Angie Figueredo, Director of Talent Acquisition at the Dhanani Group

Daniel Blaser (00:04):

Hello, and welcome to On the Clock, presented by Workstream. If you care about hiring and retaining hourly employees, you're in the right place. I'm Daniel Blazer, and today I'm clocking in with Angie Fido, director of Talent Acquisition at the Dani Group. The Dani Group employs an incredible 20,000 plus hourly workers across 13 quick service restaurant brands. During our conversation, Angie discusses the most successful things she's done to attract new employees, how she's increasingly shifted her strategy from hiring to retention, how she's planning to rely upon automation to win at hiring in 2023 and more. Enjoy. It might be hard to remember, but like, okay, January, February of this, you know, 2022 versus November, December. Like if you had to compare and contrast, like, what would you say? Is it, is it a little ha Have you found it's gotten a little bit harder as the years progressed? Or, or like you said, is it just kind of different?

Angie Figueredo (01:03):

Well, my, my situation was a little unique. 'cause When I came onto the Dani group, I really didn't have a team. But I was given a team that was situated with a Pizza Hut. So I had three recruiters there. Those three recruiters didn't really have a recruiting experience but they were great operators. They had been very successful district managers, general managers, and they ran their, their operations really well. So I had to do a lot of training those first few months in, into like probably the middle of the year, we did start kind of kicking it up a little bit. We started introducing, really going after hiring events trying to reduce our cost of postings. We are running on a very lean budget, so our creativity really had to kick in and we had to really analyze, again, I had to look at the, you know, bit of the strategy that I had designed for the year and how I was gonna achieve it by the end of the year.

(02:03):

And it was really to get people in the door. How do we get people in the door? And we were kind of playing whack-a-mole at the first part of the year because, you know, our operators were in desperate need. So stabilizing that was part of the strategy, strategy. And then, and, you know, continuing keeping the cost down. So hiring events were in our, a huge success for us today. We've really take, taken a different approach to that, and I would say that into 2023, we're gonna continue to do that and, and find ways, you know, that we can leverage all the, the sources that we have to make that happen.

Daniel Blaser (02:47):

Yeah, I, I'd love to kind of drill down into that a little bit more, if, if that's okay, because I, I feel like probably a lot of people watching this when you say, you know, you're operating very lean, you're expected to do more with less. Like, those are probably some things that are, are that sound pretty familiar to a lot of people in the, you know, talent acquisition space. So I'd love to talk a little bit more about the, the events that you said were extremely successful. Was that something with, with the scale of your operation? Is that that, are you sponsoring those? Are you co-sponsoring those? Are you joining existing events? Are they in person online? Can you just kind of like, explain a little bit more about those?

Angie Figueredo (03:30):

We run the entire events ourselves. And they are in person, they're at the location. We, we combine our technology and the resources that we have to hold these events. In the past, what we used to do is we used to post you know, for example, a GM position for like two weeks at a certain budget on Indeed to get candidate flow. We found that, you know, a lot of times the hiring managers weren't, you know, quickly responding to those. So that was, that was a part of it that we needed to kind of bridge the gap there and help them along a little bit. So we decided with the hiring events, the recruiters were gonna do a really, they were gonna do a lot of work behind the scenes to engage. Engagement is part, that's like the word we use today here.

(04:19):

We are engaging, engaging, engaging with candidates. Whether it's through, you know, our text messaging our emails, whatever source that we have, a bunch of candidates, we will engage for those. So we run the events ourselves. We partner up with the the operators. We have a outline that they follow for each event. And leading up to those events, we, we may post it for five days prior to the event. And in those five days, we're constantly engaging with not only candidates that are active in our postings through our a TS through indeed through any other source, but we're also engaging in passive candidates that we get through Indeed. So that part of it has really filled our bucket a lot more. And the more people we invite, the more opportunity for that time to fill will, will lessen for us.

(05:19):

So, as you know, in recruiting, it's a numbers game, right? So I could send out a thousand invitations and maybe 50 people show up and I hire you to, you know, so it's the amount of of candidate engagement that we've really dedicated ourselves to. And then the second part of that is the relationship that we have developed with operations to ensure that candidate engagement continues on even when, especially when they come to the location, pizza Hut does a excellent, excellent job of really making it an event. When somebody walks in, they have balloons, they give out, you know, maybe free pizzas or you know, coupons, things like that. It's just simple things, and I know we can all do it, but it really makes people feel like they're, they're needed, they're important, right? And they wanna work for us. So that's what we wanna bring to the table for that candidate experience. But it does come start with that engagement and just a lot of work behind it in terms of the cost. That's a lot less for us to post and do that way than do those two weeks with nobody really contacting candidates. So there's a lot of ownership on the recruiting team to do that.

