Josh Secrest (00:00:05):

Cool. All right. Well, let's rock and roll. Courtney, you ready to get started? I'm very excited. Yeah. All right. Let's do this thing. Let's do it. <Laugh>. Oh, thank you so much for, for joining. This is gonna be an hour webinar. Just so excited about the, the, the content we're gonna hear from Courtney about how Southern Rock was able to kind of totally transform their hiring process within their, their restaurants. You kind of see on the screen, I mean, they, they've saved a lot of money, but I think there are also just some really amazing parts of their story about how they've tweaked and refined to also help drive drive business results. So just really excited to be able to, to pick, pick Courtney's brain, maybe just as like an overall and, and kind of welcome here.

(00:00:52):

I'm Joshua Secrest. I'm our Vice President of Marketing and client advocacy at Paradox. And prior to joining, paradox was the head of global talent acquisition and talent strategy at McDonald's where we were able to, to bring paradox in and, and, and really transform how we were doing hiring within, within our restaurant teams. We have that in over 18,000 restaurants in McDonald's now. So really proud to be able to, to see how that team continues to, to innovate and evolve. So obviously a topic really close to, to my heart, we're gonna geek out quite a bit on, on restaurant hiring. But any of you who aren't in the restaurant space and are doing frontline hiring, I think this is gonna be a, a really great webinar. I'm learning a ton as I've been picking Courtney's brain. You have someone who's a practitioner who also brings a very different innovative mindset to the table, and she's been able to come up with some tips, tricks, and frankly hacks to, to really improve the restaurant process.

(00:01:51):

So we're gonna talk about some of the hiring challenges that Courtney was up against, what probably a lot of you are up against some of the amazing Southern Rock results. We won't wait for the end to get to those. 'cause I think that could prompt some great questions from all of you. Some of these tips and tricks and kind of the ab testing that Courtney's tried some things, worked, some things didn't work, and, and she's been really transparent about that. And then I think for all of us the financial impact, what, what she's been able to see at Southern Rock but then also kind of how she's been able to kind of frame that back to our organizations so that it's not just about hiring faster, it's about being able to, to drive business results. So I think it's been a great, great conversation.

(00:02:32):

Please throw any questions you have in the, the chat. This is gonna be casual and, and free flowing. We're gonna get through some of our content, but we're gonna leave some time at the end to be able to answer a lot of those, those questions and, and always follow up with Courtney or myself after this. Happy to, happy to answer any of these questions. So maybe with that you know, Courtney, give us, give us a little bit of your background. I mentioned that you kinda have been able to have a really cool career before Southern Rock, and then we'd love to hear a little bit about Southern Rock for maybe those who, who don't know it well.

Courtney Dempsey (00:03:05):

Yes. I cannot wait to talk about Southern Rock. I have a little twisty turny past. I do not have a recruitment background, so that's spoiler alert number one. I started in the hotel business back in 1997, working as a sales and catering coordinator for Marriott. And I kind of grew up with Marriott, so I fell in love with forecasting and charting and trying to do analytics. That's what started my love of analytics was working for Marriott. The good old days of forecasting on paper, if anybody's on here that remembers that, that's how I was brought up. <Laugh>, I worked for a couple different concepts as well. Westin and Hard Rock Hotel. And then that brought me into the restaurant side. So I had lunch at Smith Wilensky, fell in love with Smith Wilensky and wound up being their catering sales manager at that time.

(00:03:57):

And then I worked for the Signature Room group. So I'm from Chicago. If people are on here recognizing these brands, I grew up in Chicago, worked for the Signature Room group, which opened a concept in Tampa, Florida. So I moved to Tampa, Florida with the Signature Room Group. That, unfortunately that restaurant did not work out in that space, but I fell in love with a different group called Channel Side Management Group. And they had stumps, Tina Tofa, Splitsville, multi concept multiunit. So I became their director of marketing at that time. At which point my clients were the N F L, the M L B and some other, I mean, Republican national convention, for instance, and the Tampa Bay Visitors and Bureau and all that fun stuff. So I have a, a weird and wonky windy passed. And then got pregnant <laugh>, and then my husband had to transfer to Nashville. So then I had to take a 12 year hiatus and living here in Ni Nashville. Kind of dabbled in a few different things, kept my toes in the water. Got to meet my incredible boss and partner Carrie Spencer, who is our director of marketing and Digital activation. And she's like, Hey, we're looking for somebody to work for Southern Rock. And I immediately said, okay, great. I'm ready to jump back into the workforce. And that's what brought me to Southern Rock.

Josh Secrest (00:05:21):

It's such a, it's such an amazing story. I think we'll probably tie back to your, your profile as we go through here, because it's like the numbers background, the marketing background, the hospitality background. I mean, like how you deployed all those as you kind of were up against some like massive challenges about thinking about hiring within this space. Correct. Just kind of how those lines all connect. Maybe, maybe give us a little bit on, on Southern Rock. How many restaurants are, are all of you kinda, how, how big, what space do you play in?

