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• 21 Nov 2023
• Cold Call Podcast

Cold Call: Building a More Equitable Culture at Delta Air Lines

In December 2020 Delta Air Lines CEO Ed Bastian and his leadership team were reviewing the decision to join the OneTen coalition, where he and 36 other CEOs committed to recruiting, hiring, training, and advancing one million Black Americans over the next ten years into family-sustaining jobs. But, how do you ensure everyone has equal access to opportunity within an organization? Professor Linda Hill discusses Delta’s decision and its progress in embedding a culture of diversity, equity, and inclusion in her case, “OneTen at Delta Air Lines: Catalyzing Family-Sustaining Careers for Black Talent.”

• 14 Nov 2023
• What Do You Think?

Do We Underestimate the Importance of Generosity in Leadership?

Management experts applaud leaders who are, among other things, determined, humble, and frugal, but rarely consider whether they are generous. However, executives who share their time, talent, and ideas often give rise to legendary organizations. Does generosity merit further consideration? asks James Heskett. Open for comment; 0 Comments.

• 07 Nov 2023
• Research & Ideas

When Glasses Land the Gig: Employers Still Choose Workers Who 'Look the Part'

Is an eyeglass-wearer more likely to be a strong web developer? Employers that use online talent platforms tend to consider profile photos in final hiring decisions, says research by Isamar Troncoso. What's the role of recruiting platforms in preventing bias?

• 16 Oct 2023

Advancing Black Talent: From the Flight Ramp to 'Family-Sustaining' Careers at Delta

By emphasizing skills and expanding professional development opportunities, the airline is making strides toward recruiting and advancing Black employees. Case studies by Linda Hill offer an inside look at how Delta CEO Ed Bastian is creating a more equitable company and a stronger talent pipeline.

• 26 Sep 2023

Unpacking That Icky Feeling of 'Shopping' for Diverse Job Candidates

Many companies want to bring a wider variety of lived experiences to their workforces. However, research by Summer Jackson shows how hiring managers' fears of seeming transactional can ultimately undermine their diversity goals.

• 21 Aug 2023

You’re More Than Your Job: 3 Tips for a Healthier Work-Life Balance

Younger workers are rejecting the idea of sticking with one employer for the long haul and are instead finding happiness by job-hopping and creating dramatically different boundaries with work. In a new book, Christina M. Wallace maps out a step-by-step guide to building a flexible and fulfilling life that includes rest, relationships, and a rewarding career.

• 26 Jul 2023

STEM Needs More Women. Recruiters Often Keep Them Out

Tech companies and programs turn to recruiters to find top-notch candidates, but gender bias can creep in long before women even apply, according to research by Jacqueline Ng Lane and colleagues. She highlights several tactics to make the process more equitable.

• 18 Apr 2023

The Best Person to Lead Your Company Doesn't Work There—Yet

Recruiting new executive talent to revive portfolio companies has helped private equity funds outperform major stock indexes, says research by Paul Gompers. Why don't more public companies go beyond their senior executives when looking for top leaders?

• 31 Jan 2023

It’s Not All About Pay: College Grads Want Jobs That ‘Change the World’

Many college graduates will accept lower salaries for roles that have the potential to give back to society, says research by Letian Zhang. Could trading pay for altruism help shrink the income gap?

• 05 Dec 2022

5 Companies Where Employees Move Up the Ladder Fast

IBM, Southwest Airlines, and other companies proactively help workers advance their careers to try to retain them, says research by Joseph Fuller. The findings show just how important an employer can be to future salary and job prospects.

• 30 Nov 2022

Recruiters: Highlight Your Company’s Diversity, Not Just Perks and Pay

Many job seekers want to join inclusive companies that reflect their values. Research by Joseph Pacelli shows how employers can attract more talent by promoting the diversity of their workforce.

• 22 Apr 2022

Companies Can Expand Their Talent Pool by Giving Ex-Convicts a Second Chance

People with criminal convictions often have trouble finding work and face double-digit unemployment rates. Yet employers would be more willing to hire them under certain conditions, says research by Zoë Cullen. Open for comment; 0 Comments.

• 05 Nov 2021

How to Tap the Talent Automated HR Platforms Miss

Companies are struggling to fill open positions, but the job platforms they use often screen out promising candidates just because they don't tick every box. Joseph Fuller probes the challenges—and opportunities—of "hidden workers." Open for comment; 0 Comments.

• 08 Dec 2020

Why Companies Hunt for Talent on Digital Platforms, Not in Resume Piles

Rather than sit back and wait for applicants to send resumes, companies are proactively targeting prospective employees on digital platforms and social media, often with a recruiter's help, says research by Rembrand Koning. Open for comment; 0 Comments.

• 17 Nov 2020

Why a Blended Workforce May Be Key to Lasting Competitive Advantage

Companies are increasingly blending full-time staff with skilled on-demand talent. The problem: Few companies have developed cultures that accommodate gig workers, says Joseph B. Fuller. Open for comment; 0 Comments.

• 30 Jun 2020

Is a Business School-Industry Collaboration Needed to Attract Black Talent to Campus?

SUMMING UP:James Heskett's readers suggest that recruiting minority students to business school must be matched with programs to retain them. Open for comment; 0 Comments.

• 01 May 2020

Does Remote Work Mix with Organizational Culture?

SUMMING UP: Readers who themselves work from home think differently about how organizations should respond to remote work initiatives. James Heskett sums up the dicussion. Open for comment; 0 Comments.

• 13 Nov 2019
• Working Paper Summaries

The Gender Gap in Self-Promotion

Many organizations and job applications require individuals to assess their own ability and performance. When women communicate to potential employers, however, they systematically give less favorable assessments of their own past performance and potential future ability than equally performing men. The study rules out potential explanations for the gap and discusses implications.

• 05 Sep 2019
• Sharpening Your Skills

Making the Right Technical Hire

CEOs are usually more comfortable making key hires on the business side of the house than the technology side. Here is what executives need to understand about technical hires, according to Julia Austin. Open for comment; 0 Comments.

• 30 Jun 2019

The Comprehensive Effects of Sales Force Management: A Dynamic Structural Analysis of Selection, Compensation, and Training

When sales forces are well managed, firms can induce greater performance from them. For this study, the authors collaborated with a major multinational firm to develop and estimate a dynamic structural model of sales employee responses to various management instruments like compensation, training, and recruiting/termination policies.

Harnessing internal and external sources of recruitment

Planning your recruitment strategy can be a daunting task in today’s competitive talent environment.Knowing where to look, which sources of recruitment to use, how to structure your job ads , and how to move your candidates through the funnel are all essential skills that you need to land your perfect hire.Fortunately, with a bit of research and even more strategic planning, you can create a recruitment system to find, screen, and hire the right talent for your organization that’s repeatable and profitable for your company.One of the first steps in this strategic planning process is to understand which recruitment sources are available to you and how to harness them as part of your overall recruitment strategy. In this article, I’ll discuss the two main sources of recruitment: internal and external .

Before we get started, you should note that no single recruitment source will necessarily be the solution to all of your recruitment problems. You should be looking at several recruitment sources to broaden your search area and get your job postings in front of as many qualified candidates as possible.

What are internal sources of recruitment?

These recruitment sources involve motivating employees within your organization to apply for vacant job postings in the company.Think of this as a promotion or lateral movement motivator for your employees. Typically, vacant job postings would be communicated to your colleagues via internal job boards, word of mouth, intranets or wikis, or any other communication channels your team uses.

Advantages of internal sources of recruitment

• Motivating skilled employees in your company with the promise of upward growth.
• Reducing employee turnover .
• Reducing recruitment and training costs.
• Guaranteeing that your vacant positions are filled with candidates who fit and understand your company culture .
• Improving overall job satisfaction and morale within your team.
• Encourages self-development of existing employees.
• Promotes training and development .

Showing your candidates that you’re willing to promote and move them into roles that will help further their careers demonstrates your commitment to them and their goals. It also means that you fill your vacancies with qualified and pre-screened candidates.

Disadvantages of internal sources of recruitment

• Less chance of new ideas and alternative solutions being introduced to existing operations and issues.
• Better quality external candidates may be overlooked.
• Promoted employees may not always hold the best qualities for their new role.
• Limiting the acquisition of fresh talent may hamper business growth.
• Less choice from a limited resource pool.
• Encourages favoritism and nepotism.

Another issue to consider with internal recruitment sources, however, is the potential tendency toward confirmation bias. Or, simply put, fewer outside voices introduced into your company to shake things up and move the dial.It’s always a good idea to take a hard look at the requirements for each job vacancy you have and, together with the hiring manager, determine if an internal or external candidate is the ideal solution.

Examples of internal sources of recruitment

Now that we’ve talked about what internal sources are and why you should use them let’s look at a selection of examples. Here’s a list of some of the most common types of internal recruitment sources you can consider for your recruitment strategy.

• Employees can be moved laterally within your organization into similar jobs or vacancies that complement their skill set. With or without a salary change, it’s a great way to re-structure your team while also reducing boredom and stagnation among your employees.
• Vacancies can be filled by promoting your most skilled employees into more senior roles. This is a great way to motivate employees, reduce turnover, and show a commitment to career growth.
• Employee referrals . Encourage your employees to refer family, friends or former co-workers who they think would be perfect for your vacant positions. This helps find qualified and vetted candidates who often have a higher likelihood to fit seamlessly into your team and culture.

Internal sources of recruitment are a fantastic way to harness the best assets you already have at your disposal: your employees. Couple these internal sources with external ones, and you’ve got yourself a robust and well-rounded recruitment strategy.

What are external sources of recruitment?

If internal recruitment sources refer to all potential candidates within your organization, then it makes sense that external recruitment sources all about motivating candidates outside of your company to apply.This is your typical candidate fishing expedition, and there are many ways to lure and catch an ideal applicant. You just need to find and deploy the right combination of external sources of recruitment.

Advantages of external sources of recruitment

• Providing a larger and more diverse pool of candidates.
• Bringing new ideas and skills into the organization.
• Promoting your employer brand and culture.
• Filling your talent pipeline with candidates for future consideration.
• Less chance of favoritism and disrupting healthy workplace atmosphere.

