Vail Resorts Chooses SHL and Taleo to Ensure 'Extreme Customer Service'

PRINCETON, N.J., June 22 /PRNewswire/ -- SHL (www.SHL.com) and Taleo Corporation (Nasdaq: TLEO), today announced that they have been selected by Vail Resorts (NYSE: MTN), to employ a long-term talent management strategy and program. Vail Resorts, which hires more than 10,000 seasonal employees annually, turned to SHL for its behavioral assessment expertise, global presence and certified integration with Taleo's leading Talent Management solution.

Vail Resorts appeals to customers and applicants alike for its well-known "extreme" vacation experience. As a result, Vail Resorts attracts more than ten candidates for every open position. The very nature of Vail Resorts' seasonal business presents a unique set of challenges to optimize the hiring process.

"As today's organizations are confronted with ever-growing applicant pools, the task of selecting the right candidate for the right position not only becomes more difficult, but also more critical to overall business performance. By adding behavioral assessments into the hiring decision process, companies like Vail Resorts can more quickly and accurately gauge the potential success of an employee, and place that person in the most suitable position," said Teresa Fearis, Global Alliances Director at SHL.

To address this, Vail Resorts chose Taleo as part of an overall initiative to focus more on strategic talent management. With Taleo, Vail Resorts has been able to attract a higher quality of candidates, while turning the entire hiring experience into a more strategic process for both recruiters and candidates. Vail Resorts will now use SHL's assessments to measure core competencies around customer service, safety and reliability and more easily assess the talent they need to continually deliver an optimal guest experience.

"SHL was a clear choice because of their ability to provide accurate, quantifiable data to help us make more informed and decisive talent decisions. The breadth and depth of SHL's tools, combined with Taleo's Talent Management solution, have been put in place to help us achieve our ultimate vision of the Vail Resorts team," said Bob Chapman, Director of Talent Acquisition at Vail Resorts. "While the mountain ultimately attracts our visitors, it's their stay that makes it an experience of a lifetime. Having the right staff in place makes all the difference for our guests – and that's what sets us apart from competing resorts on the mountain."

The initial implementation of behavioral assessments will span twenty properties across the U.S. and focus on Vail Resorts' hiring practices of approximately 10,000 hourly workers in the first year. The company will use SHL's proprietary Dependability and Safety Instrument (DSI), a pre-screening assessment that gauges a potential employee's likelihood of performing the role safely, reliably and with high levels of customer service. Next, Vail Resorts will use SHL's world-renowned Occupational Personality Questionnaire (OPQ32) to measure aspects of behavior that are crucial to performance potential throughout the managerial and corporate levels. This will ensure that employees are well-matched to their positions, with an aim toward long-term career development and maximizing overall business impact.

"We share Vail Resorts' commitment to extreme customer service and are pleased to be part of their Talent Management success," said Neil Hudspith, Executive Vice President of Worldwide Field Operations and Chief Customer Officer for Taleo Corporation.  

SHL is one of Taleo's Premier Assessment Partners, as well as a certified Taleo Passport™ Technology Partner. This partnership allows for a turnkey, custom integration of SHL tools with Taleo's on-demand talent management solutions.

About Vail Resorts

Vail Resorts, Inc. (NYSE: MTN), through its subsidiaries, is the leading mountain resort operator in the United States. The Company's subsidiaries operate the mountain resort properties of Vail, Beaver Creek, Breckenridge and Keystone mountain resorts in Colorado, Heavenly Mountain Resort in the Lake Tahoe area of California and Nevada, and the Grand Teton Lodge Company in Jackson Hole, Wyo. The Company's subsidiary, Rock Resorts, a luxury resort hotel company, manages casually elegant properties across the United States and the Caribbean. Vail Resorts Development Company is the real estate planning, development and construction subsidiary of Vail Resorts, Inc. The Vail Resorts company website is www.vailresorts.com and the consumer website is www.snow.com.

About SHL

SHL is the global leader in talent assessment solutions, supporting organizations in the selection, performance management and development of people at all levels and across all sectors. Operating in more than 50 countries and in more than 30 languages, SHL offers the world's largest portfolio of assessment tools, creating innovative solutions to help organizations increase productivity and gain competitive advantage through improved people performance.

SHL works with thousands of the world's best known organizations, including 80 of the FTSE 100 and more than half of the Global Fortune 500. In the last 12 months, the company has delivered more than five million online assessments worldwide. For more information, please visit http://www.shl.com.

About Taleo

Taleo's (Nasdaq: TLEO) cloud-based talent management platform unites products, people and perspective for better business performance through better talent intelligence. More than 4,500 customers use Taleo for talent acquisition, performance and compensation management, including 49 of the Fortune 100.  Further, Taleo's Talent Grid cloud community harnesses the expertise of Taleo customers and more than 200 million candidates, 100 partners and industry experts. www.taleo.com

Forward-looking Statements

This release contains forward-looking statements, including statements regarding the demand for Taleo's solutions, results from use of Taleo's solutions and general business conditions. Any forward-looking statements contained in this press release are based upon Taleo's historical performance and its current plans, estimates and expectations and are not a representation that such plans, estimates, or expectations will be achieved. These forward-looking statements represent Taleo's expectations as of the date of this press announcement. Subsequent events may cause these expectations to change, and Taleo disclaims any obligation to update the forward-looking statements in the future. These forward-looking statements are subject to known and unknown risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially. Further information on potential factors that could affect actual results is included in Part II, Item 1A of Taleo's Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q, as filed with the SEC on May 7, 2010, and in other reports filed by Taleo with the SEC.

SOURCE SHL