SilkRoad OpenHire to Automate Urban Outfitters’ Hiring Processes

Retailer to use recruiting management software to track applicants, store information and drive down recruiting costs
Oct 04 2004

SilkRoad technology inc., the leading provider of enterprise-class, easy-to-use content management and collaboration software, today announced Urban Outfitters Inc., an innovative specialty retailer and wholesaler, will use SilkRoad’s OpenHire recruiting management software to help streamline the hiring processes throughout its U.S. operations.

The rapidly growing retailer will integrate the award-winning OpenHire suite into its legacy IT systems to help its human resources staffers field, track and manage the thousands of applications they receive each year.  Until now, the employer of more than 5,000 in three divisions throughout the U.S., Canada and Great Britain has handled its employment needs without the benefit of an automated system.

OpenHire recruiting management solutions enable customers such as Urban Outfitters to free up recruiters’ time to attract premier talent, cut costs associated with their hiring processes, organize applicant data in a way to gain more insight into their employment needs, and streamline their HR workflow processes.

“We are delighted to hear that a popular, fast-growing retailer like Urban Outfitters has chosen our industry leading OpenHire solution to help drive greater efficiencies through its recruitment processes,” said Brian Platz, executive vice president and general manager of SilkRoad technology inc. “OpenHire’s superior functionality and ease of use has provided measurable results for other retailers as well as customers in education, health care and high technology, and we’re confident it will do the same for Urban Outfitters.”

OpenHire accepts and organizes incoming applications from multiple sources, and then its advanced knowledgebase search options streamline the retrieval process. The program drives bottom-line savings by centralizing all recruiting in one system, screening the applicants by preset criteria and eliminating costs normally associated with importing resumes into a database.  Its array of real-time reports gives organizations a tool to quickly evaluate applicant sources to improve future recruiting strategies.  It also streamlines workflow by providing a central storage point that recruiters or hiring managers can access from remote sites, and automatically moving applications through corporate checkpoints.

With sales growing at nearly 30 percent per year, Urban Outfitters management felt the company needed to automate its recruiting functions to keep up with the demands on its hiring processes, Renee Hollinger, Director of Human Resources at Urban Outfitters said.

“To provide the compelling and distinctive retail experience consumers have come to expect from our Urban Outfitters, Anthropologie and Free People brands, we must continue to bring in creative employees who are dedicated to outstanding performance,” Hollinger said. “A powerful HR solution like OpenHire can help our staff focus on what it does best – attract top-quality talent.” 

About SilkRoad

SilkRoad technology inc., of Winston-Salem, N.C., is a leading developer of content management and web collaboration application solutions that offer the ease of use, scalability, performance and total cost of ownership required by enterprises and service providers.  SilkRoad technology’s innovative solutions provide web content management, network camera management, and team collaboration application suites.  Additional information about SilkRoad technology products can be found at http://www.SilkRoadtech.com/ or toll free in the US at 1.866.329.3363 and internationally at +1.336.201.5100.

About Urban Outfitters

Urban Outfitters Inc. (NASDAQ: URBN), of Philadelphia, is an innovative specialty retailer and wholesaler which offers a variety of lifestyle merchandise to highly defined customer niches through 69 Urban Outfitters stores in the United States, Canada and Europe; an Urban catalog and web site (www.urbanoutfitters.com); 50 Anthropologie stores in the U.S.; and Anthropologie catalog and web site (www.anthropologie.com); and Free People, the company’s wholesale division, which sells product to approximately 1,100 specialty stores, department stores and catalogs, as well as through one Free People store. The wholesale division sells its products under two labels: Free People and bdg.