Disadvantages of external sources of recruitment

• Jealousy and frustration of existing employees looking for promotion .
• Lengthy and costly process.
• Finding a suitable applicant isn’t guaranteed.
• Longer periods of adjustment to a new role and organization.
• Possibilities of mismatching and choosing the wrong candidates.

Before deploying external recruitment techniques, however, it’s important that you do your homework into who your candidate is, where they’re searching for jobs, and what they’re looking for.Be sure to tailor any external sources of recruitment to a well-thought-out strategy to ensure that you’re not inundated with hundreds of unqualified candidates.Depending on the strategy, external recruitment can be a time consuming and expensive endeavor, so you want to make sure your investment will yield positive results.

Examples of external sources of recruitment

You’re likely already familiar with many external recruitment sources – these are some of the most common techniques recruiters use to find candidates. To get you thinking, here’s a list of some of the most common external sources in use today.

• Online job boards. Self-explanatory. Think of websites or any other page that lists job posting. These can either be free or paid, targeted or broad. Find out where your ideal candidates typically search for jobs and get your ads posted.
• These are similar to job board postings but are broader and don’t necessarily need to be online. Think of all the websites, newspapers, magazines, and even physical places your candidates likely visit on a daily basis and post some appealing job ads. These are typically paid placements, but the right location can yield great results if targeted properly.
• Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) or other recruitment software . Take a deep dive into the candidate pools you’ve collected from previous search efforts to see if there are any qualified applicants you can reach out to. Use an ATS like Recruitee to search for specific parameters to narrow down your efforts.
• Educational institutions. Makes connections with universities, colleges, and trade schools and invite new graduates into your company for internship positions. These are great future high performers that you can scoop up early in their careers.
• Trade associations, conferencing, and network events. Where industries hold particular professional or trade associations, accessing a database of members could open a host of new potential hires. Trade magazines and journals are also options as fresh job role advertising opportunities. These areas are ideally placed for locating experienced and skilled candidates.
• Former employees. Don’t be afraid of rebound or boomerang employees . In today’s job market, it’s very common for people to jump from company to company to progress through their career. If you have a vacancy that might appeal to a former colleague, reach out to them to see if they’re ready to make a comeback.
• Previous applicants. A database of previously unsuccessful candidates delivers a resource pool of possible options. If they failed to win the role purely because another candidate held better qualities or credentials, they could still be perfectly suitable to fill the position.
• Rival businesses. Some of the best operatives in your industry will be working for your competitors. They might not be looking to relocate or for a better opportunity, but you won’t know unless you ask. Just because they’re not actively looking for a new challenge doesn’t mean they’re not ready for one.
• Social media. LinkedIn is a no-brainer for recruiters. Search for candidates based on job title, skill set, and location to find high potential candidates and reach out to them via InMail. Don’t be afraid to search Twitter and Facebook for industry-relevant pages and groups that you can reach out to as well.

As mentioned earlier in this article, no one source of recruitment will be the solution to all of your problems. Instead, take some time to strategically plan your recruitment process, know your candidate and deploy the sources that will yield the best bang for your effort and buck.

Brendan is an established writer, content marketer and SEO manager with extensive experience writing about HR tech, information visualization, mind mapping, and all things B2B and SaaS. As a former journalist, he's always looking for new topics and industries to write about and explore.

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Skills-based success: 10 recruiting case studies

The working world has been turned on its head with the pandemic, the Great Reshuffle, and the resulting skills shortage. Companies are searching for a powerful, sustainable way to recruit and retain talent, and 73% of them are now opting for skills-based hiring practices.

Skills-based recruitment practices are for everyone. Don’t believe us? We've put together 10 recruiting case studies that demonstrate how different individuals, industries, and regions have successfully implemented skills-based hiring.

Table of contents

What's the purpose of a recruiting case study, 3 personal recruiting case studies, 3 recruiting case studies by industry, 4 recruiting case studies by region, looking for more recruiting case studies, the state of skills-based hiring 2023.

Read TestGorilla's annual report to discover why over 70% of companies chose to adopt skills-based hiring methods in 2023.

In recruitment, case studies are helpful tools for employers seeking to build, develop, or optimize their recruitment processes. They can be great sources of information and inspiration. By understanding the successes and failures others have had with their hiring processes, hiring managers can take any relevant learnings without having to make the same mistakes that others have.

To make these recruiting case studies relevant for as many people as possible, we've divided them into personal case studies, case studies by industry, and case studies by region. Let's dive in.

Let’s first look at the personal stories of some stellar individuals who were recruited into their ideal industries using skills-based practices. These people didn’t have traditional backgrounds, but because of their unique skills, they got into amazing roles. All that was needed was a chance to prove those skills during recruitment.

1. Justin Hutchinson

Justin Hutchinson wanted a future in football, but he was faced with a hard choice at age 14: Focus on his career prospects or take care of his father with cancer.

Justin, of course, chose his father and has never regretted that choice, but it did mean giving up the chance of achieving his dream job.

After his father’s passing, Justin attended a community college to fulfill his father’s wish for him to get a degree. To pay rent and living expenses, Justin got a job at a smoothie franchise.

His aim was to simply support his cost of living by making fast food – but it turns out Justin’s real skill was people and communication.

Justin would study the cars that drove up, memorize their orders, and have them ready so he could spend time talking and getting to know the customers instead of making drinks.

One of Justin’s customers was a chief executive of a marketing company and was so impressed with his people skills, he offered Justin an internship.

It wasn’t long before Justin used his soft skills to turn that internship into a full-time position. He dropped out of college, poured his heart and soul into the role, and attained the role of Director of Business Development.

Justin attributes his success to his best skills:

Workplace empathy

Strategic and critical thinking

Sales management

Justin didn’t have a typical marketing background – his experience was a partial college education with no degree, on-the-job experience (and not a traditionally “relevant” job), and his internship.

Not everyone can find the perfect marketer in a charismatic smoothie server, but online skills testing holds the same principles: Look at abilities first and ask questions later.

Sales and marketing are industries that are uniquely dependent on soft skills, which makes skills-based hiring an obvious choice for recruiting. For information on how it helps with the tricky subject of ramp time, read our article on skills-based hiring and ramp time.

2. Latisha Carter

Latisha Carter had a dream of excelling in corporate America, but she never got the opportunity to attend college.

At age 17, Latisha became a single mother. This put her dreams of college on hiatus for the foreseeable future.

Three years later, after having another child, Latisha got a job as a nursing assistant. But she still couldn’t shake her desire to make it in the corporate world.

She secured a call center job with NCR, a software company, driven by their offer of extensive employee training. 

Offering extensive upskilling and reskilling is one of the best things you can put on the table for potential candidates. A study by Lorman showed that 59% of Millennials believe that development opportunities are extremely important when deciding whether to apply for a position.

Latisha used her experience at NCR to get a role in customer service at the software company Sage.

With determination and hard work, she continued to work her way up for 20 years until she became a director at Xero, an accounting technology company.

Latisha is now proudly a director in corporate America with no college degree. Her company is reaping the benefits of her presence and skills. 

In the second half of 2021, Xero’s approach to skills-based hiring and its emphasis on diversity pushed a 7% increase in racial and ethnic diversity.

Jana Galbraith, the executive general manager for people experience partnering for Xero, says: “ [H]istorically, hiring based on degree exclusively has perpetuated discrimination .”

This boost is great news for Xero because the benefits of diversity are broad and include increased productivity, innovation, and financial performance.

Latisha’s struggle to succeed is unfortunately common for working mothers. To learn more about this, read our article on the motherhood penalty .

3. Cindy Veach

Cindy Veach didn’t have a traditional background. She had all the tech know-how, but she only had experience involving massage therapy and social services.

But she had the skills and she knew it. Cindy says it was a happenstance that she stumbled upon her perfect role; she just wanted a role where she could use her best talents.

“I was looking for jobs I had the right skills for, organizational skills in particular,” said Cindy.

She happened upon a tech administration apprenticeship program at IBM. Before then, she saw her tech skills as just a hobby and never imagined herself in the tech industry – but she applied and was accepted.

Cindy had a steep learning curve ahead of her. She possessed the base tech skills but needed the training to reach the right level.

She attributes much of her success to the flexibility of her mentors. They continually told her that if a path “didn’t feel right,” she was welcome to experiment and try something new.

At the end of the apprenticeship, she applied for a network operations technician role and was hired. She took a position with flexible work options so she could still care for her two children comfortably. 

Skills-based hiring made this outcome possible. Cindy’s communication skills, digital expertise, and problem-solving abilities helped her secure her role, and the focus on continuous improvement is helping her develop it .

She says that the combination of her appetite for learning and her employer’s support for her success is the perfect duo for creating limitless growth.

We’ve heard plenty of people say “skills-based hiring doesn’t work in my industry.” But that’s just yet another myth we’ve debunked . Let’s take a look at a handful of case studies about how companies within certain industries have succeeded with skills-based recruitment initiatives.

4. Healthcare

Healthcare administration is an industry that’s notoriously difficult to get into. Between receiving a bachelor’s degree and completing a master’s program, it can take six to eight years of rigorous commitment.

However, more opportunities are arising that allow equally qualified candidates to get in without obtaining specific educational requirements.

Sam Saucedo-Hernandez had a tumultuous life, but she only ever wanted a solid career. As a child of parents who emigrated from Mexico, she wanted to be the first generation in her family to attain a degree.

Sam watched her parents struggle with low-wage jobs and promised herself she would do better for herself.

Her first attempt was at law school where she spent several years studying hard. Sam was ecstatic to get her degree and begin a career in law.

But two weeks after she got her associate of science degree, the school got shut down for fraud, leaving Sam jobless and $60,000 in debt.

Sam faced many challenges, but the turning point in her story was the day she received a letter promoting a no-cost medical administrative assistant job training program from JVS.

JVS is a program that helps people build skills and find solid career connections – particularly in the healthcare industry.[1]

JVS has seen amazing success with over 500 employer partners and an emphasis on promoting diversity: 88% of their participants are Black, Hispanic, Asian, or a wide range of other ethnicities.

Sam applied for the program and was accepted. She secured a position as a medical administrative assistant, but her training has led her to her current role in the audiology department.

Though she’s fortunate for her position, Sam says she’s still looking forward, wondering where her skills can take her from here. 

