Adecco’s People, Bricksand Clicks strategy isredef<strong>in</strong><strong>in</strong>g the globalstaff<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong>dustry.Strategy <strong>in</strong> actionIdealJob.comIdealJob.com started <strong>in</strong> Switzerland justtwo years ago and rapidly expanded <strong>in</strong>toeight other European countries. Now, <strong>in</strong>addition to attract<strong>in</strong>g mid- to high-levelskilled Candidates, it provides off-l<strong>in</strong>e<strong>in</strong>terview, assessment and follow-upservices <strong>in</strong> most European markets.In addition, IdealJob.com markets itstechnology and services to Clients andprovides turnkey, tailor-made, web-enabledhuman resources solutions. For example,<strong>in</strong> mid-2001, it provided the Swiss dailynewspaper, Le Temps, with an on-l<strong>in</strong>eversion of its weekly ‘situations vacant’supplement. IdealJob.com specified,programmed and <strong>in</strong>stalled the site andstyled it accord<strong>in</strong>g to Le Temps’ corporatevisual identity. It also set up a 5-day a weekcall centre to handle <strong>in</strong>terviews and expediteselection processes. It is now an almostself-runn<strong>in</strong>g profit centre for Le Temps.IdealJob.com is also help<strong>in</strong>g EXPO.02,the Swiss National Expo to recruit morethan 11,000 <strong>people</strong>. A specially designedwebsite began collect<strong>in</strong>g thousands of CVsper day, from which 30,000 <strong>people</strong> were<strong>in</strong>terviewed <strong>in</strong> order to fill 11,000 jobs. Atall stages – from <strong>in</strong>itial CV post<strong>in</strong>g to f<strong>in</strong>alselection and placement – the IdealJob.comtechnology and services gave Candidatesthe impression of <strong>in</strong>teract<strong>in</strong>g with theEXPO.02 organization directly.Adecco.itAdecco.it is Italy’s fully <strong>in</strong>tegrated humanresources solutions system that blends thebest of click power with an extensive branchnetwork and face-to-face services. It standsas a model for the future, one that will beimm<strong>in</strong>ently rolled out <strong>in</strong> Spa<strong>in</strong>, France,Germany and ultimately to all othercountries.It works like this: whether Candidatesphysically enter a branch or ‘virtually enter’the Adecco.it site, they are all personally<strong>in</strong>terviewed at branch level. Once theirreferences and qualifications are validated,they are placed <strong>in</strong> the nationwide database,from where Clients can <strong>in</strong>teractivelysearch and sort suitably qualified andmobile <strong>people</strong>. After <strong>in</strong>itial selection,Adecco Colleagues then contact theAssociates to f<strong>in</strong>alise the hir<strong>in</strong>g process.One of the 6,000The Adecco Dietikon branch <strong>in</strong> Zurich, Switzerland, headedby André Riegler, opened two years ago and operates withmore than 250 Clients, <strong>in</strong>clud<strong>in</strong>g such famous names as Hertz,Hewlett Packard, Daimler Chrysler.24
And to ensure that all Adecco and specialtybranches participate <strong>in</strong> the system, specialtransfer pric<strong>in</strong>g arrangements are <strong>in</strong> placeas an <strong>in</strong>centive for Colleagues.After just one year, thanks to the powerof the <strong>people</strong>, bricks and clicks model,Adecco.it has overtaken all Italian Internetrecruit<strong>in</strong>g competitors (<strong>in</strong>clud<strong>in</strong>g pureon-l<strong>in</strong>e players such as Monster, JobPilot,StepStone and Jobl<strong>in</strong>e) <strong>in</strong> all on-l<strong>in</strong>eactivities. It has more than 200,000 <strong>in</strong>dividualvisitors per month, 5 million page views permonth, 650,000 CVs and 4,000 Job Offersavailable on-l<strong>in</strong>e. And all this was achievedwith no advertis<strong>in</strong>g, just the leverag<strong>in</strong>g ofthe Adecco brand awareness and through‘word of mouth’.Not only is Adecco.it Italy’s lead<strong>in</strong>g on-l<strong>in</strong>erecruitment site, it is also help<strong>in</strong>g addressthe North-South divide <strong>in</strong> a country thathas 3% unemployment <strong>in</strong> the North and20% <strong>in</strong> the South. With Adecco.it <strong>people</strong>from the South are helped to f<strong>in</strong>d atemporary job <strong>in</strong> the North, and 96% ofthem receive a permanent job offer with<strong>in</strong>6 months. Adecco has further helpedfacilitate this through its ‘Adecco House’<strong>in</strong>itiative. The aim is to f<strong>in</strong>d, rent andfurnish apartments to be used by temporaryworkers who have transferred from theSouth of Italy. In the last two years, Adeccohas opened over 300 houses <strong>in</strong> the