Courtney Dempsey (00:05:53):

Well, first I have to give credit credit's due. None of this ever happen without David Blackburn, who's the most incredible c e o of southern rock restaurants. I fell in love with David before I fell in love with the company. He is the most incredible person out there. He is so forward thinking very engaged with his employees and really wants the employee to succeed. And looking back, when I first interviewed with David after Carrie Green-lighted that process with me, she's like, you, you know, she took a little time off, but she, she's pretty sharp. She knows what he's, she's doing. David said, I look for three attributes, attitude, aptitude, and desire. I'm like, well, I'm your girl. So that, that tells you the kind of person that he is. And he took a chance on me. And and now here we are and I'm, I'm forever grateful.

(00:06:42):

We're the largest licensed franchisee of McAllister's Deli. And if you haven't been to McAllister's or if you don't have one nearby, you have got to go. We have incredible clubs, incredible team, and that's what we're known for. We have 150 restaurants currently and growing, and not many people can say that in this day and age. So David thought about this a couple years back. He's probably the smartest man I know in this industry, and I've worked for quite a few people in this industry. His forward thinking and his visions has set us apart from any other concept, in my opinion. And I've worked for a few.

Josh Secrest (00:07:20):

Well, and, and we'll kind of get to see it. I mean, just how much you and your, your team and, and some of your, your partners there have been able to innovate and try some different things. And I think that's just, that's, so Im important, I think within this industry. It's like not one size fits all in terms of, of what's working. I, I'm gonna give just maybe a, a a little bit here. And then I, I wanna I wanna hear from you on, on kind of what you were, you were seeing in the, the labor market. But I think for, for all of us right now, we're, you know, the, this, the struggle can be real. It's, it's pretty challenging out there if you're in the restaurant industry. I think this is really an interesting stat that came out from the, the latest state of the industry report where 62% of, of restaurants understaffed and essentially how the owner operators and, and, and restaurant groups qualify.

(00:08:11):

That was, we, we we're not staffed enough to meet consumer demand. So it's actually, we're not staffed enough to optimize revenue that's coming in. We're seeing, you know, really this like labor demand surpass labor supply. I mean, that's really happened just before covid and now, now after, so essentially more jobs than there is workforce right now, based off of most recent labor statistics. The 3.6 unemployment means there's almost a four, 4 million person like gap within the us and then we're, we're kind of all competing, right? You know, if, if you look at in Indeed and you all can get your numbers from them you know, when someone's applying to a job, we're seeing that they're applying to 15 jobs at the exact same time. So it's super competitive. I think the frame, Courtney, you and I have always talked about is this like, wow, well, as soon as you get an application, you almost have to assume or think you're competing against, you know, 14 other employers <laugh>. As soon as you get that application and it, it kind of just reiterates how, how fast you have to be. Courtney, what, what were you seeing kind of before this transformation or, or currently, what were some of the, the, the challenges,

Courtney Dempsey (00:09:22):

The, the lack of ability to reach out to a volume of applicants that we needed at that time. Right. prior to the paradox integration within our system, we kicked it old school like many other people did. And did, you know, boots on the ground handing out applications or through Indeed. So it just, it was just a significant waste of time on the part of the operators, right? So the recruiter is only able to make as many phone calls as that person can in that given day, but the burden was really placed heavily on the operator at that time, which in turn took time off the floor being able to do what they're supposed to do. So that's definitely a, you know, a hurdle. I think many people are still facing that. And without working with a system that you can currently work with way too much money on ad spend just constantly feeling the need to be out there and ranking up and, you know, pitting yourself against other people within your competitive space, not really taking the time because you're so urgent in the need of hiring that your hourly rates are all across the board.

(00:10:34):

Nothing really made any sense at that point, but, but there's such an emergent need to hire that you were willing to pay two to three times more than you should have been in that space, which in my opinion, I think is driving the rate across the board right now. It's just that constant sense of urgency within that space. So when I took this over, I said, no, we're starting from ground zero. We're, we're gonna build this process that's gonna work best for our company, protect the revenue for our company, and increase the applicants and the quality of the applicants that we're about to receive and take the burden off the operators, which was the most important thing in the process.

Josh Secrest (00:11:20):

I'll, I'll pause, but on these like first two, 'cause I think they're really interesting. When you look at probably a lot of us who've been in the space, you know, for a couple of decades now, it's like, well, even five or seven years ago, if you were having hiring challenges in Frontline, if you're having hiring challenges in Frontline, like the two levers you could pull was like, throw more manager hours at it or build up a, a, a large centralized recruiting team or spend a lot on, on Indeed. Like, you almost just didn't have other levers to be able to pull. So it's interesting kind of how your, your experience, like how you're getting to, to play here on those two levers because you're being able to play with tech and, and like what that's enabling you to do. You, you talked about like the the Gen Z market and some of our conversations. Why is that important for you within, within McAllister's? What are you seeing kind of from like the demographic that's applying to your restaurants?

