In January 2019, Cohort 1 of HireReach kicked off with an innovative group of employers, including Bar Fly Ventures, Cascade Engineering, City of Grand Rapids, Davenport University, Kent County, Ottawa County, Shape Corp., Spectrum Health, Steelcase, and Warner, Norcross and Judd. This group has completed the 12-month program to implement the essential elements of an evidence-based selection process into their talent acquisition practices for 2-3 pilot job families within their organizations. They engaged with subject matter experts during monthly Community of Practice meetings and confidential consulting meetings. The work continues as they scale the process to additional job families and across multiple locations. Collectively these employers represent six industry sectors, representing more than 40,000 employees.
Employers representing 80,000 workers
Cohort 2 launched in January with an impressive group of employers, including Arbor Circle, Butterball, DeWys Manufacturing, Feyen Zylstra, Gordon Food Service, Grand Rapids Community College, Grand Rapids Public Schools, Head Start for Kent County, Herman Miller, Kent District Library, Kent Intermediate School District, Mary Free Bed, Mercantile Bank, Orthopaedic Associates of Michigan, YMCA of Greater Grand Rapids. Cohort 2 employers represent seven industry sectors and nearly 40,000 employees. If you combine the employee count for both cohorts, these companies collectively employ nearly 80,000 workers.
What employers are excited about
The talent acquisition leaders at these participating companies are most excited to achieve the following outcomes as a result of going through the twelve-month program:
- Reducing bias in their hiring processes
- Increasing the workforce diversity of talent hired using an evidence-based selection system
- Reducing turnover
- Strengthening their talent acquisition processes and improving consistency
- Working collaboratively with other West Michigan employers to elevate the region
Proof is in the results
The methodology used by HireReach was developed at Mercy Health in 2010 to improve talent acquisition. The process evaluated candidates holistically, targeting skills relevant to each job and reducing the potential for unconscious bias.
After hiring more than 10,000 candidates using the process over the past eight years, Mercy Health reports:
- First-year turnover dropped 23% for those hired using the strategy
- The amount of time it took to hire a candidate dropped by 16%
- The diversity of the workforce more than doubled
For additional information, please visit https://www.hirereach.org/.
