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IN THIS CASE STUDYSocial and professional networking websites are significantly changing the way organizations recruit employees. By embracing these technologies, enterprises not only expand their sourcing strategies, but also deliver an engaging, positive brand experience and maximize their web presence. At the same time, job boards are losing their luster as their costs skyrocket and the quality of their applicants is diluted by increasing numbers of job seekers.

Will social and professional networking sites, search engine optimization and employer branding replace or reduce the number of job boards? Also, what kinds of specific changes are employers making to address these new trends?

Over the past two years, 7-Eleven’s talent acquisition group has been actively measuring the effectiveness of job boards and moving a larger share of recruiter attention and resources to social media sites. While previous sourcing strategies focused on reducing total cost-per-hire and time-to-fill metrics, now the emphasis has shifted to greater effectiveness, which means higher-quality applicants and fewer résumés per hire.

BERSIN & ASSOCIATES © SEPTEMBER 2009 • NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION • LICENSED MATERIAL

BERSIN & ASSOCIATES

FOCUS:

PLANNING& STRATEGY

CONTENTDEVELOPMENT

LEARNINGPROGRAMS

LEARNINGTECHNOLOGY

ANALYTICS &MEASUREMENT

TALENTMANAGEMENT

LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT

Talent Sourcing Strategy

7-Eleven Shifts from Job Boards to Social Media in Search of Better Qualified Applicants

—Madeline Laurano, Principal Analyst | September 2009

�BERSIN & ASSOCIATES © SEPTEMBER 2009 • NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION • LICENSED MATERIAL

TALENT SOURCING STRATEGY

This case study will examine:

• 7-Eleven’s business objectives and the recruiting challenges inherent in its business environment;

• How the corporate talent acquisition function is internally organized and managed;

• Which stage 7-Eleven has reached on the Talent Acquisition Maturity Model® developed by Bersin & Associates;

• The selection and implementation of the talent acquisition system (e.g., application tracking system);

• Tools used for talent sourcing, including job boards, social media, search engines and the career pages on the company website;

• Issues with résumé overload from job boards and the impact on recruiter productivity;

• The evolution of talent sourcing as social media sites become more prominent and job boards lose ground;

• Effectiveness measurements of the big three job boards; and,

• Lessons learned and best practices. e



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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Company Overview 6

Business Environment 6

Talent Acquisition Organization 7

Reporting Structure 8

Integration with Talent Management 9

Evolving Talent Sourcing Strategy 11

Applicant Tracking System 12

Integration of the Applicant Tracking System with

the Franchise System 13

Talent Sourcing Tools 14

Job Posting, and Job-Board Activities and Tools 14

Résumé Overload 16

Social and Professional Networking 16

Finding Qualified Candidates 17

Applicant Tracking System Integration with Social Media 17

Social Media Challenges 18

Search Engines / Search Engine Optimization Tools 18

Company Career Website 19

The Evolution of Talent Sourcing 23

The Move to Social Media 24

Business Impact / Metrics 26



Lessons Learned and Best Practices 27

Lessons Learned 27

Best Practices 28

Conclusion 28

Appendix I: Table of Figures 29

About Us 30

About This Research 30



Source: 7-Eleven, 2009.

Figure 1: 7-Eleven at-a-Glance

• Year Founded: 1927

• Retail Stores: 7,750 locations in 30 U.S. states and five Canadian provinces

• Total Employees: Approximately 22,000 in North America

• Headquarters: Dallas, Texas

Company Overview

7-Eleven is one of the most recognizable global retail brands, which started out as an ice house in a Dallas, Texas suburb in 1927. Today, the company has grown and evolved into the world’s largest operator, franchisor and licensor of more than 7,750 convenience stores in North America. Of the more than 5,700 stores that the company operates in the U.S., some 4,300 are franchised.

Internationally, 7-Eleven licensees and affiliates operate more than 29,000 7-Eleven and other convenience stores in countries including Japan, Taiwan, Thailand, South Korea, China, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore, Australia, Philippines, Norway, Sweden and Denmark.1

Business Environment

Due to a favorable business environment for low-cost retailers, 7-Eleven’s talent acquisition needs are growing. Last year, the company hired 622 new corporate employees. Year to date, 7-Eleven has hired 310 new employees in 2009 with 164 positions still open.

Because 7-Eleven is relatively immune from the current economic recession, the retailer continues to open franchises in new locations and has plans to add 200 stores in North America in 2009. For every 100 new stores added to the franchise system, 10 new field consultants and one regional manager need to be hired on the operational side of the company. Functional departments, such as finance and marketing, also require additional personnel as the company grows.

The key issue for recruiters is how to find highly qualified applicants with the attributes and skills sought by the company’s leadership. 7-Eleven is a world-class organization with the vision to be the best retailer of convenience. The

1 Source: http://www.7-eleven.com/.

Despite today’s

weak economy,

many retail

firms have not

experienced a

slowdown in

hiring. In fact,

many of these

organizations are

increasing their

investments in

talent acquisition

during this time.