Daniel Blaser (06:28):

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. It seems like kind of the theme with hiring as well as retention, like you said, is it was a little bit of the whack-a-mole, trying to just keep up with things. But now as the years progressed, looking forward, you're able to maybe think a little bit more strategic, a little more long-term. What would you say, I, I know that this question is probably oversimplifying it but for somebody watching this, and if they're thinking in their mind, yes, I totally agree with what Angie's saying, we need to do better on retention. We need to think more retention versus acquisition. What, what is, like, what would you say is like the, you know, start here or I would recommend like these two things to like kind of shape your retention strategy?

Angie Figueredo (07:19):

Sure. I think the number one thing I would say is, you know, build that relationship with your operations. We, even with Burger King, our operations team, we work hand in hand. It, the day doesn't go by that we don't have a conversation. A week doesn't go by that we don't meet with them as a whole district managers. When you start building those type of relationships and they start understanding that they're just not out there by themselves, that we're here to support them and help them, you know, develop these people, then, then it becomes a lot easier. In terms of like the retention on the, the candidate or the employee side, again, that's, that's the manager's part, is that they have to be part of that success for that person. We want people to walk into our locations and feel that, you know, even if it's, you know, three months that they're gonna work for us or have a career for the rest of their life, for, with us from the very beginning, it has to be a positive environment.

(08:18):

It has to be a positive experience. People are, they, they need, they have the need again to, to be wanted and to be part of that success. So the managers have to be in there really making sure that the training is there, we train to re re retain, you know, so that's, that's kind of our model. But the relationship, I would just go back to the relationship with operations is so important. I can't do my job without operations. I don't, we don't sit behind a computer here all day long and just, you know, hope that, you know what I call posting, praying and hope that they get people in the door. We push people to get in the door and work with operations on that.

Daniel Blaser (09:03):

So many great things in what you said, and I love, you know, to kind of drive, there's kind of a through line to these events where you kind of show you know, externally that you're excited for someone to join the company. But then, like you said, that kind of continues, maybe not with balloons and you know, the party atmosphere, but even after they're hired, it, it's kinda like there's that through line, right, where you're still kind of communicating the value and, and all of those good things. So yeah, that makes sense.

Angie Figueredo (09:33):

And my team, and to another part of our strategy, our goals for next year is to do, you know, stay interviews and really stay connected to the candidates that we're hiring. Right now, my team just handles anywhere from a GM and above hourly is all handled through the store, but even maybe reduce that into a smaller version of how, how the store can retain by having those stay interviews. A lot of times what we find is that the candidates, especially if it's somebody that we hired, they're, they feel like talking to the talent acquisition team is a little bit safer space than actually talking to a manager. So there'll be a little bit more forthcoming and honest with us on what's, you know, good and what's bad, but we wanna hear it all. So we wanna make sure that we have a clear understanding of, you know, how we need to make some changes and, and then make sure that, that, that information is communicated to, to the the leaders. And it goes, and, and the great thing about working for a family run business is that, you know, because I've worked in corporate too is that you, I have a direct line to the people that are making the big decisions. So that, that helps a lot. And, and they're very, very supportive of that.

Daniel Blaser (10:47):

So would you say, you know, kind of thinking forward, you know, forward to 2023 the year ahead, would, would you say that that what you kind of just discussed, that's probably like your number one priority kind of on the, on the acquisition side?

Angie Figueredo (11:02):

Yeah, definitely. We also will, we'll start utilizing a lot of new things that the company has added. You know, any new vendors we're constantly testing you know, and talking to different vendors, automation is gonna be a big part of it. We wanna make sure that our operators, anytime we look at a new vendor to come in, we really look at the whole picture. But first we look at to make sure that it's easy for our operators to use. You know, at the end of the day, we have, we, we don't make money for the company. Our, our position, the, the, the stores do. And so they have to run stores. And with today's staffing hollow, it is, you know, sometimes we might have, you know, two people running a Pizza Hut, you know, and that's tough, you know, so they don't have time to go in and, and source for their candidates. So we identify those 9 1 1 stores and then put a little bit, you know, more one-on-one attention to that. But in terms of our vendors, definitely automation is gonna be part of it. For example, at Pizza Hut, we just got a, a marketing director, so we're gonna be working really close with her to make sure that we're really, we already are out there on social media a little bit, but really step up that part of it a little bit more and, and branding the, the, the the company for more attention.

