STRAIGHTSOURCE ENSURES NEW STANDARDS FOR ALLSTATE'S CUSTOMER SERVICE
Allstate Recruits "Good Hands" with StraightSource

The Challenge
The Solution
The Results

The Challenge
Allstate Corporation, the nation's largest publicly held personal lines insurer, has continuously led the industry in customer service. However, Allstate was faced with a crucial challenge:

How could the company surpass its own records and set new standards in customer service?

To meet and exceed its customer service edict and provide 24/7 service to all current and potential customers, Allstate determined a need to open three new Customer Information Centers across the country. With the new centers and an expanded staff of call center agents, the "good hands" people would now be available 24-hours a day, and customers would have more freedom and flexibility than ever before.

To implement this strategic initiative, Allstate needed to build a large, easily accessible, nationwide customer sales and service support enterprise. Allstate wanted the centers operational within months of announcing this initiative, while ensuring the quality of the hires and dedication to service remained at the highest level. To achieve the aggressive implementation plan, Allstate needed a recruitment partner that provided:

• Significant customer service recruitment expertise.
• Capability to source the highest caliber candidates.
• Ability to work in tandem to design and implement an effective and cost-efficient selection process.
• Preparation to ensure the candidates - en masse - would be ready for the first day of employment.

Back to top

The Solution
After evaluating several options, Allstate turned to the recruitment experts at StraightSource to hire its customer service professionals with full confidence that as a recruitment partner, StraightSource, placed the same value on high employee standards.

"StraightSource provided great flexibility and adapted their approach to the 'Allstate Way,'" commented Anise Wiley-Little, director of human resources with Allstate, We were most impressed by their willingness to stay flexible as our business needs evolved."

StraightSource built a customized recruitment effort around Allstate's pre-set standards and requirements. To meet Allstate's need for consistent applicant quality across all geographies in the allotted timeframe, StraightSource deployed a replicable selection approach that simultaneously staffed customer information centers across the nation.

"The paramount success of this initiative hinged on seamless recruitment regardless of location. It was extremely important to convey the same look and feel for prospective applicants, as well as our employees, at each site. Process consistency is a priority even if the wave of hires varies for each location," said Wiley-Little.

Through the StraightLine Process, "StraightSource executed the entire recruitment process and enabled Allstate HR to focus on our mission-critical functions," added Wiley-Little. Across all sites, StraightSource effectively managed candidate generation, assessment, testing, overall candidate evaluation, and recommendation. Additionally, StraightSource enabled Allstate to forecast required activity, maintain applicant-tracking databases, and provide site-specific activity reporting - meeting all hiring milestones, regardless of size, geography, or required speed. The result was a measurable success.

Back to top

The Results
The streamlined process created and implemented by StraightSource delivered consistently "good hands" across all Allstate sites. "StraightSource played an integral role in ensuring that candidates were delivered on time," added Wiley-Little.

"Prior to selecting StraightSource, it took about eighteen people to get one hire." This large candidate-to-hire ratio was the key to the recruitment success and is further testament that recruitment process outsourcing leads to greater employee retention.

Allstate and StraightSource set specific goals with high standards and hopes for building a world-class operation to better service Allstate customers. The results:

• Met and exceeded each recruitment requirement.
• Seamlessly integrated Allstate's culture, philosophies and goals.
• Exceeded candidate generation enabling more extensive selection criteria.
• Began to create a new generation of customer loyalty with more than 2,000 hires made to staff Customer Information Centers across the nation from the ground floor up.
• Significantly exceeded retention expectations - 13% annualized turnover.
• Met all milestones on time and within budget.
• Start-up training savings of $5 million dollars.

Back to top