Courtney Dempsey (00:12:22):

We are actually getting a lot more Gen Zs within our space due to our ad placement and verbiage, and we can talk about that here in a little bit. For me, that was my personal goal within the last year, recognizing that there was a gap, a significant age gap. So you have the lifers which air in the space, that this is what their career was from the get, and this is what they're familiar with. And then you have the millennials, the in-betweens that were not necessarily introduced to hospitality and or restaurant in the beginning because they couldn't with school and everything else. We have an entire gap, a generational gap right now that we're kind of circling back to. But we found what with the Gen Zers is what they want, they want now, right? They don't want to wait. Everything is now, it needs to be in the immediate. And we have to accommodate that entire new group of applicants in order to have sustainable hourly employees for the future because those that are the lifers are gonna cycle out. And then we have a gap. Now we really need to focus on this next generation coming up, but for me is how is I going to sell this our company to this particular demographic in order to maintain the level of applicants that we have to date?

Josh Secrest (00:13:46):

It's really cool as we go through, 'cause I know you're gonna get to show everyone your, I mean, process in specifics which I think is

Courtney Dempsey (00:13:53):

Great. Not too specific,

Josh Secrest (00:13:54):

But not, but not too specific. But I think it's great 'cause we've got some people who use Paradox on the call that I think are gonna learn even more from you. And then I think we've got some, some just, you know, people that are curious kind of within conversational ai, AI or, or leveraging technology in the space. And I, I think, you know, as you're able to keep tying it back to, you know, either Gen Z or just a, a more inclusive experience for, for more people to apply. Okay, we have to hit on this last one before we dive in because they're gonna get to see a lot of data metrics or at least kind of get to hear how you were kind of talking about improving, I guess, what was that like when you first entered this position? What kind of data and metrics were there?

Courtney Dempsey (00:14:37):

We had nothing. So we had 20 stores that were in beta when I came on board with Southern Rock, and I'm like, this is the perfect time. So we don't have any analytics. So I reached out to, I call my bestie at Paradox Crystal, who is my client success manager. And I'm like, listen, here's what I want. I am a data-driven gal. I live for numbers. I need to see, and I need to also create historical data. So this time next year I can monitor and track and further evaluate where we need to pivot at any given point in time. So we've created an entirely new dashboard, and they call it, you know, the queen of dashboard, which is fine. But I have a lot going on. And so I have a, a project within a project within a project constantly evolving to make sure that we're adaptive in the space that we're in right now.

Josh Secrest (00:15:31):

Yeah. Oh, it is. It's it's so much a part of the story that you're kind of telling too, of just like you all wanted to transform, but you, you wanted to make sure that you were transforming in ways that actually helped and delivered on the business. And shout out to Crystal, like, that's pretty, pretty amazing. It's, it's kind of one of the paradoxes for us, right? Is that like, we want people spending less time with software, more time with people. And we focus a lot on our, our client success team to make sure that our, our clients are really, really supported in that, that process. We, we have all been like geeking out over your numbers. Honestly, not even just from a, like, hey, from a paradox standpoint, we're, we're, we're proud that we got to, to help support in some of this.

(00:16:19):

But I think just in general, you before and after is really unique, I think inspirational motivating for people within kind of this frontline space because it's can sometimes feel really impossible regardless of the tech you use. It can just sometimes feel like we're up against so much. Can you go maybe across your, like before in some of these like metrics that you were starting to look at, and then, we'll, we'll kind of do this on veil. So I think just some of your numbers are eye popping of what you're seeing right now.

Courtney Dempsey (00:16:50):

And these are validated numbers. 'cause I know they're a little, it looks like they're inflated. There's no way to inflate numbers. Numbers don't lie, which is, that's my go to. We, I, I think we, we were in the same struggle that everybody else was or currently is. In this time. It is the time to hire. You don't have time to interview an applicant, so it could take up to 10 days, but at that point, that applicant's long gone. So again, it goes back to the immediate. So we have to be more, we had to become more proficient in what it was that we were doing to accommodate the needs of the applicant because it's urgent to the applicant at that point where it may not be urgent to us, or we don't have time or afforded time to do it. Due to being understaffed we ran about a 72% and we had about 250 applicants on the weekly.

(00:17:35):

And the, the, the expenditure just to maintain at that point was close to 900,000. And that was real-time numbers. Once again, going back to the fact that you felt like we had to keep boosting the ad for prominence in order to keep, you know, garnering more applicants. Contrary to that theory that you, that does, you do not need to do that. It's your placement and timing will get down to that at a later date. And then the retention, you know, super high attrition very high turnover rates because of being so taxed, right? So the burden again, fell on the operator. So then we took that burden off the operator, and that would be the next slide.

Josh Secrest (00:18:22):

Yeah, it's, it is such an interesting part of that, right? When we ask our managers to hire more, it's when we're understaffed and it's when they're having to take on more already, right? Like right, we all see it in the restaurants. It's like that's when they're stepping up to the cash register. That's where they're taking orders at the drive through, but then they also have to do hiring, which kind of, until fairly recently just felt heavy. And you do see this when there's, when there's turnover and understaffing within retail, restaurants, hospitality you know, across a lot of different industries, you actually see manager turnover go up because it's essentially they're not getting to do, do the job that, that they signed up to do. Okay. So we'll do the unveil here. We're very purposefully not waiting to the end because I think there's some really cool data points for you all to kind of like, dig into here with, with with Courtney. So maybe walk through some of these and, and a little bit of the story behind 'em. And then I'm, I'm gonna make sure that we kind of go into each, each one as we go through your process.