Daniel Blaser (12:34):

So, you know, definitely, like you said, when you're, you're vetting vendors, part of it is like, okay, is this is this solution just easy to use? Does it make sense? What, like, how else do you get operators to actually use the, the tools and the solutions that, that you've already vetted? You know, they're, they're good, but maybe you're not getting as much uptake as you want. What, what do you kind of do next?

Angie Figueredo (13:02):

So, you know, that's a great question because we're actually going through that right now. We're having, you know, weekly meetings with all our dms. They're open to inviting their GMs to attend these meetings. After training, we will have, you know, weekly, you know, step in meetings for anybody. It's sitting out there and anybody can just jump in and ask questions. We'll be on the line for 30 minutes to make sure that they're doing okay. And this may go on for, you know, a few months until we, we are assured that people are using it. Those weekly meetings do show us the usage. And numbers are huge very much into analytics and reporting. So we really use those to show our operators who's using, who's not. And it's their responsibility to make sure that those people step it up.

(13:54):

And we keep track of that really well. But more so the support behind it. You know, the, it's the simplest thing. Just answer your phone if they call you. 'cause A lot of times they, they'll call us and say, Hey, or they'll send us an email. The response time for us, whether it's a phone call or an email, we have to respond to them right away. Because most, most of the time they have somebody sitting there that's wanting to get hired. And if we have, if they're having difficulty hire that person, that person is just gonna walk across the street to McDonald's and get hired there, you know, so yeah, it's, it's the simplest things really. We just don't try to over complicate it. We think from the operator's perspective, again, I've worked in a lot of stores myself and I've been there working side by side with the operators, so I, I understand that as well.

Daniel Blaser (14:44):

You've kind of touched on automation, and I, I'd love to talk a little bit more about that topic because obviously that's kind of essential given all of the challenges faced by, by your space right now. But like how do you kind of see automation fitting into the process? Like, do you kind of have a philosophy of like, how it should be used or how it shouldn't be used?

Angie Figueredo (15:06):

Yeah, so automation's great, right? But, you know, nothing's gonna be perfect and there's always gonna be, you know, glitches or, you know, things like that. It's, it's, again, your, your time. The, the admins are that are behind that automation that are helping support operations. How are you gonna support the, the issues that are coming through, I would say to anybody that's trying to put something together, you know, allow your team to be the subject matter experts in that automation. Don't always rely on your vendor or even upfront when you are, you know, coming to an agreement with that. Make sure that you are the super admin within that, that you can make the changes, you can make the fixes, whatever it is. So that's, that's one thing. So we try to, to make sure that that part of it is there, because again, making it so easy for a candidate from the candidate experience, you know, we redid our application this year, every year going forward, we're gonna look at our application again and, and, and make sure that it's, it's easy today.

(16:14):

It takes like less than five minutes to get through our application process. Sometimes just even not even that to, you know, two, three minutes. So we're constantly looking as we ask ourselves, what is it that we really need upfront from candidate to, to talk to them. Generally it's just their phone number and email address <laugh>, and, you know, having a resume is great, but a lot of hourlies might not have that. But so it's just simple things like that and automation. We wanna make sure that our operators and our team is working in one system. You know, making sure that your background check is integrated into that your, you know, payroll system, whatever it is, if you have an HRIS system, is, is part of that. So we're all working in one area, and that is the, the system of record.

(17:05):

But then we also have to understand we can't lose that human touch to it as well. And that goes both on the operational side and the candidate side. So again, I have a candidate that can't get in there or is having a hard time. We have a lot of Spanish speaking candidates and employees today. So we really need to make sure that if they're having a difficult time, we identify that and don't treat them as, oh, here's a link, or here's some information. Follow the steps. You know, we pick up the phone, we make sure that we, we talk 'em through it. On the, the, you know, the, the, on the operational side, you know, again, that's part of the training that we're doing is to say to them, you know, you, your part here to make this successful is that you're gonna see them face to face. So again, you have to make that experience a great experience starting from the beginning. Don't lose that human touch with, with the candidates. So it's a, it's a, it's a combination of both, you know but I'm, I'm still a big proponent on, on calling and talking to people, you know, especially if the, it is a unique situation or something that, you know, I know I can fix, I, I'll pick up the phone and, and talk to them.

Daniel Blaser (18:32):

Thank you for listening to On the Clock. For more info, visit workstream us slash podcast. I've included that link as well as a link in the show notes to watch my entire conversation with Angie. Until next time, we're clocking out.