A N A LY S I S

http://www.7-eleven.com/



company’s mission is to consistently serve the changing needs of customers for their convenience. The company’s culture is based on the management principles of Servant Leadership� and The 7-Eleven Way.

At 7-Eleven, Servant Leadership is defined by the three “Cs:”

• Capacity – What you can do to lead;

• Commitment – What you want to do to lead; and,

• Character – What you will do to lead.

The 7-Eleven Way principles are illustrated in the acronym, “I CARE” about people and teamwork:

• I – Integrity;

• C – Customer focus;

• A – Accountability;

• R – Recognition; and,

• E – Excellent execution.

Finding talented candidates who can adapt to and thrive under the principles of Servant Leadership and The 7-Eleven Way is an important business-driven requirement of the talent acquisition function at 7-Eleven.

Talent Acquisition Organization

The HR function at 7-Eleven is the sum of four parts:

1. Training and development;

2. Compensation and benefits;

3. Field human resources; and,

4. Human resources sourcing and planning.

Together, they recruit, select, train and provide career development opportunities.

2 The modern concept of “Servant Leadership” was articulated by Robert Greenleaf

in his 1970 essay, “The Servant as Leader”; it has been developed further as a

philosophy of leadership and management by Greenleaf, Larry Spears and others.

Finding talented

candidates who

can adapt to

and thrive under

the principles

of Servant

Leadership and

The 7-Eleven Way

is an important

business-driven

requirement of the

talent acquisition

function at

7-Eleven.

KEY POINT



As part of HR sourcing, the mission of the talent acquisition organization is to find, attract and hire talented individuals for:

1. Headquarters staff; and,

2. Field operations.

The Dallas headquarters (which is known as the “store-support center”) includes such functions as internal audit, legal, loss prevention, merchandising and real estate. Job titles in field operations include store managers, district managers and regional managers. These salaried corporate employees in North America number approximately 5,000 altogether. The talent acquisition organization is not responsible for hiring the approximately 17,000 non-salaried, store-level managers and sales assistants who are paid hourly.

Reporting Structure

A team of eight management recruiters and two support personnel are led by a team of four talent acquisition managers (see Figure 2). All of the recruiters focus on a specific geographic area and part of the business (e.g., east coast field staffing manager). All of the managers focus on sourcing talent, but a few have other duties. For example, one of the recruiters has the title of manager of talent acquisition systems. He evaluates, recommends, implements and manages technologies and tools, including job boards postings, the career pages on the corporate website, search engine optimization and the enterprise applicant tracking system.

Talent Acquisition

Manager

Talent Acquisition

Manager

Talent Acquisition

Manager

Talent Acquisition

Manager

Management Recruiter








Support Personnel

Support Personnel

Figure �: 7-Eleven, North America – Talent Acquisition Organization

Source: Bersin & Associates, 2009.



Ultimately, the manager of talent acquisition systems makes branding and sourcing decisions based on hard data with additional input from the entire team. The manager of talent acquisition systems has the authority to start or stop using a specific job board, but wants the team to be onboard with him. To that end, the manager of talent acquisition systems shares data with the recruiters, so that they can help him to better calculate the effectiveness of the job boards.

Integration with Talent Management

The talent acquisition organization is integrated with the overall talent management process on several levels. For example, the recruiting group considers the company’s management bench strength� and then utilizes HR performance reviews to take top performers to the next level of the organization. Talent acquisition managers will also recruit from the operations side of the enterprise to fill positions at headquarters and vice versa.

In another example, the talent acquisition group is highly focused on recruiting field consultants (equivalent to district managers), an important position with a specific career lattice within the enterprise. Each field consultant oversees a group of eight to 10 stores, with combined revenue of between $10 and $20 million.

Field consultants work closely with individual store operators to implement corporate and merchandising strategies, and introduce new products. Moreover, they provide a vital link between planning at headquarters and realities on the ground. 7-Eleven offers them a comprehensive development program that includes classroom and on-the-job training activities. High-performing field consultants are the top candidates to become regional managers, who oversee approximately 100 stores and up to $200 million in revenues.

Bersin & Associates Talent Acquisition Maturity Model©

Bersin & Associates has developed the Talent Acquisition Technology Maturity Model (see Figure 3). The following stages of this Maturity Model reflect how organizations evolve from a paper-based process to a highly refined talent acquisition process with world-class technology, tools and measurements.

3 “Bench strength” refers to the capabilities and readiness of potential successors to

move into key professional and leadership positions.

By integrating

talent acquisition

and talent

management,

7-Eleven is able to

recruit and retain

top talent.

BEST PRACTICE

10BERSIN & ASSOCIATES © SEPTEMBER 2009 • NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION • LICENSED MATERIAL


• Level 1 – At the most basic level, the organization is relying on a paper-based process to manage and track applicants. Talent acquisition departments are saddled with many administrative tasks that prevent them from thinking strategically about acquiring top talent.

