Lee Unifies Subsidiaries with Redmatch’s Flexible Online Recruitment Solution

Executive Summary
Having successfully moved most of their HR processes online, it was time for Lee Enterprises – a leading publisher of daily newspapers – to apply its online strategy to recruitment. Besides looking to gain new efficiencies, Lee's VP of Human Resources, industry veteran Vito Kuraitis, was on the hunt for a way to share applicant information across Lee's geographically dispersed subsidiaries. He was also in search of a non-threatening way for Lee's current employees to leverage the online recruiting system for internal mobility. Why lose good employees to non-Lee newspapers if they can be nurtured within the ever-growing Lee network? Considering the recent increase in their workforce through acquisitions, this was a key issue for Lee.

About Lee Enterprises
Lee Enterprises is a premier publisher of 58 newspapers in midsize markets, with a daily circulation of 1.7 million in 23 states. With the acquisition of Pulitzer Inc. in June 2005, Lee became the fourth largest newspaper company in the country in terms of dailies owned, and grew from 12th to seventh largest in terms of total daily circulation.

Integrating a Manageable Nation-wide Recruitment Network
Having recently grown from a company of 4,000 to 12,000 employees in the short span of three years, Lee Enterprises needed a recruiting solution that would accommodate their rapidly growing workforce. Being a geographically dispersed corporation, with 58 dailies in 23 states, Lee also needed a solution that could share employee information across its nation-wide network.

Lee began a strategic effort to automate all of their HR processes online to eliminate the paper flow, however, recruitment, both internal and external, was not yet automated. Most importantly, Lee's VP of Human Resources, industry veteran Vito Kuraitis, was on the hunt for a straightforward and easy-to-use online recruiting system that Lee's current employees could leverage for internal mobility.

“Many of the other recruitment software solutions we looked at were designed for large-scale companies, but they were so cumbersome and difficult to use that it would have been a burden to implement in a mid-sized firm like ours,” said Vito Kuraitis, Lee’s Vice President of Human Resources. “We needed an intuitive and user-friendly system that our internal employees would embrace.”

Easy, Flexible Solution Leads to Quick Adoption
Lee’s decision to implement Redmatch Recruiter organization-wide took place after a three month trial at the Lincoln Journal Star, one of Lee’s daily newspapers. Being located in a university town, the Lincoln Journal Star’s HR administrator Shawna Hilbert had been overwhelmed by the paper generated from the near-constant flow of walk-in applicants. “Automating our HR processes dramatically minimized the paper-flow,” said Hilbert. “Moreover, Redmatch’s Job-Matching technology filters out unqualified candidates so that we can focus our resources on evaluating top matches.” 

Most importantly, Redmatch Recruiter helped Lee get an organization-wide view of what was happening in its recruitment, firm-wide.  If a candidate applies for a position in, for example, The Montana Standard in Butte, the HR administrator for The Billings (Montana) Gazette would be able to view and consider that same applicant. And Lee Corporate can view the recruitment situation in both subsidiaries at a glance.

“In the newspaper industry, relocation, almost by definition, is crucial to advancement. A lot of people working in the field start out at a smaller paper and then trade up to bigger ones,” Kuraitis said. “Being able to share applicant information across a wide radius population greatly improves our recruitment process.”

Furthermore, Redmatch’s online recruitment system offers internal employees the opportunity for internal mobility. “One of our key concerns is to nurture employee development and achievement,” Kuraitis said. “Redmatch’s internal database gives our employees the chance to advance their careers within Lee, and gives us the ability to maintain good employees within the ever-growing Lee Network.”

The relative ease of the implementation process at the Lincoln Journal Star was a turning point in Lee’s decision. “In contrast to their competitors, the Redmatch solution was flexible enough to fit to our existing recruitment process,” Kuraitis said. “Implementation has been smooth and easy for both recruitment personnel and employees. The flexibility and user-friendliness of the system was a major factor in our decision to choose Redmatch.”

Upcoming Developments
At the time that this case study was written, Lee successfully implemented Redmatch Recruiter in five of its daily newspapers: Lincoln Journal Star, Quad City Times, North County Times, The Journal Times, and The Billings Gazette. Taking only a few days to implement, Lee is on the fast track to expanding the software implementation to its 58 newspapers and corporate headquarters, in order to leverage economies of scale across the organization.

 Click here to download a PDF of this case study