Courtney Dempsey (00:19:25):

So I'm most excited about the one less than one and a half days to hire. And Josh, you and I discussed this, we're currently, if we're at Capture to hire is 36 hours or less. So my goal is to do less than 36 hours, right? Again, targeting the Gen Zs, they want it now. So we have to accommodate the now. So I would like to bring that lower than one and a half days. And again, this is all transformational because of conversational ai. So this is where Paradox has really, I think, completely flipped the script in the whole hiring space. To date, we have zero stores that are in dire need because we will have an applicant bank that we're able to fall back on. And, you know, I can discuss that later. I average between twenty five hundred and twenty nine hundred applicants a week. That's also a data point for me.

(00:20:19):

So I know that if I fall below that, I have to shift or follow the shift as to why we fall below those numbers. So again, historical tracking and data, and I'm able to pivot in real time with real numbers if that happens. Currently we're on track to spend about 60,000. It's gonna be less, I can promise you it's gonna be less <laugh> because of the transformational stuff that we're doing in the background currently and moving forward. So that's gonna be changing as well. And manager turnover, like less than nothing but happy managers and happy area directors and happy directors of operation. A hundred percent.

Josh Secrest (00:21:01):

It's, it's it's neat to see the data lined up in this way because I think sometimes brain jump to like, oh, well, it's if you're automated and moving fast what sacrifices am I gonna have on, on quality? And within frontline and, and managers, I mean, one of the pieces is obviously you know, a metrics gonna be our, our retention and if we're actually getting to meet more people, which I think you're, you're proving we're you're meeting more people, you're, it allows for you to be more selective on who you're, you're bringing in. And ultimately that's allowing for you to, to hire the right managers, the right team members and you're, you're lowering lowering that turnover. So it's just, it's kind of a neat tie in here of like, you're not only moving fast and spending less, but as I think we'll all kind of see, you've actually warmed up the candidate experience.

(00:21:54):

It actually feels more human. You're spending more time actually with candidates at, at the right times in the process, and then you're, you're actually improving retention results. So it's just, it's so, so cool kind of within this, this, this one page. And then maybe my other comment is this, like, one and a half days felt so impossible, five year, like, so impossible. And part of that's like, you need a 24 or seven like hiring machine or hiring system to be able to do that because you've got over 30% of applicants usually coming in after hours, and you need to be able to pounce on those. And I think, you know, frankly, I'd be, I, I would be intimidated a little bit to be in, in your markets because it's like back of that number of applicants that come in through Indeed, you know, if, if, if you're competing against 14 other folks, if you're able to not only get them applied screened and then scheduled, but you're actually putting offers in hand, getting 'em started in a day and a half, it's like how many more people you're getting to like, see and hire.

(00:22:56):

I mean, you're really kind of getting first dibs here. So let's,

Courtney Dempsey (00:23:00):

So perspective wise, we started 1200 people on the dashboard when I took this over. And I'm currently sitting at 82,000. That just speaks to the volume that we're at right now. 82,000 applicants.

Josh Secrest (00:23:13):

82,000. Well okay, so this is a good part then. Like, give us the, the tips and tricks that you're, you're seeing here. You know, I, I think a, a big part of this is where you made it easy on your managers, where you kind of did some ab testing to find some things. So, so maybe, maybe kick us off here. How does a job get opened?

Courtney Dempsey (00:23:37):

So initially it was, we have built on the platform. We have every single job that we have to offer an applicant within the store, like cooks line, cooks shift lead, you name it. It just became so overwhelming that one person would apply to be a, a dishwasher, for instance, or, you know what, I scratched all that. I'm like, you know what, we're gonna make this easy on the operator and it's on the operator to determine what he or she's needs are in that immediate. So we eliminated all that, and now we just have a team member. So once the team member applies for the job through Indeed, or through our company site, it's instantaneous. So our Olivia is named Savannah. So Savannah, we'll start with like, hi, what's your name? You know, and they, they fill out the information. So right now we're cultivating information in, in the form of an application.

(00:24:33):

The applicant thinks it's speaking to a recruiter in real time. This is where the conversational piece comes into play, start to finish. It takes less than four minutes. So then they'll be like, what job are you interested in at x, Y, Z location? What hours are you interested in working? Do you have any, you know, experience? So that goes back to our knockout questions that we had in the beginning. So we started with six way too many, and now we're down to three again to keep the applicant engaged. Because if you go after six knockout questions, before you even start what position you're in, you've already lost the applicant. So again, further reduction in time they're able to fill out their information, request the date from that store, that calendar will populate onto the applicant's phone or their desktop. But 95% of our applicants are mobile users.

(00:25:28):

So they'll be given three different options. One, two, and three. The first three available times on that store is app desktop calendar. And if that doesn't work, they're able to access a calendar. So the, the applicant is in charge of their own timing, again, respect to the applicant and the applicant's time. So that is keeping them engaged, they're able to determine what day they wanna come in. It populates onto the store's calendar, and then that part is done. The best part about this whole process is the continued engagement. We send out a reminder through Savannah and then an hour long reminder be like, your interview is in one hour. And then at that point, if they have to reschedule, they're able to reschedule. But start to finish is less than four minutes.

