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The Pillars of an Award-Winning Program
Mohawk Industries was selected as a 2024 Campus Forward Award Winner for their unwavering commitment to seeking out and hiring early career talent and investments in nurturing and retaining the next generation of diverse talent. Please see below for the highlights of their approach to early career recruitment.
Multi-Faceted and Thoughtful Approach to University Recruitment
The university recruiting team at Mohawk Industries approaches recruiting and sourcing for talent in multiple ways from on-campus events at specific partner schools, to virtual events for an agnostic school approach, to utilizing RippleMatch, Handshake, Symplicity, and LinkedIn recruiter for online sourcing. The UR team attends approximately 100 events each school year from career fairs, info sessions, classroom presentations, student organization events, and more to help with branding and to meet students where they are. They also host multiple virtual events throughout the year in order to showcase the early career programs for students that are not local to the area or do not attend school with one of their core partners. The team also utilizes RippleMatch, Handshake, Symplicity, and LinkedIn to post roles and increase the candidate talent pool they are reaching and to target minority populations. With the amount of events they attend or host, Mohawk creates a great candidate experience by having multiple touch-points with students and really building relationships where students feel known, important, and up to date on everything happening at Mohawk.
Standout Candidate Experience
Mohawk's university team creates a positive candidate experience from the first meeting - whether it be in-person on-campus or through a virtual meeting or phone call. The team is thorough in discussing all of the opportunities and really helping the student narrow down the best-fit role through active listening and explanation of skillset needs and planned projects. If students need assistance with their resumes or interviewing skills prior to being sent on to the team for interviews, we provide that assistance and will answer any questions they have to ensure they feel prepared and confident going into their interview(s). The team completes the candidate experience by following up quickly after meetings or interviews to provide candidates with information about next steps or offers. Once a candidate accepts a role, there is constant communication with them until their start date as well including a Mohawk newsletter with "what's coming up" dates and reminders, fun facts about Mohawk, and shoutouts from current interns and ASPIRE associates, phone calls with supervisors and emails with onboarding process checklists and reminders, and finally, opportunities to visit the site and meet fellow cohort members (either in person or virtually).
Impactful Internship Program
Mohawk provides their interns with the best experience through a combination of impactful projects, lunch and learns with leadership, plant tours, professional development sessions, and team building events. The program is well-structured starting with orientation the very first day for all interns and a chance to meet each other. The first two weeks include meetings with supervisors and teams, team lunches, project overviews, and going on plant tours to see how Mohawk makes its products. To ensure interns have meaningful work, supervisors must complete project charters that are reviewed by the UR team for project impact, skill development and how it will meet the interns' goals. To culminate their experience, interns get to present their projects at the end of the summer during the Intern Expo. This event invites school partners and Mohawk employees from all business units to come view and talk to the interns about the work they did this summer. Many interns receive full-time offers based on this event. Finally, the fun part comes in through team building activities they select and professional development sessions that include panels with leadership, an informational session with the Mohawk president, and training sessions around communication skills, difficult conversations, leadership styles, resumes and interview tips and tricks, and more.