Enterprise Rent-A-Car fuelled by concentrate on staff training and internal promotions
We spoke with Donna Miller, European HR director at Enterprise Rent-A-Car, for our latest instalment of the Corporate Insights feature series – finding out how big business strategy can translate for smaller companies.
In a world where workplace perks are in request, she told us how the business is able to stand out when bringing in fresh staff – admitting that car rental isn’t necessarily a sector on the radar for university leavers.
“When we recruit, we never leave behind that potential candidates have a choice. We also keep in mind that car rental is not a typical career that graduates think of when they are researching potential opportunities,” Miller said.
“However, our management training programme gives fresh recruits the chance to develop their abilities as well as their career. Part of our promise is that we only promote from within. This means it is vital that we attract a broad range of talent that will help us to grow our business in the future.”
That broad range of talent stems from Enterprise Rent-A-Car valuing diversity and abilities, according to Miller. Making that fact clear, she explained that the business has graduates from over one hundred universities, as well as a variation of subjects and backgrounds.
In addition to their abilities, Enterprise Rent-A-Car also analyses the work practice and extra-curricular activities of graduates to see if they’ve given back to their communities.
“We concentrate on attracting people who want to lead a team, who are ambitious and who want to progress,” she said.
To make sure that hires are right for the business, Enterprise Rent-A-Car acknowledges that everyone has different strengths and weaknesses. Additionally, suggesting an insight on the company culture is part of the recruitment process with behind-the-scenes tours at branches.
Some eight hundred graduates are brought into Enterprise Rent-A-Car annually, and Miller noted that is achieved by operating as a decentralised business. That means offices run at regional and local levels to meet the needs of drivers in the area.
The hard has also secured relationships with universities nationwide to help spread the Enterprise Rent-A-Car mission.
Of course, with smaller budgets and scale, SME owners looking for fresh staff may feel it would be difficult to go after the Enterprise Rent-A-Car treatment to obtain people, but Miller said otherwise.
“It’s not about size. It’s about culture and how you treatment people as a business,” she detailed. “Our founder, Jack Taylor, once said, ‘Take care of your customers and employees very first, and the profits will go after.’ This is the company’s philosophy to this day.
“Creating a balance inbetween what a company needs from its employees, and how the employee wants to contribute to the business and what they can achieve, is very compelling.”
“We only externally recruit specialists in areas of marketing, IT and legal who require professional abilities that cannot be acquired in a branch”
Interestingly, Enterprise Rent-A-Car staff all go after the same career path. Miller joined the rock-hard in California some twenty seven years ago as a management trainee, at which point she learnt how to run a branch – the current CEO had the same route to the top.
“Our COO, who is the granddaughter of our founder, also commenced in a branch. We all get promoted for the same reason – because we have a good customer service record. This creates a compelling story for potential recruits,” she said.
Indeed, internal promotions have been part of the business agenda since launching sixty years ago, so that story and culture is ingrained. An astounding ninety nine per cent of Enterprise Rent-A-Car senior management went through the management training programme.
“From our perspective, it doesn’t make good business sense to spend years developing a talented individual only to recruit someone externally, especially when we have capable employees in-house who are ready to take their next step,” Miller said.
“As a company, we have it in our power to make sure that we have the best people. Why would we want to recruit expertise from outside when our people already have it?
“We only externally recruit specialists in areas of marketing, IT and legal who require professional abilities that cannot be acquired in a branch – albeit some of these employees have also come through the management training programme.
“This proves that people will stay if you can provide the chance for them to develop their career within one company, based on a clear sense of career progression, direction and translucent promotion criteria.”
In fact, graduates and entry-level recruits with little practice are drawn to that culture of internal promotions – SMEs that only look outwards may want to take note.
“Graduates tell us that this is one of the things that is most appealing, because it proves our commitment to our people and that our promises are not just hollow words,” said Miller.
“If you are truly a learning organisation and promote yourself as a fine place for people to develop and build careers, you should give your employees every chance to step up.”
The management training programme at Enterprise Rent-A-Car is a fixture in all parts of the business, covering the more than four hundred twenty locations found across the UK.
And as a rule of thumb, talented trainees can receive one or two promotions within a year to eighteen months – with some going on to become branch manager in that time.
Closing on how growing companies can nurture teams, Miller exposed: “We treat our employees like individuals, and we want them to achieve their goals within the business while also helping us achieve ours.
“This is something that any company can suggest, no matter the size. At every stage in their career we work collaboratively to develop a set of bespoke objectives and goals for each employee. Mentoring is part of our culture and we encourage everyone to seek out feedback.
“We help employees to build upon their individual strengths and weaknesses through training, mentoring and regular contact with their managers who are measured on how successful they are at developing their team. Nurture varies from individual to individual.
“For some people, nurture means getting involved in social activities, while for others it might mean support to achieve a individual purpose like running a marathon or for further education and investigate. You can only nurture teams by nurturing the individuals within them.”