Josh Secrest (00:26:18):

Start to finish is less than four minutes. That's

Courtney Dempsey (00:26:20):

Incredible. Less than four minutes.

Josh Secrest (00:26:23):

Go into, maybe I'm gonna summarize a couple things that I, I, I pulled out from there. 'cause I think it sounds simple, but like you, you tested and retested a bunch of different things, but you went down to three screening questions, correct? I think sometimes we feel the need to ask eight or 20, and you found that actually it was better to like get those, those maybe few knockouts and then get people in so that you could be the first to interview somebody. That's really cool and interesting. I love the the, the job descriptions that you can consolidated that, yes, some of the roles might be a little bit more nuanced or, or different, but like, by simplifying that on the Indeed side or job posting side, that really simplified it for candidates to get, just get their heads wrapped around it. Any other just like tips from maybe the Indeed process, any, any kind of cool anecdotes or hacks that, that you'd, you'd recommend there?

Courtney Dempsey (00:27:20):

Well, what we started with was your traditional job posting, right? The, the old school one that I'm sure every template everyone's working off of now that has the, the extensive job descriptions, like pages and pages and pages. No, we completely eliminated that. So we lead with culture benefits. And then last is the rate of pay. So that was with many, many beta testing and conversations with my partners at Indeed. And Phoebe, who is my incredible partner at Indeed, and I helped sort through and walk through this because 97% of Indeed users, 97% are mobile users. So if it doesn't fit on the screen, they're not interested because it's just, you can't scroll through four pages of a job description if you're coming into apply as a dishwasher. It just didn't make sense. So we've streamlined that process as well.

Josh Secrest (00:28:18):

I love that you, you ended up kind of testing that out a little bit because it sort of feels like, oh, maybe more content could get kind of more, more eyeballs and more like interest, but like less is, less is more in that space. It's about removing friction to get people to, to click apply, make that make it really easy to want to work with you and understand the job and then make it really easy to apply and then move fast. I mean, like, you're moving blazing fast. I mean, like, you're setting some, some land speed records here, which is, which is amazing. But you're also starting to see so many results that are, that are coming from that, that are positive.

Courtney Dempsey (00:28:56):

And we flipped it. We played with it a little bit as well. But for the, for Southern Rec, the company that I work for is our tagline is, have fun, no regrets. So I made that the first, that's the very first thing that you see and who wanna work for something like that. So again, culture, this whole Gen Z is, is culture driven. They want to work in a space that they feel welcome, invited, and they're not just another number passing through in the store, and we are able to provide that. So I wanted to highlight that.

Josh Secrest (00:29:25):

No regrets. I love it. Mm-Hmm.

Courtney Dempsey (00:29:26):

<Affirmative>

Josh Secrest (00:29:29):

Give me a little bit on, we've got offers and onboarding showing up here. I mean, like how you've kind of you partnered with Paradox. There is, I mean, we're like just trying to make it like easy and as few steps as as possible. Yeah, maybe what's, what's the offer process? How simple is the onboarding process? We're we're hearing as we're chatting with a lot of other like restaurant and retailers, there's, there's still significant drop off at that. Like someone accepts an offer and then between accepting the offer and then starting day one they're seeing anywhere from 35 to 40% drop off at that point. Typically it is like a clunky process. Applicants are waiting too long and new offers come through. What are you kinda seeing at that? Sort of like, you met them, you like them, how do you make that as simple as possible?

Courtney Dempsey (00:30:19):

It was a clunky process and we're working out the kinks and have worked out the kinks again. So my expectation for the store at the time is captured a higher, in less than 36 hours. So at, at, when they come in and they do their interview, the manager at that point, all they have to do is do a dropdown on their dashboard that says, onboard hire, the text is sent immediately to the applicant and the next day they could start. So the problem with the, the drop off is the lag time, right? That too many we're still doing too. And three interviews per an position that applicant has moved on. They want it now, they want it in the immediate. And then if we have a need and it's a significant need to do that, then we should be able to accommodate that applicant. We're also rolling into our payroll into Paradox as well. So again, this is gonna be a completely streamlined clean process and favorable for the applicant. So they don't have to sit at a desk and fill out a four page application and take 30 minutes out of their day. Would it take some less than five?

Josh Secrest (00:31:29):

Cool. It's it's neat to hear the story. It's you're, you're, you're seeing more like all these great results. You are using some, some definite like brain power. I mean, like, it's why we've been so excited to, to chat with you and, and thank you for being willing to share this, this story. But it's also like less, less muscle and less like, like budget needed. Which is kind of, we haven't been able to see that in the past. Usually back to that. Like you have to throw more people at it or throw more dollars at it to like solve, you know, solve what you've been able to solve here. And your, your numbers are kind of going in the inverse. Yes. maybe summarize some of these or maybe anything that we haven't, haven't gotten to, to talk about yet on like your process, why you're starting to see some of the results you think you're seeing. Yeah, how, kind of, how, how would you, how would you boil it down for folks if, if they needed to go off and maybe AB test or, or, or test a couple, prototype a couple things within their workflows?

