Enjoy watching the webinar.
Hung Lee (00:01):
Okay, everybody, I think we're live. Welcome everybody to champions of Talent. Folks, I hope you can hear me okay, and I hope you can see the screen. Okay. I'm delighted to bring this second our second episode of this series with us because this is one of the most important and under discussed topics in recruiting. What is the recruiter experience actually like? I put it to you folks, that it's impossible to, to conduct a quality recruitment process without a highly motivated recruitment team that is doing the right kind of work. So I'm doing this series with paradox. We're gonna be calling it Champions of Talent, and we're gonna be highlighting recruitment teams that are doing exceptional work, not only in improving process, but also making sure that their recruiters are doing the right kind of stuff. They're building their careers, they're building their skills, and they're motivated for the work that they do. So, welcome everybody to the show. Let's kick off by doing some introductions. I'm your host Hong Lee. I curate the newsletter recruiting brain food. And I'm joined by Michael and Ashley, both from Regis Corporation. Let's do some quick intros. Michael, would you wanna kick us off? Can you quickly introduce yourself, who are you and what it is you do?
Michael Ferranti (01:21):
Sure. thanks Hung. I'm Michael Ferranti. Good morning, good afternoon, good evening, wherever you are. I'm Michael Ferranti. I'm the, the Chief People Officer for Regis Corporation. I've been with the company for the last year and a half. Quite an exciting industry and evolution we're going through right now. Really excited to talk to, to you all about this important topic and joined by my, my partner crime here, Ashley. So, Ashley, why don't you, you go for it next.
Ashley Dittberner (01:51):
Yeah. Awesome. Thanks Michael. And thanks Hung for kicking us off. Like they said, my name is Ashley Dittberner, and I am an HR manager at Regis. I've been at Regis for almost eight years this December, and there has been quite a change over the years, but definitely within the last couple of years under the recruiting umbrella. And while I'm not Regis as sole just recruiter, I kind of do all things under the HR umbrella. So I'm excited to talk about how I do recruiting and how Regis as recruiting and how that kind of impacts this larger conversation.
Hung Lee (02:26):
Fantastic. Great to see you both on the show. Let's kick off with a with the video. I think we've got an amazing thing to look at because the folks at Paradox really produced, I think, an exceptional piece of content, which really explains what the world of a recruiter is. So let's take a moment and take a look at this.
Video Player (02:57):
You wake up a champion of talent. This is your walk up music. This is your red carpet. This is your arena. It beckons you with the same persistent call. Find me the ones who can't be found, the hidden gems and unseen successes, the people who will create the future. You could let someone else do it, but you won't. You could crumble under the weight of a million unread resumes, yet you persist because you know the truth. It's not a war for talent, it's a celebration, a coronation. Finding the future of work isn't a burden we'd like to extend you be offered, but a blessing. And you are at the center of it all, the person behind the people, the champion of talent, and we are the champion of you.
Hung Lee (04:43):
I love that. I, I particularly love the that end shot where the recruiter is typing away, obviously a very important email with the the Chinese takeaway box, half eaten at a desk. I think we've all kind of had experience of that, haven't we? Folks? by the way, let us know what you think of this video. I think you might see at the bottom of your screen a couple of features on this on Zoom. Unfortunately the chat is not available, but you can use the q and a to interact with us and to ask any questions you might have of the panel. So feel free to make use of the q and a not only to ask questions, but also to drop in comments there as well. And by the way, folks the reason why I think this video, this little short movie really really hit the mark, I think in terms of our recruiter experience is because it was actually a more or less scripted and produced by the paradox recruiting team.
(05:39):
At least in some sort of you know, assistant editorial role. You can see on the image on the the, the right there. That's one of Paradox's recruiters I guess providing insight to the lead actor there. So so yeah, let us know what you think about the video. I mean, mean, in my opinion, I think this's one of the, the, the best, one of the best produced pieces of recruitment content I've seen. I think it really does capture a lot of the work we do. What are your thoughts on this, Ashley? I mean, have you, is it, have you seen the video before?
Ashley Dittberner (06:12):
Yes, I have. And I've seen it many times actually. I've just found myself wanting to go back and, and rewatch it because I can resonate so much. Recruiters, when they have a position or position, they are really dedicating a hundred percent of their time 24 hours a day. It's hard to turn it off because you really are so passionate about trying to fill a role because that role isn't needed an organization and there's work to be done. So it, it really truly is the video something I can relate with specifically.
Hung Lee (06:46):
Absolutely. How about you, Michael? What are your thoughts on the video when you, you saw it for the first time?
Michael Ferranti (06:51):
I like to call it goosebump worthy. Yeah. if, if you, if it does resonate, you get goosebumps. If it doesn't resonate, you should still get goosebumps and that, and that's because look our champions of talent, Ashley Beck on the team, others, these are the ambassadors of your culture of your company. They're the first line into the eyes and ears of, of the people who you're gonna bring in and, and help celebrate your success as a company. And so to see the dedication of someone like this you know, it really gives me goosebumps not just being a, an, you know, a champion of, of our culture here at Regis, but past companies as well, to see the passion. You can't teach that, right? So that's, I know it's a, a narrative, a movie, but it's probably like that with this, with this person in real life as well.
