Best Graduate Recruiting Program: Whirlpool
Whirlpool has redesigned its university recruiting program to ensure a consistent pipeline of mid-level management talent through the Whirlpool Leadership Development Program.
Quick facts:
- Global rotation programs are developed along functional lines to ensure skill development according to the functions' pre-defined performance criteria. More than seven separate programs exist, covering everything from brand portfolio leadership to global supply chain management.
- Each leadership-program participant receives frequent feedback, a senior-level mentor, a tiered compensation package and a defined career path.
Best practices:
- Identified employment brand obstacles that would prevent them from hiring the volume and quality of top graduates that they needed. They then developed a strategy to "call out" negative perceptions, such as those of the appliance industry itself.
- Leveraged the brand identity of Ben Stein, a known and trusted celebrity, to reach out directly to the target audience by including him in all recruitment communications.
- Designed highly visible recruiting events at target schools that leverage partnerships with local organizations, entertainment venues and elsewhere.
- Developed a web-based portal specific to campus recruitment that focuses on the candidate experience versus administrative functionality.
- Highly selective leadership development mentor program. Managers selected to participate as mentors must go through a rigorous selection process and are then monitored closely to ensure that only managers who consistently produce results remain in the program.
