Interview by Christina Young, Assistant Marketing Specialist, Digi-Me
The Minnesota-local company, Royal Tire, provides services for all automotive and commercial tire needs. Their mission “to exceed the expectations of our guests, employees, and community every day” is at the heart of the company’s operations, both internally and externally, and is prominent in their recruiting efforts.
For the Director of HR, Doreen Meier, Royal Tire’s commitment to their mission was what drew her to the company almost five years ago.
“It was evident that the organization had strong values and cared about employees, customers, and the community,” said Meier. “I felt like the culture would be a great fit with my values, and it has been.”
As Meier experienced first hand, a company’s mission and their commitment to it can be leveraged as one aspect to help job candidates self select whether or not a company is the right fit for them.
“At Royal Tire, people really live the mission from recruitment throughout employment. We strive for candidates to know our values so they can decide if we’re the right fit for them. We use cultural fit as one of the top priorities for making hiring decisions because misalignment with our values will make it difficult for a candidate to succeed within the company,” she added.
Royal Tire’s culture focuses on treating all employees with respect and giving them opportunities to utilize their strengths and grow with the company. Along with being expected to live by the mission, employees are expected to contribute to the company’s success.
One way employees are asked to contribute to the success of the company is through an employee referral program. Royal Tire sees employee referrals as an important piece of any recruitment strategy because employees typically know other people who will fit with the culture and match the type of ethics that they are looking for.
“The best recruitment strategies also need to include an employee referral program, since great employees often know other people who would make great employees,” said Meier. “However, the best recruitment strategies are constantly evolving and changing to reach the greatest number of qualified candidates. The strategy that works in one market may not work in another, and the strategy needs to use multiple mediums to reach the candidates.”
With the availability of digital media, Royal Tire tries to differentiate themselves from other companies by using digital technology and quick response time in their recruitment strategy to create the best candidate experience. The way they communicate with candidates is crucial. One digital medium utilized by Royal Tire is video, which helps give candidates impressions of their services and communicates to candidates in a way that text alone cannot compare to.
“Videos help us brand our company and give a consistent message of who we are. Some candidates may not be interested in the position they see a job video for, but they are more likely to remember us from seeing the video versus reading a job ad in the paper or on social media,” said Meier. “We see videos as more of an interactive experience. Even though the viewers can’t directly ask questions, they can see what’s important to our company and get an impression of who we are. In our market, we’re one of the few companies who use videos, making us on the cutting-edge of recruitment technology in the tire industry.”
Digital VIDEOJOBS™ help Royal Tire differentiate themselves from competitors who are also hiring in the tire industry. By adapting Digi-Me’s solution, Royal Tire has been able to better tell their story and reach a broader candidate pool.
They have also been able to utilize talent within their videos to illustrate the diverse culture Royal Tire is looking to build. For example, they chose to have a female talk about their truck driver position because if a female sees it, they might realize Royal Tire wants to have female truck drivers, which is typically viewed as a position for males.
“I think new technology will continue to evolve and will help candidates and companies better assess cultural fit early on in the recruitment process. Most companies are seeing the importance of letting people see the kind of culture a company is like and determine if it’s the right fit,” she said. “Candidates should really spend some time learning about the company and its culture before they interview for a position. To be a win-win relationship, the candidate must be a strong cultural fit for the company and vice versa. It’s not what we do, but why we do it.”
