Texas Christian University

The voice of the customer

“Corporate organisationsorganizations might have more resources, but TCU is such a great place to work with a supportive culture and so many benefits. Improving our careers site was the best way for us to share these unique differentiators, highlight the authentic voices of our diverse team members, and put our best foot forward to candidates.”

Michael Sanders, Lead Applications Consultant, Texas Christian University

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What wasn’t working

Established in 1873, Texas Christian University is a private university in Fort Worth, Texas, US employing more than 2,200 people. Recently ranked as a top 100 national university for the 13th consecutive year, TCU needed its recruitment function to match its reputation. The hiring process was long and taxing for candidates, and costly job boards weren’t delivering ROI.

The HR team were overwhelmed by laborious, manual processes. They identified several critical challenges holding them back:

Long, outdated application processes required duplicate information from candidates;
Incomplete applications were rising and overall applications falling despite increased job board spending;
Hiring managers needed more assistance, information and processes to hire the right people.

The turning point

Michael Sanders began by reaching out to key faculty members and departments, especially those with unique hiring needs. The new recruitment approach still had to give stakeholders ownership over hiring. The success of the project depended on partnering with hiring managers, gaining their trust and listening to feedback.

After gathering requirements TCU partnered with PageUp to completely reimagine their approach to hiring.

The shift began in three phases:

Building an attractive careers site

Using PageUp Recruitment Marketing’s career site builder helped TCU attract top talent, communicate their employee value proposition and fill the top of their recruitment funnel.
Streamlining the application process

Implementing PageUp ATS helped TCU cut complexity, eliminate duplicate efforts, reduce application time and improve the candidate experience.
Engaging candidates proactively

The team could send follow-up emails for incomplete applications, notify top talent about new opportunities, and track diversity metrics through enhanced reporting.

The solution in action

TCU used PageUp ATS to transform their recruitment process, shifting investment from ineffective job boards to their careers site while reducing manual work for their lean team.

Key initiatives included:

Incomplete application recovery

Automated follow-up emails go out to candidates who have started applications, engaging talent that would have otherwise dropped out of the process.
Top candidate notifications

The team can notify top candidates about new opportunities, building relationships and filling roles faster with warm, interested talent.
Status-based communication

Status-based communication updates stakeholders in real-time: hiring managers receive internal status alerts while external statuses keep candidates up to date.
DIY career site builder

Working with their marketing team to establish brand guidelines and job templates, the HR team can now quickly update content and get open roles live without depending on marketing.
Enhanced diversity reporting

Improved reporting features enable the team to review and track diversity metrics for both applicants and career site visitors.

The impact

Majority of successful hires now come from TCU’s careers site instead of external job boards.
One DIY platform allows the HR team to manage the careers site without marketing support.
Application length and complexity is vastly reduced.
Candidate experience throughout the recruitment process is much improved.
Improved diversity tracking for applicants and visitors.

Easy and fast to publish new roles on the career site using established templates.
Positive feedback from department leaders on new processes and candidate quality.
Enhanced ability to showcase TCU’s supportive culture and unique benefits.
Better positioned to meet needs of applicants and hiring departments.

What surprised us the most

“PageUp has made us so much more efficient and better positioned to meet the needs of our applicants and departments. If you’re a talent professional: don’t settle for the status quo. Asking tough questions and leading change management can be daunting, but it’s worth it.”

Michael Sanders, Lead Applications Consultant, Texas Christian University