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It’s not the ATS’ fault that it’s clunky.
After all, it was invented with benevolent intent: track, manage, and sort candidate information. That sounds pretty good, right? But as candidate expectations and behaviors evolved, the ATS has mostly stayed the same. And companies — fearful of changing their whole tech ecosystem — grew resentful of a tool that was no longer living up to its end of the bargain.
The thing, though, is that technology did parallel that evolution. And it came in the form of AI. With AI’s burgeoning development, Paradox was able to reconfigure the ATS to build something far better than just a system that tracks applicants: a true hiring machine that makes the candidate experience better and the lives’ of recruiters easier.
We call it the Conversational ATS.
And many companies are reaping the benefits of an ATS that works for them. Millions of dollars saved. Millions of hours back in their day. Millions of more candidates converted. All because they reimagined what their hiring software could look like.
Here are five examples of organizations who have blazed a new trail when it comes to hiring tech, and how their upgraded ATS fits their needs.
McDonald’s
McDonald’s is known worldwide for a convenient, consistent process. No matter which of its 40,000 locations you’re at, you’re getting the same burger at the same speed. It’s simple. It’s reliable. It’s McDonald’s.
But McDonald’s recruitment process was much more complex. Store managers had to take time out of their day (you know, time away from actually running the restaurant) to handle candidate screening and interview scheduling. Which didn’t just equate to a slower hiring process, it led to a worse candidate (and customer!) experience.
McDonald’s needed a robust solution. So they partnered with Paradox, and together, they co-engineered a first-of-its-kind Conversational ATS. Dubbed “McHire”, their ATS is now entirely powered by AI, and proactively automates administrative work while freeing up restaurant managers to tend to customers and current employees.
A better customer experience. An automated hiring process. And burgers that keep on coming just as fast as customers are ordering them. That’s what McHire brings.
Take a look for yourself:
Since implementing McHire:
- Reduction in time to hire from 21 days to under three.
- Cutting time to schedule interviews from three days to three minutes
- Doubling the applications McDonald’s received
Great Wolf Lodge
“We couldn’t get candidates to respond to our voicemails or come to interviews.”
Rachel O’Connell, SVP of HR at Great Wolf, is in charge of hiring employees for the hospitality chain’s 22 nationwide locations. And traditional methods weren’t working.
See, Great Wolf’s candidate pool consists largely of teens — a group of people who are famously hard to reach with traditional recruiting methods. Great Wolf’s manual outreach was too outdated and too slow.
To achieve the results they needed, Great Wolf implemented Paradox's Conversational ATS. Now, all candidate communication is handled by an AI assistant named Emma. The best part? She can converse with candidates 24/7, all over text. Candidate screening? Over text. Interview scheduling? Over text. Onboarding documents? That too — it’s all automated over text, communicated in a way that teens are comfortable with, and liberally use throughout their daily life.
“Even if you’re not familiar with technology, you’re familiar with texting,” said O’Connell. “When you’re trying to find younger workers, it’s important to meet them where they are.”
With Emma, Great Wolf has seen:
- $700,000 saved in recruitment marketing costs
- 423% increase in scheduled interviews
- 90% of hiring process is now automated
Neighborly
Over half of America’s skilled trade employees are nearing retirement age, and the trade industry is seeing a max exodus of people. The value of each candidate is at an all time high.
Neighborly’s 30+ home service brands were all faced with understaffing. Slow, manual hiring processes meant high candidate drop-off, and Neighborly couldn’t afford a leaky pipeline. For them, the Conversational ATS serves as a superpowered candidate volume driver — with AI automating a faster hiring process, interested candidates can be quickly funneled into full-on applicants.
When candidates first come across a Neighborly touchpoint, be it by texting a shortcode or interacting with a career site widget, Conversational Job Search helps them quickly match their best fitting job by experience and location. Then, through chat to apply functionality, then can quickly complete a job application with Maya, their AI assistant.
“Several franchisees started asking how to turn Maya off because they were getting too many candidates,” said Craig Gjelsten, Director of Deployment.
No logins. No roadblocks. Just a simple text conversation, and a candidate is converted before they can ever even think about dropping off.
Neighborly’s Conversational ATS drove these results:
- 71% increase in applicants
- 81% increase in hires
- 54% decrease in cost per hire
Sodexo
Sodexo has to hire thousands of people every year, but their hiring process was manual and slow. At Sodexo’s hiring scale, it was a crippling challenge.
Originally coming across Paradox through an RFP process for a pre-application solution, Sodexo realized that they needed hiring automation that addressed the root of their problem: their ATS.
Today, Sodexo’s Conversational ATS proves their big bet was right. Dexi, Sodexo’s AI assistant, eliminates all candidate pitfalls, automating the entire application process quickly and at scale. Fluent in 30+ languages, Dexi can communicate with candidates all around the world — opening up Sodexo’s talent pool immensely, helping them find the best candidates, and fast.
For a company of Sodexo’s size, that speed is paramount. But it’s Dexi’s ability to automate large amounts of work in seconds that really provides Sodexo with a better hiring experience.
Since implementation, Sodexo has seen:
- 60% decrease in time to hire
- 21% increase in applications
- 40K employees hired in 7 months
Southern Rock Restaurants
This franchise group that owns over 150+ McAlister’s Deli restaurants wasn’t hiring fast enough to staff their locations. To catch up, they needed to expand their talent acquisition advertising budget — they were spending $65,000 every month on Indeed, and still not hiring enough people.
Their Conversational ATS hasn’t just sped up their hiring, it’s redefined Southern Rock’s recruitment marketing strategy. With faster, more efficient hiring, they’ve been able to cut back on their job advertising budget and save nearly a million dollars per year. And fully staffed locations equal a better customer experience, which in turn leads to an even better bottom line.
“I haven't run a management advertisement [in months], which is unheard of heading into peak season,” said Courtney Dempsey, their director of digital recruitment.
Southern Rock’s locations now have an enhanced customer experience, all because they decided to modernize their ATS.
Southern Rock’s results:
- $840,000 saved per year
- 60% reduction in employee turnover
- 50,000 increase in applicants
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Plenty more organizations from small franchisors to Fortune 500 businesses have implemented conversational AI software to assist their recruiters and transform the hiring experience. You can read some more of their stories below.
