From enterprise software designed for commercial businesses and large, global employers to niche hiring tools for specific industries or use cases, there are more options than ever when it comes to talent management solutions. To keep up with today — and tomorrow’s — hourly hiring demands, you need the flexibility to recruit for quality OR quantity. You need optionality to connect with candidates in the way that works best for them and the speed to do it faster than your competition.
It all starts with sourcing applicants. Job boards are one piece of the puzzle, but usually aren’t enough these days. Whether it be sponsoring jobs, window clings/receipts with QR codes, employee referrals, or one of many other methods for attracting hourly applicants, decentralized, location-based businesses need a single place to manage the process.
Once you attract people with your job posting, your talent management solution should remove friction wherever possible to keep the hiring process moving along quickly. For candidates, this is optionality in how they apply (AI chatbot, company career site, integrated job board application forms, text-to-apply) so that they can move through recruiting, hiring, and onboarding quickly and efficiently — in the way that works best for them.
Seventy-three percent of applicants will abandon a job application if it takes them longer than 15 minutes, so hiring managers need fast and efficient methods to engage interested job candidates and schedule interviews. A fast and streamlined application process is the key to getting candidates in the door.
From there, automated and optimized workflows and configurations free up time for managers so that they can respond to and interview qualified applicants promptly.
The majority of the hourly workforce grew up with modern technology, so they’re used to working digitally and expect communication to be mobile-friendly. But they hate phone calls — studies show that 75% of Millennials avoid phone calls and 81% get anxious about making a call — and even email isn’t fast enough sometimes.
The best way to reach hourly candidates in the 21st century is by texting. Texts get a 10x faster response than phone calls or emails and 98% of texts are read vs. just 20% of emails. Technology that enables two-way texting allows hiring managers to communicate with candidates quickly and efficiently.
Another critical component of keeping the process moving is a talent management system that enables hiring managers to eliminate or reduce the time required for things like completing applications, scheduling interviews, answering applicants’ questions, and assessing their qualifications. You must be able to get new hire paperwork completed quickly and digitally, with checks and balances in place to ensure compliance.
Niche solutions might meet this need if you’re looking to solve a single problem mentioned above, but they may not integrate with your current system, which will in turn make your hiring process even longer. For many hiring managers and franchise owners, the best solution to meet the challenges of hiring hourly employees — now and in the future — is an end-to-end talent management platform that allows you to do all of this and more in one place. Creating a smooth, streamlined process attracts more candidates, moves them through interviewing and hiring in a flash, and gets them into a uniform within days.
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