High volume hiring with Preston Sharpston

Daniel Blaser (00:06):

Hello and welcome to On the Clock, presented by Workstream. If you care about hiring, managing, and paying hourly workers, this is the podcast for you. Today we're clocking in with Preston Sharpton, a people operations manager at MWB Restaurants, A fast growing Whataburger franchisee. Preston Chats with our own Emily Hancock about his strategy for vetting and implementing HR technology. He also shares how much time and money HR Automation has saved his group over the past year and what specific features set them apart from other restaurants. Also competing to hire the same pool of potential employees. Enjoy.

Emily Hancock (00:45):

First things first, just tell us a little bit about your role. What does your day-to-day look like?

Preston Sharpston (00:52):

I'm the people operations manager here at MWB restaurants, so my day to day is really anything and everything that decides that wants to be part of my day. I'm an HR department of one and I manage both the people and the recruiting side. So really no two days are the same, but that's how I like it, so I love it. My role really started off on the recruiting side, which is fortunate because I had the chance of running the full implementation of work stream. So I was able to actually go to market, find the software we needed and here we're,

Emily Hancock (01:27):

That actually is such a good transition into a question I wanted to ask you just before, you mentioned that that was your job to vet out different softwares. What drew you into workstream and ultimately what made you decide to go with Workstream?

Preston Sharpston (01:44):

Yeah, great question. So we knew we wanted to switch applicant tracking systems, and we were also switching to a new payroll system at the same time. So it was sort of a natural transition. At that time. The payroll system we elected did not really meet the functionality we needed to do high volume recruiting. So we went to market exploring different software and platforms and had a lot of really great choices. But honestly, at the end of the day, workstream is the only platform that checked all the boxes for us and still continues to do so. 10 out of 10. So

Emily Hancock (02:19):

You mentioned that checked all the boxes. I guess what kind of boxes are important to you? What boxes did we check, I guess?

Preston Sharpston (02:25):

Yeah, I think the biggest thing is that we are very high volume right now. We're hiring about 200 people a month and we're set to open a lot of stores. I think we're opening six to 10 new stores a year over the next 10 years. So that number is only going to go up. So we need to make sure that we can hire at scale, which of course brings the automation into play. So how can we set up automated messaging, interview, scheduling, onboarding, all of the things, and workstream was just able to do that really well at every stage. And one thing that we also liked is the functionality where if I go in the system and I message someone and then someone else goes in the system, they can see those communications. So it also helps us to hire not only very high volume, but also across those multiple locations.

Emily Hancock (03:11):

I'd love to get an idea of some daily challenges that you face in your role

Preston Sharpston (03:18):

Role. I think as it pertains to recruiting, the biggest challenge of course is how do we engage candidates? So in the restaurant industry, there are thousands and thousands of millions of candidates out there, but there are also a lot of job options. So we kind of go into recruiting knowing that we are not the only option out there, and for some people maybe we're the best choice, maybe we're not, but how do we reach as many people as possible and try to engage that volume? So another reason why we love Workstream and part of my role is to figure out how we can engage those candidates and how we can get them to choose us. Is there a next employer? And I think it comes down to how do we, again, automate the tools, build the systems to help us do that on the backend, but then how do we equip our leaders, the tools to hire well, to know how to interview and select great candidates, and then how to then bestow that knowledge upon their team so they can also hire great candidates. So I'd say it's probably a mixture of process, technology and training.

Emily Hancock (04:17):

Why do you think it's important to have an HR software that is built specifically for the hourly workforce versus maybe like a corporate or desk job?