• Level 2 – At this level, organizations are beginning to automate the process by evaluating, selecting and implementing tools and technology, such as applicant tracking systems, job boards and customer-retention management tools.

• Level 3 – Once best-practice organizations have invested in recruitment tools and technology, they measure the effectiveness on a continual basis to ensure that they are achieving results.

• Level 4 – At the most advanced stage of the Talent Acquisition Technology Maturity Model, organizations are creating a plan of action, reevaluating their existing tools and technology choices, and making any necessary changes. Many best-practice companies at this level are investing in recruitment innovation, such as search engine optimization, job matching and social networking strategies.

Level 4: Plan of ActionMore Strategic Talent Acquisition Technology Decisions

Level 3: Evaluating Talent Acquisition Technology Measuring the Effectiveness of Existing Tools, Evaluating Innovative Tools

Level 2: Automating the ProcessInvestment in Talent Acquisition System, Job Boards, Sourcing Tools

Level 1: Paper-Based Talent Acquisition ProcessExcel Spreadsheets, Manual Recruiting Process

Figure �: Bersin & Associates Talent Acquisition Model®


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When viewed against this Model, talent acquisition practices at 7-Eleven have matured dramatically in recent years. As recently as 1999, recruiters at 7-Eleven were not using job boards, a corporate website or other Internet tools to post job openings and find candidates.

Until 2005, talent acquisition managers manually tracked candidates and résumés using Microsoft Outlook and Excel spreadsheets. This disorganized, paper-based approach made it impossible for recruiters to efficiently share job openings or applicant information.

A change in executive leadership at the Dallas headquarters spurred changes in the talent acquisition function. Automation of candidate tracking (or the second step in the Maturity Model) came in 2006 with the implementation of an applicant tracking system (see section, “Applicant Tracking System,” for more information).

Evolving Talent Sourcing Strategy

7-Eleven reached a higher level in the Maturity Model when it started measuring the effectiveness of its spending on job boards and other talent sourcing tools. The final step to the highest level of this Model is to take actions based on measurements of key metrics, making adjustments in strategy and spending accordingly.

The company is in the midst of developing a new strategy for sourcing talent based on the job-board data it collects and analyzes. One of the main goals of the strategy is to reduce résumé overload by finding fewer, more highly qualified candidates. In addition to job boards, the manager of talent acquisition systems is exploring other tools that will enable 7-Eleven to quickly find interview-quality candidates instead of a multitude of mediocre candidates.

The short-term strategy over the next six months is to transition a significant percentage of spending from job boards to search engine optimization and social media. The longer-term goal is to have a complete Web 2.0� sourcing strategy and new website capability in place by 2010. The talent acquisition group does not plan to eliminate job boards from its strategy, but it will eventually scale back budgets and use fewer boards.

4 “Web 2.0” refers to a perceived second generation of web-based communities and

hosted services (such as social-networking sites, wikis, folksonomies, weblogs /

blogs, social bookmarking, podcasts, RSS feeds, social software, web application

programming interfaces / APIs, and online web services), which aim to facilitate

creativity, collaboration and sharing between users. Although the term suggests a

new version of the World Wide Web, it does not refer to an update to any technical

specifications, but to changes in the ways software developers and end-users use the

web. Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_2.0#Defining_.22Web_2.0.22.

Talent acquisition

practices at 7-

Eleven have

matured

dramatically in

recent years.

KEY POINT

Résumé overload

is one of the top

talent challenges

organizations face

today. In response,

best-practice

organizations are

investing in tools

and technology,

such as interview

management,

to help mitigate

the amount of

time and energy

recruiters spend

evaluating

résumés.

A N A LY S I S

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_2.0#Defining_.22Web_2.0.22

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Applicant Tracking System

7-Eleven implemented an applicant tracking system from Peopleclick Inc., a talent acquisition software company based in Raleigh, North Carolina. According to company officials, this vendor was chosen for its clean, intuitive interface, as well as the ease of integration with an applicant questionnaire program and services that provide criminal / background checks.

The applicant tracking system sits at the center of and manages the entire talent acquisition process (see Figure 4), from creating the requisition to generating the offer letter. Working closely with hiring managers, talent acquisition managers use the system to create job postings. Various tools for gathering résumés help recruiters feed job candidates into the system.

Managers use the system to collaborate not only by tracking their own openings and candidates, but also working as a team on high-priority job openings and sharing candidates with other recruiters. Applicants can get passed along from one recruiter to another with a single click. Hiring managers also have access to the applicant tracking system, which makes it easier to open job requisitions and work together with recruiters. Through a candidate career portal supported by the applicant tracking system, 7-Eleven is able to provide a more positive candidate experience, while maintaining a strong employer brand.

