How a Zaxby's franchisee saw a 500% increase in applicants with Workstream

Needing to get his 14 Zaxby’s locations fully staffed, franchise owner Ben Little turned to Workstream. Thanks to its digital processes and automated workflows, Ben was able to streamline the hiring process for his managers, enabling them to improve the applicant experience.

“You’re going to save a ton of money and streamline the entire process. Your hiring managers are going to love you … it’s just a no-brainer.”

Ben Little

Chief Operating Officer, 14 Zaxby's locations

The problem

Low applicant volume made hiring feel impossible

About Zaxby's

Zaxby’s is an American QSR chain offering chicken wings, chicken fingers, sandwiches, and salads. They operate primarily in the southern United States and are mostly owned by franchisees.

Locations: ~900
Industry: Restaurants

Ben initially relied primarily on individual job posting sites for his sourcing needs and encountered several issues. Postings got expensive quickly, easily costing up to tens of thousands of dollars a month. And with free job sites, it was not unusual to get less than 20 applicants a month, which was not going to cut it when he had 14 restaurants to staff. With so few applications coming in, his hiring managers often missed notifications—and potentially good applicants.

It didn’t help that the application process was long with plenty of forms and details to fill in, which deterred younger applicants with shorter attention spans.

To try to get more applicants in the door, hiring managers were constantly following up through phone calls, only to get ghosted when it came time for the interview. Ben and his team had accepted that this was just the way hiring would be: a numbers game where the objective was to get as many people to respond to them as possible in hopes that a few would stay engaged long enough to get hired.

The solution

Smarter sourcing and automation increase applications

Streamlining the hiring process for both applicants and managers has had a big impact on Ben’s restaurants. With Workstream, they saw a 500% increase in applicants, improving their chances of hiring quality workers.

Sourcing tools

Sourcing is also less time-consuming. Workstream enables Ben’s team to manage all their job postings across different sites in one easy-to-use dashboard. They can even sponsor posts without ever leaving Workstream.

Text-based hiring

When hiring managers previously reached out to applicants, their calls would appear as unknown numbers, reducing the likelihood that applicants would answer. However, with Workstream, applicants receive text messages through the application link and are more likely to respond. It also provides greater convenience when rescheduling or providing more information about the job.

Automatic scheduling

Workstream enables applicants to schedule their own interviews via text based on the hiring managers’ availability. Ben’s team has seen the difference this makes when hiring younger applicants who prefer text messaging to phone calls. By automating interview scheduling, more applicants are coming in for interviews than ever before.

500%

increase in applicant volume

built for the hourly workforce

An intuitive and streamlined hiring process

Now, hiring managers save time on making phone calls and securing applicants and can spend more time focusing on things that matter, such as improving the applicant and employee experience.

By embracing technology to streamline hiring processes and prioritize applicant experience, Ben has not only overcome challenges of low applicant numbers and high turnover rates but has also positioned his restaurants for sustained growth and success, becoming some of the top performing Zaxby's restaurants in the country.