Oakwood Temporary Housing

Company: Oakwood Temporary Housing, Los Angeles, CA
Company Description: Oakwood is the leading provider of furnished and serviced apartments worldwide, with presence in over 3,000 locations throughout North America, the United Kingdom and Asia Pacific. Over the last 50 years, we have focused on exceeding our customers? expectations and helping them meet their mobility and talent management objectives. We provide a ?Gold Standard? service that earns our clients? trust.
Nomination Category: Sales Achievement Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Hiring and Recruiting Program of the Year

Nomination Title: Ana Castellanos, Vice President, Human Resources

Tell the story about your sales organization's hiring and recruiting program since the beginning of July last year (up to 500 words). Focus on specific accomplishments, and relate these accomplishments to past performance or industry norms. Be sure to mention obstacles overcome, innovations or discoveries made, and outcomes:

To facilitate a complex sales transformation in an unprecedented economy, Oakwood
required a team skilled in new, value-based selling capabilities to compete
effectively. Ramping up to attract top-flight sales talent mandated a rigorous
recruiting campaign. The Staffing and Talent Acquisition team, led by Human
Resources VP Ana Castellanos, responded by dramatically reconstructing the
recruiting system to a metrics-driven plan designed to meet the sales
organization’s aggressive time line.

Challenges

The sales and marketing transformation resulted in turnover and a need to
quickly hire and on-board 85% new leaders and 40% new associates. The
organization demanded accountability at all levels regarding the process and a
timely approach to on-board candidates within 6 weeks of posting openings.

 Oakwood had recruited and hired in a routine manner, but did not have
structured metrics to identify best candidates, nor sufficient documentation
regarding required competencies for each role. “Success profiles” differed by
source (individual recruiters, sales managers, sales VPs).

There was no formal interview structure or guide to help recruiters and hiring
managers select ideal candidates.

Action

A team of members from Staffing and Talent Acquisition, Sales Management,
Sales Operations and a consultant identified, defined critical competencies
and developed role-specific competency guides.

The team created succinct interview guides including definitions, competencies
and behavioral interview questions used to assess candidates. They implemented a
nine-stage hiring process.

Castellanos led weekly “staffing tollgate meetings” when everyone involved in
hiring met and reported on progress toward identified talent targets. This focus
resulted in accountability, with each member reporting on progress at each stage
of the recruitment process.

Results

Our recruiting process improved the quality of candidates AND resulted in better,
more accountable recruiters and line leaders. (85% of our
openings were filled in the 6-week window.) This target approach has been so
successful, it has been adopted throughout Oakwood.

 New recruits expressed amazement at our rigor and expectations. Early evidence
indicates that the process attracted qualified and engaged candidates who will
thrive in our high-level sales environment.

Sales figures indicate we have the right people in the right places:

1. 304 wins for the full year 2008 and already 946 wins for 2009 (through Aug-09).

2.Win revenue of ~$129 million for 2009 (through Aug-09) has already surpassed
the total win revenue of $53 million for 2008.

3. Oakwood has been winning faster, moving from 5.5 months to win in Jan-09 to
1.9 months to win in Aug-09.

4.As of Aug-09, Oakwood converted over 9% of 4,500 new prospects to customers,
representing $7.3M.

5.Our transformation required that we turn over 48% of our sales organization.
;Today, through the process of continually upgrading our talent, we believe that
85% of our sales force are top-tier.

List hyperlinks to any online news stories, press releases, or other documents that support the claims made in the section above. IMPORTANT: Begin each link with http://, and enclose each link in square brackets; for example, [http://www.youraddress.com]:

Oakwood RoadMap
http://promotions.oakwood.com/Roadmap/index.html

Miller Heiman Study
http://promotions.oakwood.com/Roadmap/_assets/CaseStudyOakwood.pdf

Provide a brief (up to 100 words) biography about the leader(s) of the nominated sales organization:

Ana Castellanos, Vice President, Human Resources, Oakwood Temporary Housing, has
over 20 years experience in the hospitality industry. At Oakwood, she oversees
22 human resources professionals in all functional areas and has led a
recruiting system overhaul that meets Oakwood’s sophisticated, new needs.
Oakwood University, Oakwood’s training and development department, was named one
of the Top 125 by Training Magazine in 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2010. Previously,
Castellanos served in various corporate and regional human resources positions
at global hotel companies and with an upscale American department store.