Back EndRecruiter Interface

Job Requisition Management

Workflow AutomationJob-Posting

Résumé ScanningApplicant Tracking

Offer Letter Generation

Front End Candidate View

Candidate Career PortalJob SearchJob Alerts

Interview SchedulingNew Hire Portal

Figure �: Applicant Tracking System Manages Talent Acquisition Process




As a result of this automation, 7-Eleven recruiters are more productive; the current 10 recruiters handle the same workload as 20 recruiters did prior to the introduction of an applicant tracking system in 2006. In 2008, the system processed 78,000 applicants for corporate positions and 140,000 applications for hourly franchise positions.

Integration of the Applicant Tracking System with the Franchise System

As stated earlier, 7-Eleven’s corporate talent acquisition group does not directly recruit store-level employees. The applicant tracking system, however, is utilized in two different ways to support the franchise system.

First, the system helps the corporate national franchise group recruit and qualify high-potential candidates interested in franchising 7-Eleven stores. The company runs an ad on CareerBuilder.com; when a potential franchisee fills out an application on the job board and presses the “apply” button, all of the data entered is automatically mapped to a PeopleClick form. This automation reduces the application process time from approximately 10 minutes to about two minutes from the candidate’s perspective.

Additionally, 7-Eleven has expanded the use of PeopleClick to both corporate-owned and franchise stores, which have access to an application tracking system to identify sales associates and store managers. This system is completely separate from the system used for corporate-level recruitment. The goal is to help these operators build a strong employee base, streamline the store-level hiring process and reduce costs.

Corporate store managers and franchisees now post job openings on 7-Eleven’s website and can quickly pull up details on applicants who have applied to their specific stores in the last 30 days. Applicants can search for stores accepting job applications based on a geographic location by entering a zip code or street address on the corporate website. The applicant tracking system forwards the applicant to the franchisee or corporate store manager for consideration.

In the first 10 months, more than 100,000 people used the system to apply for work at 7-Eleven stores in North America. Prior to using this software to find store associates, 7-Eleven spent more than $1 million a year on recruiting advertising and employment screening expenses for its corporate stores (now numbering 1,200). The system has saved the company 60 percent of those costs. That savings allowed 7-Eleven to roll out this system to the franchisee community at no cost to the company. More than 20 percent of the franchise stores are using the online system exclusively. The remaining franchisees advertise in newspapers and accept only paper résumés, or they use a mix of online and paper.

7-Eleven

recruiters are

more productive

as a result of

automating the

talent acquisition

process.

KEY POINT



The system also assists store operators in hiring higher-quality candidates, since putting a sign in the window limits the pool of applicants to that store’s customers. With the new system, one ad on CareerBuilder.com is seen by thousands of people and could support every store in a major city. Similarly, a newspaper ad is viewed one time on one day, while an online posting can be seen 24 / seven for 30 days.

Another benefit of the system is time-savings. For example, a store operator in the Chicago area recently got 96 applicants for a sales associate position within a few days. Putting those applications in front of a franchisee all at once is a significant time saver, as compared with shuffling through paper or having people walk into the store.

Talent Sourcing Tools

7-Eleven uses a wide range of talent sourcing tools, including online job boards, search engine optimization, social and professional networking websites, and the corporate website.

Job Posting, and Job-Board Activities and Tools

7-Eleven has used as many 15 job posting boards since 2006. Most spending is directed toward three big websites, which also generate the vast majority of candidates – Monster.com, CareerBuilder.com and Yahoo! Hotjobs. These job boards offer nationwide coverage and also include Canada. 7-Eleven’s talent acquisition group is spending approximately $500,000 per year on those boards – and the costs are increasing annually.

Some of the job boards (like Craigslist.org and Military.com) are free, while others are chosen because they attract a niche audience, such as a specific geography, industry or professional level / salary range. Altogether, these smaller job boards deliver about 15 percent of the candidates (see Figure 5), but at a much lower spend rate – and the net result is a higher return on investment than is delivered by the “big three” job boards.

Cost is a major

factor. When job

boards continue to

increase their cost

per hire expenses,

LinkedIn and

other professional

networking sites

begin to look more

valuable.