Hung Lee (07:48):
Yeah, I think it does tell it's a story, but it's a true story. It feels very authentic to me in terms of the the value system. And, and I think it's a corrective to the perception that recruiting has. I think from the outside world, people when they think about recruiters, they, they often think it's a very, you know, sales edgy type of role. It's, you know, a bunch of people trying to hustle and you know, force people into the jobs they don't want, et cetera. When that's like very far from the reality of most of the work we do and this little bit of content, I dunno whether paradox would be happy with us doing it, but I really think you should be widely shared because it's it's a sort of thing. I think people who, from outside of the recruitment industry could benefit from seeing a lot of let's talk about sort of some of the, the themes that are important.
(08:38):
It seems that there's a great deal within the video. This person, there we go, like literally working at this while it looks like in the middle of the night while she's eating sort of half cold takeaway. I mean, that's just hard work. We appreciate the dedication, but I, I think we also can agree with the title of this slide here. It's probably not optimal to have your staff working in this way, where they're really like compromising a lot of their you know, their, their lifestyle in order to get stuff done. I think that's a, that's a really important thing to recognize, particularly in this kind of post pandemic kind of world where we've going to recognize that, you know the value of work and how that sort of interplays with the value of life is, is something we're all thinking about with a bit more depth. What are your thoughts on this? Michael?
Michael Ferranti (09:30):
Yeah, I mean, I, I look at, I look at this picture and I, I see someone who is so dedicated to the craft and to the company. I, I see even the little picture of what looks like a lion there from their child. I think we all have that. I mean, I'm in my home office, here's my daughter's squid. To ground you to know that look work isn't your whole life, but, but when you're passionate about it, it, it's really easy to do. And, and it becomes fun. I just, I, I, I just, it brings a lot of reminiscing from current and past people I've worked with. I just, you know, can't say enough about how important these champions of talent are for, for the industry and for someone like Ashley for us.
Hung Lee (10:22):
Yeah, I mean, it's one of those things that we can kind of admire and resonate with what this actor's doing, but at the same time, we can recognize, you know, what it would be awesome if we could kind of lose a little bit of this. And, and actually we want the higher value work. What are your thoughts on that aspect of things, Ashley? I mean, I guess this picture is telling what we want recruiters to do more of, which is interact with candidates, of course.
Ashley Dittberner (10:49):
Yeah. I think everything Michael said is completely true. I think we're so passionate that, that sometimes we can't disconnect. But to your point, too hung I, I think you do have to, and personal life does matter. And in preparing for this, it really made me think about my own personal life. And I'm a new mom of a one year old, and it just is really important for me to be present in those moments. So anything that I can do to, to help my work life, not have to be like that, I think is important. And then I can also strategize and think about other things within the organization that I can be doing on a daily basis too. So I, I agree that it shows the dedication, but truly we do wanna get back to more of the people part of it and really separating the personal from the professional life.
Hung Lee (11:39):
Yeah. And, and I think ultimately this is the kind of moving up the value chain. It's a bit of a cliche, but I think it is absolutely true. Particularly when you think about automation and where the, the future is going. If recruiters are doing you know, a lot of repetitive tasks we're actually spending a large amount of our time doing stuff that will probably be disintermediated by tech at some point. One thing that cannot be really automated, or at least is resilient against it, is obviously that human to human interaction which of course Regis will know all about. I mean, Regis are a business that is based on the human interaction in many respects. Might be actually a good moment for us to talk a little bit about what your business does, in case people might not know. So I wonder whether you could introduce the business a little bit and might, and Ashley and, and tell us about, you know, what kind of people are, are in the business and, and how recruiting works as a, as a, as a, as a dichotomy within within the business.
Michael Ferranti (12:41):
Sure. So just high level Regis corporation is, is a franchisor of more than 5,500 salons under a banner of, of multiple names. I think the most prominent ones are our largest are super cuts. We have just over 2000 smart styles, which are over 2000 in our, in, in Walmart stores. We have first choice in Canada, cost cutters you name it there, there's some 30 plus brands. And while we do have just over a hundred that we own as a, as an opco as a company own, the majority is, is franchise business. And why that's very different is, you know, our responsibility is to support our franchisees and in, in, in, in some cases, our customers to have the best experience. But our franchisees really own that, right? That's what we've licensed out to them. And then on Ashley's side, Ashley on the corporate side ensures not just with our a hundred or so salons, where we do have stylists and managers, but also our corporate headquarters that we have that salon support center, as we call it.
(13:54):
Also running as well. So, so this is a little bit of our business. On average, there's about four to six stylists for every salon based on turnover. We are hiring 10, 15, 20,000 stylists a year. And our main job here at Regis is to support our franchisees to fill the funnel with quality, with license stylists, which very different from other brands. They, they need to go through a degree process and licensure could take two years. So the competitive, the competitive nature for our industry is very different than say a restaurant chain where you can just experience enough would do, we need a licensed technical employee, and they're artists. That's what I love in, in, in a little bit different than some of the under industries.