Programs like JVS are working tirelessly to make more stories like this possible. With a focus on skills over experience, they bring in valuable candidates to industries that may otherwise be restricted to them.

5. Manufacturing

Steelcase, a furniture manufacturing company, wanted to build a fairer place for employment opportunities and encourage better representation for employees of color. So they adopted skills-based hiring practices.

They’re far from the only ones. According to TestGorilla’s State of Skills-Based Hiring report, 85% of businesses in 2023 had the goal to increase diversity.

And companies are succeeding at this by implementing skills-based hiring: 91% of organizations saw an increase in diversity due to skills-based hiring.

Steelcase realized that if they truly wanted to boost their DE&I initiatives , traditional hiring methods wouldn’t do.

They decided their hiring processes needed to be revamped for the better, so they adopted some new practices:

Prioritizing skills over resume and pedigree

Removing experience requirements wherever possible

Favoring continuous improvement over perfection

Revamping job descriptions to reduce biased language

Prioritizing diversity among equally qualified candidates

Steelcase decided that practices like these would enable them to reach diverse talent organically, and it worked. Since the program started, Steelcase’s new hires are 55% women and 30% racial or ethnic minorities.

Steelcase’s initiatives are amazing, so we encourage similar active moves to boost diversity. To read more about this topic, read our blog on why being intentional about workplace diversity is non-negotiable .

6. Software

ADP, an HR management software company, adopted a recruiting strategy to focus on skills , rely less on credentials, and make an effort to provide opportunities for candidates with nontraditional backgrounds.

This strategy included training talent acquisition professionals on best practices, hiring specific diversity recruiters, removing degree requirements from high-volume recruiting roles, and leveraging better training and mentorship for new hires.

What were the results? ADP saw great success in one year:

An increase in the number of candidates with no college degree

An increase in Black representation in the candidate pool

An increase in Hispanic representation in the candidate pool

This program was heavily inspired and backed by Maria Black, the chief executive of ADP, and her strong belief in corporate social responsibility.

She has a strong passion for supporting working women, veterans, and other underrepresented talents.[2]

Maria is an excellent example of the power of leading from the top. When your company’s leadership supports a great cause, it benefits both employees and company alike and builds a better organizational culture .

Next, let’s take a look at some case studies about the regions and countries that are taking on skills-based recruitment practices. For more on this subject, check out our post on skills-based hiring around the world .

7. Maryland, USA

In 2022, the state of Maryland dropped four-year degree requirements for thousands of jobs in the government sector.

The aim of this initiative was to draw attention to the value of alternative credentials and experience. State officials want to give people a better shot at securing a stable, fulfilling job.

Governor Larry Hogan was quoted as saying:

“[W]e are ensuring qualified, non-degree candidates are regularly being considered for these career-changing opportunities.”[3]

Over 38,000 people work for the state of Maryland and it’s estimated that more than half of those jobs can be performed by people whose alternative skill routes can easily substitute for a college education.

These alternative routes include:

Life experience

Non-relevant job experience

Hobbies and volunteer work

Alternative training

Community college education

Maryland estimates that about 47% of its working population are STARs (skilled through alternative routes). That’s 2.8 million workers, and these people need solid opportunities – opportunities that they can access through skills-based hiring.

To learn more about how unnecessary degree requirements are holding top talent back, read our blog on degree inflation .

8. Indiana, USA

Indiana’s tech leaders are struggling to attract and retain great talent. They’re facing a major skill shortage and they can’t solve it with the “usual” hiring methods.

Traditional recruiting methods exclude over 95% of Indiana’s workforce.

Indiana has a workforce of 3,332,239 people, but consider this:

A four-year degree requirement removes 75%

Biases can eliminate up to 30% of the pool

Requiring specific past experience removes 93% of the talent pool

With all of that in mind, a pool of more than three million candidates is reduced to just over 42,000.

Indiana’s Office of Technology (IOT) realized that skills-based hiring practices could fix this problem and solve their shortage.

They started by removing degree requirements from most job descriptions, then took the next step and started offering reskilling opportunities to workers from alternative industries, such as line cooks and truck drivers.

Tracy Barnes, IOT’s chief information officer, said that the results of the program have been positive and they’re “very pleased” so far. She also said that she’s equally excited to see the positive life impacts for the candidates involved.

9. Asia-Pacific

Skills-based hiring is quickly gaining traction in the Asia-Pacific area.

One study showed that 79% of businesses in the Asia-Pacific area look for skills when hiring versus the 21% that prioritize education and experience.[4]

The same study found that internal mobility is more important than ever and that companies want to prioritize gender equality and disability inclusion . These points can also be accomplished by adopting skills-based hiring.

Asia-Pacific is looking to skills-based practices to improve the future of their recruitment processes, but Singapore-based TruTrip is already reaping the benefits .

TruTrip is a business travel management company that needed help assessing candidate skills and hiring the best candidates, so they gave TestGorilla a try.

Here are a few ways that TestGorilla’s pre-employment skills testing helped TruTrip’s recruitment processes:

Gives them a way to objectively assess applicants’ skills and knowledge

Helps them eliminate bias from the hiring process

Enables them to consistently make better hiring decisions

Reduces their reliance on resume screening

Enhances teamwork and communication

Improves the employee experience of new hires

According to Hugh Batley, the founder of TruTrip, their new hires are a better fit. These employees become great contributors and have a better initial experience with the company.

TestGorilla also helps TruTrip save thousands of dollars by reducing the chances of a costly mis-hire. 

This isn’t unusual. According to TestGorilla’s State of Skills-Based Hiring report, 92.5% of organizations using skills-based practices saw a reduction in mis-hires in 2022.

10. The UK and the EU

The UK and the EU have developed a strong focus on skills over the past few years.

Interest in skills-based hiring in the UK rose 63% from 2021 to 2022 . This drastic increase is due to employers wanting a wider talent pool and candidates prioritizing and valuing their alternative experience.

This move is helping job opportunities reach the 73.6% of people in the United Kingdom who don’t possess a four-year degree. [5]

As for the European Union, they developed the “Pact For Skills” program in 2020. This program was created to encourage and fund better upskilling and reskilling while also promoting greater diversity and gender equality.[6]

A good example from both areas is the British-Lithuanian bank, Revolut.

Revolut adopted skills-based hiring by using TestGorilla’s skills tests and, as a result, improved their time-to-hire by 40% .

Among many other benefits, Revolut found TestGorilla’s language tests life-saving. Assessing language proficiency is essential for a multinational company, but traditional methods are time-consuming and laborious.

TestGorilla’s language tests help Revolut to quickly and easily evaluate their candidates’ reading, writing, listening, and speaking skills. This helped them to nearly fully automate their screening process, improving time-to-hire greatly.

To read more case studies and success stories about skills-based hiring, check out our 10 stories that demonstrate the power of skills-based hiring or our collection of customer case studies .

Here are 3 top picks from our case studies:

Revolut improves time-to-hire by 40% using TestGorilla

Design Pickle uses TestGorilla to boost application completion rate by 25%

TestGorilla helps TruTrip to save money and improve employee experience

If you’d like to acquaint yourself with a solid skills-based hiring practice, browse our test library and review our skills tests.

“JVS 2022 Impact Report”. (2022). JVS . Retrieved March 6, 2023. https://impact2022.jvs.org/

“Maria Black, president and CEO”. (n.d). Business Roundtable. Retrieved March 6, 2023. https://www.businessroundtable.org/about-us/members/maria-black-president-and-ceo-adp

McGraw, Mark. (April 4, 2022). “Dropping Degree Requirements: Do Employers Still Care About Education?”. World at Work . Retrieved March 6, 2023. https://worldatwork.org/resources/publications/workspan-daily/dropping-degree-requirements-do-employers-still-care-about-education

“The Future of Talent”. (2021). LinkedIn . Retrieved March 6, 2023. https://business.linkedin.com/content/dam/me/business/en-us/talent-solutions/resources/pdfs/future-of-talent-whitepaper.pdf

“Overview of the education system”. (2022). Education GPS . Retrieved March 6, 2023. https://gpseducation.oecd.org/CountryProfile?primaryCountry=GBR&treshold=10&topic=EO

“Pact for Skills”. (November 10, 2020). European Commission . Retrieved March 6, 2023.  https://ec.europa.eu/social/main.jsp?catId=1517&langId=en

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• Employee Benefits
• Change Management
• Talent Acquisition
• Applicant Tracking Systems

7 Steps to Building a Successful Talent Acquisition Team (+Netflix Case Study)

Analytics in HR

AUGUST 8, 2023

Talent acquisition team structure Examples of organizations’ talent acquisition team structures 7 Steps for building a talent acquisition team How to measure the success of a talent acquisition team Case study : Netflix’s talent acquisition team What is a talent acquisition team?

Children’s Mercy Hospital Case Study

Stories Incorporated HR

APRIL 8, 2020

Want this case study as a PDF? How Children’s Mercy is Using Content to Drive Recruiting Efforts. The post Children’s Mercy Hospital Case Study appeared first on Stories Incorporated. Reading Time: 6 minutes. Find it here ! We heard powerful and moving stories from all of our CM storytellers.

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• From Awareness to Action: An HR Guide to Making Accessibility Accessible
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EmployeeConnect

15 HR Analytics Case Studies with Business Impact

NOVEMBER 5, 2018

For this article, I have collected 15 of the best HR analytics case studies I’ve come across in the past two years. Each of these case studies are connected with a concrete business impact. For each case study , I will refer to their original publication. 15 HR Analytics Case Studies .

Case Study: Strategic Workforce Planning for Rail Infrastructure Managers

MARCH 30, 2020

In this case study , strategic workforce planning is applied to solve this national problem, impacting millions of commuters. The TWP process estimates the turnover in the coming 18 months to plan and execute required recruiting efforts, rigorous psychological testing, and 9 months of training periods for new employees.

Case Study: Carers Queensland

MARCH 15, 2022

We hired an extra 400 staff via manual processes; conducted recruitment with handwritten notes for interviews; sent out letters with onboarding packs in the mail, and requested the new employees to post or deliver them back. How has the ‘ Recruitment ’ Module in EmployeeConnect solved your problems?