Preston Sharpston (04:28):

That's a fantastic question. So I've had the fortune of being in both markets. I've been a corporate recruiter and here I am now in high volume. So how the tables have turned, I think the key difference, again goes back to the volume. Even in a corporate recruiting role, you may hire, if you're a high volume recruiter, a couple hundred folks a year, but right now we're hiring with just 10 restaurants, around 2000 people a year, which is on point pretty average for the industry. And again, that number is going to double next year as we open more locations. So it's a little overwhelming because you again have to think of things at scale as opposed to we have a team of maybe 20 hiring managers. We have to equip all these hiring managers to be successful. We have a team of 90 hiring managers, and by the time we reach our opening goal, that'll be thousands. So we have to make sure that we're, again, scaling, but we're also building tools that are user friendly so that people can access on their own time that people can understand and really be able to get, and that hopefully are applicable to all types of learning modalities, whether they're visual or kinesthetic or I forget the other written. So all those pieces. So we're just trying to make sure that we're as appealing to as many candidates as possible, and then we're educating as many different types of learners as possible.

Emily Hancock (05:54):

How do you think Workstream in has helped you accomplish that or at least gotten on the track for that?

Preston Sharpston (06:01):

Yeah, I think workstream has been a huge piece in that the system we were using before did not have a lot of the scalability functions that Workstream does. It's a software that really is, I think for smaller companies where 10 restaurants is maybe their maximum, whereas 10 restaurants is our floor. So there just weren't a lot of features and tools that we needed. But I think another piece is that it wasn't as user-friendly. We have a lot of hiring managers who maybe aren't as great with technology as people who may be in a corporate recruiting environment or maybe people who just don't have time to learn a super complex system. So a great thing about Workstream is that it's super easy. I'm actually building a training course for our hiring managers right now on how to use it, and I'm having to think of creative content because the system is just so easy to use. I'm having to figure out what I can put into this program to not be boring. So I'd say that's probably the best benefit so far.

Emily Hancock (07:01):

Do you have any idea on how many hours you spent on an HR related task before Work Extreme versus after? Do you have any inkling in your idea?

Preston Sharpston (07:14):

So as it stands in five months, we've saved about 40,000 just in time to less time. We're spending, sending offer letters, sending background checks, scheduling interviews, doing all the things and onboarding, just condensing that process to make it automated and seamless and beautiful, which equates to about 1100 hours or so. So it's a lot of time for sure. And if we kept the same volume we have right now, that would be almost a hundred thousand a year. So that's pretty impressive and a really huge shout out to the power of workstream.

Emily Hancock (07:50):

Wow, that's amazing. That's a great answer. Why is it beneficial to have multiple recruiting and HR functions in one platform? Has there been any benefits to you? Can you think of any specific instances where it's been helpful?

Preston Sharpston (08:08):

Yeah, I mean, I think that whenever you look at HR technology, the idea is you want everything to be in one wonderful buttoned up system just because everything's going to talk to each other, the data's just going to be correct, and we're not quite there yet. I think maybe one day we'll get everything in one bucket, we'll see how it goes. But as far as keeping our recruiting platform, our onboarding platform, we also use Work Streams document management, which has been very helpful. Not having to track down as much paper as we did before. I think it's immensely helpful because the systems, again, they talk to each other, so we can have someone apply to a position, that person will then be hired, they'll go through their background checks and their onboarding, and really it's just a few clicks. We move people from hiring to onboarding, and then we start the onboarding, and then from there it's pretty hands off. So I think it's helpful for me keeping track of what's happening in the company at a macro level, but it's also really helpful for our operators because again, they don't have to go and remember 15 passwords to see all of these different things. They can just log into the one system, see what they need to, and then know what they have to do. So it's really easy I think, in their minds to do that.

Emily Hancock (09:22):

I guess in what ways do you think that all in one, you have your recruiting, your onboarding, your documents, how do you think that that has improved the overall employee journey and how do you think it maybe has affected employee retention as well?

Preston Sharpston (09:41):

I've not measured this as much as I would like, but I know just from receiving feedback on even people who were managers with us now who were hired through the system, we've put a lot of effort into customizing those touch points. So when people apply, they receive an automated email. We try to throw a couple of burger puns in there just because who we're as a brand and throughout the process we can customize the types of messages we're sending. But what I really like is that we're not just doing emails, so we're also sending those text messages. Know a lot of people, they're on the go, maybe they're not looking at their email a whole lot, which must be nice, but it's not my life. But people who may not be tied to their email at a desk as you would be in a corporate role, they have that phone so they can get those communications and it's almost instantaneous.

