New SSO Program Fills 450+ Openings in Two Months

New SSO Program Fills 450+ Openings in Two Months

Pay Rates  •  Peak Season  •  Recruiting  •  Screening and Training   |   09/27/2022

The Client

QVC distribution center in Allentown, Pennsylvania.

The Need

  • In August of 2021, QVC knew they needed to fill 450 open positions before the peak holiday season arrived.
  • To add to the challenge, Allentown’s pool of English-speaking prospects was limited. After working with QVC for years, we knew that continuing to restrict new hires to English speakers could prevent the company from reaching its goal.
  • That’s when our team developed a strategy for implementing a Spanish Speaking Only (SSO) program for QVC on an expedited timeline.

The Solution

In 2021, roughly 70% of potential candidates in Allentown spoke only Spanish. To capitalize on this previously untapped talent pool and help QVC reach its required headcount by the deadline, we set out to implement an SSO program.

  1. Building the Team

    The first step to launching the SSO program was building the on-site team. This included hiring a site area manager, three SPMs, and bilingual leads. Our team hired one bilingual lead for every 20 SSO employees, or around 25 leads in total. All new team members were trained on the ins and outs of QVC’s and ResourceMFG’s policies and processes during September 2021.

  2. SSO Program Development

    With the bilingual leads in place, we converted QVC’s entire orientation process from English to Spanish. This included all forms, training documents, presentations, and other onboarding information.

  3. Marketing Mix

    To prepare for the October hiring period, we launched an aggressive multi-tactic marketing campaign. With a budget of $150K, we leveraged radio ads, broadcast TV, social media, digital marketing, and traditional job boards to spread the word. Word-of-mouth advertising and referrals were also popular in the area, driving walk-in traffic once the interviewing process began.

  4. Starting Pay

    The average pay rate for QVC prior to peak season was $18–$18.70/hour. To encourage applications and ensure the headcount was met within the deadline, the pay rate was increased to $21–$23/hour for peak season.

  5. Interviews

    Soon after the interview process began in October, we were conducting over 100 interviews per day, as well as 15 orientations each week. This pace continued throughout the remainder of the project.

The Outcome

The outcomes were:

  1. Headcount

    All 450 open positions were filled by the deadline established by QVC. We actually exceeded QVC’s required headcount by nearly 100%, filling 819 positions to prepare for drop-offs and no-shows.

  2. SSO Program

    The Spanish Speaking Only program has been a complete success at QVC. Since implementing the program, QVC has noticed increases in efficiencies and other key metrics.

  3. Fill Rate

    The SSO program has also simplified the process for filling open positions at QVC by dramatically expanding their prospect pool. This has enabled us to maintain a 100% fill rate since the program’s inception.