South Bend Cubs + Workstream

South Bend Cubs

The South Bend Cubs are the Class A minor league affiliate of the 2016 World Series Champion, the Chicago Cubs. Over the past 30 seasons, the team has won five Midwest League titles, most recently in 2005, and has captured 12 division titles. 

In 2017, Four Winds Field, home of the Cubs, was named Ballpark Digest’s Best Single-A ballpark. In 2015, the team was named Ballpark Digest’s Team of the year and received the John H. Johnson President’s Award, the highest award in minor league baseball.

The South Bend Cubs overcame their hiring challenges and managed to significantly increase applicant referrals and decrease overall time to hire. Let’s find out how.

Lack of an Applicant Tracking System (ATS) and Lack of Applicants

The South Bend Cubs typically hire on-demand hourly workers during the season to aid in operations. During the season, there would be a large flow of applicants - both qualified and unqualified prospects.

The team lacked a database that allowed them to keep in touch with competent workers from the previous season to hire them for the next season. Meanwhile, they also needed the database to keep track of the less qualified workers for easy screening in the event they apply for the job again. The South Bend Cubs also wanted to use the database for referrals and tracking analytics of their workers.

Moreover, they had a goal of making it easier for applicants to apply so that they could get to choose from a larger pool of candidates.

Proper ATS and Automated Messaging

After hearing South Bend Cubs describe the difficulties they face, we provided the following solutions to address their pain points:

• Workstream created an Employee Referral Program for the Cubs using the automated text-messaging capabilities of our platform. This meant that hiring managers could 2x the visibility of job openings through employees word-of-mouth. Moreover, ALL applicants were tracked in our system regardless of channel, which meant more accurate analytics and attribution.
• With the streamlined HR process and applicant tracking software (ATS) that Workstream offers, the South Bend Cubs staff were able to automatically filter out less qualified applicants without wasting time to manually screen them. 
• The analytics function of Workstream allows for South Bend Cubs to monitor the success of their hiring tactics and evaluate what works best for them. This includes the success of each portal that they uploaded the jobs on.
• In light of reducing the friction of application for potentially qualified applicants, South Bend Cubs adopted the text-to-apply method of hiring whereby applicants can simply apply for a job through text messaging.
• The convenient and easy to use database allowed the South Bend Cubs to keep a better track of preferred applicants and past employees so that they could keep the best candidates top of mind.

Higher Retention and Job Application Rates

Working closely with Workstream, South Bend Cubs was able to achieve the following results:

• They managed to retain 70% of workers from previous seasons.
• They also received 80% more applicant referrals than usual.
• Overall, they experienced a 150% reduction in time spent on hiring.

To sum it up: The South Bend Cubs are winning both on and off the field - by leveraging Workstream’s all-in-one hiring platform. With its intuitive features and convenient dashboard, they were able to spend less time on hiring, and more time focused on other tasks.

Want to streamline your hiring process? Track applicants better, hire faster? Contact Workstream today to find out how our system can work for you.