Tag Archive: Client Success

  1. Primanti Bro’s.: Finding Best-Fit Candidates for Grand Openings in 2017

    The assessment results help me decide if a candidate is the right fit for the position they applied for. The candidate receives a score from 1-5 on the assessment, and depending on the results, I know immediately whether to proceed or release the candidate from the interview process.

    Samantha Willing, Talent Acquisition Specialist
    Biggest challenge: Helping managers staff up for new restaurant openings

    About Primanti Bros.

    This sandwich shop, headquartered in Pittsburgh, PA, began as a food cart in 1933 and now has a cult following. With 37 current locations and several openings planned for 2017, the Primanti Bro’s. growth plan is aggressive and will launch the brand into new areas across the U.S.

    Company Quick Facts

    • 37 locations and growing
    • 55 employees per store, on average
    • Working with Outmatch since 2016
    • Using assessments for hourly and management
    • Integrated assessments with talentReef ATS

    Hiring Challenges

    • Establishing an employment brand in new cities
    • Attracting talent outside their “hometown” fan base
    • Being fully staffed in time for grand openings
    • Tracking and managing turnover

    Assessments to Help Staff New Stores

    As a unique restaurant concept, Primanti Bro’s. seeks people who are passionate about the brand and fit the culture. With rapid expansion as a key initiative, recruiters and hiring managers must quickly fill front of house (FOH), back of house (BOH), and management positions for new locations with no existing staff. That’s why Primanti Bro’s. began using Outmatch assessments in 2016—to speed up the hiring process by targeting best-fit candidates.

    Results—Better Recruiting, Hiring, and Talent Management

    I’ve gotten great feedback from hiring managers. They say that the assessment scores cut way down on the time they spend deciding if a candidate meets our company’s expectations.

    Samantha Willing, Talent Acquisition Specialist
    Biggest challenge: Helping managers staff up for new restaurant openings

    Outmatch helps me find the right people to hire. I print out the interview questions that come with the assessment results, and it really helps keep my questions relevant to that particular candidate.

    Josh Garrity, GM “Head Coach” at Erie, PA location
    Biggest challenge: Getting quality candidates for FOH and BOH positions

    We have a high percentage of internal promotions, which speaks to our ability to grow talent. The assessment results help us understand an individual’s potential and strengths and weaknesses so that we can align succession and development plans accordingly.

    Cheryl Domitrovic, Director of Human Resources
    Biggest Challenge: Winning talent in competitive markets

  2. Top Takeaways from the 2016 Outmatch Insights: Live! Conference

    Two weeks ago, we wrapped up our very first customer conference, Outmatch Insights: Live! It was a wonderful two and a half day event with some of of our favorite people in HR, all sharing lessons learned and success stories from their personal experience in the world of hiring and development.

    Huge thanks to our captivating keynotes speakers, the “Tims,” renowned HR experts Tim Sanders and Tim Sackett, and to the growing tribe of Outmatchers, our fabulous customers who remind us everyday why we do what we do. Special shout out to the presenters from Compass Group, American Airlines, Carmax, Promethus Real Estate Group—and (before it starts to sound too much like a long-winded award show speech) everyone else who showed up for this exciting debut event!

    The best part of the event was the incredible of amount of knowledge sharing that took place. Our customers and partners are truly a GOLD MINE of insight. Here are a few nuggets from the conference:

    1. Stop thinking of talent as an expense.

    In HR, we talk constantly in terms of costs—recruiting costs, replacement costs, the list goes on and on. We’re hyper-focused on eliminating costs (which will always exist, by the way). As Tim Sanders said his in keynote address, stop thinking of talent as an expense, because then you’ll always be trying to cut it. Talent is an investment that rewards positive output.

    2. You don’t need people who come from a great culture.

    Here’s the assumption: if you hire people from a big trendy company, you’ll somehow transplant that culture into your organization. Tim Sackett calls this the “Hire Googlers” syndrome, and in his keynote address, he explained why it doesn’t work and why it’s better to hire people who are eager to contribute to your culture, not carry over a culture from somewhere else.

    3. “Someone is better than no one” is a myth.

    It’s easy to feel mounting pressure from unfilled positions, but as Caitlan Wilber, Talent Selection Specialist at CarMax said in her presentation, a vacancy is still better than a bad hire. “It’s not just important that we sell cars,” she explained. “It’s how we sell cars.” This clarity of vision at CarMax helps keep Caitlan and her peers from settling on sub-par talent.

    4. Customer satisfaction will never be greater than employee satisfaction.

    This idea came up several times at the conference, first in Tim Sander’s keynote address, and again in a presentation from Cheryl Harris, Director of Talent Development at American Airlines. And they’re absolutely right. Satisfaction (or dissatisfaction) effects your entire ecosystem, and customers will begin to associate that “mood state” with your brand.

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    That’s just a small sampling of all the great insight that came out of the 2016 conference. Check back for full recordings of these presentations and more. Can’t wait to do it again next year!

  3. Tips from Clients: Setting the Stage for Hiring Success

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    Today’s tips come from Clay Stallings, VP of Talent Acquisition & Development at Acceptance Auto Insurance. Acceptance has used Outmatch assessments and automated reference checking for hiring since 2013, and according to Clay, “the results are impressive.”

    Clay explains how he set the stage for success when implementing these hiring tools at Acceptance: “First you have to commit, then you have to learn it, then you have to get buy-in. We did those three things, and it all fell into place beautifully.”

    Specifically, Clay points out two best practices that greatly contributed to their improvements in efficiency and quality of hire:

    1. “Provide a well thought-through job description to the Outmatch team, including notes on the most important traits needed for a candidate to succeed on the job. For example, if a candidate doesn’t have a dominant personality, he or she won’t succeed in a sales position. This really helps to dial in to individual job assessments.” 

    2. “Integrate Outmatch into your Applicant Tracking System. The time saved was phenomenal. Recruiters went from spending anywhere from 90-120 minutes per day identifying potential candidates, then that number dropped to zero. When you calculate time saved over the course of a week, it adds up to a full 8-hour work day.”

    These best practices can help any new client succeed with assessments, automated reference checking, and more. Thanks, Clay!

    For more best practices, check out this video: 5 Tips to Get the Most out of Being an Outmatch Client.