A Case Study in Hiring with Intentionality, Not by Accident

JANUARY 12, 2024

In this conversation between Ben and Nicole Hirsch, a senior recruiting leader, you’ll hear how to approach this with intentional focus in order to drive the best hiring results. Show Notes Thanks to Brighthire for connecting us with Nicole!

Revolutionizing Talent Recruiting With AI-Enabled Application Tracking System: Bayzat as Case Study

MARCH 28, 2024

ATS software are dedicated automation tools that simplify the recruiting process for employers and talents. The systems then naturally implement these sequences, typically screening resumes, shortlisting the best applicants, scheduling interviews, and notifying recruiters of scheduled appointments. How Does AI Enhance ATS?

Dell Technologies Case Study

DECEMBER 4, 2020

In our Dell Technologies case study , we share Stories Inc.’s has been working with Dell for years to create recruitment marketing content campaigns that attract women in tech, veterans, and interns. delivered a content library for all recruitment marketing stakeholders to use. Get the full case study .

13+ HR Case Studies: Recruiting, Learning, Analytics, and More

SEPTEMBER 3, 2019

As someone who has worked in the HR profession, I know well the full value of stories, examples, and case studies . While much of the work we do at Lighthouse Research & Advisory focuses on quantitative research studies , we do a fair amount of qualitative research as well. How to Lead a Hiring Team.

Finding the Perfect Fit: How Finance Recruiters Can Help Hiring Managers and Job Seekers

Professional Alternatives

FEBRUARY 2, 2024

[link] Finding the Perfect Fit: How Finance Recruiters Can Help Hiring Managers and Job Seekers The role of finance recruiters in the job market The job market can be a daunting place for both hiring managers and job-seeking candidates, especially in the highly competitive field of finance.

Laser-Focused on Recruiting to Hire A Players | ClearCompany

ClearCompany HRM

APRIL 21, 2022

To view more real client case studies and see their success using ClearCompany, take a look at our client page. See how Milan revamped # recruiting with ClearCompany’s ATS: A Look into Milan Laser Hair Removal. . ClearCompany Transforms Recruitment at Milan. Cleared a critical bottleneck in the recruitment process.

Recruiting Feedback Case Study: The Recruiting Revenue Connection

MARCH 11, 2019

In our latest recruiting feedback case study , Craft Brew Alliance (CBA) demonstrates that asking the right questions at the right time can dramatically affect overall recruiting effectiveness AND uncover powerful connections between recruiting and revenue generation. Recruiting and Revenue.

How To Apply Design Thinking in HR (+ 3 Case Studies)

AUGUST 16, 2023

Recruitment and onboarding Consider how candidates experience the recruitment process. Diversity and inclusion Ideate and prototype strategies for attracting diverse talent and reducing biases in recruitment . Solution: The HR team mapped out each step of the recruitment process from the candidate’s perspective.

Case Study: Donaldson

DECEMBER 24, 2020

Recruiting . Download the full case study here. User-friendly software. Paycor Onboarding saves Jeanette and her team 80 hours a year. Donaldson partners with Paycor to streamline processes, manage employees and increase productivity. Onboarding. HR & Benefits Admin. ACA Paycor Time. Want More Information?

What is HR Analytics? All You Need to Know to Get Started

FEBRUARY 28, 2024

This has a significant impact on organizational performance , leading to as much as a 25% rise in business productivity, a 50% decrease in attrition rates, and an 80% increase in recruiting efficiency. Example: Exploring recruitment data to discover the key attributes of an ideal candidate for a particular position.)

Case Study: MarketGap’s Innovative Strategy for Agile Workforce Evolution

JUNE 30, 2023

Partnering with organizations and agencies that focus on promoting minority talents, such as minority professional associations and diversity-focused recruitment firms. The post Case Study : MarketGap’s Innovative Strategy for Agile Workforce Evolution appeared first on Hppy.

Recruiting Case Study: UiPath Uses Survale to Ensure Consistent, Predictable, and Repeatable Candidate Experience

AUGUST 31, 2022

In this new recruiting case study UiPath, a leading enterprise automation software vendor, details how they placed candidate experience at the center of their hiring process. UiPath also uses candidate and hiring manager feedback to improve performance and align recruiters and hiring managers around common metrics.

Using Talent Sourcing Platforms To Save Recruiter Time

Select Software Reviews

MAY 17, 2019

Talent sourcing has become an incredibly important part of any recruiting strategy. In response, recruiters have been forced to rely more and more on outbound means to engage potential hires. Full desk recruiters don’t want to source. Source cfo.com. Sourcing is all these companies do.

ApplicantStack Featured in Case Study of Home Health Agency & Hospice

ApplicantStack

NOVEMBER 17, 2022

Integration partner Verified First featured ApplicantStack in a case study of Angels Care Home Health and Angels Care Hospice. The companies needed a new automated hiring system to replace their current manual recruiting process. About Angels Care.

Case study: Executing a recruitment marketing video plan

MAY 19, 2021

Executing a recruitment marketing video plan sometimes requires research and buy-in. This case study is an excerpt from our new ebook, Getting Buy-In for Your Employee Story Project: The Ultimate Guide to Employer Branding and Recruitment Marketing ROI. Reading Time: 7 minutes. Contact Us. Getting buy-in.

Industry Insights: Senior Care Case study

JANUARY 25, 2022

Our business is laser-focused on employee financial wellness, and one measure of success for us is the degree to which we can improve employers’ ability to recruit , retain and engage their workforce. Get the case study : The post Industry Insights: Senior Care Case study appeared first on Payactiv.

Predictors of Job Performance: What Drives Insurance Sales Agents [Case Study]

OCTOBER 18, 2022

As the affluent market is sophisticated in needs and wants, it is essential to recruit staff from the same market with all three predictors in mind (i.e., The post Predictors of Job Performance: What Drives Insurance Sales Agents [ Case Study ] appeared first on AIHR. A final word.

Product Case Study: Recruiting and Candidate Texting

DECEMBER 11, 2019

After years of manual applicant tracking and unreliable candidate communication, Paycor’s Candidate Texting allowed this commercial insurance recruiter to streamline and expedite his recruiting process. Read through the case study to discover how candidate texting can help with your Recruiting and applicant tracking.

Case Study: Foundations Counseling

Turning the Corner

OCTOBER 14, 2022

Foundations Counseling leadership knew that standard recruiting approaches were not working. Our methodology helped them take their recruiting to the next level. Consistency and speed are an unglamorous and critical factor in recruiting that is often overlooked. FC needed several new, high-quality counselors to join their team.

Merck Case Study

MAY 14, 2020

Personalized recruitment marketing content. Merck launched their new recruitment marketing strategy and content with a red carpet premiere party. The post Merck Case Study appeared first on Stories Incorporated. Merck engaged Stories Inc. Jen Hinkle, Director, Global Talent Acquisition. Launching the new content.

Case Study: EVO Entertainment

JANUARY 28, 2021

Recruiting options were limited and inefficient. Recruiting and onboarding that wasn’t user friendly. EVO partners with Paycor to recruit , onboard, pay and retain their workforce. Recruiting . Learning Management Recruiting . We’ve had some really strong hires because of Recruiting . Challenges. With Paycor.

Webhelp Case Study: Successful Job Placement with Soft Skills

DECEMBER 7, 2021

With thousands of new hires annually, streamlining the recruiting process had become a critical challenge for Webhelp. In need of a better process to identify top performers for key positions, Webhelp turned to Talentoday to help optimize the job placement process as soon as candidates passed the generic corporate recruitment phase.

Case Study: Credit Union

OCTOBER 1, 2020

Today’s case study explains how TimeSimplicity can help a typical small credit union maintain quality customer service while controlling operating expenses through automated credit union employee scheduling. We’ve just added recruiting , onboarding, benefits enrollment, performance reviews, and employee engagement!

Looking for Digital Recruiting Case Studies For New Book

MAY 31, 2019

The book is expected to be out Spring 2020 called Digitizing Talent: Creative Strategies for the Digital Recruiting Age. Workology is the art and science of work, HR and recruitment . I’m excited to announce that I’m working on a new book. Join the resource revolution.

Growing Together: Finding the Right Fit for Your Multifamily Property Management Needs

JUNE 20, 2023

The Recruitment Process for Hiring Property Managers Finding the perfect property manager requires a well-structured recruitment process. This can be done through a combination of written tests, case studies , and interviews. Click here [link] to connect with our award-winning Houston recruiters now!”

Brundage Management Case Study

Extended DISC

AUGUST 13, 2020

(BMC) is a privately owned Management Consulting Company headquartered in San Antonio, TX.

Talent Acquisition Tests in HR: Navigating the Path to Recruitment Triumph

FEBRUARY 9, 2024

Talent acquisition tests have become indispensable tools for HR teams aiming to enhance their recruitment strategy. Read on to learn how talent tests can drive recruitment excellence! Tests that assess critical cognitive abilities, soft skills, culture fit, and more can become pillars of an elevated recruitment blueprint.

Case Study: Buy Sod

JANUARY 14, 2020

Recruiting talent. partners with Paycor to recruit , onboard, pay and retain their workforce. Recruiting . Download the full case study here. Without access to tax experts, HR administrators spent multiple hours every pay period reviewing payruns to ensure compliance. Challenges. Lacked employee self-service.

Case Study: Pure Dental Brands

DECEMBER 7, 2020

Recruiting . Download the full case study here. Pure Dental Brands partners with Paycor to streamline processes, manage employees and increase efficiencies. Onboarding. Time & Attendance. The transition to Paycor was seamless. Ashley Brooker, VP of HR. Want More Information?

Case Study: Meeder Investment Management

JANUARY 17, 2020

Adding Paycor Recruiting , Onboarding and Learning Management to their HR process helped Meeder Investment Management save time and increase employee engagement. “I Meeder Investment Management, based in Dublin, Ohio, needed an automated recruiting , onboarding and LMS that integrated with their current system. Recruiting .

Case Study: Urban Chestnut Brewing Company

SEPTEMBER 25, 2020

Pre-pandemic, the craft brewery and restaurant employed 110 people and used different systems to manage payroll, scheduling, recruiting and benefits. Using various systems, some paper-based, for payroll, recruiting , onboarding, scheduling and benefits wasn’t sustainable. Lack of transparency during recruiting /hiring. Recruiting .

