Verizon Business builds efficiencies while building brand through an outsourcing solution.

by Carrie Lowe

Global communications and IT provider Verizon Business was formed in January of this year, when parent company Verizon successfully acquired MCI. Operating in more than 75 countries around the world, the organization provides a robust line of services, including new integrated wireless and wired network access offerings for more than 94 percent of Fortune 500-listed companies.

In 2002, its European operation needed to rethink its sales recruitment strategy to support the organization through a period of major restructuring. At this time, recruitment was largely driven by individual line managers and not by HR. More than 95 percent of hires were made through external suppliers, with few direct attraction methods. There was no consistent, structured recruitment campaign management or core process, no branded recruitment advertising, no database, and no related management information. Recruitment costs were high and uncontrolled, and time-to-hire often exceeded four months. The company had difficulty attracting and retaining the best talent. Candidate interest was generally lukewarm and offer acceptance rates low.

In 2003, Capital Consulting, experts in talent acquisition and recruitment process outsourcing (RPO), was engaged to provide a direct hiring solution through an on-site, embedded team with the key business objectives to deliver the best in people, process, and technology.

The first issue for Capital Consulting was the selection of a single, suitable web-centric technology platform to ensure an effective build and management of a proprietary candidate database. With first-hand experience with many of the leading recruitment management systems in the market, Capital Consulting was familiar with the tender process and could make informed recommendations, negotiate a competitive package, and manage implementation.

This technology platform transformed the company’s recruitment capability, enabling it to consolidate all sources and funnel candidates through its web site and into the system.

Capital Consulting also implemented best practices across the European operation by introducing a standard methodology. Previously, individual line managers engaged directly with external suppliers, an inefficient use of money and time and an approach that failed to draw on the same levels of expertise across the team. Capital Consulting’s formalized recruitment process ensured that managers had tools to make better-informed, consistent, and more cost-effective hiring decisions.

Basing its activity on a recently agreed upon competency scheme, Capital Consulting also designed a best-of-breed core assessment toolkit translated into French and German. This was an acknowledgement of the business’ high recruitment activity in these particular markets.

Capital Consulting took ownership of all applications, screening, and the short-listing of candidates. The team’s recruitment expertise also ensured that sourcing was conducted across all channels, no longer relying on agencies with limited candidate pools. Capital Consulting managed the web-based vacancy advertising strategy and also conducted market mapping and headhunting activity. This activity reduced pressure on line managers, meaning they simply needed to turn up on interview day to meet the candidates.

Driving down time-to-hire was also critical, particularly for the sales department, where every additional day taken to hire affected sales revenues—a cost often overlooked in cost-per-hire statistics. To facilitate hiring decisions, the RPO provider introduced dedicated assessment centers. Capable of processing up to 15 candidates per day, these facilities enabled line managers to make hiring decisions in one visit.

One of the best measures of the outsourcing program’s success was the improvement of the employer brand in the marketplace. Historically, candidate interest in the organization was low. This was exacerbated by the fact that with more than 95 percent of vacancies sourced through external suppliers, there was no control over the corporate message presented. With a much higher record of sourcing candidates through non-agency channels, the RPO provider was able to present all aspects of the company and its positive business culture directly to the candidate.

Among the benefits gained from outsourcing included:

• A 20-percent increase in internal hiring;
• Offer acceptance increased from 30 to 90 percent;
• Time-per-hire reduced from four months to 32 days;
• A 54-percent reduction in agency usage;
• Greater consistency and quality measures across geographies;
• Higher-caliber candidates brought to interview;
• A more robust, challenging, and informative assessment program at all levels of recruitment;
• Significant enhancements of the Verizon Business employment brand; and
• A significant increase to internal recruitment and mobility.

“The Capital Consulting team is embedded into the international HR team and is not positioned or viewed as an outsourced function. The decision to engage Capital Consulting to address the need to improve recruitment has resulted in a sound, business-focused, effective, and cost-efficient recruitment capability across Europe, adaptable to changing organization and business requirements,” said Trevor Severgnini, vice president/international HR, Verizon Business.

With the successful transition of operational recruitment and administration activity to its RPO provider, Verizon Business now operates on a more strategic level.