Financial Services Firm Uses Web To Guarantee Interviews To Applicants

It's one thing for a company to trust its employees. It's another for a company to trust its 5,000 employees enough to promise a job interview to anyone they recommend for an opening.

Securian Financial Group did just that when it implemented a recent "Email a Referral" recruitment campaign, a novel, technology-driven approach to HR management processes. Now the privately held, $2.4 billion financial services firm may repeat the program, which resulted in 170 referrals.

Securian ran the campaign with Resume Mirror's recruiting software, which it integrated with its PeopleSoft HR management system. Securian, which was still interviewing candidates last week, had landed 13 new hires through the program.

Under the system, Securian employees recommended applicants via e-mail to their HR department. The Resume Mirror software in turn automatically triggered e-mail messages to referrals, providing them with an individual Web site link accessible exclusively to each applicant. Job seekers filled out an information form and attached their resumés. The software then performed keyword searches on resumés in order to fill out parts of job applications automatically.

The system accelerated the application process and made it less likely that the company lost referrals, says Kathy Pinkett, Securian's second VP for human resources planning. HR no longer had to manually update spreadsheets that tracked referrals, and it cut out other paperwork as well. Pinkett says the company saved 90 minutes in application processing and interview time per candidate under the new system.