Case Study: The Value Of Pay Transparency And How To Implement It

HR Tech Girl

JULY 5, 2023

The data you need to bring to the table to make your case in your organization needs to come from a macro data set or from a recruiter who is telling you what the new range is for your role in other companies of the same size and stage. You’ll always be able to find a company somewhere that will pay your more.

The Ultimate Guide to Recruitment Marketing

FEBRUARY 12, 2024

Recruitment marketing has emerged as a powerful strategy to address this challenge by leveraging marketing principles to attract, engage, and nurture potential candidates throughout the hiring process. What is Recruitment Marketing? Key Components of Recruitment Marketing 1.

Offshore Recruitment: A Complete Guide for Recruiters

Recruiters Lineup

MAY 27, 2023

Recruiting top talent is crucial for the success of any organization. In today’s globalized world, businesses are increasingly turning to offshore recruitment as a strategy to find and hire the best candidates from around the world. Understanding Offshore Recruitment What is Offshore Recruitment ?

Case Study: AMFM

OCTOBER 28, 2019

Now, they’ve completely automated their recruiting and hiring processes while offering employees self-service to view pay stubs and update personal information. Read the case study to learn how Paycor helped AMFM improve efficiencies and reduce their average time-to-hire by 10 days.

9 Digital HR Case Studies with Business Impact

Digital HR Tech

OCTOBER 23, 2019

In this article, we have collected some of the best Digital HR case studies we’ve come across. Each case study is connected to a specific business imperative. More specifically, the organization wanted to increase the number of people their recruiters engaged with. What’s in? Anchor Trust 2. Deloitte 5.

Case Study: Launching a Culture-Focused Campus Recruiting Program

FEBRUARY 22, 2018

02/22/2018 // By Tracy Kelly // Case Study . A global, fast-growing technology company with a workforce of more than 1,500 faced a challenge: they needed to recruit future leaders to keep up with the organization’s continued growth. Solution: Culture-focused campus recruiting program.

The 10 Most Popular Articles Among Recruiters This Week

Linkedin Talent Blog

MARCH 2, 2018

In case you need a stimulating read, here’s a great list for you. We took a look at the articles staffing and corporate recruiters shared, liked, and commented on the most on LinkedIn during the last 7 days and posted them below. Artificial intelligence and recruitment . Here are the top posts for this week: 1.

The Power of Data: A Workplace Trust Case Study

FEBRUARY 21, 2018

Workplace Trust Case Study ACME company. Workology is the art and science of work, HR and recruitment . Do your employees believe you listen to what they have to say? These are critical questions that leadership needs to understand. Join the resource revolution.

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Watson case study - entitled as internal source of recruitment

Related Papers

atikur rahaman

An efficient work team is essential for effective implementation of business and delivery of services. To build an efficient team, HR management must ensure that talented, competent and committed persons are recruited in the company. So the recruitment and selection process should be objective, uniform and of high quality. From past decade the business organizations are more concentrating on the human capital because they are the most valued and most treasured assets. While recruiting the candidates the organizations has to map carefully the available human resources because they create the competitive advantage for the organizations. The aim of the paper is to study the recruitment and selection process in local companies (five local companies) private companies. The best human capital availability in organizations makes them competitive advantage and as well as they become the real life blood of the organizations. This research studies the review of literature for recruitment and ...

Abdul Amid Aziz Jalloh

Modern successful organisations are determined by the effective implementation of their activities through high quality employees who are attracted and retained for competitive advantage. The process of stimulating these high performance candidates to develop interests in joining these organisations has been a critical strategy and modelled several challenges in the competitive arena. This research seeks to unravel the difficulties associated with recruitment and selection processes and procedures in achieving organisations strategic objectives. The thrust for the effective examination of the elements of recruitment and selection led to the retrieval of secondary sources published on human resource management books and other relevant information that constitute the subject matters. Discussion was drawn from internal and external recruitment, their benefits and drawbacks and the relevance of administering employment tests in order to select suitable candidates for vacant jobs. Information extracted from relevant sources disclosed that the achievement of organisations strategic objectives can only be ascertained as a result of competent workforce whose services are solicited and retained through recruitment and selection processes and procedures conducted, either by the employing organisation or an assessment agency hired by such organisation to manage its recruitment process. In essence, recruitment and selection plays a vital role in attracting and retaining high quality employees organisations required to achieve strategic objectives. The relevance of facts obtained from this study could aid practising managers, employment agencies and human resource management specialists.

Hetvi Patel

IJAERS Journal

The recruitment is the main function of HR department and the recruitment process is the first step towards making the competitive quality and the recruitment strategic advantage for the association. A quantitative method used to analyze this study, the researchers prepared questionnaire and distributed at Telecommunication Companies in Erbil-Kurdistan. The objective of this research paper is to determine the recruitment and selection procedures in organizations, and finding out the methodologies that are involved in the process. Moreover, finding out how being qualified and having certificates affects the recruitment process, and how different criteria such as gender, race, and culture effect on it as well. The survey was conducted at Telecom Companies. Employees filled the survey. Data was collected and Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 23 was used as the statistical analysis tool while descriptive statistics were calculated and used in the interpretation of findings. The population of this study is approximately 220 employees, The researchers distributed 80 questionnaires, but 69 questionnaires received from participants, however only 60 questionnaires were properly filled out by the participants, accordingly my sample size was initially a total of (60) surveys, and %100 was turned back which means 60 surveys. Data for the research paper was collected through a questionnaire paper distributed to employees working at Telecom Companies. The researchers found that there is no difference in candidates' race and gender in internal promotion at Telecommunication Companies in Erbil-Kurdistan, therefore the researchers answered the first research question, and the second research question which stated that Within our organization, for second question the researchers found that the majority of participants believed that selection methods used (application forms, assessment centers, psychometric tests, interviews, CV data, references, group interviews) are important.

maxamed-nuur yuusuf

ritika swaroop

Alexander Decker

Aindrila Bhattacharyya

Marco Muñoz

Recruitment and selection practices in the private sector were examined through a literature review to identify strategies that human resource (HR) departments can use in designing new employee recruitment and selection processes or improving existing processes. The following were among the findings: (1) new employees recruited by using informal sources of recruitment such as employee referrals, rehires, and self-initiated walk-ins had a greater job survival within the organization than did new employees recruited through formal sources such as newspapers, radio advertisements, and posters; (2) small businesses tended to use more informal and unstructured recruitment and selection mechanisms than large organizations do; (3) job applicants did not have an adverse reaction toward organizations that administer personality inventories provided the inventories are applied in combination with ability tests during employee selection procedures; (4) different organizations preferred differe...

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Dr John Sullivan Talent Management Thought Leadership

Amazon recruiting – a case study of a giant among children.

January 17, 2022

Compare their results to all others, and you too will call Amazon… A Giant Recruiting Machine.

Note this case study is designed for quick scanning.

Yes, Amazon recruiting is in a class by themselves because they relentlessly hire when others cry for applicants. Of course, I don’t loosely use the phrase “A giant among children.” However, after doing numerous corporate case studies over the years covering other recruiting powerhouses (including Google, Apple, and Facebook). I quickly found that their record recruiting volumes across a broad range of jobs and locations could only be labeled as breathtaking. And just by chance, if you think that I’m not giving enough credit to most other corporate recruiting functions (even Google pales in comparison). You should realize that only a mere 18% of HR professionals even describe their own recruiting function as “top-notch” or “advanced.”

The Six Pillars Of Recruiting Excellence At Amazon

This Amazon case study reveals the many factors that cause Amazon’s recruiting function to be so far ahead of the competition. They are truly a giant because they excel in each of the six pillars of excellence in recruiting. The six pillars that make Amazon so successful are:

• Their recruiting impacts business results
• Their proven capability of handling huge recruiting volumes across a wide range 
• Their fanatical insistence on quality hires
• A scientific data-driven recruiting approach is the foundation of their success
• They utilize a one-size-fits-one agile hiring process 
• Their targeted recruiting sub-programs are second to none

Let’s jump immediately to the first and most important strategic pillar – Amazon’s record-breaking strategic business and recruiting results. 

Pillar #1. Amazon’s Recruiting Impacts Business Results

Amazon recruiting is aiming to go beyond simply producing recruiting results. And to also directly impact their corporation’s business results. Those results include:

• Hiring is the single most important element in Amazon’s business success – Jeff Bezos made it clear. “Setting the bar high in our approach to hiring has been, and will continue to be, the single most important element of Amazon.com’s success” (that’s not just the most important HR function, but the most important business function). Jeff began making this recruiting priority clear in the company’s very first annual shareholder letter in 1998. Most other corporations don’t admit this reality. But, it’s simply not possible for a large corporation to innovate and grow rapidly without fully funded exceptional recruiting. 
• Yet with all this emphasis, recruiting remains their primary challenge – The CFO recently publicly revealed that even with its current high priority, recruiting maintains a primary challenge. When he noted, for example, in the package movement area, “The availability of workers is Amazon’s primary challenge .” Rather than resting on their laurels, they realize that they continuously need to get much better is a primary reason they continue to improve in recruiting. 
• Amazon’s size and growth are made possible by its excellence in recruiting – the prime limiting factor that restricts the company from maintaining its quantum growth rate is the ability to successfully recruit a huge volume of employees each year. And because Amazon employs about 1.4 million people globally , they have already done a high recruiting volume. The employee headcount makes them the US’s second-largest private employer (after Walmart). I predict that they will soon surpass Walmart for the #1 spot as the largest employer in the US. I would also note that Amazon has helped to reduce unemployment. Because of the 400,000 people they hired for their U.S. operations network, 45% were previously unemployed. Their new CEO, Andy Jassy, reinforced the importance of continuous growth through recruiting by announcing that he was planning to hire 55,000 people for corporate and technology roles globally during his first months. That’s close to all of Facebook’s current headcount and nearly 1/3 of Google’s headcount.
• Recruiting has made a major contribution to its stock value – businesswise, their recruiting and operational excellence have directly contributed to the corporation’s incredibly high stock valuation. Currently, Amazon is the fifth most valuable global company in market cap valuation, nearly 1.65 Trillion dollars. 
• Recruiting has made a major contribution toward having an extremely productive workforce – the average revenue generated by each employee last year was $353,000, which is an amazing ROI. HR helped maintain that productivity by increasing management prerogatives by remaining a 100% union-free workforce. 