Hung Lee (14:46):
Yeah. And that's actually a hidden quality, isn't it? As you say, it's not just a, a, a person with a, with a pair of shears. You know, these are the best people that the people that cut their hair best are the ones that have a little bit of FLA for their work and a passion for treating every customer as a, as a, as a project. Because obviously every customer is gonna be different in terms of the shape of their head, you know, the kind of style ahead they want, and so on. So there is artistry in this. And I can totally imagine if you're a franchisee, you wanna be establishing your own kind of sort of customer experience. And you know, what, what people put your own kind of imprint on what on what a customer might want if they walk into your particular salon. And I assume that that would mean that they're they're gonna take a, I'd be interested to know actually how, how, what is their recruiting process like, how do they identify what is a good or bad stylist? I mean, do they, is it, is there a trial? Is there a technical test, Michael, or how does it actually work?
Michael Ferranti (15:48):
Well, the way it should work for, for certain is look if you are not technical in nature, meaning you don't have a license, but you happen to own the salon or your franchisee, a you need to have a really good people underneath you, whether that be an above salon leader or a salon manager. Your salon manager is your eyes, your ears, your life blood into a perfect running salon from the culture to the profitability to who they recruit their everything. And that's no different than any other business. People leave, employ people leave employers cuz of their bosses. It's still the number one reason, right? And so franchisees will trust that this salon manager can either use a tool like Olivia or through Paradox or even a face to face interview. Yes, there is a technical component to make sure that past the licensure, they're able to effectively efficiently cut hair. But it's a challenge today. There are more establishments that, that need. There's, there's not enough supply there, there are more places and more demand than there is supply. And we are losing a lot of our stylists out of the industry as part of the great resignation and other reasons. So every single person we get, we need them and we need to keep them. So retention becomes equally as important as recruiting.
Hung Lee (17:21):
Yeah, very interesting. Ashley, I wonder whether you could speak to that a little bit. Because working corporate hq I guess there's some sort of work you've gotta think about in terms of, you know, how do we retain some of the people that we have and and, and make sure that we don't end up having to, you know, constantly recruit so many people to fill gaps in the, in the workforce?
Ashley Dittberner (17:44):
Yeah, I think it really starts with the recruiting experience from a a candidate perspective, the hiring manager perspective, and then the recruiter. If we can put the, the appropriate amount of time into those experiences for all those groups, I think it, it really starts an employee off on the right foot. And by using technology like this, it can give us more time to focus on things that matter, like the new higher orientation that we might conduct upon someone starting or following up after they've been with the organization for a certain amount of days, and making sure that the position that they're in is something that was the job they applied for, right? We don't, we don't want them to be pulled off track into a job that they maybe didn't, they didn't wanna work or be in or apply for. So I think it, it really matters across all experiences, but definitely the recruiter experience is the one that is oftentimes not appreciated and looked at and all of the work that does go into making sure candidates feel good about the process.
Hung Lee (18:52):
Yeah, very interesting. So, hang on, we've got some stats coming up on this screen, which I wanna just sit down on a little bit because maybe you two can help explain what these are, I think these EG stats, so correct me if I'm wrong, <laugh>, but let's have a look at some of this. So the first one we're talking about the average length of the recruiting process, 36 days. Now is this, is, is this where we're at now or is this something that was the case before? Can someone explain that number to to, to the audience here?
Ashley Dittberner (19:22):
So I actually think these are just general stats. These are not the Regis specific
Hung Lee (19:27):
Stats. Stats. These are Regis stats. Okay, interesting.
Ashley Dittberner (19:29):
Completely agree with all of these, and I can attest that I feel like I feel these stats every day. It's really interesting. The last one talks about candidates ghosting employers. I've experienced this almost, almost 10 times in the last like two weeks. Candidates just don't show up to interviews or they don't respond to interview requests. And it's really interesting that that happens. I, I have a hard time understanding why, why a candidate would do that and how we can reduce that happening. And I, I really feel like with the technology with AI and Olivia, that that would be reduced because it's so easy to just say, Hey, can you stop texting me or emailing me, or I need to cancel this interview. It's so easy to adjust an interview or cancel an interview. So I, I was really shocked when I saw that, but I can totally resonate that, that's actually happened to me a lot.
Hung Lee (20:26):
Do you know what? I've just had an idea. I think that sort of rejecting an automated bot might actually be easier for a candidate than having an interaction with the person because it kind of brings in the prospect of, of conflict, which, you know, I'm a conflict Abu. So, you know, if there's a, if there was a case where I was interviewing for you guys and you know, I decided I didn't wanna do it, then yeah, there'd be some temptation just to drop away <laugh> and say, I don't wanna have a fight with Ashley. Or have you come have you respond negatively if you like, with my desire to exit the process or try and something back. I think I just don't, don't need that. So I'm not, but if it was a bot where, you know, has no emotion, but I can absolutely update, say, Hey Olivia, I'm not interested.
