Nike’s successful e‐recruitment
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/14754390580000596 |
| Date | 01 March 2005 |
| Pages | 4-4 |
| Published date | 01 March 2005 |
| Subject Matter | HR & organizational behaviour |
4Volume 4 Issue 3 March/April 2005
e-HR
,
How technology is changing the way HR works
Nike’s successful e-recruitment
T
he Nike employer brand is
extremely powerful in attracting
potential talent to the business,
and the process of handling applications
and supporting the resourcing process is
critical. Nike currently receives between
800 and 900 resumés per month, and
has on average 100 to 120 open
positions at any one time at its EMEA
HQ in Hilversum, the Netherlands.
In 2002, handling the applications
became challenging as the regional HQ
grew dramatically in size. This resulted in
high numbers of resumés circulating in
the business whilst the company had
little capability to track their progress or
handle enquiries from job applicants.
“Each applicant is a potential
employee and customer so we must
respond appropriately, in an individual
letter where possible,” says Rolien
Hoogers, EMEA staffing manager at
Nike. “With only five people on the team
three to four years ago, we were finding
it increasingly hard to do that, and we
were losing track of where resumés were
in the company, leading to errors.”
Standardizing and streamlining
A review demonstrated that Nike had
to standardize its HR processes to
reduce duplication of effort; reducing
costs and improving the overall quality
of talent hired. Combined, this would
help promote a more positive company
image in the marketplace.
Nike worked with HR process experts
Jobpartners to implement an e-
recruitment solution, ActiveRecruiter. The
solution offered flexibility and simplicity,
and could be easily integrated within the
company’s PeopleSoft platform.
There are now a number of avenues
for people to apply for jobs at Nike. As
well as applying via traditional methods
such as newspaper adverts, external
applicants can apply for specific jobs, or
apply speculatively, via the Nike Web
site. Nike employees can also directly
apply for jobs posted on its internal
site. ActiveRecruiter handles the
application process right through from
the receipt to the job offer.
The majority of applicants apply to
Nike via its Web site (www.nikebiz.com)
and can attach their resumé after filling
in a profile. This means hard copy
résumés have disappeared, and line
managers can easily view the details of
the qualified shortlisted candidates. The
system makes the first match between
the job requirements and the
competencies and experience of the
candidate. It then retains a pool of
applicants on file, which ensures Nike
has a readily available supply of
resumés for open positions. The number
currently held on the database is
around 8,500. Each registered applicant
is automatically asked to update his or
her details every six months to remain
active on the system.
Measures of success
Savings of around 54 percent in
recruitment costs have been identified
since the system was first introduced in
July 2002 – there is now far less reliance
on external recruitment and search
agencies due to the “future interest”
database. The average time to fill
vacancies has fallen from 62 days to 42
days. Each of the nine recruitment team
members can now handle 15 positions
simultaneously as well as acting as
internal consultants to the business.
Lessons learned
Three key learning points have
emerged from Nike’s experience of
introducing the e-recruitment system:
1. It’s important to involve recruiters in
the development and implementation
process from an early stage.
2. Involving recruiters helps ensure buy-
in and tackles some of the change
management issues involved in
implementing a process that impacts
working practices.
3. Internal customers and users of the
system have to see benefits, for the
business as a whole, and also in
helping them achieve their
recruitment targets and attract
quality people.
Future trends
Nike’s vision is for ActiveRecruiter to
become a “one-stop-shop” for
recruiting. This will help ensure that
increased time can be put into
improving the capability of line
management in interviewing techniques,
and that the resourcing group can be
freed up to play a more researching,
consulting and advisory role.
Nike is the world’s number one
shoemaker and controls over 20 percent
of the US athletic shoe market. It
employs around 23,000 people
worldwide and reported revenues of
US$10.7 billion in 2003.
NIKE
© Melcrum Publishing Ltd. 2005. For more information, go to www.melcrum.com or e-mail info@melcrum.com
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