How Woody Buick GMC Leveraged Hireology To Drive More Than 270 Hires

Introduction

Woody Buick GMC is a family-owned and operated dealership group with two locations in Naperville and Gurnee, Illinois. The dealership has been serving the Chicagoland area since 1998, and is proud to be one of the largest Buick and GMC dealerships in the state.

The dealership partnered with Hireology — the #1 applicant tracking system (ATS) for retail automotive dealerships — in 2019 and has made more than 270 hires since implementation. Read on to learn how.

The problem

Before partnering with Hireology, each hiring manager on the Woody Buick GMC team ran their own unique hiring process. Typically, they would begin by posting open roles on Indeed, but once applicants entered the pipeline, the rest of the process was inconsistent from manager to manager and from candidate to candidate. The team referred to the hiring process as the “wild west” where applicants often fell through the cracks and Indeed budgets were poorly managed.

While managers were running their own process, the dealership’s HR team was responsible for running background checks, drug screens, and motor vehicle reports for new hires — often resulting in miscommunications between the two teams ultimately delaying the hiring process. 

Overall, Woody Buick GMC’s system was old-fashioned, slow, and error prone.

The GM Bring Us Your Talent campaign

In October 2019, Woody Buick GMC discovered Hireology through the GM Bring Us Your Talent campaign, which is a program designed to train and develop more skilled technicians amidst today’s ongoing and concerning technician talent shortage.

As a part of this campaign, GM offered dealerships access to Hireology’s automotive-specific ATS — which is currently trusted by one in four dealerships nationwide. 

Woody Buick GMC leveraged the opportunity to use their iMR dollars to cover the cost of Hireology — which included the cost of background checks, drug screens, and other verifications.

“Choosing Hireology itself was a no-brainer, we needed a transparent hiring program. Coupled with being able to use our iMR dollars from a promotion during the Bring us your talent event, sealed the deal for us.”

— Joya Lehner | HR Manager, Woody Buick GMC

The Hireology solution

Since partnering with Hireology, Woody Buick GMC has been able to streamline and centralize their hiring process — resulting in faster hiring, better quality candidates, and ultimately more critical roles filled. Here’s how Hireology helped them get there:

Simple and easy implementation

Hireology’s implementation team offers exceptional support when it comes to customizing jobs and processes within the Hireology platform — and Woody Buick GMC’s experience was no different. Working closely with Hireology’s implementation managers, the team effortlessly tailored content to enrich their job profiles right off the bat. 

Additionally, the Hireology team efficiently streamlined and personalized the hiring workflow to better suit the team’s needs. Initially, HR handled pre-screening applicants and forwarded qualified candidates to department managers. However, as Hireology became more integrated into their dealership processes, department managers quickly adapted and resumed control over their applicant pipelines, overseeing all activities to build their teams once again.

Transparency and centralization

Hireology’s robust hiring platform also gives Woody Buick GMC the ability to centralize hiring steps and streamline the process. Hireology includes everything from customizable workflows to built-in insights and analytics. The platform also provides complete transparency across hiring and HR teams, allowing anyone to see exact statuses of individual roles and candidates at any time.

The Woody Buick GMC team went from each manager running their own process without any oversight to a transparent process with accountability that empowers managers and HR alike to make smart hiring decisions

“The whole hiring process is streamlined now. With defined job profiles we are seeing higher quality candidates apply and when we need a boost we have access to a curated list of job board partnerships to select from.”

— Joya Lehner | HR Manager, Woody Buick GMC

In-app drug screens and background checks

Hireology offers a comprehensive array of background checks and drug screens, all accessible directly from the platform, providing users with peace of mind while facilitating faster hiring. Additionally, the platform enables automated applicant screening, skills testing, and direct contact with references. 

Before adopting Hireology, the Woody Buick GMC HR team had to navigate multiple systems and logins to conduct essential verifications, including drug screens, background checks, and motor vehicle reports. Thanks to Hireology, this previously fragmented process is now centralized and streamlined, simplifying operations for both HR and hiring managers.

Multi-location specialization

Hireology’s platform, with its parent-child hierarchy capabilities, is tailor-made for the distinct requirements of multi-location HR teams tasked with hiring across diverse sites.

When Woody Buick GMC was looking to open a second store, the ability to manage both locations within a single account proved to be a game-changer. It significantly simplified the process and added transparency across locations. Additionally, the team could seamlessly transfer candidates between positions and across locations based on their experience.

“Hireology is so easy to set up and use, when we acquired a new store we didn’t miss a beat getting them onboarded with Hireology. With the location’s dashboard, I am able to get a transparent view of activities at both stores and continue to support an efficient recruiting and hiring process.”

— Joya Lehner | HR Manager, Woody Buick GMC

The results

Thanks to Hireology’s ability to streamline hiring processes, centralize hiring steps, enhance transparency, and simplify complex tasks like ordering background checks, the team at Woody Buick GMC successfully modernized and accelerated their hiring efforts, leading to:

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