A N A LY S I S



Figure �: Job Candidates by Source in 2008

Specific Source Number of Candidates Percent of Candidates

7-Eleven Website 1,877 6.47%

All Retail Jobs.com 85 0.29%

America’s Job Bank 21 0.07%

Careerbuilder 15,649 53.93%

Career Connection 37 0.13%

Career Fair 2 0.01%

Craigslist 166 0.57%

Current Employee 14 0.05%

Diversity Jobs USA 4 0.01%

Employment Guide 41 0.14%

Facebook 3 0.01%

Former Employee 1 0.00%

GI Jobs Magazine 1 0.00%

Google 141 0.49%

Indeed.com 1,299 4.48%

Internal 1 0.00%

Jobing 609 2.10%

JobShop 103 0.35%

LinkedIn 262 0.90%

Military.com 6 0.02%

MOAA 1 0.00%

Monster 5,070 17.47%

Other 31 0.11%

Other Career Fair 4 0.01%

Other Internet Job Board 617 2.13%

Right Management Consultants 13 0.04%

Simply Hired 90 0.31%

Snag A Job 74 0.26%

Social Media / Networks 1 0.00%

Staffing Agency 1 0.00%

Store Signage 3 0.01%

Working 5 0.02%

WorkInRetail.com 14 0.05%

Workopolis 24 0.08%

Yahoo! HotJobs 3,559 12.27%

Misc. 9 0.03%

Total: 29838 100.00%




Because 7-Eleven leverages so many different job boards, the talent acquisition managers need a distribution tool for posting openings. Job VIPeR from TMP Worldwide allows recruiters to post a job to multiple websites without having to reenter duplicate information or remember passwords. At a cost of less than $20,000 per year, the aggregation tool integrates with the applicant tracking system, and gives recruiters a standardized interface to post jobs, manage job board inventory and see applicant activity by individual job for each job board.

Recruiters use a software tool from AIRS to optimize résumé searches. The tool searches multiple job boards for candidates who fit specific criteria, saving the administrative time required to log in and out of every job board.

Résumé Overload

As noted earlier in this report, although the job boards succeed in delivering large numbers of applications, the qualified candidates are highly diluted by large numbers of less qualified résumés. From 2006 to 2008, recruiters received an average of 147 résumés from job boards for every one successful hire. Recruiters are forced to waste large quantities of time on the busy work of reviewing résumés of both underqualified and overqualified candidates.

In addition to reduced productivity, there is a greater risk of hiring the wrong candidate, as well as the higher probability that one perfect candidate will get lost in the shuffle. Résumé overload also means it takes longer to fill any given position. According to company officials, the goal of talent acquisition managers at 7-Eleven is to have an average of 60 applicants for each hire, with five candidates getting to the interview stage.

Social and Professional Networking

As one solution to the problem of résumé overload, 7-Eleven recruiters are reaching out to higher-quality, more qualified candidates by networking on social media websites – namely Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. Social and professional networking websites are not being used to attract candidates who cannot be found on the job boards – 7-Eleven recruiters believe anyone looking for a job is already on the job boards. The point of using social media is to find the best candidates.

Another goal is to extend 7-Eleven’s brand as an employer. By having a corporate presence on networking sites, 7-Eleven reaches potential candidates where they are spending much of their time. By creating an interesting and valuable networking site, 7-Eleven increases the likelihood that visitors will share the page with their friends, which easily extends the reach of its employer brand.

Companies

demand

innovation as they

continue to look

for new ways to

hire better, faster

and smarter. The

solution provider

community has

responded by

providing products

and partnerships

that integrate with

social networking

and strengthen

employer

branding.

A N A LY S I S



Finding Qualified Candidates

Why does 7-Eleven find higher-quality candidates outside of the job boards? One reason cited by company officials is that there is no contact information on job boards, so there is no way to communicate in either direction. From the job seeker’s perspective, it is analogous to dropping a résumé into a black hole and not knowing what is on the other side. From the recruiter’s perspective, it means the candidate is a faceless résumé until an actual interview takes place.

By contrast, LinkedIn and other social media sites let job seekers “see” and “talk” to the recruiter behind a posting, and vice versa. The job applicant can reach out, ask questions, answer questions, join the recruiter’s referral network and more. The proactive nature of social media tends to attract people who are more self-motivated – exactly the type of leadership trait required for Servant Leadership and The 7-Eleven Way.

This more personalized and interactive approach means that recruiters put more time and effort into each candidate, but there is less effort spent on filtering through dozens of unqualified candidates. For example, the company recently posted a job opening exclusively on LinkedIn.com and the 7-Eleven corporate career website. It received about 80 interview-quality candidates in a matter of days. The candidates were better qualified and more motivated than typical job-board candidates, and recruiters had half as many résumés to shuffle through before finding the best people.

Applicant Tracking System Integration with Social Media

The PeopleClick Reach relationship management system (RMS) offers a comprehensive social networking integration package that 7-Eleven’s talent acquisition managers plan to use in the near future to expand their referral network and extend the company’s brand. A job posting listed on the corporate career website can be forwarded to a network of associates with just a few clicks, making it easy for employees and others to refer their friends to an organization. A majority of organizations are finding new hires by employee referrals, and these are almost always from connections made through online networks. The applicant tracking system also offers a best-practice approach to creating a company profile on social media sites.

5 For more information, Talent Acquisition Systems 2009: Facts, Practice Analysis,

Trends and Provider Profiles, Bersin & Associates / Madeline Laurano, September

2009. Available to research members at www.bersin.com/library or for purchase at

www.bersin.com/TAS.

In a survey Bersin

& Associates

conducted recently,

41 percent of

companies said

social networking

integration is

a “must-have”

feature from their

applicant tracking

system providers.�

A N A LY S I S

www.bersin.com/library

www.bersin.com/TAS



Social Media Challenges

The most significant barrier to using social media websites is cultural. Building a deep referral network comes naturally to 7-Eleven’s corporate recruiters, but using the web poses a unique set of challenges. Some recruiters do not use social networking in their personal lives, so using it professionally is a learning experience.