(21:12):
Drop me from the process. That feels like completely doable to me. So it would be interesting to know whether actually paradox have any stats on this. I dunno whether they're able to whistle this up in short notice, but it would be interesting to know whether a candidate ghosting rate actually goes down on companies that have deployed some sort of chat interface. Because I think my intuition tells me it might well do. Okay, great. Let's, let's keep, keep moving. I think there's some stats coming up as we go through. So let's keep going through I think we're gonna be talking about the conversational interface in the moment, actually. So yeah, this is what it looks like. Now I know when conversational interfaces first emerged, there was a great deal of skepticism about, you know, do people, candidates want to talk to a bot truly want to talk to a human being rather than a bot.
(22:07):
Let's not de-humanize everything. What can we say about that? Because it seems that in particularly in franchise hiring on the franchisee side, this is a business that's been going around for centuries, cutting hairs, been around probably for longer than centuries, millennia, right? So this, we've always had to do it. So it seems to be one of those professions that's really been around so long that it feels inherently very, very human. Have you sort of experienced a scenario where some of the franchisees have rejected the idea of deploying technology at this point in the process? Why don't you give this one a shot, Michael?
Michael Ferranti (22:44):
Sure. look, technology at times can be very scary. And I feel we are a very simple business. Our, our, we make money off providing a service of cutting hair or color to, to a person. And so when you talk about AI and artificial intelligence, et cetera, that is probably the furthest thing someone thinks when they think of cutting hair. And so when we introduce paradox to our franchisees, our franchisees, we have nearly 600 franchisees, most of which runs one to three shops. So they don't have a lot of structure and, and expense. Sometimes even hiring a full-time recruiter, I would say most of the time that's not the case. And so everyone becomes a bit of a recruiter, but not everyone is great at recruiting, right? And so what Olivia allows you to do is give them an extra pair of hands.
(23:45):
And the great thing about Olivia is Olivia works 24 7 and she never gets tired, okay? And so these franchisees love the aspect that they get the extra pair of, of hands and support, but it is difficult for them to adopt something that basically schedules interviews at times and goes through a series of questions that you know, allows them to what should be efficiently schedule candidates in for an interview and a technical interview. But they're so used to human elements the way that that stylist used to get most of stylists actually join us for referrals. It's the old display, Hey, I love working here, you should come along. So they'd come in through the store, take a look at the salon, and if everything was good, they would start. This is the total opposite of that. So trying to get our franchisees over that technological hump is a process. But these stats are incredible. If we can get a person to speak to Olivia, 94 out of a hundred stylists will actually finish the conversation. That, that for me means the more I can get in that funnel, the more will drop down into that, that that screening completed. And I, I think that sta is staggering, and that's kudos to paradox to Ashley who helped build the questions that Olivia would ask. And we also work with our franchisees to make sure that we can be as efficient to our candidate as possible.
Hung Lee (25:24):
That's really interesting startup just seen there. And of course well let's sit on that a little bit because I'm, I'm interested to know how it actually works. Cause some of the folks sort of watching this may not have been aware of chat interfaces before. I've not seen sort of the from the candidate perspective how paradox works. So essentially what happens is you would create a set of questions that the, that you would imagine a franchisee would, would ask in any case during a cre a screen. And the candidate would see those questions asked by a bot on their mobile phone. They'd respond with the text reply or, or voice reply, I guess, or, or how does it work? I,
Michael Ferranti (26:08):
Yes, it, it, it can, it works a mead of ways, but for us, the most common would be through a text to apply. And because as you said, we, we find a lot of our stylists and our franchise stylists are living on Instagram, on TikTok, on Facebook. So if Olivia can sit there, and that's on us and our franchisees, and through paid search and recruitment marketing to get her there, once we get them it, it is, it's a 94% chance that they're gonna complete it. And those series of questions are basically are you licensed? Are you, are you legally entitled to work, et cetera, all of some basic ones. And then we can funnel them to directly to franchisees and the location they would like. We can auto suggest through geofencing as well.
Hung Lee (26:59):
I love it. I love it because there's a, there's a great for certain types of function. I'm sure there's a lot of qualification that recruiters have to do manually, or in your case, the franchisees would otherwise have to do manually. And and you imagine that scenario because that person's running a shop. They may even be cutting hair now and again they'll be doing all of this stuff and then they've gotta handle lock and flow. That's gotta be a disaster if they're doing it manually. So having some sort of screen is gonna be perfect. And, and from the, the high percentage completion rate, I assume this is pretty good candidate experience also, because one of the things that I've, I've, I've kind of that has emerged from chat interfaces is this 24 by seven availability, which suddenly means from the candidate perspective they don't have to be locked down to a time and a date prearranged to have a conversation with the franchisee. They can actually do this pre the, the interview with Olivia whenever they've got the time to do it in those gaps of time, you know, maybe they're commuting on the bus or something, or maybe they're just, you know, at home and they've got five minutes when the kids have just gone to sleep, they've got that time to just get the phone out and go through. So it, it allows the candidate flexibility as they, when they want complete. And guess what you know, the completion rates goes up as soon as you provide that.
