How does a “small but mighty” recruiting team of about 10 individuals manage to hire 1,200 people in a year?
According to Jordan Applegate, senior director of recruiting at Sweetwater Sound, a musical instruments and accessories company in Fort Wayne, Indiana, the answer lies in its recruiters’ “dual roles” as both recruiters and HR business partners.
Recruiters are instructed not only to create relationships with hiring managers but also the candidates they help shepherd through the recruiting process — a relationship that can last for a worker’s entire tenure, Applegate said.
“I think it helps retention,” Applegate told HR Dive. “Our recruiters also do a significant amount of work with hiring managers on people, culture strategy and overall retention strategies to really help that relationship with the candidate.”
Sweetwater hires for a combination of hourly retail positions and professional-level office positions, the majority of which are in Fort Wayne, a mid-sized city in a Midwestern state. And while the pandemic hit retailers hard, Sweetwater “grew by leaps and bounds” due to its business model, Applegate said — an e-commerce platform through which sales professionals connect one-on-one with customers.
That the company’s recruiting approach matches that model is no coincidence, Applegate said. Recruiters are able to build on a rapport established during the interview process by leading candidates-turned-hires through onboarding and beyond, too.
“I’ve been on our team for going on nine years now, and people I hired seven to eight years ago, when they want to talk about something HR-related, because I have been that person building a relationship with them, I’m the individual to field that request,” Applegate explained.
Sweetwater also maintains a strong on-campus culture despite national pushes for remote work. Its answer to the hybrid work dilemma, Applegate said, is to double down on the amenities offered on campus, including an on-campus doctor free to employees and their families regardless of insurance plan.
Sweetwater did lean into flexibility during the first months of the pandemic, but then asked employees to return to the office — and the office amenities were a big reason workers were amenable to a return, Applegate noted.
“We’ve heard the horror stories. We’ve certainly experienced that in the recruiting and interview process,” Applegate said, referring to ongoing stories of workers rejecting calls to return to offices. “But once we unpacked the [employee value proposition] … it’s obvious why our model of having individuals here working on-site works for us.”
