The Challenge

Recognized as one of the nation’s largest and fastest growing staffing agencies, AtWork Group depends on generating a steady flow of qualified applicants for its clients. Also a franchise-based firm with nearly 100 locations from coast to coast, their success hinges heavily on how well franchise owners attract, engage, and convert job seekers into hires.

A few years ago, however, the company realized its website user experience (UX) didn’t cater to its main source of traffic: job candidates. “We have a pretty exciting domain name — atwork.com — for what we do,” said Jason Leverant, President and COO of AtWork, “but the site wasn’t tailored to our target audience, which is talent.” Instead, the experience of finding a job was rather clunky, which was leading to candidate drop-off.

Wanting to take the friction out of the job search and apply process, he searched for a solution to address these UX goals:

• Provide more intuitive navigation: Getting to the right job involved too many clicks and too much guessing on the part of job seekers.

• Streamline the apply process: Online applicants faced a “massive questionnaire” that resulted in excessive drop-off, according to Leverant.

Leverant knew they needed to overhaul their site, improve the experience, and update their tech stack to continue growing the business and increasing value for potential franchise owners.

The Solution

Initially, Leverant searched for a solution that would make the AtWork website function more like a job board — but where site visitors could seamlessly find a job based on skills, interest, experience, and location. After looking at several plug-and-play job board software vendors, Leverant wasn’t impressed. Then Phenom came on his radar.

Once Leverant saw the breadth of benefits offered by the Phenom Intelligent Talent Experience platform, what started as an initiative to overhaul the website turned into an effort to improve the entire talent acquisition process.

“For us, it’s all about speed to lead,” Leverant said. “It’s about getting candidates in the system quickly, engaging with them immediately after application, and then deploying them out on assignment once they get through the interview process. Any fall-off is lost revenue for us.”

While a Phenom Career Site could bring hyper-personalized job search functionality to AtWork’s website, Leverant quickly realized the platform could also help them manage the entire talent experience — from attraction, lead capture, ongoing candidate engagement, and application conversion to employee engagement and retention.

As Leverant and other stakeholders proceeded in their search, Phenom stood out with capabilities that would give AtWork the speed they were after — and a competitive edge:

• Streamlined online application. In combination with their new career site, Phenom’s hosted apply process requires just four points of information. It’s a light lift for candidates, and gets the right data into the ATS and CRM for timely follow up. If they prefer, job seekers can also leverage the Phenom Chatbot to quickly search and apply for relevant roles.

• AI-powered CRM. “It functions like a SalesForce for job candidates, and that’s what we need,” Leverant said, referring to the Phenom CRM — which tracks candidate interactions on the site, automatically creates profiles for every site visitor, and then surfaces right-fit talent to TA teams based on experience, skill, location, and other data points. All of this information can then be used for targeted campaigning to nurture active or passive job seekers.

• Automated email and text campaigns. With Phenom Campaigns and Phenom SMS, team members can further leverage information in the CRM to send relevant communications that deepen engagement beyond the initial touchpoint.

• Strong data integrations. AtWork uses Greenfield Software ATS, an applicant tracking, onboarding, billing, and payroll system. Finding a platform with strong integration capabilities was top priority so that candidate data could flow seamlessly from system to system, allowing for nimble management and rapid movement through the pipeline.

From an HRIS experience, Leverant had this to share: “The data integrity and speed of integration is crucial because we’re dealing with just-in-time, sensitive hiring. It’s critical for integrations to work — and work well. “I’ve implemented a lot of different software platforms, and despite how large and impactful this one was, everything was buttoned up and process driven. I was blown away. If I could have an implementation team like Phenom’s, I’d be golden.”

The Results

With increased operational efficiency, a streamlined application process, and seamless data integration, AtWork has seen a 176% increase in total applications, better conversion rates, and a 165% increase in number of hires year over year.

“Moving to Phenom’s hosted apply process, the start to completion ratio is near 100 percent,” Leverant revealed. And with a 237% increase in completed applications, AtWork’s time to hire has also decreased.

Along with a vastly improved UX, the platform has added value in terms of candidate engagement through email and text campaigns and its career site talent community feature, which lets AtWork keep the brand top-of-mind with warm leads.

The company’s corporate talent acquisition team can now deliver at scale to franchise owners nationwide. “We’re able to provide a great, frictionless online process that delivers candidates right to their doorstep,” Leverant said.

The Future

Moving forward, AtWork plans to further leverage Phenom’s SMS capabilities and other tools to reach candidates quickly, at the right moment. “Text is where it’s at,” Leverant noted, “especially for the majority of the AtWork candidate base, who are on the go in busy warehouses and industrial settings.”

Challenges related to talent acquisition and management rank high among CEOs in the staffing industry, Leverant noted. “These challenges are going to be with us for years to come, so you’d better invest your dollars wisely in the acquisition and retention space.”

With Phenom’s technology helping them stand out from the competition, AtWork looks forward to expanding not only their talent pools, but also their network of franchise offices.

“We tout Phenom in our value proposition to franchise owners — that we’re using enterpriseclass tools that make the talent intake process smooth and seamless. You’re getting best-in-class technology where it counts,” said Leverant.