Michael Ferranti (28:19):
Yep, exactly. Exactly.
Hung Lee (28:22):
Tell us what happens after that. So basically, I'm looking at the second second stat here. It says, okay the average time between candidates first engagement and first interview is two days. Is is the first interview the interview with Olivia, or how does this, how do you explain this?
Michael Ferranti (28:39):
It can work a couple different ways. I mean franchisees have the ability to customize bits of the, of the chat bot. They have the ability to customize auto scheduling of, of interviews as well. But as essence fits two days for me it is, is really a testament to the time that someone first engages with Olivia to the point that they're getting an interview scheduled on the books. And that could be a phone call that could be in person. It really just depends on how the franchisee determines they want to schedule it. If it's a technical interview, clearly that would have to be in person if it's a further phone screen because there's a, there's a fine line between asking too many questions in the screen. If you do that, you're 94 percent's gonna drop, right? So I think you just have to tease 'em just enough, give them just enough to get the qualifications to then try to seal the deal and get to know more about, about the candidate through that live interview.
Hung Lee (29:43):
What's the so the time commit is two minutes to do this. What is the number of questions? Do you have a, a rough idea what that number is? Michael,
Michael Ferranti (29:54):
I think we're, Ashley, what are you on the corporate side? How many questions?
Ashley Dittberner (29:58):
So aside from like your basic questions, like your name and your phone number we ask like two to four questions. And it could be anything ranging from do you have at least five years experience with blank? Are you a licensed stylist? It can be questions like that that relate back to the job so that at quick glance I can say, oh, this candidate answered all four as yes, like, that's awesome. I for sure wanna interview this person. Or if they answered no to everything, that might be my first instinct that maybe they're not the right fit for this, this position.
Hung Lee (30:33):
Yep, that's right. Is there an alter rejecting this? If they let check out that, you know, if there's no and everything, then we can say, okay, there's not the right thing. Does Olivia handle that sort of as another thing that she can do?
Ashley Dittberner (30:48):
Absolutely. And it is so helpful, especially when you are getting hundreds of candidates for one job, but we're maybe not getting the right candidate, right? We can set that up however we want it to look like. So if she, or if the candidate answers two of the four questions the way we want them to, she'll pass the candidate along to the recruiter to review. And if they don't, if the answer is zero for correctly, she will auto reject them and them for us so that we don't have to spend the time to review them manually.
Hung Lee (31:18):
Yeah. So I think, Michael, you gonna say something?
Michael Ferranti (31:21):
Yeah. That being said, on on the franchise side, what's neat is even someone who, let's say someone gets auto rejected due to they don't have their license, we can still have the right to reach out in the future because they may have their license. So we're creating a CRM of eligible candidates that are recruiter can then go back in and reassess that pool at a later date. And I think that's, that's the beauty of, maybe on the corporate side, if someone wasn't a culture fit, the likelihood of that in six months, them being a culture fit is, is probably slim to to none. But if someone just didn't meet the criteria because of a, a regulatory piece, or they have their license, they are still eligible forever and we need to take that data and Olivia packages it up for you for our franchisees, so we can use it to re email or text them at a later date, that is extremely powerful.
Hung Lee (32:20):
That's right, because you, you, Olivia, could deliver the, the rejection with that feedback to say, Hey, listen, you know, we can only take people, I've got this amount of experience or have achieved this sort of credential. Please let us know. You know, when you've if those things have happened and yeah, we're gonna drop back in on, on you in a six months time, see, see, see where you're at. And I think that's kind of a much better rejection cause it gives you some forward path rather than, you know, the standard generic, sorry, we found somebody else, which kind of gives you a brick wall and that's just generally an unpleasant experience. So okay, I think I've got a picture of how this works. So I'm a candidate I've discovered a job ad in some way, or someone's reached out to me, I chat with Olivia on the phone, basically go through some pre-selected phone screen questions effectively. If I'm out, I get this rejection message. If I'm in, what happens then there's some sort of second stage that needs to be arranged, I guess.
Ashley Dittberner (33:21):
Yeah. So this is where you can choose that auto scheduling feature that Olivia has. So if you do meet all the criteria, it can automatically, Olivia can automatically scan my calendar for available interview time and send the candidate multiple options. So the candidate's getting a response almost immediately saying, great, like, we would really like to move you to the next stage. Here are three times. Like, let us know what works for you. And so I don't have to go through the steps of reviewing my calendar, sending them options, she's doing that for me, which eliminates so much unnecessary administrative work and or keeping the candidate engaged, which is wonderful.