Courtney Dempsey (00:32:34):

I think that the most important thing is that the landscape has changed, right? That where we were two years ago will never be again. That we, we don't have to keep throwing dollar after dollar after dollar that the workforce is there. And again, I go back to my dashboard data, I'm able to look in real time and be like, listen, my numbers are not jiving with what many others are putting out. Saying there's a shrinking workforce when I'm sitting on 82,000 applicants for 150 stores. Like, right, something's not adding up here. So <laugh>, I'm like, I wanna make sure that, that, again, we're the accurate data that we're receiving is in real time. And that's, I think that's the most significant part of our success is that we're paying attention, we're paying attention to what's happening within our bubble. And I'm also very aware of what's happening with our competition. But in order for us to keep and maintain being one step ahead that we are definitely driving down the 36 hours that, you know, we're in a position right now that we've kind of, we we're not in need across the board, but we could be more selective, but it's still accommodate the applicant and make sure that it is, is quick of a process as possible as it could be.

Josh Secrest (00:33:56):

Really cool. The maybe a little bit about what you're seeing with, you know, customers being turned into to candidates. Candidates. My, maybe my anecdote from McDonald's is this is like, as we were starting to partner with Paradox or as we were, you know, kicking the tires on like, what, what could this be? We had this vision of like imagine a world where you could order your food and drive through, apply to the job. Yes. Get screened and get scheduled for an interview potentially that day after you, you know, finished your burger after the drive-through, kind of all before you, you like picked up your food. And so like for us, that was kind of that like magic under three minutes, under four minutes. It seems like you kind of have those, those similar aspirations. What, what have you seen there? 'cause I think we've talked a lot on optimizing the Indeed process, which is huge. But what about the, the customer?

Courtney Dempsey (00:34:53):

So we went from 70% indeed, 30% organic, and now I've completely flipped that script. And now we're 30% spend 70% organic. And that is, again, goes to your theory as well, being from the restaurant background than I am. I'm like, if you love the product and you love the company, you should love working for us, period. So let's make this as easy as possible. You can text to apply it or you can scan a QR code because you have that audience in the building right then and there. So we wanna make sure that we're capitalizing and we're maximizing that organic push because those that are great customers are gonna be great employees.

Josh Secrest (00:35:34):

It's, it's cool. Have you played around with some of that where

Courtney Dempsey (00:35:37):

Yes, I check on it all the time.

Josh Secrest (00:35:39):

<Laugh>, what's, where are some of your kind of like placements for the apply process? I, we mentioned maybe the a QR code in the drive through Any other spots that you've, you've played with?

Courtney Dempsey (00:35:51):

Well, we have text to apply. So our text to apply is Team Spud. So playing off the baked potato <laugh>. So then it'll pull up the locations that are closest to your proximity. So, you know, for instance, where I am in Brentwood, Tennessee, if you text teams bud to 25 0 0 0, it'll pull up the location and the 3 7 0 2 7 area code, and it'll show you all the positions that you can apply for or on the back of your cup, you can scan the QR code, or we have napkin placements, literally anywhere that's visible. Again, targeting it, the, the most loyal of customers, which it will be great employees.

Josh Secrest (00:36:29):

It, it is neat to be able to hear it, you know, it's like you kinda see the like window placements, but I love the, like, on cups inserts into Uber Eats you know, like where you can have these just different like placements to keep your top of mind. Also, just, I wanna highlight back to that, like you inverse the spots where you were, you were paying for applicants you know, from 70% now down to 30% and you're getting your most loyal customers in as, as candidates. Correct. That's, it is not only probably yields a, a great customer experience 'cause you've got people who are, are, are passionate, but then you, I mean, again, as we keep talking about your retention results probably helps support there. Again, you've got someone who like, loves your, loves your brand mm-hmm. <Affirmative> you have had these really incredible retention results.

(00:37:27):

Spend some time on this because some of this ties to your recruiting strategy. Some of this ties to just, I mean, Southern Rock being great employers and, and how you've kind of set up the right culture, benefits, packages, et cetera. You kind of articulated it to me in like three different stages. You got through these three stages pretty quickly. I, I'd wanna call out, but you, you did approach them kind of strategically to say, Hey, there's, there's a, there's a lot of bleeding that needs to be stopped, you know, we're understaffed. We need to, we need to do that first and then we, but we wanna build to something that, that yields kind of the best customer and employee experience. Can you kinda walk me through these stages and technology's role your, your culture's role in them?

Courtney Dempsey (00:38:16):

So, yes, so stage one it was, you know, it was the stage I went gray, right? So this was, there was so much need. We, we really, you know, I had to take the, the pressure and the burden off of our area directors and off of our operators because they were in such a, a horrible staffing position at that point. So it was just throw everything in the kitchen sink and placement and volume of ads and anything that we could to drive in, in addition to the organic push. Anything we could do at that point to get them whole, right? Yeah. Now what that yielded wasn't necessarily a team of A players and, but it served the purpose at that time. So get them whole was my initial goal. Stage two is let me circle back with the area directors and having talked to their operators and figure out where in the mix are we missing this, right?

