Ford Credit Europe
HOW IT STARTED
Ford Credit Europe (FCE) announced plans to open a new flagship European service centre. That meant transferring work - Wholesale Finance - from 13 European locations into one business centre in the UK.
This was a substantial change programme for Ford Credit Europe. As a major global company there was a lot of internal focus to ensure the plan would progress smoothly without disruption to the day-to-day business. In addition, as a well-known brand, community stakeholders such as the local media and City Councils, were also taking an active interest. A successful launch was vital.
LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION
We already had a long established relationship with Ford Credit Europe - our team in St Albans have fulfilled their contact centre recruitment requirements in the city for many years. So when they announced they were going to establish a pan-European business centre in the UK looking after their Wholesale Finance business, we were thrilled to get involved and support.
From a shortlist the cities of Manchester and Glasgow emerged as the front runners and one of the principal reasons for this was the greater availability of multilingual speakers that the new business centre would demand. To help support the final decision we worked closely with Ford Credit Europe and provided our expertise and data on many factors such as local demographics, competitors, pay rates and of course the availability of language skills.
Our research showed us that Manchester would be the ideal place and that was the recommendation we made. Ford Credit Europe agreed. The first Ford car in the UK was manufactured in Manchester - the new centre was taking the brand back to where it all began.
LET THE RECRUITMENT COMMENCE
When the time came to select a recruitment partner for the new flagship business centre, we were proud that Ford Credit Europe wanted to work with us, on what would be a very demanding recruitment drive, to secure a large number of language speakers in a relatively short period of time.
We worked with more than 20 stakeholders around the world, to design a compelling advertising strategy that would allow us to find the candidates needed, whilst promoting and protecting the Ford brand. From there, we tapped into all corners of the community to engage with multilingual talent - focusing on joint branded advertising, community engagement, and social recruitment. We also engaged with local stakeholders to promote the roles, and enlisted our Borderless Talent team to attract individuals from abroad too.
Sometimes, fantastic candidates don't have all the specific skills a job requires when they apply for it so the strategy we developed with Ford Credit Europe was to employ candidates temporarily and then bridge the skills gap through a three month training and development programme. This allowed Ford Credit Europe to assess the candidates over a longer period and ensure they were suitable for the roles. Those candidates who successfully completed the programme were then placed into a permanent position.
WHERE WE ARE TODAY
Up until this point, the centre serviced customers in countries across Europe. But recently, Ford Credit decided to relocate their UK retail finance operation from St Albans to the new Manchester business centre and we were on hand to support with this expansion right away.
This was a substantial recruitment task and to date, we've seamlessly transitioned 120 temp-to-perm hires and 11 higher graded permanent hires to their new roles. This has been possible by combining our knowledge of the Ford Credit operation with an engaging recruitment process and this, in turn, has meant that Ford Credit were able to achieve their objective of go-live dates with minimal disruption to their business.
We've had such a positive impact on their operations, that we've been thrilled to be invited to attend promotional events with Ford Credit Europe stakeholders - including careers fairs and local press events, like the above from the Manchester Evening News.