Hung Lee (34:01):
I was gonna say, are you, are you saying you no longer have to chase candidates for availability? Olivia <laugh> mm-hmm. <Affirmative>, I mean, it's been a long time since I've last done any recruiting, but I do recall that being one of the worst parts of the job, it just seems so fundamentally pointless. Especially if there's more than one person involved, right? Because mm-hmm. <Affirmative>, you know, recruiters recruiter can, that's hard enough, but suddenly a hiring manager, unless there's a three person interview, you know, you have a three body problem there, all three people have got moving diaries, you can't fix the time. By the time you fix the time with one person, the other person's calendar is shifted and it messes everything up. So yeah, it's great that Olivia has that type of tool. I wonder folks, whether you actually have any kinda scheduler that helps you.
(34:50):
You know, we've seen some interesting stuff going on with things like on the consumer side. What's happening on the recruiting side, I'm not sure what's going on there. So are you using any kind of tool which helps you deal with the interview logistics? Cause I think if not, that's like 20% of your time. That's a huge amount of work, simply chasing folks around. So yeah, we'll move on to a different slide here. And I think it's, it kind of shows a little bit about, you know, if you can reduce your administrative side of hiring work, which by the way is the stuff that will get this intermediated then we can move on to the higher impact stuff. Which is I think probably the, the higher quality work in terms of job interest. And, you know, the things that kind of make us a little bit more valuable to business, particularly, you know, can we spend more time with hiring managers and do you know, coaching, influencing education how do we work to attract that elite talent?
(35:49):
You know, we're talking about okay, high volume stuff, but what if there's some sort of hero stylist out there <laugh> that you know, you know, would make the difference to a particular salon if they arrive? How do you attract that person? And of course, diversity, you know, how do we make sure we know that sort of a commitment to diversity includes commitment of time. You know, if you have a time pressured recruiting function I assure you you're gonna compromise on a number of things and diversity's probably one of those things. So if you can reduce the assessment load, sort of the administrative load, can you then increase the capacity to recruit on diversity side? So there's lots of interesting and valuable reasons why we wanna do this. So I wonder whether you two could tell us a little bit more about how you've applied that extra time.
(36:39):
Because one of the, one of the risks I think in recruiting is that it, it is one of those job functions that can never end in the sense that there's always more candidates to acquire, you know, what is enough in, in the funnel, you know, there's always another person that you can bring in there which sometimes can be counterproductive because there's other higher value stuff you can do. Can you too, tell us a little bit about how you've reallocated some of the save time and what kinda outcomes has that produced for for the business?
Ashley Dittberner (37:10):
Yeah, I can take that from a corporate standpoint. I mean, it's, it's been incredible to be able to be more strategic. And like I kind of said in the beginning of the call, I'm not just recruiting that my, my job is all HR functions, and so I can really focus a lot more time to those different functions by developing our managers working on strategic projects or projects that really impact the business. Even more recruiting type of a scope of work so we can analyze turnover, data and brainstorm how we can do better even in the talent area. So I think it's just been really awesome to have extra time because of something so simple, but wonderful to give back to those other areas.
Hung Lee (38:01):
Yeah, I, I think some of the administrative stuff in recruiting, they're, they're problems that we never knew there were problems because we, we never imagined there would be a solution to 'em. Right? you know, I I remember back in my day, sorry again, back to, you know, the Jurassic and all the rest of it, but you know, we just accepted we have to spend ages having to do interview logistics, <laugh> you, of course it'll take you hours to sort this interview out, but you can take that off your plate with some sort of automation technology. So, super interesting. Michael, I wonder whether sort of for that, for the franchise, these are adopted paradox and, and Olivia have you been able to identify any kind of real world impacts on their business? What have they told you that's happened as a result of their being able to use this type of their software?
Michael Ferranti (38:51):
Yeah, they, it's funny. For those that are ultra successful, it's freed up more time to find more stylists. I know sometimes it's a quality pe it's always quality, but sometimes it is volume. And right now in our business as it's evolving if you have eight chairs in a salon and there's currently two people, two stylists filled, and you use your time and Olivia to get you two more, you're still for short. Okay? And so what this allows them to do is bring additional stylists into the salon, create that culture of success, bring potentially allow them to grow, right? So if you don't have stylists, you, you can't grow and expand as well. This allows them to, to boost their sales, their profitability, think about additional benefits they can give their stylists, which is huge in an hourly population or commission based structure.
(39:52):
So we're all sort of fighting for the same candidates in our industry. And franchisees who utilize a solution like this to free up and generate more revenue allows them to give back to their existing stylist, which improves the culture. It actually improves the retention, creates that atmosphere they wanna work in. But if not, literally we have a lot of franchisees just trying to keep their head above water on the recruitment side, and it's getting them to adopt some of these technologies that are a little bit against the grain in a people-centric model. But again, we're just saying, just start with it. Just try it. And whether it's your franchisee, your hr, your recruiter, or you're the owner using it themselves, which many of them do, give it a shot and get it, get it to become efficient and, and, and have Olivia work for you. For those who do it, it it works really well.
