on their smartphones. At first candidates were only able to apply for jobs on a desktop computer. Eighteen months later, though, applications could be submitted on a smartphone. After receiving a job offer, candidates are even able to complete pre-employment documents on their mobile device.

“What we found was that a large number of inner-city youths were able to search for a job on their handheld, but then they’d have to go to a library, a school or some other facility to complete the application on a desktop,” Lavery said. “Now that everyone can complete it all on their handheld, it’s a lot smoother process, and our fallout rates are really dropping from time of inquiry to time of hire.”

The target demographic for seasonal holiday work is 18- to 25-year-olds. And while UPS’ mobile recruiting program helps the company hire that young seasonal holiday workforce, applicants can use their handheld device to apply for any open position.

The mobile recruiting program allows UPS to reach a wider talent pool and hire more efficiently. UPS says that it only costs $27 to hire a candidate through its mobile/social media recruitment program.

Landing a job as a seasonal worker with UPS also has the potential to turn into a long-term career with the company.

“That’s definitely our culture,” said Lavery, who started as a part-time UPS employee. “We actually have some videos on our website where we took some folks at the highest levels of our company back to where they started 30, 35 years ago to have conversations with people who are doing the jobs they did when they first started.”

For its mobile recruitment program that makes it possible to efficiently hire 55,000 employees in three months, UPS is the 2013 Optimas Award winner for Recruiting.

Max Mihelich is a Workforce associate editor. Comment below or email editors@workforce.com. Follow Mihelich on Twitter at @workforcemax.