————————————————-

Pillar #2.  A proven capability for handling a huge volume of recruiting across a broad range of positions and locations

Amazon recruiting has proven over the years that it has the capability of recruiting a huge number of new hires across many different job families and locations.

• Recruiting volume and capability are second to none – the fact that during 2021 Amazon’s recruiting increased headcount by a whopping 63%  in a single year. The largest percentage increase in headcount ever accomplished by any large employer during peacetime! This is but one startling indication of recruiting’s agility and capability to ramp up their recruiting capability dramatically. Amazon, of course, must have an exceptional recruiting capability because it is America’s second-largest employer (and I predict that it will soon surpass Walmart). The workload handled by their recruiting function is unparalleled because it has as many as 30,000 openings at a single time.
• Powerful Employer Brand means that everyone considers them – it is clear that because of its HR work, Amazon is recognized as an excellent place to work. And its rankings, notoriety, and exposure are major contributors to its recruiting success. Some of their notable recognitions include:
•  This year, LinkedIn’s top US employer ranking – Amazon ranked by the prestigious professional network LinkedIn as the #1 company where Americans want to work and develop their careers. 
• A global best employer also – this year and a ranking of global employers, Amazon was ranked #2 on the “World’s Best Employers” list by Forbes. 
• Fortune’s world’s most admired companies – this year, Amazon was ranked #2 on Fortune’s prestigious “World’s Most Admired Companies” list for the fifth year in a row. (After Apple). 
• BCG’s most innovative firms – this year, the Boston Consulting Group rated Amazon #3 on their “most innovative firms” list (after Apple and Alphabet). 
• Amazon is the best at attracting a record-breaking volume of applicants – as previously noted. In 2020 Amazon received a record-shattering 30 million applications , an all-time record. But it is especially impressive because it occurred when almost every major corporation and business struggled to get even a few applications for each job. The attractiveness of Amazon is illustrated by the fact that they received a breathtaking “ 1 Million Job Applications (in 1 day) ” as part of their 2021 annual Career Day event.
• Amazon has the capability of recruiting over an amazing range of jobs – companies like Google and Facebook have an easy recruiting job because they recruit mostly engineers. In comparison, Amazon must have the capability of recruiting everything from AI experts, pilots, book specialists, entertainment specialists, and cloud experts down to package handlers. In fact, Amazon can recruit across five extremely diverse business units (Amazon.com, AWS, Alexa, Whole Foods Market, and Amazon Prime) and 32 distinct technical groups. Their new Project Kuiper will even require them to hire rocket scientists as they attempt to launch satellites into orbit to widen their broadband access. In my view, their recruiting leaders deserve major kudos for developing their recruiting capability in so many completely different skill areas. And because they are a technology company, they rely heavily on technology throughout their recruiting function. 
• Amazon’s recruiting capability is truly global – because it is a worldwide e-commerce company, Amazon operates and recruits in 13 countries. In the US alone, it operates more than 930 facilities (including two headquarters locations). And last year, it received job applications from 170 different countries.

Pillar # 3. Fanatical Insistence On Quality Hires

Their third and most important pillar of recruiting excellence is their fanatical insistence on only hiring quality candidates. In comparison, few corporations spend the time defining and measuring the quality of hire (i.e., top-performing new hire). And only 36% even attempt to measure the quality of hire . Amazon ensures that they will get those quality hires using seven unique recruiting approaches. They include:

• Their goal is to be the “Earth’s Best Employer” – yes, Jeff Bezos’ stated, and only a little bit outrageous, goal is to make Amazon “ the world’s best employer . However, in my experience, it is a goal that they have already met. Executives, managers, HR professionals, and recruiters work together to reach it. In their words, they reach that goal because  “Their leaders work every day to create a safer, more productive, higher-performing, more diverse, and more just work environment. They lead with empathy, have fun at work, and make it easy for others to have fun. Leaders ask themselves: “Are my fellow employees growing?” “Are they empowered?” “Are they ready for what’s next?” “Leaders have a vision for and commitment to their employees’ personal success, whether that be at Amazon or elsewhere.”
• The Bezos approach to hiring is laser-focused on quality – their hiring managers and the recruiting function’s insistence on quality has remained solid throughout the years. I find that this fanatical insistence on quality is in direct contrast to the approach taken by most hiring managers at other corporations. During this candidate shortage, managers have been allowed in desperation “to fill butts in chairs.”

Amazon’s #1 advocate of hiring only quality employees is Jeff Bezos. He has shown his expectations in many often-repeated quotes, statements, and expectations. Including: 

• “It would be impossible to produce results in an environment as dynamic as the Internet without extraordinary people… Setting the bar high in our approach to hiring has been and will continue to be the single most important element of Amazon.com’s success.”
•  “If you can’t hire quality, don’t hire at all.” “I’d rather interview 50 people and not hire anyone than hire the wrong person.”
• “Don’t “settle for second best” when hiring. Instead, “Do what it takes to find the best people available.”
• “Every time we hire someone, he or she should raise the bar for the next hire so that the overall talent pool was always improving.” Bezos “ doesn’t care about an efficient hiring process .” “And he certainly “Doesn’t believe in making a hire, simply for the sake of filling an open role.”
• At Amazon, raising the bar means answering three questions for each candidate. First, “Will this person raise the average level of effectiveness of the group they’re entering?” Next, it asks, “Will you admire this person?” And last, it asks, “In what important area might this person be a superstar?” (In cases where they should be placed in a different job than they applied for). 
• Amazon utilizes “bar raisers” as its primary way to ensure quality – a key Amazon expectation for leaders – “Is to raise the Amazon’s use of “ bar raisers .” They get that name because their sole role is to ensure that each new hire will “raise the bar over the last incumbent” in each open job. The work during the interview process is to provide outside and neutral candidate assessments. To prevent a candidate from focusing on these individuals, they are anonymous to the candidate. These quality control individuals are from outside the team that is doing the hiring. And as a result, they are more likely to be critical because they don’t face the same “pressures to immediately fill the job” that hiring managers and teammates do. With this volunteer role, they accept the responsibility to literally “veto” any candidate they feel will not be a good fit for Amazon. Amazon’s new hires are quality employees because Amazon promoted more than 68,000 employees globally during 2020.
• Hiring is a unanimous team decision – a second method for ensuring that they only hire a quality candidate requires a unanimous team decision. One prominent former Amazon executive noted that Bezos “ Believes hiring should not only be a team effort. It should be a team decision.” So in most cases, “After final interviews, each member of the hiring team meets in a room to share their opinions on each candidate. And after a discussion, a vote takes place, and the results have to be unanimous for the person to be hired.” A single “no” vote would mean that the team will have to go back and search again for the ideal employee. 
• Amazon’s “unregretted turnover metric” helps fix hiring errors – Amazon assigns an “unregretted turnover metric” to its managers. It serves as an imperfect post-hire check on weak performing employees that somehow made it through their hiring process. This after-hiring double-check mirrors the approach that General Electric had under Jack Welch. Under this “regrettable turnover metric,” Managers at Amazon have a target rate for annual employee turnover. This means they are expected to lose a specified number of employees that they “ wouldn’t regret losing ” (i.e., below-average performing employees). Although this practice may appear harsh on the surface, it forces hiring managers to reassess each new hire periodically. 
• Paying employees to quit – this “Pay Employees to Quit” approach is a second post-hiring check on quality under this program (borrowed from Zappos). Amazon proactively offers incentives to unhappy recent hires during their first five years. The goal is to force unhappy recent hires to take a minute once each year to decide if they “really want to stay.” Based on the premise that keeping workers unsure of their commitment to Amazon will harm both the customers and the team. So if a worker decides that they don’t want to be here, they can get between $1000 and $5000 for walking away.
• Finally, improve new-hire quality by assessing candidates on Amazon’s leadership principles – one of the primary ways Amazon maintains quality hiring and fit. By assessing every candidate on Amazon’s published “leadership principles.” So each candidate at Amazon is expected to know and commit to following them ( these principles are posted on their jobs website ). As a result, everyone involved in hiring is expected to assess every candidate’s knowledge and commitment to these principles. At least 3 of these 15 principles relate directly to recruiting. Those three principles are below:
• Hire and develop the best – leaders raise the performance bar with every hire and promotion. They recognize exceptional talent and willingly move them throughout the organization. Leaders develop leaders and take their role in coaching others seriously. We work on behalf of our people to invent mechanisms for development like Career Choice.
• Insist on the highest standards – leaders have relentlessly high standards. Many people may think these standards are unreasonably high. Leaders continually raise the bar and drive their teams to deliver high-quality products, services, and processes. Leaders ensure that defects do not get sent down the line and that problems are fixed, so they stay fixed.
• Deliver results – leaders focus on the key inputs for their business and deliver them with the right quality and timely fashion. Despite setbacks, they rise to the occasion and never settle. 

If you’re interested in the 12 remaining leadership principles, click here . The remainder mostly focuses on key workforce capabilities, including customer obsession, innovation, learning, and ownership of problems.

Pillar #4. A scientific data-driven approach is the foundation for their success

During my assessment, I found that a primary reason why Amazon recruiting excels in so many different areas is that it operates under the umbrella of one of the most strategic HR functions. Their HR function is guided by 7 HR tenets , which are the guidelines that every HR function follows to “Maintain a Culture of Builders and Innovators. In my experience, shifting to a data-driven approach is required to maintain a culture in a large organization. Fortunately, Amazon is one of only a handful of HR functions (along with Google, Sodexo, and Nestlé Purina) that already makes decisions based on data and results metrics. Find that HR tenet in the box below. 

