ST. LOUIS -

Enterprise Holdings’ chief executive officer Pam Nicholson, president and chief operating officer Christine Taylor, and Enterprise Holdings Foundation president Carolyn Kindle Betz have something in common. They started out in the company’s management training program.

“We firmly believe in the power of the Enterprise Management Training Program, primarily because we've watched it take some of our greatest leaders from new hire to C-suite executive,” Enterprise Holdings vice president of global talent acquisition Marie Artim said in a news release.

Enterprise Holdings’ May 9 announcement, then, should probably come as no surprise. The company, which operates the Enterprise Rent-A-Car, National Car Rental, and Alamo Rent A Car brands said in a news release that it plans to hire 8,500 college graduates into the Enterprise Management Training Program and 2,000 interns into the Management Internship Program in 2019.

Because of those efforts, for the 12th time, CollegeGrad.com named Enterprise the No. 1 Entry Level Employer.

Every year, Enterprise’s Management Training and Management Internship programs teach college-educated, career-oriented men and women at its branch offices everything they need to know to run a business, lead teams, and deliver strong face-to-face customer service.

Enterprise says its promote-from-within culture allows management trainees to move up quickly in the company based on their performance and work ethic.

“We firmly believe in the power of the Enterprise Management Training Program, primarily because we’ve watched it take some of our greatest leaders from new hire to C-suite executive,” Enterprise Holdings vice president of global talent acquisition Marie Artim said in a news release.

The company said 17,342 Enterprise, National and Alamo employees were promoted in 2018 or took on new challenges in various positions throughout the world.
 
“In the most competitive job market we've seen in 20 years, we continue to attract and hire thousands of college graduates into our management training program each year,” Artim said.

Enterprise Holdings launched a new global careers site, careers.enterprise.com, last fall to help streamline the process for candidates applying for these jobs. The company says it took a “data-driven approach” to tailor the website design and functionality. With the new interface, users can view open roles at Enterprise by location. Information about Enterprise's Management Training opportunities is also on the site, and it highlights other opportunities that the global business offers.

Enterprise has continued to receive recognition for its efforts in the employment area. The company for the second year in a row was named a top employer in Potentialpark's 2019 rankings in the Digital Talent Communication, Career Website and Mobile Experience categories.

The company also earned bronze in the Best in Biz Awards 2018 Best Place to Work, Large Company category. Enterprise received that honor in recognition of its launch and adoption of its new employee-facing mobile app.

Enterprise says its use of a high-touch, personalized recruiting strategy to attract top talent continues.  The company says its decentralized talent acquisition approach includes more than 200 recruiters who build partnerships across more than 800 college campuses. These recruiters use online tools to personally connect with and respond to each candidate, according to the company.

Those digital efforts earned Enterprise even more recognition. The company ranked third on Indeed's list of Hottest Companies for Job Seekers in 2018. The report highlights Enterprise for its “people-first” approach, mostly for its work in responding to all applicants no matter what their hiring status is. Enterprise was recognized in 2018 by Talent Board for the fifth time, honored for its “elevation and promotion of a positive candidate experience in North America.”