Hiring on-the-go
Recruiting in the retail and restaurant industries is exceedingly decentralized, with more than 90% of retail and restaurant chains hiring at the local store level instead of at corporate. After all, why wouldn’t companies allow the individuals fixed to the shop floor day-in and day-out to make their own hiring decisions? Corporate offices can cultivate policy and strategy from a high level, but it is the store managers who truly have a deep understanding of their specific locations’ operational needs and team culture.
When it comes to hiring store level employees, the divide between corporate and store locations doesn’t stop with who retains the autonomy to make hiring decisions. The true disconnect lies in the adoption of existing technologies, and the availability of new technology solutions designed for store managers to help them make efficient hiring decisions — all while continuing to effectively managing their existing teams and selling the store’s products.
Today, I’m excited to announce that Apploi has developed the first-of-its-kind mobile solution with a consumer-focused strategy, directly aimed at busy store and district managers — Apploi for Hiring Managers.
Many corporate retailers and restaurant groups have been using Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) for the past 20 years to source, hire, and onboard their professional employees. More and more are pushing these systems to the store level to help with hourly hiring, requiring managers to post requisitions and hire new employees with these tools. The problem is, they are clunky, computer-based, extremely difficult to maneuver and much more geared toward corporate HR and skilled professionals. Many corporate HR professionals also find these legacy technologies challenging to grasp, which is validated by the rise of progressive ATS’s like Greenhouse, iCIMS and Lever.
Store managers are refusing to adopt these corporate tools, bypassing the systems entirely, and going back to paper applications, resumes, open-calls and Craigslist. If they do try to use the ATS, they are unable to either because they don’t have a computer in the store, or if they do, it is likely an obsolete machine from 2003 that runs Internet Explorer 6 and is slower than a snail. Difficult to use technologies are a distraction from the store’s customers, employees and sales.
In today’s fast paced and busy world, hiring managers need an innovative solution that allows them to focus on what truly matters. They need tools to review, screen and communicate with job applicants on the go, while interconnecting information with corporate for compliance and transparency purposes. That is why we created Apploi for Hiring Managers, a mobile app that for the first time allows hiring managers to review job applications and communicate with applicants while running around the store, on the way to work, or even at lunch.
Resumes are incapable of showing a jobseeker’s true passion, personality, and communication skills, which are the most relevant qualities when hiring an hourly worker. Store managers don’t have time to sift through stacks of resumes or sit in the stock room reviewing long applications in the ATS. With our new mobile solution, they will no longer need to. Combining Apploi for Jobseekers which provides job search and quick capture application process and now Apploi for Hiring Managers, we have provided an end-to-end mobile hiring solution that will surely be loved by jobseekers and employers alike in the retail and restaurant industries.