North,help<strong>in</strong>g Associates settle down <strong>in</strong> theworkforce of Client companies.Fully <strong>in</strong>tegrated branchand back office systemIn a system that is unique <strong>in</strong> the staff<strong>in</strong>g<strong>in</strong>dustry and puts Adecco North Americaahead of our competition, our 1,700 NorthAmerican branches are on-l<strong>in</strong>e to areal-time client/server system that accessesa centralised nationwide database. Thissaves Adecco and its Clients time andmoney, elim<strong>in</strong>at<strong>in</strong>g paperwork andensur<strong>in</strong>g accurate, easily accessible data.Provid<strong>in</strong>g unparalleled customer serviceadm<strong>in</strong>istration, comprehensive skillevaluations, skill enhancement and custommatch<strong>in</strong>g of Associates to assignments,Adecco’s system facilitates order track<strong>in</strong>g,time capture and payroll, validates bill<strong>in</strong>gand provides a wide array of Client usagereports, with a multitude of sort<strong>in</strong>g optionsbased on Client specifications. It alsoprovides consolidated <strong>in</strong>voic<strong>in</strong>g for largecustomers while allow<strong>in</strong>g for complicatedcontract compliance for multiple entitiesand locations. The result is that Clients canstrategically manage their staff<strong>in</strong>g contractsnationwide.For Associates, the system ensures thattheir data are centrally recorded and, asAssociates acquire experience, Colleaguescan reference previous assignments tofurther match skill sets with jobs.Associates can also move easily to anotherbranch and be assured of the <strong>in</strong>tegrity oftheir data.To expand its seamless network, Adecco isimplement<strong>in</strong>g a variety of web-enabledsystem options that <strong>in</strong>tegrate Client ITsystems with Adecco’s. They provide asecure, collaborative platform from whichClients, Associates and Adecco can accessall workflow <strong>in</strong>formation. The uniquefeature of Adecco’s e-commerce systemsis their seamless <strong>in</strong>tegration with all otherAdecco front and back office systems,elim<strong>in</strong>at<strong>in</strong>g duplicate entry and ensur<strong>in</strong>gaccuracy and timel<strong>in</strong>ess <strong>in</strong> e-commercetransactions.Lee Hecht HarrisonIn June 2001, Lee Hecht Harrison launchedthe first career transition service for thosewho prefer to job-search from home.The LHH@HOME software creates a fully<strong>in</strong>teractive research, tra<strong>in</strong><strong>in</strong>g andnetwork<strong>in</strong>g community, allow<strong>in</strong>g Candidatesto <strong>in</strong>teract with LHH staff as well as otherCandidates. It also gives access tocompany-wide resources, conferencesand bullet<strong>in</strong> boards.Adecco Spa<strong>in</strong> uses SMSAdecco Spa<strong>in</strong> uses SMS (Short Messag<strong>in</strong>gService) technology to <strong>in</strong>stantly <strong>in</strong>formCandidates across the country about itslatest job offers and tra<strong>in</strong><strong>in</strong>g opportunities.Together with an SMS provider it developedspecial tools to send SMS messages toeither a s<strong>in</strong>gle person or a group sorted byfields such as location, personality,education and experience. Currently, wellover 100,000 messages are sent each month,and Adecco Spa<strong>in</strong> is look<strong>in</strong>g to market thisexcit<strong>in</strong>g technology <strong>in</strong>to other countries.<strong>Mak<strong>in</strong>g</strong> the most of the futureThe case studies described above arepowerful examples of Adecco’s <strong>in</strong>tegrated<strong>people</strong>, bricks and clicks strategy. They showhow the Internet enables greater efficienciesand convenience, and how the <strong>people</strong> andfacilities beh<strong>in</strong>d the web-enabled systemsprovide face-to-face added value services.As Adecco cont<strong>in</strong>ues to embrace newtechnology, it cont<strong>in</strong>ues to build an evervaluable resource of expertise. A resourcethat will ultimately create a commondatabase structure <strong>in</strong> all regions, enabl<strong>in</strong>gAdecco <strong>people</strong> to share <strong>in</strong>formationseamlessly, at every level, across bordersand across specialities, and eventuallyallow<strong>in</strong>g Clients and Candidates to accessand use this <strong>in</strong>formation throughwhichever k<strong>in</strong>d of Internet or wirelessdevice they f<strong>in</strong>d most convenient. And,as a truly global and transparent company,Adecco seems dest<strong>in</strong>ed to cont<strong>in</strong>ueredef<strong>in</strong><strong>in</strong>g the staff<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong>dustry.25
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