Last week, I visited the recruitment and talent management vendor Alexander Mann Solutions’ Global Client Service Center (GCSC) in Cleveland. Here I take a quick look at the growth of the operation and at recent initiatives.

Cleveland as a location

Alexander Mann Solutions (AMS) has seven GCSCs, the fourth of which opened in Cleveland in September 2012 to support AMS’ vision of providing global capability with in-country/region presence. AMS’ other GCSCs are in Bracknell (U.K.), Belfast (N. Ireland), Krakow and Gdansk (Poland), Manila, and Shanghai.

AMS was attracted to Cleveland for several reasons, including being a lower cost area than other major U.S. cities. Cleveland also has a stable workforce and effective partnerships with colleges and universities for hiring new graduates. The average age of recruits is 27, and there is an attrition rate of 18% (12% voluntary), lower than the average millennial attrition.

AMS does hiring for its clients in all major regions globally, and ~40% of its RPO clients are headquartered in the U.S. However, it was a European automobile manufacturer with hiring needs in the U.S. that led to the creation of the Cleveland GCSC to support clients in-country. This was followed by a need to support a long-standing U.S.-headquartered investment bank, a client of AMS since 2006 for whom AMS performs thousands of RPO hires annually. 

The Cleveland GCSC started with just 14 employees supporting four clients. Today, over 200 employees support 14 clients in four languages across Eastern and Pacific time zones with services including recruitment, sourcing, administration, business intelligence, branding/marketing and internal operations. The GCSC’s clients are from the banking and financial services, insurance, retail, hospitality, and sales sectors.

Automation initiatives

AMS has nine bots that automate and streamline processes for repetitive manual activities. Three of the bots it uses are:

• DORIS: used to automate document administration. Implemented in 2015, what used to take 10 weeks’ worth of work can now be done in 36 hours
• ISAAC: automates interview scheduling, using robotics to automate processes and interface with candidates. ISSAC automates 90% of interview scheduling; the other 10% is done by employees when last minute changes need to be made to interviews scheduled and candidates need to be contacted via phone
• HANA: automates help currently provided via text chat (though voice capability can be activated where needed).

Talent development initiatives

Recent talent development initiatives include:

• Defined career paths and internal mobility programs for employees (in 2017, ~10% of the Cleveland GCSC was promoted)
• A global internal mentoring program (after nine months on the job, any employee can volunteer to be a mentor)
• Ability for employees to become virtual trainers after nine months
• Use of Yammer social networking to share best practices
• Pulse-point surveys.

In 2017, AMS was recognized by NorthCoast 99 as a ‘Best Place to Work in North East Ohio’ for the fifth consecutive year. The Cleveland GCSC is also certified as ISO 9001 Quality Management and ISO 27001 Information Security.

Looking ahead, though Cleveland supports all of the Americas, anticipated growth in Latin America (currently supported by ~50 people working in-country) means that AMS is likely to open a GCSC in Latin America within the next three years.