PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) is a forward-thinking, innovative professional services organisation, with a strong global presence in assurance, tax and advisory services. It is the largest professional services organisation in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), with over 6,500 employees across 36 offices in 25 countries.
The challenge - a consistent experience in a diverse marketplace
As a result of strong demand across the region, PwC CEE has experienced rapid growth, with its numbers growing from 4,000 to over 6,500 in two years. With competition for highly-qualified, dynamic individuals now becoming increasingly intense, PwC CEE decided it needed to take a more proactive approach to recruitment, identifying and engaging with pools of talent - wherever they may be across the region.
Using the StepStone i-GRasp solution PwC CEE has implemented a single, multilingual platform for all student and experienced hire recruiting activities resulting in some 500 new employees from 12,000 applicants in just six months, with an expectation to receive an estimated 30,000 applications over the course of the first year.
The solution
Following a competitive tender process, PwC CEE's Regional Resourcing team implemented i-GRasp across the region, beginning in October 2006.
By moving to an online recruitment process and providing a single shared platform for the region, PwC CEE was confident it would be able to recruit at a truly international level. The new technology would need to deliver a compelling experience to all candidates, and keep recruitment overheads firmly under control. By enabling candidates to apply and view vacancies in local language and English (9 different languages to date), the solution provides international job seekers with a 'local experience'.
Technical robustness was also important since many countries would be working with minimal technical support. As a fully web-hosted platform, i-GRasp provides this. The solution allows resourcing staff to post new vacancies and publicise events, whilst supporting the entire recruitment process end-to-end. All correspondence with applicants is handled electronically, from shortlisting and interview scheduling.
Alan Frewer, Resourcing Leader at PricewaterhouseCoopers Central and Eastern Europe, comments, Whilst the CEE region is geographically immense and highly diverse, local staffing requirements can vary considerably, and cross-border hires are quite common. As a result, the ability to implement a shared international process with a multi-territory talent pool, coupled with delivering an enhanced, localised candidate experience, greatly increased our recruiting capabilities.
The Implementation: collaboration in action
Given the geographical scope and aggressive timeframe for the implementation, PwC CEE adopted best practice training methods to ensure the new solution went live as quickly as possible. i-GRasp 'super users' were appointed to lead separate work streams in every key market. Working with a small team of local HR and business professionals - and with the support of specialist IT, marketing, legal and finance advice - they used i-GRasp to develop and implement recruitment processes that would satisfy local needs.
Measures such as 'reverse shadowing' allow experienced i-GRasp users to work alongside new users, whilst each territory received dedicated classroom training for up to 100 managers. This formal training was supported by an innovative e-learning environment.
The results - a solid platform for growth
PwC CEE's careers web site is now hosted and maintained by i-GRasp, and lists every vacancy available across the region. The site allows candidates to search vacancies at a local or regional level, and submit applications either in their own language or in English. A personal Account facility allows them to save uncompleted applications, or check the progress of applications in progress.
Discussing the benefits of implementing the technology, Alan Frewer comments: From the candidate's perspective, we have eased the job seeking process and enhanced the overall experience. Regardless of the candidate's location or the job vacancy they are applying for, they can navigate the site in their local language and receive additional information such as updated job alerts tailored to their own requirements.
For an international project of this kind, some cultural issues and initial hurdles were expected. For instance, there was some reluctance in initial implementation phase in Poland. Some of the local people expressed early concerns about taking the recruitment process online, however we sent experienced recruiters to career fairs to demonstrate how the software worked. After overcoming the initial hurdle and perceptions towards new technology, the feedback has been extremely positive.
PricewaterhouseCoopers CEE: E-Recruitment with a personal touch
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