AutoZone taps Oracle Cloud to find people with ‘right stuff’
As the auto parts retailer looks to expand its footprint, it’s relying on Oracle HCM to identify and hire staffers who fit its unique culture.
“Our [legacy] app needed a lot of customizing and special coding, and it took a lot of time away from our IT team. Our new cloud-based HR system is much more efficient, and Oracle provides all updates and maintenance required.”
Business challenges
During its 41-year history, AutoZone has built its reputation on the superior service its store employees offer motorists. Today, the retailer sells 100,000 different parts and accessories for cars and trucks, and operates stores in all 50 states plus Puerto Rico, Mexico, and Brazil.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, AutoZone kept its stores open to help police, fire, and other essential workers, as well as the general public, continue rolling. The company instituted online ordering, curbside pickup, and free next-day delivery, in addition to social distancing in its more than 6,000 stores.
That kind of flexible, customer-oriented service requires a special kind of employee. As AutoZone looked to hire thousands of new staffers during the coming decade to support its aggressive growth plans, it realized it needed a modern human capital management system to help identify the right people, as well as to onboard, manage, and develop them.
Why AutoZone chose Oracle
The company implemented the Oracle Cloud HCM suite of applications to help it identify “AutoZoners” with the right stuff. AutoZone began with Oracle Cloud HCM’s talent management module and since then has implemented core HR, payroll, and absence management, with employee and manager self-service.
To limit project costs and risk to operations, the team chose a phased approach that would allow them to use existing on-premises business systems across payroll, HR, and supply chain [including Kronos, E-Business Suite, and PeopleSoft]. Oracle Integration was selected to help speed delivery, reduce upgrade risks and interoperate with existing SOA automation using prebuilt adapters for Oracle and third-party SaaS and on-premises applications.
Management liked the cloud application’s intuitive user interface and built-in best practices, as well as the fact that new features and updates are delivered automatically four times a year. It also liked that, as AutoZone continues to grow globally, the application’s built-in data analytics will provide managers with deeper insights into their employees’ attributes and competencies.
Results
During the first 30 days after it rolled out the Oracle Cloud HCM recruiting module, AutoZone received 93,000 job applications—more than four times the number it received during the same time the previous year.
A new responsive design mobile app lets people apply for a job from their smartphones. The streamlined job application now asks only for essential information, helping cut the average time it takes to apply from 20 minutes to 10 minutes. Newly automated processes to complete employee background checks and onboarding free up store managers for higher-level and more personalized work—such as identifying candidates who are a good cultural fit for the company.
A new AutoZone careers landing page segments available jobs by type—sales, customer service, warehouse, and corporate—to help applicants find jobs of interest more quickly. Store managers have visibility into applicants who have applied at sister stores in the same geographical area.