Going digital: How this Jimmy John's group saves hours on hiring each week

When the executive vice president of a multi-location Jimmy John’s franchisee realized their administrative challenges were slowing them down, she went on the hunt for the right HR tech. With Workstream, they streamlined their hiring process, reducing time spent on weekly hiring tasks from four hours to as little as 30 minutes.

"For us, Workstream just really closed the gap between how hard the applicant has to work to get this job. Because if they have to work too hard, we know they’ll work somewhere else."

Deb Merrill

Executive VP over Jimmy John's franchise group

The problem

Piles of paperwork slow down hiring and onboarding

About Jimmy John's

Jimmy John's is a well-known American fast-food chain famous for its sandwiches, speedy delivery, and emphasis on fresh ingredients. It has grown into a significant player in the fast-food industry with numerous franchise locations across the United States.

Locations: ~2,745
Industry: Restaurants
Employees: ~45,000

As executive vice president of an ownership group that operates 12 Jimmy John’s franchises, Deb Merrill often has to wear several hats. On a daily basis, she oversees HR tasks, payroll, and safety enforcement. Across all these operational duties, Deb was spending several hours each week.

In addition to Deb’s time, her area managers were spending hours auditing their GMs’ work, and GMs were spending time auditing their assistant managers’ work. Hiring was a costly process; adding up to 20 or 30 hours of work per Jimmy John’s location each week.

The culprit? All of 12 restaurants were still managing hiring manually on physical paper. This meant using reams of paper for printing their new hire packets, employee handbook updates, or job applications. Without an online application method, her team had to make sure that each item of paperwork was filled out completely by hand—and any delays gathering this information meant delays in new hire starts.

the solution

Digitizing processes to save time

Deb decided to try Workstream. However, switching to a digital onboarding solution wasn’t an easy decision. In the past, she’d tried other tools which proved too difficult for her managers to figure out. “It ended up being more effort for me, more work—I still had to collect the physical documents as backup because nothing was completed,” Deb says. But not with Workstream.

Onboarding

Unlike the other HR systems she’d tried, Workstream proved virtually painless. “It took me about a day to get all of my documents ready for Workstream. And maybe about a day for everybody else to get trained on it. The first payroll that we did where everyone was using it for their onboarding was the easiest payroll I ever had. It was all worth it to learn Workstream.”

Document and Signature Management

She’s also excited about their upcoming employee handbook update. What was once an annual event that involved printing and distributing over 200 handbooks to be individually signed and returned, is now a quick text and digital signature. Another manual process Workstream simplified and made online for Deb. “I’m very excited about this.”

Hiring

Applicants love it too. When looking for jobs at one of Deb’s Jimmy John’s restaurants, applicants can now apply via text message. and get a response instead of coming into the store. And when they get hired, they can even complete their onboarding paperwork over the phone.

87.5%

less time spent on hiring tasks

built for the hourly workforce

Feeling freaky fast

Gone are the days of having new hires stop by to fill out a 25-page booklet or come back whenever an item is missing in their onboarding paperwork. Instead of dedicating up to four hours each week to hiring tasks, Deb now spends maybe 30 to 60 minutes.

And she’s not the only one impressed by Workstream. “My managers are happier. They’re spending more time making sandwiches than being focused on payroll or HR items and less time being upset.” Now that Deb can see how quickly her managers contact and respond back to job seekers, she feels she’s optimized the applicant experience.