The manager of talent acquisition systems trains recruiters on the new sourcing strategy. One of the first lessons he teaches them is how to become an active participant by asking and answering questions, looking for special interest groups, and generally interacting with potential candidates.

Also, the manager of talent acquisition systems monitors to ensure that people who do respond to social media outreach get a timely response and that the correct messages are being put out there by recruiters. He also answers hiring managers’ questions about social media. When advising both recruiters and hiring managers, he recommends a slightly different strategy for each social media website, as follows.

• LinkedIn – Become an expert in your area of expertise and regularly check the Q&A forums.

• Facebook – Drive traffic to the corporate fan-base page through social media ads.

• Twitter – Send a thank-you email to candidates who interview and ask them to follow 7-Eleven on Twitter. Also, encourage candidates to receive Tweets from a 7-Eleven recruiter who blogs on Twitter.

Search Engines / Search Engine Optimization Tools

7-Eleven recruiters use search engines and search engine optimization tools to increase the likelihood of job postings being found by a job-seeking candidate who searches on specific keywords and terms, such as “merchandising” or “retail.”

The manager of talent acquisition systems applies search engine optimization strategies to the corporate career website to get higher levels of relevancy on Google, Yahoo! and other search engines on which millions of candidates search for jobs every month.

Search engines for finding jobs (such as Indeed.com) scrape the 7-Eleven career website for open positions. The company also posts free job ads to Indeed.com. Jobs2Web.com is another talent acquisition technology partner. In the near future, 7-Eleven will post career website openings to

Organizations

need to think

about how to

add social and

professional

networking

to their talent

acquisition plans in

a legally compliant

manner.

A N A LY S I S



Jobs2Web.com, which is integrated with the PeopleClick Reach RMS for source tracking of applicants to help track which referring sites are providing the best candidates, as well as to improve employer branding efforts.

Company Career Website

The “career” pages of 7-Eleven’s corporate website (see Figure 6) play an increasingly important role in the company’s new talent sourcing strategy.

Many of the pages are devoted to describing the responsibilities and requirements of key positions in the 7-Eleven organization, such as store managers and field consultants.

Figure �: 7-Eleven Career Home Page


http://www.jobs2web.com/?view=home&

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Clicking an “apply now” button on certain pages (such as field consultant, store manager, assistant store manager and corporate opportunities) opens the corporate job search engine, allowing candidates to search for opportunities by state / province, position category, keyword or job ID (see Figure 7).

Figure �: 7-Eleven Job Search Page




Candidates can apply online by clicking a “submit application” button, which brings up a form that populates data fields in the application tracking system (see Figure 8).

On the sales associate page, the “apply now” button opens a geographic job locator, which enables candidates to fill out an application for an hourly position with a specific store and ties into corporate application tracking system (see Figure 9). This page also describes the position, responsibilities and requirements.

Figure �: 7-Eleven Apply Online Page


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Other career pages on the website include:

• Our Story – Branding and background on company history;

• Benefits – Separate pages describe basic benefits packages for U.S. and Canadian employees;

• Career Event Calendar – Learn about upcoming 7-Eleven employment opportunities and recruiting events;

• Corporate Opportunities – Describes 7-Eleven’s corporate headquarters in Dallas (store support center), as well as each of the corporate-level job categories, including:

Figure �: 7-Eleven Geographic Job Locator




o Accounting;

o Gasoline;

o Internal audit;

o National franchise;

o Corporate communications;

o Government affairs;

o Corporate real estate;

o Human resources;

o International licensing;

o Corporate construction;

o Legal;

o Information systems;

o Facilities management;

o Marketing;

o Merchandising;

o Loss prevention;

o Logistics;

o Store design and planning;

o Operations; and,

o Planning.

• Military and College Recruitment – Separate pages direct college graduates and armed services veterans toward field consultant (district manager), corporate and store manager opportunities.

Currently, the career portion of company website has basic functionality, but leveraging Web 2.0 technologies is a top initiative for the talent acquisition organization. It is working closely with Jobs2Web and Peopleclick to enhance the web pages with two-way communication and engagement, including video chat, live recruiter assist, RSS feeds and regular online newsletters. The company will also create specific pages for different corporate functions, such as real estate and field operations. At the time this report was published, the manager of talent acquisition systems was immersed in the information-gathering and high-level design phases.

The Evolution of Talent Sourcing

Talent sourcing practices are rapidly evolving as companies increasingly seek new hires through their own websites, rather than via job boards. Social networking makes it easier for prospective employers to target specific skills and qualifications. Recruiters are trying to reach job seekers through social media sites, like LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter. These new approaches can result in both higher-quality job applicants and a lower application-to-hire ratio, as compared with job boards.

