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
Filed under: Delivery, Process Operations & Governance, Reinvention Tagged: | City Colleges of Chicago, Delivery, Reinvention
I notice this blog has been dormant. I just want to add that Taleo is used by a few more universities, I know because I’ve been through their system. I only hope that they have a link for “internal” and “external” applicants and that CCC gives the higher priority to Internal candidates (like myself) who are applying for staff/administrative positions.
How many open positions? Are the positions open in faculty and staff? And do you know why CCC is on a hiring tear?
Thanks for the question. Looking at the openings on the City Colleges of Chicago Web site, the need for positions varies by college. Two points, however, seem clear:
1. 89% of these job openings are at the colleges.
2. Of these, about two-thirds are faculty.
Beyond this, I imagine the need for advisors, security personnel and other positions vary by college.
Hi Todd –
Unfortunately, I cannot speak to what an applicant can do to get his / her resume emphasized besides having a stand-out application for a position. I think that’s just how it goes when seeking a transition. What I can discuss is how we are working on process changes to ensure we do not lose qualified applicants.
With the new Taleo software – which, again, will be available in coming months – HR personnel in receipt of applicant materials will be able to sort on myriad characteristics and talents required for the position posted. This, in itself, assists in solving the problem of uncovering needles in haystacks. In addition, there are going to be more eyes on applicant pools and quicker turnarounds, as the introduction of a new process that, in turn, will be swiftly and comprehensively automated, will free more time for talent acquisition and search.
Finally, we are introducing a candidate gateway that will allow applicants more opportunity to provide helpful information in their application that hiring managers would not, perhaps, otherwise see.
I wish I could say all this is immediate instead of around the corner. HR automation software has, however, already been purchased and it’s just a matter of installation and training on our end (in other words, the train has left the station). We’ve already made the processes changes necessary to dictate that the technology serves best practices in recruitment and hiring workflow and so we will be able to deliver on our process improvement commitments.
Please let me know if you have any further questions, or any suggestions.
Charles
Charles,
Thanks for the prompt reply. Can you provide any detail in regards to whether or not the 7 colleges and district office currently communicate with each other in regards to applicants that may not be selected at one college for a position, but may have the appropriate skill set, etc for a position at another college? How will the Taleo System manage this aspect moving forward?
The new candidate gateway will allow for seamless application to the same job that may be available at multiple campuses and hiring managers will have visibility into these applicant pools, which will represent a serious improvement on present practice.
Unfortunately the CCC’s are in the middle of a mass hiring and many desirable candidates seem to be left out of the process. The sooner the new processes are implemented the better for the students, the community and those in the midst of seeking careers in Higher Ed during these tough economic times.
Hey Todd the colleges don’t even have communication internally forget about with each other.
If its only a matter of installation and training then everything should be fully operational by 2020.
The planned changes/improvements of the hiring process is welcome news and will be a vital process in the reconstruction of the CCC. Any suggestions on how qualified applicants can bring attention to applications/resumes under the current process? It appears as if quality prospects may be overlooked due to the high number of applicants for open positions.