When managers at Home Depot were interviewing potential hires, it took their time away from other work.
And sometimes, potential workers didn’t realize what working at Home Depot meant: nights or weekends, heavy lifting, how much they would be paid. So managers had to interview, and interview, and interview before they found the right associate to fit the mix.
But the Atlanta-based home improvement chain has found a way to make the process easier, as it goes about hiring 60,000 associates this spring.
While many retailers have opportunities for potential workers to apply online for a job at their local store, Home Depot has streamlined the process further. Potential store hires go through two reviews at the corporate level before they are even granted an in-person store interview.
“The process is designed to screen the best candidates,” said Tim Hourigan, Home Depot’s vice president of human resources. “It’s always hard to find the very best.”
The company has a human resources service center near its headquarters, and about 50 employees work on reviewing applications there, while an additional 170 conduct phone interviews with applicants. In all, there are 400 employees working with the potential hires.
Hourigan said the system — which went live last April — has made the process more uniform from store to store.
If a location needs three cashiers, he said, the center will talk to a dozen people, then send its four or five best candidates to be interviewed in person, already knowing how they answer questions about why they want to work for the company and what makes them a successful candidate. This saves the time and energy of managers, who might not have much hiring experience or know what to look for.
Those applicants who check that they are fluent in Spanish are asked in a phone call to translate a few words. Interviewers also ask if they would be willing to conduct their in-person interview in Spanish.
“We try to give a realistic job preview,” Hourigan said.
In return, Hourigan said, screeners are looking for enthusiastic, high-energy candidates — qualities that come through in a phone call that may not be evident on a paper application.
Other retailers, such as Best Buy, Target and Bed Bath and Beyond, all said that their hiring is done only at the store level, and that corporate is not involved.
“We don’t know of anybody doing this,” Hourigan said. “We think we’ve got a leg up right now.”
While many retailers have electronic filters in place to keep hiring managers from being overwhelmed by applicants who do not fit their needs, SLS Consulting President Sharon Sellers said the retailers she knows that conduct phone interviews through corporate are primarily on the smaller side.
Sellers, in Summerville, S.C., said the corporate phone interview saves time for both applicants and the company.
“They try to whittle it down to a manageable number,” she said.
The process continues to be tweaked, said Tonia Horton, Home Depot’s senior director of human resources services. When the system first came online, it was just four months after it had been conceived.
“We refer to it as changing our tires on 285 in the fast lane,” Horton said. “It’s introduced in segments.”
The company continues to look for ways to centralize processes that can be taken away from stores, but keeping the human element is still important.
As such, screeners ask so-called “soft” questions, about whether applicants like working with people and if they enjoy solving problems, in addition to those that are more focused on skills. Applicants are graded on their answers, and only the best are passed on.
As people are screened, they remain in the system — so if they are not selected for one job, they don’t have to go through the process again before they can interview for another. Horton said each call lasts about seven or eight minutes, though those for more specialized jobs might last longer.
Hourigan said the system already has been beneficial.
“From a store standpoint, it takes a significant amount of the burden off of us,” he said. “We get better-quality candidates on a more consistent basis.”
HOW IT WORKS
The process: Human resources specialists screen applications as they come in, looking to ensure that people meet basic employment requirements. Screeners e-mail each applicant to let the person know he or she will be receiving a phone call, then call each applicant. If no one answers, screeners leave a message with a unique ID number applicants can use when they call back. If the applicant does answer, the screener discusses the job and runs through a list of questions. Screeners then grade each applicant and pass the best several on to each store to conduct in-person interviews. The stores make final hiring decisions. From the time the store requests each job until it is filled, about 14 days elapse.
To apply: Visit careers.homedepot.com.
About the Author
