Smoothie King franchisee enhances efficiency and applicant experience with Workstream

BCS Northern, a Smoothie King franchisee, was challenged with reaching and communicating with job applicants. Workstream's automated approach enabled them to keep applicants engaged throughout the hiring process and reduce time spent on hiring tasks by 80%.

“The customer service is phenomenal! There’s not a question I haven’t had answered. We get our ads up, and we get people hired, and I think it’s just a great partnership.”

Ann Miller

HR Manager at BCS Northern

The problem

Communication breakdown alienates applicants

As HR Manager at BCS Northern, Ann Miller oversees a workforce that can average over 350 hourly employees for Smoothie King juice bars—one of the nation's leading smoothie brands.

Ann is directly involved in every aspect of recruiting new workers. One of the biggest challenges maintaining good communication with applicants. Whenever a recruiter got too busy to reach out to an individual or when Ann was suddenly called into a meeting, interviews could get delayed. When the BCS Northern team tried to follow up, the applicants—likely feeling ignored or unappreciated—often ghosted interviews.

Ann and her recruiting team at BCS Northern needed an HR technology solution that would prove more efficient than their old-school process of making phone calls, sending emails, and waiting for the other person to respond. They needed some way to get both parties involved in the process.

the solution

Attracting and engaging applicants in just a few clicks

With Workstream’s automated and intuitive approach, it became easier to demonstrate just how interested, invested, and responsive the company was in its applicants. By better engaging candidates from application to interview to offer, Ann’s franchise stores stood out as places where people wanted to work.

Team Communications

Ann and her team leverage a mix of automated and personal messages to ensure applicants are getting communicated with at all the critical touch points. For applicants, this active two-way communication throughout the recruitment process gave them confidence that BCS Northern would provide a good employee experience as well.

Job boards

Workstream also expanded the company’s reach by letting it post to several job boards simultaneously—a process that once meant copying and pasting ads for open positions up to 15 times. With Workstream, there was no more guesswork about where to post open job positions or how to expand their search for the most qualified, motivated applicants. This greatly helps BCS Northern meet its need for new hourly workers—it averages 100 hires every month.

built for the hourly workforce

A happier workforce starts with smarter hiring

Responsible for so many different franchise locations, Ann used to spend up to 15 hours a week tracking applications, contacting candidates, and scheduling interviews—all time that was spent before ever getting around to hiring anyone. Workstream cut that process down to three hours.

Ann continues to improve her operational efficiency using the platform—adjusting the number of steps in the application, keeping in touch with applicants, and hiring people in a matter of days. Plus, collaboration between Ann, her recruiters, and her hiring managers has never been better.