|
|
TOKOPEN
SUPPORTS WORLDWIDE EXEL WEB RECRUITMENT SYSTEM
-
Using TokOpen to streamline recruitment and improve staff
retention
A worldwide Web-based recruitment system that provides instant
access for managers virtually anywhere in the world to CV
details of thousands of prospective employees has been developed
using the TokOpen document management system from Tokairo.
Exel
is the global leader in supply chain management. The group
has over 60,000 employees at 1,300 locations in over 120 countries.
Turnover last year was over £4.5 billion, and customers
include more than two thirds of the world's largest quoted
non-financial companies.
Anyone
using the system can apply for employment through any standard
Web browser or via TV Internet access where available. In
the UK, that includes, for example, NTL or Sky. Applicants
complete a simple Web form covering basic name, address, salary
range, job category details, etc - and can also include full
CV job history, as an attachment, a PDF file, in rich text
or just plain text.
The
details - from anywhere in the world - are immediately logged
and stored in a database at Exel's Milton Keynes' head office.
Attachments and text information are scanned in by Tokopen,
renamed to establish unique file status, checked to ensure
they meet required file formats, and full text indexed to
enable prospective recruiting managers to conduct text searches
by virtually any keyword. The TokOpen functionality integrates
seamlessly with Exel's Web form process and is completely
transparent.
The
result is that Exel managers looking for staff can seek candidates
and examine their CV details within 24 hours of them being
entered onto the system. Replacing a former plain email system
that often resulted in details getting lost and involving
long delays in posting relevant data to different country
operations, the new solution dramatically reduces time taken
to access data. It helps managers identify likely candidates
swiftly and accurately, cuts recruitment selection overheads
- and through highly efficient resolution of the process improves
the prospect of attracting and hiring personnel.
|
 |
|
Based
in the UK Exel - www.exel.com - is the global leader
in supply chain management. The group has over 60,000
employees at 1,300 locations in over 120 countries.
Turnover last year was over £4.5 billion, and
customers include more than two thirds of the world's
largest quoted non-financial companies. Key to the group's
strength is its ability to support new market penetration
and the transfer of best practice and improved business
processes worldwide.
The
group is a historical user of Tokairo's TokOpen document
management system which is now the preferred group DM
solution. Other areas of Exel's operations which employ
TokOpen include the group's TankFreight division where
it is used to support proof of delivery, and the legal
division.
With
such a large number of professional staff throughout
the world - many of them highly paid and difficult to
find and replace managers - the task of recruitment
is crucial to the group's expansion and survival. Exel
is divided into four functional geographic areas (UK,
Europe, Asia Pacific and the US). Paying lip service
to the Web, the former historical recruitment solution
was based on email response. Likely applicants emailed
their local offices.
Email
formats varied, attachment filetypes varied. Received
documents were - also variously - held locally or copied
to the UK head office in Milton Keynes. Depending on
the efficiency and ability of local office managers,
such information sometimes arrived or did not. There
was no central database, no business process to manage
the information and no way that local managers could
access and review details of applicants on a global
basis. Good prospective employment material was being
wasted.
"It
wasn't actually a system at all," says Milton Keynes-based
HR IS Manager Paul Holdridge. "Sure, we would get
emailed details of candidates but there was no organised
correlation and storage of data, no way to proactively
distribute it to local country managers - and no way
to offer coherent access to a central information source".
|
|
|
With some
15 per cent of the group's 60,000 workforce being renewed
through natural turnover and expansion each year, the recruitment
function was identified as being a key issue - strategic to
success. Other issues that required improved precision and
more effective reporting were also becoming more significant,
for example the monitoring of quotas for the employment of
ethnic and disadvantaged minorities - as well as other government
mandatory regulations.
"We decided to centralise the maintenance of applicant
information and build a platform that would enable any Exel
manager anywhere in the world to be able to access the prospective
employee pool. With increasing mobility in the management
area, the availability of a good exec in, say, Germany, is
very likely to be of interest to managers in virtually any
European country or even further afield," says Holdridge.
|
| "We looked
at a number of options to handle what was a very challenging
task, but Tokairo's TokOpen solution was selected because
we had seen its success in other areas of Exel, particularly
the group's TankFreight operation where it provides support
for proof of delivery. We recognised that it was cost-effective,
and had seen demonstration of the effectiveness of their
implementation and support teams, and overall professionalism.
The bottom line was product excellence, development vision
and a 'partner' relationship with the developer/supplier".
The solution - eRecruit - was Web-based job application
functionality on Exel's Web site. By this, anyone seeking
employment could enter simple, name, address, job expectation,
salary range, location and other basic information via
a Web form - and add additional CV information. This
could be as an attachment, for example, an MS Word file,
in rich text, as a PDF file or just plain text.
With Tokairo's TokOpen solution, the system is able
to receive all such applications immediately and centrally
at the Milton Keynes, UK, head office. Attachments or
plain text are scanned in, and all input is renamed
to give unique file status. Text indexing renders the
data susceptible to comprehensive searching by virtually
any keyword, and it's rapid movement to a central database
means that any Exel manager can access the data via
the groups' Intranet. The systems is quick and easy
to use by applicants, and equally rapid for Exel managers
to interrogate.
|
|
|
|
The result is an extremely professional solution that enables
Exel to present itself as a leading edge employer - responding
rapidly and intelligently to job applications. Through the
ability of managers to identify and shortlist candidates more
effectively via comprehensive search criteria - thanks to
TokOpen - the whole process of selection is simplified and
very significant time savings are achieved.
The bottom line benefits? "Everyone has immediate access
to the information; nothing is lost, and recruiting managers
can get their teeth into useful information straight away.
The search functionality means that the whole process has
intelligence," says Holdridge. "A particular benefit
is the way searches can be tuned by country, language and
job category, providing a very high and useful level of sophistication
in database interrogation".
Implemented from original inquiry by Exel to full operational
solution in 10 months, the system is now being rolled out
in the UK. It will be available in the US from the end of
March. Subsequent roll-out in Asia Pacific and the US will
be completed later this year.
|
Tokairo Ltd
20 Linford Forum, Rockingham Drive, Linford Wood,
Milton Keynes, MK14 6LY, UK
Tel: +44 (0) 1908 695 569 | Fax:
+44 (0) 1908 696 961 | E-mail:
info@tokairo.com
|
© Copyright 2004 Tokairo
|
|
|
|
|