(10:32):

Another metric that I like to air to our leadership team is that when we launched Workstream, we actually reduced the time it takes for someone to be contacted a hundred percent for all of our team member roles because we have that automated follow-up that says, Hey, thanks for applying. And for our team members, we automatically schedule them for interviews if they meet the base criteria. So then they also receive an email and a text that says, Hey, we'd love to talk to you. Please click this link and schedule your conversation. So it's made it much more seamless and I think that's dramatically improved or dramatically reduced our dropoff rates.

Emily Hancock (11:08):

I'd love to ask you about your experience with Workstream support anytime that you've needed some kind of question about the platform or needed any kind of support. I just want to kind of ask you what your experience has been with that.

Preston Sharpston (11:21):

Yeah, I think one thing I have been very impressed with, also, I'm impressed all the way around, but especially with the people side. From the moment I spoke with our account manager to our, I guess our current account manager now, they've always been above and beyond. Anytime there's a question I have, they answer it either in written format or they'll even record me a video. I'm very visual, so that's super helpful to not just have a giant email instruction manual. So they're very responsive as well. I rarely have to wait more than 24 hours, and if I do, it's usually something that's very complex, but maybe they just have to talk to a more technical team member just to get that information. I also enjoy that there is that little chat bot in the bottom right corner where if our operators have a question and maybe I'm not available, they can reach out to that and get some of those answers, so they don't necessarily have to wait on me again, is that department of one to get back to them. So 10 out of 10 so far,

Emily Hancock (12:24):

How does your experience with workstream align with Whataburger's values as a brand? So

Preston Sharpston (12:30):

I'll throw my disclaimer out there. We are a Whataburger franchise, so I have to say that before I talk about our values. So our franchise specific values, we have the acronym tire, so we never tire of our values, kind of corny, but it works. So those values are teamwork, integrity, respect, and excellence. So as a company, those are the four things really strive for in whatever we're doing. And I think workstream, it speaks to all four of those in different ways. So teamwork, the ability to exchange messages, create feedback forms and scorecards and shares with team members allows us to collaboratively hire. The integrity piece also goes into that, that we can take an objective, look at the feedback we're giving candidates so we can see how are we ranking people, why are we giving them those star ratings and so on and so forth.

(13:24):

I think respect is probably manifesting itself in the messages we can send. So again, we have those templates we set up to be respectful and engaging. Even the messages that say, thank you for applying, but we're not going to select you. We've set those up to be as kind and warm as we possibly can, even though it's not the best of news. And I think the last piece being excellence as far as recruiting excellence goes, we use the system to try and hire the best folks we can. So we use the data points from the sourcing function, so seeing where our candidates are coming from to how many hires we're getting, we could pull reports to see which locations may be struggling a little bit with their volume. So yeah, I'd say that Workstream is successfully hitting all four of those values.

Emily Hancock (14:12):

Finally, what advice would you give to other franchisee groups who might be interested in switching to workstream?

Preston Sharpston (14:20):

I would say our experience has been wonderful. I will say that we operate so differently than the corporate side because corporate has a completely different system and they have all of theirs combined into one bigger platform. But we have found that even though workstream may not have the functionality that a company the size of corporate with 800 some odd locations may need for a company that's in that scale operator use, we've had a lot of success being able to customize it post to Indeed, which a lot of job platforms does too, but Workstream does exceedingly well, which makes our lives easier for applicant generation. And I'll be honest, it's not the world's best reporting metrics, but I mean there are a lot better than some other platforms out there. And the visuals it you can help bump that in the right direction so you can improve your metrics and your pipeline. So I would say if you're a workstream franchisee and you're looking to move different software, we'd recommend workstream.

Daniel Blaser (15:32):

Thank you for listening to On the Clock. For more info, visit workstream us slash podcast. I've also included a link in the show notes to connect with Preston on LinkedIn. Until next time, we're clocking out.