Coming Soon: City Colleges and Taleo Hiring and Recruitment Module

For years, one of the largest pain points for hiring managers at City Colleges of Chicago has been the hiring and recruitment process.  A long, arduous job posting process, an uncoordinated and sometimes fractured hiring process and a lack of screening and recruitment tools all have contributed to hiring times of up to 240 days for a single position.

Now, through the collaborated efforts of Reinvention, Human Resources, the Office of the Chief Operating Officer and approval by the Chancellor and the Board of Trustees, a new and exciting Hiring and Recruitment module by Taleo Corporation is being purchased and implemented to transform the hiring process and bring tremendous recruiting, screening, evaluating, hiring and onboarding tools to the hiring and recruitment process at CCC.

The Taleo Hiring and Recruitment tool is widely used by several community colleges, universities, businesses, non-profits and governmental agencies including the City of Chicago. Touted for being intuitive, user-friendly and functional, the Taleo module will allow recruiters, faculty & staff hiring managers and administrators to:

• Reduce time to fill positions by up to 90%; and
• Attract and recruit candidates from proven sources and align job postings with screening questions to narrow respondents to the most qualified candidates for the position; and
• More readily align internal candidates with job postings; and
• Provide an internal profile for all job candidates, making it easier for internal and external job applicants to apply for positions, track jobs applied for and update information; and
• Coordinate hiring activities with all stakeholders; and
• Electronically approve job postings, tentatively approve job hires and coordinate pre-employment activities with all affected departments and parties; and
• Retain our talent through coordinated onboarding activities to ensure all new hires are provided with essential equipment, systems access, tools and training necessary to perform their duties from day 1; and
• Review analytical data to determine the effectiveness of our hiring and recruitment program, monitor our time to hire metrics and evaluate potential steps to improve our hiring efforts.

Finally, the Taleo Hiring and Recruitment tool will allow our administrators the ability to audit our hiring decisions to ensure they remain compliant with internal policy and procedure as well as external laws, ordinances and statutes.

The basic components of the tool are expected to be in operation by November 2012 after extensive testing and training is conducted with all pertinent stakeholders.  Additional tools will be added shortly thereafter to further strengthen, streamline and enhance the hiring process.

All and all, the implementation of the Taleo Hiring and Recruitment module is a step in the right direction as City Colleges continue to improve operations with the ultimate goal of improving what we offer to our most important constituent, our students.

     - David Sanders, Process, Operations and Governance Task Force

Marketing for the Gateway to the City Colleges of Chicago Program

The Gateway to the City Colleges of Chicago Program, a Reinvention initiative, is an incentive based program that targets advanced levels of English as a Second Language (ESL) and GED students and offers support as they transition to college credit and career programs at the City Colleges of Chicago. One of the unique aspects of the program is that students start college while completing the Adult Education Program. In order to expand the concept of starting college now, an intensive District-wide marketing and strategic awareness effort has been implemented during the spring of 2012 and summer 2012 terms.

The summer marketing campaign was the initial phase to promote this unique opportunity and increase awareness of this new program across the six colleges that offer Adult Education:  Richard J. Daley, Harry S Truman, Malcolm X, Kennedy- King, Olive-Harvey, and Wilbur Wright College.  The success of the campaign should be reflected by the total student enrollment in the Gateway Program this fall. The target number of students to apply and enroll in the Gateway Program for the 2012-2013 academic year is 500 students across the District, including satellite campuses and off campus locations that offer advanced levels of ESL and GED classes.

Truman Gateway Program Brochures and Flyers

Marketing internally for the Gateway Program with a minimal budget, while still developing a holistic promotional campaign to raise awareness of the program has been a challenge. This has encouraged us to think of more creative ways to share the qualities and benefits of the program with as many students as possible. A full suite of printed materials including customized brochures, flyers and handouts was designed to reflect the new City Colleges of Chicago colors and create a feeling of connection between Adult Education students and the college where they study.

Olive-Harvey Gateway Program Bulletin Board

Gateway bulletin boards were installed at the six colleges and their respective satellite locations to provide information about the program. The bulletin boards display flyers, brochures for students to take, and important dates about the program, including application deadlines and Gateway Orientation locations and times. The most important feature of the boards is the space to display a picture and profile of a successful Adult Education student who has made the transition to college, and is now a Gateway Scholar. Also on display is a Gateway Program Mentor, an instructor or staff member who provides a leadership role for students in the Program.

Daley Gateway Program Bulletin Board

As is so often the truth, “the best marketing is word of mouth.”  With this in mind, we set off to inform the faculty, staff, and administration with the details of the Gateway Program. Often the Gateway Program Implementation Team can be found out of the District Office conducting informational workshops for Adult Education staff and giving presentations directly to Adult Education students. As the first point of contact for the students, it is essential that Adult Education staff members receive adequate training and information about the Gateway Program and the necessary steps students should take to successfully enroll in the program. We expect that these marketing and recruitment efforts will have a dramatic impact on the program’s success and expansion at each of the participating colleges.

– Edgar Gonzalez, Teaching and Learning Task Force

Truman Gateway Program Bulletin Board

Adult Educators Go High Tech with Attendance

The first week of summer Adult Education classes saw a major change for teachers of ESL, GED and ABE students district-wide.  Beginning this term, teachers have begun entering class attendance online, directly into the CCC student administration database from which it is uploaded to DAIS-I, the state-wide reporting system used by ICCB.  This one change will save an enormous amount of time and manual, repetitive data entry for both teachers and support staff.  Beyond this – and for the first time in CCC history – attendance, enrollment and retention information will be available to program managers, deans, researchers and administrators in real time.

Those who know adult education understand how vital accurate attendance collection is. Classes are offered free of charge to students to learn English, improve  basic math and reading skills, prepare for the GED test or acquire job skills, because state and federal funds have been allocated to assist them in these endeavors based on their hours of attendance in class.  So getting attendance right is even more important than getting it done efficiently.

Beyond these practical benefits, online recording will also help make the Adult Ed program a more technology-oriented environment.  Adult Ed instructors are accustomed to “getting the job done” with whatever materials and resources they have available.  By plugging into technology as part of their daily routine, the awareness of – and in some cases the need for – 21^st century technology access will spill over into teaching and organizational tools.  By the end of the first week of summer term, it was even reported that teachers at one college had begun entering attendance on their smart phones!

As members of the Process, Operations and Governance (POG) Task Force at Reinvention visited Adult Ed programs to support the new attendance process, we heard overwhelmingly enthusiastic responses:

“I’m so glad this is happening now!” – Adult Ed Manager

“I’ve been asking for this for years.”  - College Registrar

“That’s it? I’m done? I can go now? Easy!” – Adult Ed Teacher

To get to this point, POG depended on the ideas, commitment and collaboration of many.  We would especially like to thank the hard work and flexibility of the district OIT team: Valerie Davis, Bill Beckner and Corie Jimenez.  Also, thanks to all of the Adult Ed deans, managers and coordinators who made the summer implementation possible.  And finally, thank you teachers for your openness and feedback and for taking up the front lines of an exciting – yet difficult – change.

     – Kimberly Swise, Process, Operations and Governance Task Force