For the career

portion of the

company’s website,

leveraging Web

2.0 technologies

is a top initiative

for the talent

acquisition

organization.

KEY POINT



This trend has captured the attention of mainstream business media. According to a recent article in The Wall Street Journal�, job hunters should consider new strategies to broaden job searches using multiple tools. They should make use of social media sites to network with existing employees and apply directly to a company’s website, rather than through an online job board.

The Move to Social Media

Bersin & Associates sees more and more hiring companies moving away from job boards. Recently, we started a discussion group on LinkedIn by posing the following question – “Do you think social media strategies will replace job board strategies at most companies?” The following are some select responses we received.

“I believe it’s still very important to have a good balance of job board sourcing coupled

with social networking sites. With regard to the job board sites, it’s important to do both posting of job board ads and résumé

mining so that you’re getting both active and passive candidates. I am trying to do more

social network sourcing. I have roughly 1,500 contacts in my personal network (not a ton

but a decent number) so when I am searching for candidates or just folks to network with,

I’ve got a substantial pool of folks in my extended network.”

Director, Recruitment

“Both tools are powerful; however, social networking has always been a powerful tool.

The media is new with the innovation of web-sites and web applications; but referrals, nepotism, and relationships have always and

will always be important.”

Technical Recruiter

6 Source: The Wall Street Journal, “Beyond Job Boards: Targeting the Source,”

July 2, 2009, page D1.



“I too agree it is important to have several tools in our toolbox – a mix of paid job boards

and social networking.”

Owner, Recruiting Group

“I actually think that the major job boards may become an endangered species in the

next five to 10 years. Social networking is moving in and quickly dominating the

industry. For now it makes sense to keep a balance but I think that will subside very

soon.”

Technical Recruiter

“LinkedIn should be putting a serious dent into sites like ExecuNet, CareerBuilder, The

Ladders and others. Very easy to join groups to find professionals interested or that have

industry or functional expertise directly related to the group’s charter. How much does it cost to post a job? Nothing. I was

paying about $30K to have CareerBuilder and Monster subscriptions to find active

candidates nationally. Social networking will probably not replace job boards - but I bet

they are eroding their sales!

Blogger, Executive Recruiter

“This comment may seem somewhat arbitrary (as I’m an executive recruiter and don’t work

within Internal HR), but what I often see is a lack of portfolio theory when it comes to

talent acquisition. Social media investments may be justifiable within certain talent pools,

while job boards may offer peak benefit for others. It’s all relative based upon the

portfolio of talent (and roles) that make up how your organization delivers on its value

proposition.”

Executive Recruiter e

The Move to Social Media (cont’d)



Business Impact / Metrics

Over the past two years, 7-Eleven’s talent acquisition organization has been actively measuring the effectiveness of job boards. In total, 63 percent of all 7-Eleven hires in 2008 were initially found on the Internet, mainly through job boards.

The performance of the company’s “big three” job boards (CareerBuilder, Monster and Yahoo! HotJobs) is compared and evaluated monthly. To ensure “apples-to-apples” comparisons, the exact same listings are posted on all three job boards. Figure 10 shows the cumulative results by number of candidates / cost-per-candidate and number of hires / cost-per-hire for 2008 and 2009 YTD.

Figure 10: Job Board Measurement Results

2008

Board Number of Hires Cost Per Hire

Careerbuilder 158 $950

Monster 58 $2,948

HotJobs 42 $2,024

YTD 2009

Board Number of Hires Cost Per Hire

Careerbuilder 91 $1,005

Monster 35 $2,671

HotJobs 13 $4,423

2008

Board # of Candidates Cost Per Candidate


Monster 7866 $21

HotJobs 7134 $12

2009 YTD

Board # of Candidates Cost Per Candidate


Monster 5070 $18

HotJobs 3559 $16

Source: 7-Eleven, 2009.

The performance

of the company’s

“big three” job

boards is compared

and evaluated

monthly. To ensure

“apples-to-apples”

comparisons, the

exact same listings

are posted on all

three job boards.

BEST PRACTICE



Based on these numbers, the manager of talent acquisition systems is thinking about eliminating one of the job boards – specifically Monster.com. The recruiters at 7-Eleven believe that no one seriously seeking employment is going to limit his / her search to just one job board, so dropping one board should not cost them anything in terms of qualified candidates.

The talent acquisition group’s most ambitious plan is an attempt to look at long-term “quality of hire” metrics and compare them to the source of the hire. The group has started measuring new hires from 2007 and 2008 using performance review data. A major roadblock is the lack of seamless integration between the performance management and applicant tracking systems. Currently, the payroll management system cannot access hiring data, and the applicant tracking system cannot access payroll management data – thus, all data must be manually entered in a database. The results of this analysis are pending.

Lessons Learned and Best Practices

The manager of talent acquisition systems shared some important lessons learned and best practices that can be used by other recruiting organizations, which seek to expand beyond job boards, and leverage social media and other Web 2.0 technologies.

