Toyota’s Story

Why Toyota Chose QJumpers to Revolutionise the Company’s Recruitment Strategy

When Jane Stella started her new role as Toyota New Zealand’s Team Leader for Future People Development, her first task was to find the perfect recruitment software to help streamline the company’s national network of dealerships and headquarters.

“I started in March and my manager had been to a conference where QJumpers were presenting and she said that it had to become the number-one priority on my to-do list,” Jane says.

“Because, for Toyota, there are two streams: firstly, all the dealers around the country which are independently owned and operated, and, secondly, our head office.”

That setup provided major challenges for a single recruitment strategy due to the geographical spread of the dealerships and the multiple decision-makers involved in creating and filling vacancies.

“The dealerships all manage their own recruitment and selection processes and, prior to QJumpers, that had been to varying degrees of success,” Jane says.

“And at head office, we don’t have a Human Resources department – rather, each manager manages their own recruitment.

“So we were looking for something which would work right across the country to provide a consistent and professional approach to recruitment so that if someone was applying for a job, say, at Rutherford & Bond Toyota, they’d go through a very similar process to if they were applying to head office.”

As well as the streamlined process, Jane says choosing the right applicant tracking system (Toyota narrowed the choice down to three standout performers before ultimately choosing QJumpers) was about more than simple recruitment.

“If you take a bigger picture view, it’s looking at how to attract candidates, how to recruit them and how to develop them – but it’s also about how to retain them,” she says.
“And how you initially attract candidates and how they are dealt with at the front end impacts similarly on your workforce to those who have been here 30 years – at the end of the day the success of the brand is often down to how that workforce is treated right from the outset.”

The choice to go with QJumpers came down to three major factors:

1. The QJumpers dashboard is simple and effective and easy for everyone to transition into.
2. The reporting functions gave head office great visibility of Toyota’s nationwide recruitment strategy.
3. The company was developing its own careers website at the time and QJumpers was able to be “molded into” the front-end look of that website very well while allowing the brand to own its recruitment strategy.

After initially engaging with QJumpers around July and having a very short timeframe in which to set the system up, the rollout was completed by October.

Training was carried out by QJumpers General Manager Simon Oldham joining Jane on a two-week roadshow around the country in which dealership staff were invited to sessions and then became “champions” who could train other members of staff.
Jane says that the training and implementation of QJumpers has brought plenty of positive feedback.

“From a usability perspective we’ve had very positive feedback – one of our dealers has told us that it’s one of the best systems head office has ever put in, which certainly brought a smile to my face. They especially like the dashboard because it’s easy to read: there’s no extra information they don’t need to know but enough to give a good view of what’s going on.”

“Pre-QJumpers, if there was a vacancy one of the managers would ring up the local staffing agencies and hand the process over completely for them to manage. Most of those managers have enjoyed having more responsibility and accountability to the recruitment process and decision-making by seeing the candidates and doing the shortlisting themselves,” she says.

Since QJumpers was rolled out, the two companies have worked side-by-side to ensure the system works to the best of its capabilities.

“Simon and the whole QJumpers team have been fantastic right from the start when we were having conversations about providing a unique setup,” Jane says. “They’ve listened and provided solutions above and beyond what I expected and have been prepared to brainstorm solutions. For example, we needed a way to see very quickly on the dashboard if a vacancy had been hired into and the next minute there was a button saying ‘yes, that’s been hired’. And with the reports, initially there was one report that didn’t cover what we realized we needed after the system was put in, and now we have seven reports which cut, chop and slice the information so we can read it easily.”

The proof of Toyota New Zealand’s QJumpers success story comes via the company’s own data. Jane says that from an average of around 25 jobs advertised each month, around a quarter of applicants are now finding out about them via the company’s own careers website – something that is really helping to build the brand and gain positive traction in the employment market.

“The reporting is much more accurate now and we’re getting a much greater number of applicants applying for positions,” Jane says. “Of them, around 11% are being shortlisted and we’re continually tracking that – so I see it’s a positive difference.

“Our experience is that QJumpers have been very open and listened well. Not that they’ve done everything but I wouldn’t expect them to either – after all, they’re the experts in what they do. But we’ve really enjoyed working with them and it has made a real difference.”