Hung Lee (40:56):
Yeah, it's really interesting to think about the economics of running a salon. You know when you have sort of I mean, the visualization is obvious. There is literally an MTC that's money not being spent. That's also worse customer experience because you have a longer queue that's waiting for this person cutting hair. And presumably if you overworked your existing stylist, the haircuts are gonna get worse, <laugh> because that person is gonna be overly loaded. So a a vicious circle might develop there. So I can totally understand, and I'm now recalling times when, you know, I remember going to a busy salon, it just feels like everyone is more motivated, everyone, the atmosphere is better. The, the, the experience is more pleasant. You're spending less time waiting, getting a better haircut, and you're just having a more you know, convivial experience with a person cutting your hair.
(41:49):
So all kinds of downstream effects is simply by, you know, being more efficient on recruiting people. So mm-hmm. <Affirmative>, very interesting indeed. So let's move on. I think we've got some, maybe some questions to deal with from the crowd. We, we wanna do a bit of q and a. So it's important that we we handle those also. Let's see whether we can get to those questions. I wanna see whether I can actually see them. Here we go folks, if you have any questions for any of the panelists, whether it is about using technology, whether it's about recruiting efficiency whether it is about you know, managing a business of this type and then fire 'em into the ask a question section cuz we're gonna head to to that now. Okay. let's let's see, the first question here. So Tyler's asked the question sort of with regards to kindly ghosting. Have you seen it getting worse since the start of the great resignation? I think we can say yes to that, but to add to the question as an addendum, why do you think that's the case? And what are we gonna, what should we be doing about that? Ashley, I wonder whether you could kick us off cause that's kind of continuing the conversation that we had a couple of minutes ago.
Ashley Dittberner (43:06):
Yeah, I, I definitely think it's gotten worse. Excuse me, I I'm not even sure I've experienced it in even the last few years, but I, I just think there's so many jobs right now too that people can apply for, and if something's more interesting, they're just going to move on. And it, it is important that we get to these candidates as soon as possible. So by using Olivia, we can hopefully help reduce the amount of time it takes to schedule an interview to make sure that they stay engaged. But it, it's still something that we are struggling with and that we're seeing, so we still need to make sure that we find a solution to that problem.
Hung Lee (43:51):
Yeah, I think Tyler, just to respond to you on this I think it is absolutely a kind of an industry-wide phenomenon, only sort of a particular country. I think it's every country a candidate have elevated expectations. I think everyone has had that from, you know, when KO first came around, so maybe revisiting their, their demands a much larger demand flexibility, increase sort compensation requirements lots of things that we're competing with here as well as of course kind of a reduction of the labor force. You know, we've actually, you know, we know immigration is being reduced. We also know there's a lot of long term sick there's, there's unfortunately been, you know, quite a lot of people have, have passed away as a, as a result of pandemic and associated issues. You know, stress on the healthcare sector downstream means a lot of folks have not been able to be seen in the, the time that they needed to.
(44:52):
So there's a lot of issues that have really reduced the the population or that may potentially be interested in this. So very interesting challenges for us all to deal with. Let's move on to the next question. We've got to hear from Jack Diamond. Jack Demond. Jack's asking, are you seeing a difference with how to approach hiring for younger generations? So in other words, it'll be interesting to know whether there's any kind of demographic data in terms of how people interact with someone like Olivia, for instance. Do Gen Z react better or worse? Do men react better, the worse than women compared to, you know, how, how that interface works? Do you have any of that data? Or if not, you know, how does it, how does it work outside of that automation? Particularly hiring for younger folks? Michael, any thoughts on this?
Michael Ferranti (45:42):
Yeah, you know, from, take from a bit on the franchise side, the majority of our stylists that we hire are coming out of beauty school. And just by sheer nature, you're, you're in beauty school at, you know, 17, 18 years to your mid twenties, let's say. And we know that generationally, if we're going to be hiring stylists or potential stylists out of that, that age we need to make sure that we go where they live and they interact. And that's what I mentioned before. We can't go on ind sorry, on LinkedIn. We can't use, you know, Facebook's already antiquated from this perspective. We need to go where candidates, especially stylists coming outta beauty school, it's not that they're looking for a job. In fact, we know as an example, stylists don't look for a job, most of them until they're two months to graduation or three months after graduation.
(46:45):
What they're, they're looking, they're reading reviews on Google, they're on Yelp, they're looking at Instagram, Facebook and TikTok following different followers, influencers. And if you happen to be there and say, Hey, super cut, smart style, Regis can offer you some best in class training, you might capture them. And so speed of hire for this generation, it ties into that last question. The most important thing right now is you need to be where they interact. And it may not be where they're looking for a job, just where they're interacting socially. And then once you get them, you need to speed to hire them very quick. That two days you saw before needs to be two hours <laugh>, <laugh>, you know? Yep. That's cutting that down as small as possible is how we will have a competitive advantage. Without that, there is no competitive advantage. You're, you're, you know, competitors have the have can do the same thing.
