Volume, Velocity & Value: How This Education Leader Hires At Scale

The Challenge

Core to this educational services support company’s success are the 26,000+ employees worldwide who foster learning and growth every day.

But in the immediate post-pandemic period, the company and its talent acquisition team were hit with a sobering realization: people were leaving the early childcare field for a variety of reasons.

They needed a better way to attract more qualified job seekers and communicate the advantages of their value proposition. “We decided to rebuild the ship from a TA perspective,” said their VP of Talent Acquisition. “That meant innovating on current approaches to sourcing and conversion — and finding new technology to address process gaps and inefficiencies that stood in the way.”

“We decided to rebuild the ship from a TA perspective. That’s what led us to Phenom.” VP of Talent Acquisition at an educational services support company According to them, many challenges stemmed from the lack of a standalone career site. “We weren’t gaining a lot of traction or SEO, and had limited insight into what was happening with site visitors,” they revealed.

The group also identified the need for a robust Talent CRM to better track candidate behaviors, provide transparency into the pipeline, and manage interactions along the candidate journey.

The Solution

After multiple RFPs and extensive research, the team selected Phenom to achieve both their current and long-term goals. The following tools and capabilities have been pivotal in re-creating their talent experience:

Career Site and CMS. The company began by implementing a Phenom-powered career site which retains the organization’s corporate brand and style but functions independently. This offers the key benefits of content flexibility, deeper insight into site visitor behavior, and the ability to capture leads. Thanks to an intuitive Content Management System (CMS), the TA group is no longer tied to submitting tickets and waiting to make content updates. “We have control and flexibility now,” their VP of TA noted. “The new career site was a huge, huge win for us.”

Talent CRM. With the improvement of lead generation and management as a top priority, the Phenom CRM has also been an MVP addition. It keeps recruiters organized and on-target, with real-time updates on a candidate’s interactions, job preferences, skills, and experience. “We’re able to build communication journeys to guide how leads are managed,” their VP of TA said.

High-Volume Hiring. Accelerating candidates through the funnel was essential, especially for highly competitive teacher roles. Recognizing the need to screen candidates to verify they have the necessary certifications, the company implemented an automated three-question screening process to identify the most qualified applicants, who then were fast-tracked to the next stage. “With Phenom, we can actually build our own pathways for high-volume hiring,” their VP of TA noted. “This helped us move faster with the most qualified candidates.”

Alumni Network. Harnessing the power of the “boomerang effect” is a key piece of the company’s TA strategy. “We have a very strong culture. Even when people leave, they still want to know what’s going on — and many return within 60 to 90 days,” their VP of TA added. Phenom’s Alumni Network capabilities give the company the infrastructure to maintain engagement through targeted outreach during this crucial three-month period.

The Results

An accelerated hiring process and measurable improvements in the candidate experience led to a 3-point increase in job satisfaction in the past year alone. Their VP of TA believes that’s thanks in part to the intuitive candidate journey and quick application process Phenom enabled. “From a candidate experience perspective, we’re doing significantly better. Candidates have more visibility into what it’s like here and what makes us different.”

The company’s team has also gained significant time back thanks to streamlined sourcing and hiring practices. It’s time that recruiters can use to build relationships and nurture high-quality candidates. “We want to optimize, and now we actually have the time to do it because we’ve made such vast improvements in hiring to staff our centers,” their VP of TA said.

• 96%

  Increase in completed applications

• 93%

  Increase in chatbot-generated leads

• 2.5 minutes

  From lead capture to interview scheduled

• 20%

  Conversion rate of alumni who created an account in the alumni portal at launch

The Future

What’s ahead? “We want to focus even more on the candidate journey,” said their VP of TA. One aspect will be encouraging more recruiter engagement with candidates — a hallmark of a best-in-class TA strategy that prioritizes human touch alongside time-saving automations.

As part of this strategy, their team is particularly drawn to Phenom X+ and its generative AI capabilities. First, however, the team will focus on optimizing the tools already in place, including:

• Enhancements to the already successful high-volume hiring program, such as customizing by market

• Adding video capabilities to their CMS

• Implementing Phenom SMS campaign functionality

“Phenom has given us time back to focus on optimizing how we’re using the tools,” their VP of TA said. Thanks to an innovative mindset and dedication to continuously improving the talent experience, the team can look forward to a bright future ahead.