Lessons Learned

Do not rely on jobs boards for too long. Despite the fact that many high-performing employees are now out of work, at the end of 2008 the recruiters began to find more interview-quality candidates outside of the boards – through social media, conferences, job fairs, et al. 7-Eleven spends more than $500,000 per year to post jobs openings on boards and many of the company’s recruiters now believe those resources should be redirected as the Internet evolves.

For the foreseeable future, however, 7-Eleven will continue to use a mix of tools that include job boards. It will continue to post openings on some job boards simply to make them easier to find. In addition, the company will also refine its multipronged approach of combining job-board postings with social media and other forms of outreach, like attending conferences and job fairs. The company cannot rely on one talent sourcing tool alone.

Another important lesson the talent acquisition group has learned is that it needs to implement a candidate relationship management system in order to have a more holistic approach to candidate relationships. For example, this means keeping in touch with good candidates who were not hired and then being able to tap them when another appropriate position opens up. The

Integration

between talent

management

systems must

be planned

during the initial

implementation

phase. Otherwise,

seamless

integration

is difficult to

impossible to

achieve at a

later time.

A N A LY S I S

In order to

have a more

holistic approach

to candidate

relationships, 7-

Eleven has learned

is that it needs

to implement

a candidate

relationship

management

system.

KEY POINT



company’s applicant tracking system offers this functionality in a separate module – and the company is evaluating this product, as well as other contact management solutions.

Lastly, the manager of talent acquisition systems emphasized that recruiters cannot rely on technology alone. Every candidate needs to be seen by human eyes or an organization may risk losing a potentially perfect hire.

Best Practices

The manager of talent acquisition systems shares his monthly data with all three of the major job-board vendors. He shares the information to let them know how they are doing as a business partner. He also meets with the vendors’ sales representatives on a biweekly basis, so that they can discuss specific issues, such as how to attract qualified candidates in areas of North America with low unemployment rates, like British Columbia.

Every enterprise should emulate the best practice of measuring cost per hire and cost per applicant by source. As the talent acquisition organization at 7-Eleven discovered, one job board can be three times as costly as another for the same applicant.

7-Eleven’s approach to evaluating whether to use a new job board also constitutes a best practice. First, the board is evaluated from a job-seeking candidate’s point of view. The manager of talent acquisition systems logs in as a job seeker and tries to determine if he would use the board to look for a job. He also goes to Compete.com to look up the job board’s web traffic statistics, especially unique visitors per month.

Conclusion

Companies are in a great position in today’s talent acquisition software market to ask more from existing providers – and also to take advantage of all of the innovation that is out there in terms of search engine optimization, job matching and social media. The “big three” job boards are increasing costs with fewer results. While it is premature to predict the death of job boards, it is clear these companies must change their business model or risk being replaced by social media. Although the benefits of talent acquisition innovation far outweigh the risks, organizations still need a well-defined strategy, and careful evaluation of available tools and technology.

The “big three”

job boards are

increasing costs

with fewer

results. While it

is premature to

predict the death

of job boards,

it is clear these

companies must

change their

business model or

risk being replaced

by social media.

KEY POINT



Appendix I: Table of Figures Figure 1: 7-Eleven at-a-Glance 6

Figure �: 7-Eleven, North America – Talent Acquisition Organization 8

Figure �: Bersin & Associates Talent Acquisition Model® 10

Figure �: Applicant Tracking System Manages Talent Acquisition Process 12

Figure �: Job Candidates by Source in 2008 15

Figure �: 7-Eleven Career Home Page 19

Figure �: 7-Eleven Job Search Page 20

Figure �: 7-Eleven Apply Online Page 21

Figure �: 7-Eleven Geographic Job Locator 22

Figure 10: Job Board Measurement Results 26



About UsBersin & Associates is the only research and advisory consulting firm focused

solely on WhatWorks® research in enterprise learning and talent management.

With more than 25 years of experience in enterprise learning, technology and

HR business processes, Bersin & Associates provides actionable, research-based

services to help learning and HR managers and executives improve operational

effectiveness and business impact.

Bersin & Associates research members gain access to a comprehensive library

of best practices, case studies, benchmarks and in-depth market analyses designed

to help executives and practitioners make fast, effective decisions. Member

benefits include: in-depth advisory services, access to proprietary webcasts and

industry user groups, strategic workshops, and strategic consulting to improve

operational effectiveness and business alignment. More than 3,500

organizations in a wide range of industries benefit from Bersin & Associates

research and services.

Bersin & Associates can be reached at http://www.bersin.com or at (510) 654-8500.

About This ResearchCopyright © 2009 Bersin & Associates. All rights reserved. WhatWorks® and related names such as Rapid e-Learning: WhatWorks® and The High-Impact Learning Organization® are registered trademarks of Bersin & Associates. No materials from this study can be duplicated, copied, republished, or re-used without written permission from Bersin & Associates. The information and forecasts contained in this report reflect the research and studied opinions of Bersin & Associates analysts.

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