Streamlining operations keeps a leading Bojangles franchisee fully staffed

Rajiv Dinakaran, a Bojangles franchisee, faced hiring challenges and inefficiencies in his restaurants. However, after implementing Workstream's user-friendly platform, his struggling locations saw a remarkable increase in applications, some up to 1400%, creating a brighter future for his Bojangles franchise.

"Within the first 90 days is when we typically lose people. If we can monitor their progress at 30, 60, and 90 days, we’re more likely to retain them over a year. Workstream has helped keep that organized because we know when they’ve applied, interviewed, have data and key metrics from pre-hire to post-hire that helps you to retain people, which is obviously huge dollars and cents."

Rajiv Dinakaran

Owner and Operator, Georgia Foods, LLC. dba Bojangles

The problem

Low applicant flow hurts growing franchise business

About Bojangles

Georgia Foods is a 41 location franchisee of Bojangles. Bojangles is an American fast-food restaurant chain specializing in Southern-inspired cuisine, with a particular focus on biscuits, chicken, and breakfast items. It was founded in 1977 in Charlotte, North Carolina, and has since grown to become a popular regional chain primarily located in the Southeastern United States with both company-owned and franchise locations.

Rajiv Dinakaran cares a lot about every employee who works at his 41 (and counting) Bojangles locations in Georgia, North Carolina, and Virginia. Long before becoming a franchisee himself, he worked at his father’s Bojangles restaurant as a crew person while in high school.

Because of his 15 years of industry experience, Rajiv realized hiring would always be a big concern or a big opportunity—especially when trying to acquire and staff new locations. With an HR platform that required job postings and applications on employment sites to be managed manually, time that could be spent training and developing crew members was being dedicated to paperwork.

Five years into being a franchisee, Rajiv also noticed certain locations were only averaging two or three applications a month. When asking people at his struggling Bojangles restaurants about their hiring challenges, it simply came down to “we just can’t find help.” But was it really a matter of not having enough job seekers to staff those franchises or not reaching them where they are?

the solution

Simplifying hiring for applicants and managers alike

While looking for a more user-friendly hiring solution, Rajiv and his operations team discovered Workstream. Within 60 days of using the platform, once struggling locations began averaging 30 to 40 applications per month—an increase of as much as 1400%. Rather than struggling to find help, those very same Bojangles restaurants are now fully staffed.

Text-to-apply

For Heather Cunrod, Director of People & Culture for Rajiv’s Bojangles locations, Workstream has been a game changer. “I definitely think it’s cut about 50% of my time. They can just text to apply and do the application on their phone—instead of walking into a location, getting a paper application, sitting down, filling it out, handing it in, not knowing where they’re at in the process.”

Onboarding

The platform also streamlined the onboarding experience for hiring managers. “Before,” Rajiv recalls, “someone’s birthday was entered (in the system) something crazy like 12 times because they had to enter it in the initial application, enter it in their hiring paperwork, then enter it in the back-office PC, and then enter it into payroll. Versus Workstream, it’s just like they apply (once) and it’s done. What used to take 20 minutes a person is down to maybe a minute.”

Team Operations

With Workstream, Rajiv’s operations team has also improved their retention strategy overnight. “Within the first 90 days is when we typically lose people. If we can monitor their progress at 30, 60, and 90 days, we’re more likely to retain them over a year. Workstream has helped keep that organized because we know when they’ve applied, interviewed, have data and key metrics from pre-hire to post-hire that helps you to retain people, which is obviously huge dollars and cents.”

built for the hourly workforce

Back office operations are under control

Workstream has streamlined Heather’s entire recruitment, hiring, and onboarding process. She can realistically get somebody in the door within an hour after an interview—which is especially helpful when you average 50 hires every week and need to ensure their direct deposits are good to go.

For Rajiv, Workstream is a no-brainer. His operations team now enjoys a one-stop shop for their staffing needs at all 41 locations. Assistant managers, store managers, and district managers can now spend more time shaping work culture, knowing their staffing needs are taken care of.