Every strategic recruiting function should know and follow three additional Amazon HR and leadership tenets. They are:

• Recruiting must focus on directly impacting business results – because BCG research revealed that “ recruiting has the highest impact on business results .” Therefore, it makes sense to follow and adhere to their HR tenet “We manage HR as a business.” Acting like a business starts with, rather than simply “aligning with business goals,” recruiting leaders purposely set recruiting goals and manage recruiting actions and resources to produce the maximum direct and measurable impact on business results. The next step is to reduce recruiting approaches that can’t demonstrate their business impact. And the final step is to convert recruiting problems and results into their dollar impact on corporate revenue (e.g., our recruiting efforts on sales jobs allowed us to maintain $232.5 million in sales revenue). Reporting recruiting results in dollars of revenue impact allow executives to quickly compare your dollar impacts to those from other HR and business functions.
• You must assume continuous obsolescence along with rapid learning – you should also follow another of Amazon’s HR tenets. Which is “Learn and Be Curious.” Because in an unpredictable world, you simply can’t prepare for most things. The secret to thriving is rapid continuous learning immediately as new problems and opportunities arrive. So the first step in a recruiting world where everything changes should be operating under the assumption that every current thing in recruiting will soon become obsolete. And, of course, you won’t be able to detect that obsolescence without collecting and applying performance data. Next, you must also continually be looking for a replacement for every current recruiting approach and tool. And that can only be accomplished by continuously learning about evolving business and recruiting approaches at other advanced companies. To identify the ones that might be applied to your recruiting situation. And finally, you won’t be able to determine if your new solutions are superior without following the tenet hypothesis testing covered in the next bullet point. 
• The utilization of hypothesis testing and experimentation – perhaps the most prominent difference between traditional and scientific recruiting is an insistence on hypothesis testing to discover what works and what doesn’t. The HR tenet is “ We form hypotheses about the best talent acquisition, talent retention, and talent development techniques and then set out to prove or disprove them with experiments and careful data collection.” For example, a split-sample experiment could prove or disprove the hypothesis that “Diverse interviewers select more diverse candidates” (They don’t). Google HR has also long been a supporter of hypothesis testing. An outrageous example of Amazon’s hypothesis testing occurred when their AWS group experimented by placing a job ad on the Tinder dating site.

Amazon Recruiting – A Case Study Of A Giant Among Children (Part 2 of 2 parts)

Today, every manager needs to learn great recruiting… and to find it, they need only follow Amazon!

The title of this case study includes the phrase “A Giant Among Children.” That’s just how large I found the differential between Amazon’s recruiting and the recruiting practices at most corporations. And if you take the time to read this case study, I am sure that you will agree with the sharp assessment. Of course, many managers already justifiably study Amazon because of its excellence in well-known areas, including customer service, supply chain, and cloud computing. However, most don’t realize that Amazon can only excel in so many divergent business areas because it is “a recruiting machine .” It recruits effortlessly even during our current talent shortage when most others starved for applicants. This case study is designed to show you their best practices and what makes them “a recruiting giant among children.” 

Pillar #5. Amazon’s amazing array of targeted recruiting programs

In my view, the most surprising of all of Amazon’s 6 pillars of excellence is their willingness to develop and offer numerous individual recruiting and career transition programs that are “customized” to the needs of distinct groups of candidates and employees. Targeting subprograms is essential because different groups are attracted and motivated by different offerings. At Amazon, they specifically target a wide array of people, including diverse women, veterans, the elderly, and those that need internal movement or an upward push. Unfortunately, space limitations prevent me from highlighting all of the amazing, targeted programs in operation at Amazon. However, you will find a representative sample of 14 of their exceptional targeted recruiting programs below. The programs that likely have the largest impact appear first on the list.

• The Returnship program helps the unemployed reenter the workforce – The Returnship is a reentry program designed to help the underemployed and those who have been out of the workforce for at least a year (usually due to unemployment, children staying at home, or Covid concerns). This program aims to provide this target group with a rare opportunity to restart their careers by joining Amazon. At the beginning of the program, “returners” work on a specific project. And after four months, they have earned the possibility to move into full-time positions at Amazon. During those four months, participants work remotely from home. If they need it, they provide child and elder care assistance. So they can ease back into the workforce without making any major life changes while they are in this program. And when they accept a permanent role, Amazon will also pay for their relocation if needed. Since their Returnship pilot initiative in January of 2021, Amazon reports that the program has enrolled more than 60 people, and 95% of them received an offer for a full-time role at Amazon. In the future, Amazon has stated that they plan to hire 1,000 professionals into the program during the coming years in roles ranging from finance to engineering.
• The Best Fit Program makes it easier for software engineers to find their perfect job – this best fit program is an accelerated job identification program. Designed specifically to help software engineers that are applying find their perfect job fit among all relevant Amazon jobs. This program helps make their job search at Amazon quicker and more accurate. Those in the program can avoid putting in the traditional multiple hours of searching for their right job. It allows these software engineers to apply once and then be automatically considered for thousands of relevant jobs across the company. A combination of electronic and human matching approaches finds the jobs that fit their preferences during the first step. For their ideal kind of team and their desired working style. But the program will still recommend jobs in new areas in which Amazon thinks they would also be successful. During the last part of the process, applicants get to meet all of the hiring managers for each of the recommended jobs. And finally, they get to choose their first job at Amazon.
• The Career Choice Program supports employees who want a college degree – support for getting a college degree or GED is a major attraction factor. One of the goals of this Career Choice educational opportunity program is to help lower-level Amazon employees transition into more lucrative paying and high-demand fields (and perhaps even leaving Amazon). For eligible employees, Amazon will now pay 100% of its employee’s college tuition and fees for earning a diploma or certificate in a qualified field of study at eligible schools. Recently the program has been updated to allow more flexibility.
• The UX Apprenticeship – It encourages development in research and design – Amazon’s User Experience Design and Research Apprenticeship program provide a combination of instructor-led training and real-world experience in a one-year program. It offers employees the opportunity to learn and develop research and design skills on Amazon teams, including Prime Video, Alexa, AWS, and Amazon Fashion. Apprenticeship graduates can move into jobs that help improve the experience of Amazon customers, from making payments easier on Amazon sites to designing features that make devices more accessible.
• Surge2IT – Proactively encourages career advancement in IT – their Surge2IT program is another career transition program designed to help entry-level IT employees across Amazon’s operations network. It focuses on IT employees who don’t possess a software development degree. After completing this program, they can become software development engineers after about nine months. This program allows lower-level IT employees to pursue careers in higher-paying technical roles through this self-paced learning resource. The course helps employees develop the skills necessary to advance their careers in the information technology field. Participants who complete this course and move up at Amazon can make up to an additional $10,000 a year.
• The Amazon Technical Academy makes you a software developer in nine months – this career transition program requires nothing more than an interest in software development. It started as an experiment, and since then, it has successfully enrolled hundreds of employees. Amazon Technical Academy builds on their initial interest by training them in the essential skills needed to transition to an entry-level software developer engineer role at Amazon. The program is free for their employees. And it requires a high school diploma or GED. And the fortitude to get through a rigorous nine-month, full-time program that expert Amazon software engineers created.
• The Mechatronics program prepares employees for robot maintenance jobs – under this career transition program in robotic repair . It is designed for employees interested in learning engineering and mechanical skills necessary to repair and maintain the equipment and robots inside Amazon facilities. Those that are accepted get the opportunity to go back to school for a free 12-week course. After that, employees begin a year of on-the-job learning under a technical maintenance specialist. After completing this final step, employees who now have these highly sought-after skills are eligible for a full-time role as a mechatronics and robotics technician, which may increase their paycheck by up to 40%.
• Project Juno – aids in relocating current employees – this internal movement program helps out when a current employee must relocate. After they have decided that they must move, this Amazon job finding process electronically finds the relocating employee the same or a similar job available at the Amazon facility in their new city.
• CamperForce – This Program offers jobs to traveling seasonal workers – CamperForce offers jobs for those who travel in RVs and work along the way. They are known as Work Campers. And because Amazon especially needs people to work in its warehouses during the holidays. They now encourage and hire seasonal help that live in a trailer or RV. In addition to welcoming them, Amazon pays them a small monthly stipend to live in their own trailer at an RV facility close to an Amazon warehouse site where they will work.
• The Military Spouses Program –  provides jobs for military spouses – the goal is to find jobs for the spouses of Amazon’s 45,000 veteran and military employees. Designed to find military spouses an appropriate job at Amazon. Either for the first time or when he or she must relocate along with their military spouse. In addition, Amazon recently pledged to hire over 100,000 U.S. veterans and military spouses by 2024, further building on their commitment to military families. 
• Amazon Warriors – provides support for transitioning veterans – this veterans support program is designed to help recent veterans transition into Amazon’s workforce. It helps by offering a professional network of Amazon employees that are veterans. It also provides a mechanism for community outreach.
• People with disabilities – They have their own targeted website – Amazon offers a targeted site specifically to meet the needs of applicants with disabilities. The site also educates them on how to take the best advantage of what Amazon has to offer applicants and employees with disabilities.
• Amazon hires felons – Amazon has no blanket policy against hiring felons. In fact, they are open to hiring them into seasonal jobs. Depending on the type of felony, time since they fulfilled their sentence, and the corrective actions completed, however, after successfully completing that initial assignment and based on their performance. The felon may then be considered for a more permanent position. 
• Amazon employee referrals – like most large corporations, Amazon has a formal referral program. Unfortunately, I only rate it as a little better-than-average because only 11% of those interviewed are employee referrals . And they pay a range of bonuses up to $5000 for a referral that is hired .

