CA Technologies improved candidate experience by improving application review processes and responding to every applicant.

1. CASE STUDYCA Technologies
CA Technologies improved candidate experience by improving application review
processes and responding to every applicant.
ca.com/careers
“No one likes rejection, but the
fact that I know someone actually
looked at my application and
responded (good or bad) is
amazing and a true statement to
the desire for exceptional
customer service.”
~ CA Technologies Job Applicant
OVERVIEW
The purpose of this operational change within recruiting was to ensure that
every candidate that applies for a role at CA Technologies either receives an
email or a phone call response. Thousands of applicants annually were being
ignored, and with these staggering numbers an initiative needed to be put into
place to ensure that we closed the proverbial black hole and that every
candidate, whether qualified or not, would receive at least an email advising
them of our decision. This effort has markedly improved the perception of our
process by candidates.
• 100% of applications now reviewed by a human
• Responses sent within an average of 3.5 days
• 60 hires made from pool of previously missed applicants
HOW CA TECHNOLOGIES
SOLVED THE JOB APPLICANT
BLACK HOLE

2. CASE STUDYCA Technologies
CHALLENGES
In a year, CA Technologies receives an average of
100,000 applications to our requisitions, of which
only 12% were being reviewed.
The majority of applications received are not
relevant to the roles being applied for, which
discourages the Talent Acquisition Team from
reviewing every single one, as this would take away
from them finding qualified candidates and filling
the roles.
This created a bad candidate experience, and
detracted from the brand we are striving to
embody. We were therefore unable to fully realize
the ROI on marketing investments.
HOW WE DID IT
We resolved to build a team in India to perform application screens of
all candidates that apply through our applicant tracking system. This
would ensure that each and every candidate that applies for a role
receives a response, thus heightening the candidate experience and
ending the so-called “black hole” when they apply for a role online.
The Talent Assessors would then review for a match to the minimum
requirements of the role, pushing those who match the requirements
and disposition along to our recruitment delivery center and sending
those that do not match email inviting them to join our talent
community so we can keep track of their careers and remind them of
other positions when they are available. Today we have three Talent
Assessors - an annual cost of less than $20,000.
We’ve outlined our process in the three simple steps below.

3. CA Technologies CASE STUDY
STEP 1: Evaluate the Need
Every brand has different needs for applicant review based on number of applications received per year, ATS functionality,
difficulty for filling average reqs, etc. We asked ourselves the following questions to evaluate the needs specific to CA
Technologies:
• How many applications are lost to the HR black hole in our organization?
• How long will it take for a Talent Assessor to review an application for basic requirements?
• How many full-time people will that require over the course of a year?
• Does the value of decreased time-to-fill and increased quality-of-hire exceed that of the Talent Assessor team
investment?
Leadership roles must also be considered in the initial planning and investment calculations. Who should lead this team, and
do they have the bandwidth? We found this to be an opportunity to give transitional responsibility to a talent acquisition team
member seeking leadership development.
STEP 2: Create Operational Standards and Governance
At CA Technologies, we started building our Talent Assessor program with a Candidate Disposition Guide. This document lays
out global and regional standards for rejecting candidates at each stage of the application and interview process. These
guidelines have been established for internal, referred, and external applicants.
The Candidate Disposition Guide includes the following standards:
• Disposition Flow Chart - Americas
• Disposition Flow Chart - Asia Pacific
• Disposition Flow Chart - Europe, Middle East & Africa
• Disposition Flow Chart - India
• Applicant Tracking System Templates
• Guidelines for Disposition Conversations
The document also establishes a governance model, as it applies to which role is responsible for making disposition decisions and
sending rejection communication to the applicant or candidate at each stage.
STEP 3: Implement and Train
As with any new process or program, adoption success depends
entirely on the execution of change management. Recruiter buy-
in is crucial to the success of a Talent Assessor program. Through
carefully crafted messaging, we ensured our recruiters
understood the value of the program and how it would improve
their own personal metrics and help them better achieve their
business goals. After affected teams were provided with all
information about the new program, we began sending weekly
adoption updates and reminders about the importance of the
new Talent Assessor process; this helped to quickly establish
engagement.

4. CASE STUDYCA Technologies
60
RESULTS
Every application now receives a response, whether positive
or a rejection. This is completed within an average of 2.5
days, with that number trending down since the
implementation of the team. The team has worked on over
25,000 applications. There have been 60 hires from this
pool of candidates that previously may not have been
reviewed. It is also helping us identify the right areas of
investment from a marketing channel perspective based on
the assessment of candidates received from each one and
their progress in the recruitment process. With their
introduction we have been able to curtail our sourcing spend
in certain areas, freeing up dollars for branding initiatives.
WHAT WE GOT WRONG
The initial training of the Talent Acquisition team was
limited and there were candidates identified by the Talent
Assessors as qualified, but were not being reviewed by the
Recruitment Delivery Center. This KPI was monitored and
measured weekly, and the Recruitment Delivery Center team
was trained on the value. The initiative is now wholly
embraced and implemented as a part of daily business.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
When every applicant is reviewed and receives a response,
candidate experience improves. We receive kudos from
candidates weekly on the process and the results of our
survey data bear this out. We are also uncovering
candidates who are a good match that may not have
otherwise been in play. Finally, we are better determining
which channels our best candidates are funneling through
and able to save money on sourcing by focusing marketing
and branding areas in the right places for the best ROI.