This makes global recruiting essential. "We need to turn around and replace these people," she says.

    In 2001, recruitment managers from 15 different countries met for the first time and found that they, like West, were struggling with bringing in new talent. Many of them were improving their Web sites, but they still weren’t getting much traffic because the sites were hard to find. "There wasn’t a single site that candidates could go to find jobs," Kirch says.

    Over the past five years, Deloitte has developed a global recruitment site that is aligned with the corporate vision but is customized for cultural nuances at its global subsidiaries. The company’s workforce has jumped worldwide from 90,000 in 2001 to 121,000 in 2005. By eliminating redundant efforts involved with designing and maintaining 35 separate local Web sites, the company has saved an estimated $1.5 million per year.

    "I think we have nailed down the saying ‘Think global, act local,’ " says Kent Kirch, global director of recruitment.

    In June 2000, Deloitte established a Global Recruitment Council to devise a plan for the site that would meet the company’s recruitment and staffing challenges. "We literally started with a blank piece of paper," Kirch says. By the following March, the group finalized the design of the plan. The new global recruitment site went live in July 2001.

    The site was ideal for the highly decentralized company because it created a single place where employees could go to understand the global vision of the company. But it did not allow for the nuances that many country leaders needed. For example, the China site might have links that were still in English and images of Europeans, Kirch says.

    For West, the site was lacking because it didn’t describe all of the various businesses that were offered in Australia, but did mention some that were not. Kirch and his team also realized that students and experienced users often look for different things. While students tend to like to research and browse, experienced professionals just want to go straight to the job descriptions.

    In August, the company relaunched the Web site, featuring a link for students and another for experienced users. More significant, the new site allows for country leaders to add their own content and links to their country’s pages. If Deloitte Australia wins an award or is mentioned in an article, West can get that information up on the site immediately.

    Deloitte Australia has seen the number of hires coming from the Web jump 20 percent since the new site was created, West says. So far this fiscal year the company has hired 250 employees, up from 183 last year, but at the same cost.

    "We expect costs to further come down as we are starting to rely less on agencies to bring candidates in," she says.

    For developing a unique global recruiting Web site, Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu wins the 2006 Optimas Award for Global Outlook.

 

With its headquarters in New York, Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu is a privately held company made up of 70 member firms that focus on providing professional services and advice to clients. With 121,000 employees worldwide, Deloitte has offices in 150 countries. In 2005, aggregate member firm revenue grew by 10.9 percent to $18.2 billion.

The company provides auditing, tax, consulting and financial advisory services. Deloitte’s clients represent one-half of the world’s largest companies, as well as large national enterprises, public institutions and global growth companies. The company’s founder, William Welch Deloitte, was the first person ever appointed as an independent auditor in 1849, when he worked with Great Western Railway.

Workforce Management, March 13, 2006, p. 22 -- Subscribe Now!