The Client
Accor Global Reservation Centre, located in Moncton, New Brunswick, Canada, is part of a world-leading hospitality group. The Centre books reservations for nearly 5,000 hotels in 110 countries for 40+ brands—everything from luxury to economy accommodations.
People are at the heart of the Global Reservation Centre (GRC) because so much of their business hinges on human contact. That’s why they prioritize employees, the company’s most enthusiastic ambassadors, lovingly referring to them as Heartists®.
The Challenge
It wasn’t always easy for the GRC Talent and Culture team to connect with job candidates over the telephone, especially when some of them are in different time zones.
“There was a lot of back and forth trying to schedule phone interviews,” says Patricia Langelaan, Assistant Director, Talent and Culture. “You email somebody or call them and get their voicemail, they call back and so on.” They wanted to solve these telephone woes and find ways to connect with candidates quickly using technology.
Another recruitment challenge was qualifying a large number of applicants with just a three-person team. “We’re an employer of choice, known as a great place to work,” explains Langelaan.
Accor Global Reservation Centre needed a more streamlined approach to accelerate their hiring process—without compromising the calibre of the applicants.
The Solution
VidCruiter’s hiring platform has helped the Reservation Centre revamp its recruitment process so that it’s better for both job applicants and their HR team.
Pre-Recorded Video Interviewing
Instead of trying to schedule phone or video interviews around busy work schedules, the Reservation Centre has switched to pre-recorded video interviewing. They call them “video introductions,” offering candidates an easy way to tell the team more about themselves before proceeding with a formal interview.
“We ask two questions with two-minute answer times so we can get to know them,” says Langelaan. “It’s served us really well as an introduction.”
The recorded videos help the team assess job applicants’ professionalism, their ability to converse with luxury guests, and their language capabilities. “We need to determine if their level of English [or French, or Spanish, depending on the role] is acceptable for the job requirements,” says Langelaan.
“Video introductions really assist us in doing a preliminary assessment of skills.” Online Skills Testing
When candidates move forward, they take an online skills test consisting of a typing/multitasking test and talent assessment. “One feature we really appreciate about the VidCruiter platform is being able to integrate our own assessment right into the application, where it works seamlessly,” Langelaan said.
Skills testing is an incredibly practical way to test an applicant’s suitability for the role. “The job is making reservations,” says Langelaan. “On the job, employees are expected to have a conversation with guests, navigate different applications, and enter information accurately.”
So, the Reservation Centre uses a five-minute assessment they created that sounds like the candidate is listening to a guest. Can they make an accurate reservation in the right amount of time without having to backtrack too often? These are indicators of success.
Interview Scheduling + Live Video Interviewing
Next, it’s time to meet pre-qualified job applicants. The Talent and Culture team uses VidCruiter’s automated interview scheduling tool to find a mutually-convenient time to meet.
If the candidate lives within a two-hour radius, they are invited to come into the Accor Global Reservation Centre. If they’re further away, they can still meet face-to-face thanks to VidCruiter’s video interviewing software.
“This has saved us both time and money, and allowed us to really personalize the experience.” The Results
“VidCruiter has been immensely helpful,” says Langelaan. The online assessment and video interviews help the HR team recruit long-term top talent by assessing the strengths of potential employees. This allows Accor Global Reservation Centre to decide earlier in the process which applicants will move forward, allowing the team to focus more closely on candidates with the most potential.
“We can review more applicants in a day than we ever could before.” The Reservation Centre regularly recruits for the brightest and the best, hosting regular new hire training classes. “Many in our industry have classes of 30 new hires. They hope that 20 make it through training, and 10 will still be around three months later,” explains Langelaan. “That’s not our model. We’re very selective right from the beginning, and a thorough hiring process really helps us to select people who will be with us for the long term.”
The software has helped Accor Global Reservation Centre find well-qualified reservation agents in less time. By using VidCruiter, the Talent and Culture team estimates it saves easily 30 hours a month compared to their former methods, and even more during summer student recruitment season.
“It’s a competitive job market, and being a responsive employer is important to us. We want to respect applicants’ time and get back to them quickly,” says Langelaan. “Before, we were averaging about seven phone interviews in a full work day. Now we can look through 30 or more recorded video introductions and respond more quickly to each applicant. It really streamlines the process and the communication.”
The platform also improves the experience for job applicants and the Talent and Culture team, with video introductions, video interviews, assessments and correspondence happening morning, noon, or night. “It’s definitely a convenience for a global company! It’s great to have a single system that allows us to do it all.”
VidCruiter is proud to be part of Accor Global Reservation Centre’s hiring process, helping them connect with hospitable people to book worldwide reservations.
“People who are a better fit for a job will stay in the job longer and contribute to the overall organization. That’s why being selective has been so successful for us.” 