AmTrust Bank, a large financial institution headquartered in Cleveland with retail branches in Florida, Ohio, and Arizona, makes sure all their employees know this motto on their first day: let your job revolve around
your life.
It’s this kind of innovative corporate mentality that has won AmTrust a plethora of awards, including the Recruiting Excellence Award at ERE’s Spring 2008 Expo for Most Innovative Employee Referral Program, ERC’s NorthCoast99 Workplace Health and Safety Award spotlighting their wellness program, and recognition three years in a row as a company dedicated to its employees’ well-being by the Center for Companies that Care.
Here is Part 2 of my interview with Senior Recruiter Annette Fernandez. Click here for Part 1.
How are you attracting Gen Y candidates?
Our Gen Y population has doubled since 2005. We’re attractive to those candidates through a cultural standpoint. We have a ‘revolve’ program in which we say, we trust you, you’re an adult, so you can do 4 10-hours, or if you want every other Friday off, you can work with your manager.
We are heavily into green-advocate programs. We have a full fitness center here that’s open 5 to 8 pm. We also have a ‘lifeBalance lounge’ with pool tables, ping-pong, air hockey, and a meditation room. There’s an old-fashioned ice cream shop and a mid-day matinee theater where you can watch Seinfeld. We bring all our candidates down here to say, hey, this is our culture.
Are you utilizing any Web 2.0 technology?
We’re talking about a couple of things blogging-wise, but nothing that we’ve actually done so far. We’re looking into Facebook and myspace, but we’re being pretty conservative as well in some sense that we want to be careful that we’re not discriminating against anyone. But it’s something that we’re looking into.
Please talk about your wellness program for your employees and why you won the Health and Safety Award for NorthCoast 99 companies at ERC.
Amtrust has an Annual Health Fair that draws over 800 employees each year. The event is highly interactive and offers many types of health screenings. We also have a free onsite Fitness Center with classes from body sculpting to pilates and yoga. For employees who do not work in the corporate headquarters, a fitness center subsidy program is available.
Nicotine replacement therapy products and counseling are provided free for all AmTrust employees and their household members. In addition, AmTrust provides onsite “Freedom from Smoking” classes sponsored by the American Lung Association.
Also working moms have access to an onsite lactation room at our corporate center and operation center. AmTrust provides access to Parent Support Groups, Parenting Specialists, and an onsite Licensed Social Worker.
Last, but not least, employees can chill out to Weekly Midday Matinees featuring such entertainment as The Office, Seinfeld, Planet Earth, and the HBO Addictions Series.
What future initiatives does your recruiting team have?
Our biggest focus and something we’ve been working on for several years is retention and onboarding. We’re really unique in the sense of our onboarding. We send a gift basket to every hire thanking them. Often times it helps woo the candidate maybe even beforehand. It’s a full-year program and something we’re looking at developing.
Retention is also a huge focus and is a part of onboarding. You start from the beginning your very first day. It’s not just about your new hires, but our current employees and what are we doing to retain them. We’ve created a LinkedIn Amtrust account, a sort of alumni program, so current and past employees would be a part of that. If someone has left and it’s someone that we would love to keep on our radar, company-wise it is another area of focus.
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