(00:39:10):

So we're getting great applicant volume, but we're not targeting quality players. So then I would go back and retool the verbiage, redirect the ad try to find a different method to help the operators exceed, achieve what it is that they were looking for. Whether they needed, you know, high schools, you know, students at that point. So, you know, we give them QR codes to take over to the high school and, you know, hand out free t, so on and so forth. So that was more of the creativity phase. But there was always background, right? So that's the beauty of paradox, that there's always a background push for organic applicants. So I was able to redirect that always had that triple effect, that background, that constant need and constant push for the positions that we needed in that space. Got a little bit better, you know, weed out the c and D players. And then now we're in maintenance space. Now we have so much volume because we're utilizing indeed in our background organic push that we're able to reevaluate where we are at that store level. Do we need the excess of people and that store, or are we able to maintain that quality a team and know that we have a dashboard of applicants that we can always circle back to should the need arise.

Josh Secrest (00:40:36):

Oh. can you go into some of your learnings around the shifts you are providing? There's been research that basically correlates essentially the amount of hours someone wants to work with the amount of hours they're given, higher that delta, the more likely the, the turnover. And it seems like you've really prioritized starting try and get as many 40 hour shifts maybe. What were the conversations internally on that? What have you seen from it? Any, any tips there? I know this kind of starts to reach outside of the, the paradox umbrella, but it is, it is so neat to, to hear kind of your findings.

Courtney Dempsey (00:41:20):

Well, that's, that's the fluid part of this, right? So that's where I leave it up to David, take Keto Cody to the area directors and operators and try to figure out, okay, figure they know those market spaces better than anybody else. So 13 states that could vary, right? We have over 150 stores and growing. So it's kind of like in Paducah, Kentucky, you know, are we needing to have, you know, 40 people on their master or can we maintain 18 on their master? So you kind of like empower and give that feedback back and then evaluate that on a monetary level. So I I, I throw it back to the experts within this space to figure out what's best for them. Initially, what got us to this point was being able to offer 40 hours a week. So we wanted to prevent job hopping in the stage one phase. And halfway through the stage two phase that we were one of the many very few companies that were advertising, if you wanna work 40 hours, we'll give them to you. That way they're not walking down the street.

Josh Secrest (00:42:31):

What only share what you'd feel comfortable here. But w wage is a lever for us to try and be competitive. Sometimes if you're, you know, banging your head against the wall on job advertising, you've spent enough money there and it, it feels like you're not getting enough people applying it, it it's easy to say like, oh, well we need to increase wage. We might be, we're losing the competition because 'cause of that and what, what have you seen there? How, how can you be, how can you be competitive, obviously yeah, what any, any insights on trying to compete on hourly wage is, do you have to be at the 99th percentile to, to get candidates at this stage?

Courtney Dempsey (00:43:16):

So I do a lot of market analysis through Indeed and through other platforms regarding our comp set within the space that we're in for all 150 stores and, and new store openings that we're doing currently. So I do my due diligence, you know, on those markets in the spaces and get their average rate. We're no longer in a position where we have to compete with rate, so we don't have to keep up with the 16 to $19 posts when I go back and explain why. Here's the method that they waited too long to advertise for a position, and now they're playing catch up. So they're gonna throw everything they can at that point to fill that void. So I think a lot of people keep getting sucked into this, you know, we have to pay a higher rate. No, you have to provide consistent hours within the space at a manageable rate to maintain profitability for your store.

(00:44:14):

And don't get sucked into those that are paying, you know, 16 to $25 an hour. We cannot compete with FedEx, we cannot compete with Target, we cannot compete with Amazon, and we're not going to, so we're just gonna continue our maintenance and continue driving applicants because applicant is out there, hence the 82,000 applicants that we have on our platform. So we don't get sucked into the, the need to throw out dollar amount to still get a D player, right? If we want to give them that dollar amount, then they're gonna be an, a player, probably an internal mode at that point.

Josh Secrest (00:44:48):

Wow. Wow. This is you know, very clearly a business impact story, not just a, like recruitment or talent acquisition impact story. Kind of go, go through that. 'cause I think I, I loved how you've talked about how Southern Rocks approached this from driving amazing customer experience. It helps drive revenue. I feel like you got just everybody on board in terms of, again, this isn't a recruiting issue. This is a, this is a business topic where we can see massive results. What have, what have been some of those, those results? How do you, how do you all talk about it internally? You very clearly have like a, a seat at the, the, the table, not just the HR table, but the, you know business in, in general.

Courtney Dempsey (00:45:45):

Yes, marketing table is like, how, how much more can I go down? Right? <laugh>, like, how can we still increase profitability for the company? How can we maintain our guest satisfaction rates, which have gone up significantly, right? So as one of my dear friends always said, he or she, you know, who's hired wins, like, if you have a full staff, you're going to win at this race from top down. And that's what we've, we've seen in real time, like happy staff, happy director's, operation, happy, you know, monetary results at the end because our customers are happy. And then returning it, just overall, if you are staffed and you have your A players in there and you're still maintaining profitability that you relay that to your customer and it keeps 'em coming back.

