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How ALEX Helps the City of Bloomington’s HR Team Reduce Hassles and Recruit Top Talent: A Testimonial

blog michael hurt

Michael Hurt is the Talent Acquisition and Development Manager working at City of Bloomington, Illinois. Earlier this year, we asked him to share some thoughts about his experience with ALEX. Here’s what he told us:

ALEX helps us recruit better talent

“Bloomington has the unfortunate geography of sitting halfway between Chicago and St. Louis, so in terms of recruiting we’re all fishing from the same pond for applicants. We can’t compete with Chicago and St. Louis in terms of salaries, but our benefits are top-notch. So ALEX as a recruitment tool has a very easy job to do. And that is to let potential applicants know what we have to offer in terms of benefits here at the city.”

“Here’s how we share ALEX with our candidates: we send out a packet of materials—or we post it online—and include the link to ALEX. So if you’re applying and you (or someone living in your house) has a certain condition, by visiting the ALEX tool you’ll know what we have to offer.

ALEX helps our employees understand their benefits

“The first year that we rolled out the ALEX tool, we had very high expectations, but we kept pulling them back because we didn’t want to be disappointed. When the engagement from the employees exceeded what we had anticipated, we were overcome and thrilled that we had such a great kick off.”

“Our new employees in particular like the ease of the ALEX tool. They find it kind of campy and funny, and it takes away that sort of formal ‘this is the benefits meeting’ feel.”

ALEX helps our HR team during open enrollment and new hire orientations

“I came on to the city last year in January, so it was right at the close of the benefit season. Josh Hansen (Compensation & Benefits Manager) and his staff were out at various locations in the city rolling out the benefits to employees. It was a lot of work, a lot of travel, and his staff was only two other individuals. Since our employees work three different shifts, that meant Josh and his team often had to work after regular work hours so they could give everybody the same story.”

“But then the ALEX tool came along, and now our employees can be anywhere, any time of day, and get the same information, which is great.”

“ALEX is also really helpful with onboarding new hires. We just completed a new employee orientation video—so we don’t have to physically be at every orientation—and ALEX is a component of that video. We show the employees step-by-step how to get to the ALEX tool, and from there it’s pretty self-explanatory.”

“We always end those meetings by telling people to call HR if they have any additional questions. But honestly, we don’t get a whole lot of calls, because ALEX is pretty thorough. By the time a question has been escalated up to me, ALEX has already done all the heavy lifting. That makes me look really good, because all I have to do is ‘put the fluff on’.”

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