Pillar #6. Unique elements in their “one-size-fits-one” agile hiring process

I have discovered 7 unique hiring process elements that contribute to making Amazon’s hiring process highly agile, flexible, and adaptable. These seldom found elsewhere elements make it possible for their hiring process to adapt to the recruiting needs of every Amazon business unit and location. Those unique elements include:

• By design, their hiring process flexes to fit every unique job – they hire in so many global locations and across so many jobs from pilot to janitor. Their candidate assessment process must be modifiable to fit the unique assessment requirements for each job family. We call this capability “one-size-fits-all one.” Of course, the hiring process includes the basic elements for all jobs, including the standard ATS/recruiter resume screen, a phone screen, and at least one structured remote or live behavioral interview. Some portion of that interview will be devoted to assessing the candidate’s understanding of Amazon’s culture through its leadership principles .  However, the interviews will likely last all day for most professional jobs. Often it will include an online test and a verbally presented work sample or problem to complete. The candidate may also be asked to write up an idea in a press release format (because that’s the way ideas are presented at Amazon). Or, developers may be required to participate in a virtual or in-person interactive whiteboard exercise for developer jobs where they have the candidate walk them through the steps they would take to solve a current software problem. In the end, the team will always make the final hiring decision, and the “bar raiser” gatekeeper will have the option of vetoing that choice.
• To increase innovation, Amazon specifically targets problem-solving skills – one thing that is common across all business units at Amazon is the need for innovation. And as a result, Amazon targets candidates that thrive at solving a never-ending queue of complex problems. They consider a spirit of innovation part of their DNA at Amazon. They clearly state upfront that they are looking for “analytical and critical thinkers with great judgment, who can both think big and roll up their sleeves to solve hard problems on behalf of our customers.” 
• Amazon increases its applications by removing the mystery from its hiring process – many firms talk about their “candidate experience.” However, I have found that applying for a job at most firms is a long way from being user-friendly. We know this because the number one complaint from applicants is almost always that the hiring process that they are about to face “is a complete mystery.” Amazon, instead, leads the way ( along with J&J ) in removing the mystery out of what the candidate can expect during their hiring process. They offer an extensive array of numerous free resources that guide applicants ( our hiring process website ) to meet this goal. It highlights what any candidate can expect from the day they apply until they begin work. In addition, they also offer suggestions on the best interviewing practices for its candidates to follow on its YouTube channel and its LinkedIn feed . They also make it clear that serious candidates must study the company’s leadership principles mentioned earlier. Finally, they help applicants understand the different teams they can work in. By providing them with a list of the 32 possible teams , a description of what they do, and how many open jobs are currently open in each team. They even have a “best-fit program” that uses artificial intelligence to help software engineers find their perfect job within Amazon.
• Amazon holds a national Career Day event like no other – many firms, including McDonald’s and Walmart, hold “national hiring days.” However, I find that they pale in comparison to Amazon’s. They call their unique Career Day “America’s biggest training and recruiting event.” It actually is unique because it goes well beyond the typical job fair. In addition to displaying open jobs, it offers remote personalized career coaching sessions and even some tactical training. It further provides candid advice on how job seekers can start, build, or transition their careers at Amazon. Last year, they received 1 million applications for their Career Day event.
• Amazon relies heavily on seasonal workers as a talent pipeline source – research has shown that often the new hire has the highest probability of success. Someone that has recently successfully served as a temp, intern, or contractor at the organization. Amazon takes advantage of this high-quality source by hiring well over 100k seasonal workers each year. In addition to filling their seasonal need, the seasonal workforce serves as an effective screening process for determining which seasonal workers should be offered a full-time job. It also gives the worker a chance to determine if they really want to work at Amazon.
• They use FC brand ambassadors to improve their brand proactively – I’ve never seen this done before. But, to counter the massive amounts of negative Twitter messaging found about working at their warehouses. Amazon has asked long-term employees at its fulfillment centers to act as brand ambassadors in an extraordinary move to improve their online employment branding. They don’t get extra pay, but they get $50 gift cards as a small reward for tweeting positive things about working in their warehouses.
• A shift in emphasis to remote and broader college recruiting – makes college recruiting more effective, diverse, and remote. Amazon is curtailing some campus visits and heavily emphasizing virtual student meetings. It has also broadened its reach to many more campuses to get added diversity to the point where for example, last year, it extended offers to students from 80 M.B.A. programs (instead of exclusively going to a few elite schools).

Amazon Utilizes Data To Identify The Most Powerful Attraction Factors

Rather than assuming that applicant attraction factors stay the same in a fast-changing world. A critical part of Amazon’s highly agile and adaptable recruiting process is continually gathering data to update “the most effective attraction factors” for their targeted potential applicants. Here are 8 examples of how they identify the attraction factors and the current ones.

• They start by using data to identify the most current attraction factors – most corporations simply guess at them or assume that they are the same as last year. In comparison, Amazon uses data to identify its current attraction factors. At Amazon, these attraction factors currently fit into four categories. Each of the four is emphasized on their main career website . The four primary attraction categories include benefits , career advancement , work/life balance, and culture . As part of their data-driven approach, they continually survey new hires to determine the general and the specific factors that actually attracted them to Amazon. And last year, 93% of their new hires cited Amazon’s Career Skills and Upskilling training program s as their top attraction factor. As a follow-up, Amazon is investing $700 million in upskilling 100,000 employees in the U.S. by 2025.
• They proactively encourage work/life balance – although some may argue about their level of success. Amazon boldly lists work/life balance as one of its four primary attraction categories. And on its work/life balance website , it describes how Amazon strives to help its employees reach that balance.
• Amazon is acting to reduce applicant health and injury concerns – during the pandemic. Amazon has focused on reducing Covid risks and workplace injuries as roadblocks that reduce potential warehouse applicants. So in that light, Amazon is currently developing a new automated staff schedule process. It reduces the risk of injury by utilizing computer algorithms to rotate employees between jobs when completed. A more frequent rotation is needed because their data reveals that roughly 40% of their work-related fulfillment center injuries are due to sprains and strains caused by repetitive motions. 
• Higher base pay – Amazon was one of the first companies to realize that they needed to raise employee pay and its hourly jobs in a tight U.S. job market. So Amazon’s average starting wage is now over $18 per hour, with an additional $3 depending on their shift.
• Sign-on bonuses – like many companies, Amazon has begun offering significant sign-on bonuses at some of their fulfillment centers (up to $4000).
• Being dog friendly is surprisingly an attraction factor – in work areas where it is safe. Amazon is one of the few companies that actively encourage dogs in the office. And because of their efforts, Amazon was listed as the #1 dog-friendly company in the US by Rover.com . Their leadership has noted that “Amazon has found that dogs in the office actually contribute to their collaborative company culture.” 
• They stopped testing applicants for cannabis –   in many states recreational or medical cannabis use is now legal. Amazon has been a leader in announcing that it will no longer screen finalist candidates for marijuana use. In part because this testing was unnecessarily reducing their candidate pool. But Amazon went one step further. It alerted its independent delivery service partners that if they too stopped testing for marijuana during their application process and prominently advertised that fact. They could boost their own business’s job applications by up to 400%.
• They offer anytime pay – this last attraction factor may not seem like much. However, it has proved to be an attraction factor for the many hourly workers that live paycheck to paycheck. Amazon’s free fast pay program offers the option, in some jobs, for eligible employees to receive 70% of their eligible earned pay whenever they choose (24×7).

Of course, Amazon is working on its weak points

Amazon is still far from perfect in areas other than recruiting despite all its efforts. Despite its ranking by LinkedIn as the #1 employer. They still receive relentless criticism because of their corporation’s size, speed of innovation, impact on small businesses, their percentage of diversity, and the waste they produce. Even some innovators criticize them for excessively keeping some innovative projects secret from other internal teams (just like Apple). 

In management, they have also received volumes of criticism, especially because of their anti-union stance and their common practice of continually replacing “human jobs” with robots. The media revealed that they once selected which workers to release using an algorithm, and they subsequently fired them via email. Its managers have been criticized for not telling their employees when placed under a performance management plan. They are also well-known for their fast-paced work environment that some argue can lead to excess injuries and employee burnout. And as a result of that work stress, in some cases, they have had to pay “show up bonuses” to reduce their sometimes-rampant warehouse absenteeism. Finally, as most great firms do, they have a relatively high employee turnover rate. This can be partly explained because they are constantly under attack by their competitor’s recruiters, who are logically targeting their exceptional talent. 

Final Thoughts

Today when I am asked by those beginning their career where they should work, I, without hesitation, say Amazon. It is primarily an innovation machine that dominates in so many different product areas and across so many industries. In the same light, if you are a recruiting leader, your goal is to lead your industry in recruiting and HR eventually. It’s time to realize that you must focus your best practice research exclusively on Amazon. You can learn so much so fast (Note: the previous recruiting leader, Google, has lost its luster since Laszlo left).

If you’re interested in past case studies by Dr. Sullivan 

The initial landing pages for Dr. Sullivan’s previous case studies on Google, Apple, and Facebook can be found on his www.drjohnsullivan.com website by clicking here . You can go directly to the introductory part of his four-part Apple case study by clicking here . The first part of his Google recruiting case study can be found here . Part 1 of his Facebook case study can be found here .

Author’s Note  

• Please share these best practices by sending this case study to your team and network or sharing it on social media. 
• Next, if you don’t already subscribe to Dr. Sullivan’s weekly Talent Newsletter, you can do that here .
• Also, join the well over 11,000 that have followed or connected with Dr. Sullivan’s community on LinkedIn . 

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About Dr John Sullivan

Hire The Not-Yet-Promotable… And Improve Internal Movement (Hiring for this and the next job)

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Lessons from Beyoncé on Navigating Exclusion

• Ella F. Washington,
• Hildana Haileyesus,
• Laura Morgan Roberts

The star’s path from CMA Awards backlash to Cowboy Carter is a case study in strategic response.

In 2016, Beyoncé’s performance at the CMA Awards sparked backlash from fans complaining about everything from her attire to her lack of connection to the genre. This year, she released her first country album, which debuted at number one on the Billboard 200. Her actions over the past eight years have been a case study in how to navigate workplace exclusion. As a first step, it often makes sense to exit the conversation and wait for a better moment to respond. Then, work behind the scenes, ideally with collaborators, to push for change. Finally, consider focusing on your own authenticity and strengths to create your own lane within your organization or outside it.

Beyoncé, the globally revered singer, songwriter, and entrepreneur, last month released her new album Cowboy Carter.   However, this project is much more than another musical release from a leading star. It offers a case study in how to navigate workplace exclusion.

• Ella F. Washington  is an organizational psychologist; the founder and CEO of Ellavate Solutions, a DEI strategy firm; and a professor of practice at Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business. She is the author of  The Necessary Journey: Making Real Progress on Equity and Inclusion  (HBR Press, November 2022) and  Unspoken: A Guide to Cracking the Hidden Corporate Code  (Forbes Books, May 2024). 
• Hildana Haileyesus  is a DEI consultant at  Ellavate Solutions with a background in training and facilitation, client strategy, and research. She has worked across higher education and business and applies a sociological lens to equity-driven change efforts.
• Laura Morgan Roberts is a Frank M. Sands Sr. Associate Professor of Business Administration at the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business. She is an organizational psychologist and the coeditor of Race, Work and Leadership: New Perspectives on the Black Experience (Harvard Business Review Press, 2019).

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