Hung Lee (47:44):
You know what, that's such a great point Michael, because recruiters are sadly fixated on LinkedIn. I mean we, we're the only people on of the LinkedIn user base that opens LinkedIn every day. And because of that we think it's ubiquitous, but actually no, as like vast amounts of people never, never use it. And, and of the 400 million profiles they have, I assure you a lot of people have signed up for a profile cause they thought they should but then they've never logged in again. Cuz it's not relevant to their career path. And you can imagine actually a stylist being one of those career paths where LinkedIn, this is not where it's at. So where would you go? Obviously, you know, Instagram is obvious, isn't it? Tiktok, Instagram that is a visual medium, short video, medium actually I'm following a few of these folks on on, on TikTok.
(48:38):
It's interesting to see them cut hair and talk, talk through it. So that type of ed is an example of what you have to do, I think, to attract our audience. So to try and answer the question supplement that answer. Jack, it is about sort of thinking about what is the core audience doing outside of job search? Where are they spending their time and can you build some sort of presence there? Because that will help you build the brand and maybe even start some conversations that can really help you you know, bring those people into pipeline, pipeline. Okay, cool. Let's keep going. Or here's another question. What's the biggest challenge you are dealing with on the corporate side? So this one's going to Ashley. So remember folks two types of recruiting going on with Regis franchisee side, which you might will talk about, but also hiring on the corporate side. Ashley, what are the biggest things on your plate right now?
Ashley Dittberner (49:33):
Yeah, I, this question is really interesting. I think one of the biggest challenges is that Regis is a smaller company from a corporate standpoint. Like we're not a Google, we're not those larger organizations. And so we have to be really strategic with how we can provide benefits that, that are meaningful to people and to candidates that are looking for a job. So I think we just have to be really mindful of trying to sell ourselves in a way that's going to fit with the person that's applying. For instance, we have different benefits like unlimited PTL or flexible scheduling. We're hiring a ton of remote workers right now because that's the, the type of environment that we're in and we're allowed to do that, and we can do that with all the technology that we have. So I would say that has been the biggest challenge that we've been working through, is how can we be more flexible with what we offer as an employer and how can we market ourselves as a smaller employer to attract top talent.
Hung Lee (50:37):
Yeah, very interesting. Very, very good. Okay folks, I think we're coming towards the end of our conversation. So let me just take a moment and say thank you all for watching this this webinar. It's been really fascinating learning about this organization. It's always fascinating to, to have conversations with people working for businesses that I don't have direct experience in. I'm never gonna look at a salon differently sort of the same way, should I say again. And it's probably worth a deep dive to figure out exactly, you know, what how, how this operates. And, you know, I can imagine some of the personalities that have to be dealt with when you, you're working in a franchise model. So let me leave Michael and Ashley with a final word. If you could give one piece of advice to recruiters watching this in terms of how do you elevate recruiter experience and how you make sure that they're motivated and doing the right things what would that piece of advice be? Michael, do you wanna take this off of that?
Michael Ferranti (51:37):
Sure. You know, the one, one piece of advice for me is, you know, as a leader of an organization I said it earlier, not just a recruiter, you're the passion, the soul, the fire, the spark and that ambassador of of culture, it's much bigger. As you know, the famous culture, each strategy, the, the eyes and ears showing that passion and living that every day, the amount of value that person will add to a company is far greater than the profit or bottom line. If you, if you continue with that culture piece and that passion, that fire in the belly, it will lead to profitability. I always say that, right? It's not the other way around. It's not financial engineering people centric, passionate, keep your head up. It is only gonna get more challenging. But leaders we appreciate, you know, champions of talent, we need them lost without them.
Hung Lee (52:36):
Yeah, absolutely. And folks grab that video, I'm sure the guys at Paradox will send it all over to you. Have a rewatch of that and if you think someone needs to see it, please do send it on to them. Ashley, let's go to you. The final word one piece of advice to the viewing public.
Ashley Dittberner (52:52):
Yeah. I, I would say that be open to new technology. I know this is kind of going back to previous conversation, but like the franchisees, I was even hesitant to use Olivia and I didn't wanna lose the people aspect of my job of recruiting. And I was worried that that candidates wouldn't want to interact with technology and they wanted that, but it has it, it's not that, it's not about removing that people part, it's just about utilizing technology to make your job easier and that you can do more meaningful work. And so to be open-minded about it and really try to be strategic with how technology can help you and help your organization.
Hung Lee (53:35):
Yeah. and on that note folks perfect way to end this webinar. Thank you all for watching. Thank you Ashley and Michael for joining this this wonderful conversation. We're gonna keep going with the champions of talent because there's a couple of more of these we're gonna do. And hopefully this will become something of a movement where we can start kind of changing the image of the industry somewhat. Let's kind of uncover what recruiters actually do and understand why it's important for us to you know, prioritize our own experience a little bit. Because it's impossible, I think to do a great recruiting job if we're not kind of motivated and doing the right kind of work. So the next sort of webinar is going to be on the 10th of November, so look out for that. The folks at par will send you an an email to follow up to say I joined that webinar. And, and yeah, like I say, and I do watch that video again. It's pretty awesome. Thank you very much everyone.
Ashley Dittberner (54:35):
Bye bye. Thank you.