Diversity In Action

Mentoring is a mission at Enterprise Rent-A-Car

The company expects to add 150 experienced IT pros to its "fabulous corporate melting pot" this year. It has seventy-five openings right now

Kim McCurdy, IT AVP: Enterprise has systems to support all business areas.

Tech recruiter Jeanne Esquivel: 150 new hires are anticipated in IT this year.

In thirteen years with the company, IT AVP Kim McCurdy has seen tremendous growth in Enterprise Rent-A-Car's four IT locations in St. Louis, MO. "When I started, we had roughly ninety-five IT employees and we've grown to more than 1,300." The IT department, she notes, includes redundant data centers to minimize any interruption in services for customers.

Enterprise has systems to support all areas of its business, including car rental and car sales, vehicle leasing, and the company's fastest growing business segment, commercial truck rentals. Also included are systems involving purchase of thousands of vehicles each year, inventory management, and ties with insurers around the world.

IT development, McCurdy explains, "is primarily done in-house now, but we have a few systems acquired as we matured from a homegrown shop to what we are today." The complex infrastructure provides Java-developed applications that run on Unix but maintain data integrity with earlier systems. To provide a comfortable and familiar working environment, users access applications through a Windows desktop.

IT employee growth has been steady, adding one to two hundred new hires each year. "We anticipate 150 new hires this year and currently have seventy-five openings. With the aggressive advances in technology over the past few years, we've concentrated on bringing in experienced talent to maintain our technology impact in the industry. Now we are beginning to add more entry-level IT opportunities. It's exciting, and we are having great success," McCurdy notes.

The IT teams at Enterprise represent a healthy blend of genXers and baby boomers. "We're enjoying a staffing model that offers great opportunities for individuals approaching retirement, recent grads just starting out and professionals looking for part-time employment. Our inflow of new IT pros is being mentored by seasoned and experienced employees to pass on our proprietary and institutional memory." Mentoring for personal and professional development has been very successful in terms of individual growth and company diversity, McCurdy reflects. In the last three years, half the people she mentored were women. There have been more than a hundred other pairings within the group.

Mentoring is also a mission of the company's Diversity, Career and Family Focus Group, as part of the group's task of identifying challenges and making recommendations to help the company meet the needs of all employees.

For almost fifty years now Enterprise has followed the same philosophy: put customers and employees first and business success will follow. Employee perks include flextime, a life-management assistance program, flexible spending accounts, expanded maternity leave, adoption benefits and extensive training programs.

McCurdy notes that more than a quarter of recent hires in IT are minorities and women.

"A major source of new hires is referrals from our own employees," she says. "We're also fortunate that St. Louis is rich in associations like WITI, SHPE and of course its schools. These sources continue to positively impact our fabulous corporate melting pot.

"Diversity in our IT organization has netted incredible results and value in the workplace," McCurdy concludes. "We often put together project teams composed of people from many backgrounds, skill levels and exposures. We find it produces a greater and richer product than other scenarios."

D/C