5 Questions with Jackie McKewon

Deploy HR, Inc. excels at connecting the right people with the right company. Specializing in Customized Human Resources Solutions, Recruiting, Payroll, Benefits, Consulting, Risk Management, Deploy HR, Inc. recruits and screens top candidates that best suit every client’s needs. Whether a high-level placement or a temporary hourly gig, Deploy HR, Inc. maintains an understanding of and commitment to every business served and the workforce integral to making those businesses successful.

1. What are some of the most important client needs in your staffing niche?

Warehouses are trusting us to engage candidates as well as choose the right person for the job. They're trusting us to really get accurate and complete information within a certain amount of time. Just like the candidate has three different staffing agencies they can go to, the client also has multiple agencies within that one facility. So, if we're not performing, if we're not placing people, well, they can go to another agency. If we can't perform and we don't have tools to perform, then we're not doing our jobs very well.

Deploy HR is in a really great space as a warehouse staffing company to offer a fair chance program into the employment world and to offer a hand that's held out rather than a door that's closed. And I think that's why it's really important for us to implement programs to open our doors to the diversity that they offer to us. All of our branch staff who use Checkr take the training offered to our teams and learn new tools and new ways to source candidates based on who they are as a person, not what they are on a piece of paper. It's important to us as a company to open up the candidate pool and to really be a voice for these individuals.

2. What are some of the challenges specific to staffing in your niche?

First and foremost, it's a very fast paced environment. It’s also a bit of a revolving door, which can make it hard to meet volume and timelines for candidate hires. It's super competitive. Being confident that we're not only getting the right candidate in the door quickly, but also that we have some longevity before another agency can get to them is really crucial.

There’s a lot of opportunity, but not necessarily a large candidate pool willing to take these opportunities. We have such a unique candidate pool. Our employees are amazing. They're willing to do these very difficult jobs that are physically demanding, and overall very demanding and not always the highest paying. This might be a first job for them. It’s important we make sure we're meeting those unique needs, that we're understanding the people, and we're helping them evolve in their careers and opportunities. At the same time, we need to meet and continue to meet the volume and timelines that are placed on us.

3. How do you leverage data in your industry?

I personally use the Checkr Analytics tool a lot. I know some of our regional management staff use that as well to keep on the pulse of what our teams are doing, and if they're engaging candidates. It's a great thing to have because we have locations spread all over the country. I can't be in 10 places at once, but I can keep an eye on the reports that are run and I can look at turnaround times. I can do a deeper dive if I noticed something a bit strange or that looks totally different than it did a month ago. I drill into that data and connect with the team to connect and rectify problems. Or just check in with the team if necessary; there doesn't have to be a problem. Connecting with my teams on the data I'm seeing and what's going on with their location is awesome.

4. How do you manage teams spread across so many different territories?

We like Checkr because of its dashboard. It's a really clean, user-friendly interface. And it also increased visibility across our locations. I can be in the corporate office and look at what someone in Florida is doing. And that helps me to bring in stakeholders to transition into a very simple item from manual processes. I also love Checkr’s Geocodes because we're actually a family of companies. We have multiple locations and several different companies. So, the geocode makes my life so much simpler. Again, I can drill down the larger amount of data into super simplified, bite-sized pieces that are easily understood by myself or a team member. And it also allows me to classify things across different accounts without having to log in and out. It's a one stop shop using those geocodes. I’m a big fan.

5.  What are other ways you improve process efficiencies and improve candidate experience?

We run 7-8 background checks daily across all our locations. Our quarterly average is about 720. Our team is able to influence the candidate experience by using the Checkr system to really keep candidates in the loop and engage them with ease. Everything that you can imagine in our onboarding process was once manual. With Checkr, we can do it all online. And we brought our application process onto our employee system. Being able to have the candidate fill out an application that then automatically creates an employee profile in our system is also exciting. Checkr is going to integrate with that system, Avionte, as well.

With Checkr, our turnaround time is just under a day. Without the ability to contingently hire staff, especially in places like California, we would have an uphill battle looking at a one-week turnaround time. If we couldn't contingently hire and start them through the process of getting through the door because we're waiting for results, a candidate would have most likely started another position. Having that turnaround time is really crucial because without contingency, we would have such a battle on our hands for hiring.

We have about a 10 to 20% cost savings, just purely on the cost of the checks, material cost savings, using significantly less paper. And the time savings of not having a candidate fill out a paper form and then fax it over, wait for background checks, coming back to us, etc. Now it’s just inputting minimal candidate information online, sending all the forms to the candidate to fill out on their own time, then receiving the full report. That's an immense time savings for us as well. As a result of bringing on Checkr, our team has more time back in their days to focus on candidate retention programs and improving the onboarding experience and process.