Magazines and online target graduate recruits

Introduction

Enterprise Rent-A-Car (Enterprise) was founded by Jack Taylor in 1957 in the basement of a car dealership in St Louis in the USA. The business began with only seven cars. Today, Enterprise is the largest car rental business in North America with more than 7,000 offices in the USA and

Maintaining high levels of customer satisfaction is a key driver of growth for Enterprise.

Enterprise emphasises delivering first-class customer service, regularly winning awards for its efforts in this area. Its small, local office structure and entrepreneurial team working means its employees are able to make decisions independently to achieve their goals.

The HRM function not only manages existing staff, it also plans for changes that will affect itsfuture staffing needs. This is known as workforce planning. For example:

• the business may grow into new markets, such as Enterprise moving into truck rental

Attracting applicants

Promoting managers and offering career opportunities from within the company has a positive effect on Enterprise. Employees remain happy, will stay longer and give their best.

• attending Careers Fairs

• ‘drop-in’ sessions

Enterprise makes every effort to ensure that its workforce is representative of the cultural and ethnic diversity in the wider population. Job advertisements state: ‘Enterprise Rent-A-Carseeks and values people of all backgrounds because every employee, customer and businesspartner is important. We are proud to be an equal opportunities employer.’

• An ‘internship’ scheme is available for first and second year university students. This gives students an opportunity to work with Enterprise. Students gain valuable experience and there is the possibility of becoming a full-time employee after graduation. Interns participate in an initial classroom-based training session. After this, they work in a branch office where they begin on-the-job training. Interns take on the same responsibilities as management trainees and learn about sales, marketing, customer service, business management and administration support.

The Enterprise Graduate Management Trainee programme offers graduates a fast-track career path with opportunities for self-development and quick progression. Within as little as 8-12 months, they can move up to a Management Assistant then on to Assistant Manager. The role includes providing a great customer experience, marketing the business and selling the service, as well as dealing with business partners such as insurance companies, dealerships and auto body shops.

Selection is the process of identifying the best candidate for the role in question. This isimportant as the candidates who apply may not always have the correct set of skills and competencies required by the business. Enterprise seeks competencies in its recruits both for an immediate job role and also for development over the longer term to support the business growth. HR managers often use standard documentation in order to match job roles with personal qualities and skills. These include:

• thejob description - this summarises a job role within an organisation and lists the main tasks

• Candidates then have an initial face-to-face interview with an Enterprise recruitment manager.

• This is followed by an interview with a branch manager.

The different parts of the selection process help to identify the qualities the company is looking for. For example:

Conclusion

A service-orientated business like Enterprise must deliver perfect service every time to keep customers satisfied. An unhappy customer is unlikely to come back. Enterprise operates in a highly competitive marketplace. In order to continue its growth and expansion, Enterprise focuses on delivering very high levels of customer satisfaction.

Question 2 (300 words, 30 marks)

In such a competitive market, what does Enterprise do differently to attract high quality candidates?

Plagiarism: It’s imperative that you write your answer using your own words. Plagiarism will be penalized depending on its severity and according to AOU plagiarism policy.

Format: you are expected to write your answer in an essay format: introduction, body paragraph(s) and a conclusion. Failing to do so could result in the deduction of up to 4 marks from your total TMA mark.