Automation helps CARQUEST boost performance right off the line

From May 2007

By Lorrie Grant

CARQUEST knew that its hiring procedures were sputtering and in need of a tune-up. Each year, an average of 6,000 workers are hired for hourly positions at the auto parts retailers’ 3,400 stores and 40 distribution centers. CARQUEST executives always recognized the importance of hiring the right people, but it began using technology for the initial process of screening job applicants a little over a year ago.

“As you grow more and more you say, ‘Something has to be done. We can’t continue to kill ourselves to do this the slowest way possible,’” says Don Evans, recruiting manager for General Parts International, which owns the CARQUEST brand.

In the case of CARQUEST, the “slowest way” meant having job candidates fill out paper applications, which were subsequently faxed to store managers throughout the region or market. It generally took a month to get someone hired – a timeframe that was beginning to cripple the Raleigh, N.C.-based company.

Now, with automation, managers can wrap up a hire in 17 days. That’s because application records are stored, and all a hiring manager has to do is shuffle through a database of applicants to retrieve someone who fills a certain set of needs: experience level, customer-service capabilities, product knowledge. Likewise, the retailer can more quickly discern the personal traits of an applicant, such as punctuality.

“It’s a good and necessary weeding out process,” says George Whalin, president of San Diego-based Retail Management Consultants. “Before, the store manager would spend hours interviewing” – hours that store managers just don’t have to give.

Approximately 60 percent of the U.S. workforce consists of hourly wage earners, and many of them are in the retail sector. With so much of the business in the hands of sales agents, these hourly workers are the heart of many a business. Only recently, however, has it become commonplace for retailers with multiple stores to use technology that aids with HR needs.

CARQUEST sought Peopleclick when it wanted to make hiring more efficient. Raleigh, N.C.-based Peopleclick provides workforce acquisition and management software for human resources functions ranging from recruitment to compliance with federal laws.

Its web-based recruitment management systems screen candidates, support human resources decision-making, manage headcount and monitor staffing processes. Its vendor-management applications connect hiring managers to vendors in order to reduce temporary staffing costs, and its affirmative action applications help companies comply with equal opportunity employer regulations.

CARQUEST needed to empower store managers in the hiring process, Evans says, to remove some of the load borne by its 50 corporate recruiters. Peopleclick’s standardized process, he says, “helps us stay out of legal hot water. Now all of our locations go through the same process.”

CARQUEST “is not a human resources expert,” says Eric Edwards, senior product manager for Peopleclick’s high volume division, “so the software guides them through things to keep their risks low, such as affirmative action questions that have to be asked of every candidate.”

At the starting line
Here’s how it works: An applicant walks into a store and is directed to a kiosk. Aside from the usual particulars – name, address, phone, date of birth, social security number – there are pre-employment assessments tailored to the position for which he is applying. At CARQUEST, the pre-employment screening deals primarily with behavioral questions that assess competency and an inclination toward customer service.

The automated system kicks out those applicants deemed to be poor matches, enabling retailers to find quality employees faster and with less risk.