Josh Secrest (00:46:37):

Yeah. these are, as we, we think about this, like the revenue piece and, and I have to use, we can't share your revenue dollars. And I know that's something that you have not shared with me but just you went from, you know, hiring in 10 days and restaurants being still understaffed to hiring in, you know, less than two days, and you, you're getting, you know, 36 hours even. So, I mean, you're saving eight days per hire. You, what we see from the National Restaurant Association and other like publications is usually a restaurant in the Q S R space is anywhere from $200 to a thousand dollars of loss revenue per day if you're understaffed. So, I mean, if we were saying a $500 loss, I mean, you're, that is bringing back $4,000 per hire in, in revenue, you know, dollars that are left on the table.

(00:47:32):

I know those aren't the exact numbers for, for Southern Rock, but I, I think it's a really interesting piece on how you're driving revenue, not to mention those eight days that a customer would've interacted with the deli and it been understaffed and what that, that you know, that service level been and, and, and could have impacted your, your guest guest counts and rates. We've talked a lot on the innovation you've used in terms of like technology how you're using analytics from a, a process standpoint. You know, one of the things that's been an observation for us on the paradox side of, of getting to work with you and, and get to work with Southern Rock is maybe how you deploy not just our technology, but our, our our people <affirmative> a any recommendations. We've got some other clients on the call, you know, how how are you using your client success team? What have you noticed that is unique or different? Any, any tips or tricks that you could share?

Courtney Dempsey (00:48:39):

So I will say that I probably, and Crystal could attest this to talk to them, too much <laugh>, but I'm just so passionate about the system in general that I'll be like, you know, Hey, did you, I wanna explore x, y, Z company that really targets Gen Zs and millennials. Can we add it as part of beta? Like I'm constantly striving to figure out how to streamline our dashboard, increase visibility and make maintaining the, the dashboard that we have to date. So it really came down to our customization fields, and where I felt it we were most successful was monitoring the past to maintain the future, right? And that's at my fingertips, that will always be at my fingertips. I have historical data, so I can know, tell you on a Wednesday, it is, you know, and this market is the best day to post the ad because last year at this time, it's the exact same numbers.

(00:49:34):

And this is what tells me. So we've never had to plateau. We've always maintained that peak. It's a constant peak of applicants because I'm constantly engaging and asking questions, what else? What more? And then I'm learning the dashboard, right? I'm trying to figure out how we can just garner one more inch <laugh> of success through this process. But that's just the best part about this product, is that it is ever changing. Everything that I did today, this time last week, has completely changed. So n there's not the same thing every day. This is not a monotonous, this is exciting to me. I love watching the numbers. That's my thing.

Josh Secrest (00:50:20):

It was one of the reasons I joined Paradox for McDonald's. You know, I was really excited about the technology innovation. I like geeked out about, oh my gosh, you, you all can do some things that maybe I, I hadn't gotten to see before. And then as we started deploy, it was like the configurability and the flexibility mm-hmm. <Affirmative> just different restaurants needed different things. We had different, right, you know demographics and some, some restaurants were hard to fill roles. And sometimes we had tons of applicants and like, what you do there is different. And then really to your point, just maybe the service level and like how human and hands-on and collaborative that was to, to kick the tires. I really liked that. There were a lot of, you know, X T A or hr folks brought in to, to paradox, to kind of, to help and, and, and summarize some of those best practices.

(00:51:09):

So just really cool to see how, how you're doing that. I love the use of beta products. The data and insights. I mean, just like you are just kind of a super user and how you're, you're looking at all of those things and, and making the process better and making, making southern rock better as a result of it. I hope. So give us, give us some maybe kind of final directional like Intel. You know, you're already ahead of the curve. You've already kind of like found some really great unlocks and hacks kind of what's next for Southern Rock? Where are you gonna constantly continue to improve now that you're in this maintenance maintenance stage?

Courtney Dempsey (00:51:50):

So for us, and I get this question a lot is like, what next? Right? So you have 82,000 applicants on your platform. What are you gonna do now? Well, I'm going to make sure that we maintain that and continue to grow, but now I know that the pillars that we have set within my dashboard are set up for success moving forward. So I want to make sure that we are exploring any other avenue, venue, beta, anything that's out there to further attract a quality candidates. I'm super excited about our payroll integration. That's just gonna be a game changer on our operations as well as our human resource and payroll department. And that's all integrated through paradox. And then we'll have accurate reporting and data through that as well. But I'm really excited to see the retention factor, right? So that's my next focus.

(00:52:40):

So now that we, we have captured that applicant, how are we gonna maintain, maintain them so we don't have to keep going through the cycle? Because as you know, the cycle ebbs and flows, right? It's very driven by economy and threats of recession. Are we in one on, you know, they have to protect their assets as well. So how can we maintain a calm environment, a stable environment for our applicants? And that's through assessment, right? Let's do a check-in. Let's just check in and see, you know, are you happy with your environment? Are you happy with the management? Are you happy with your hours? So we can take a deep dive internally and figure out how we can continue to improve to have those consistent lifers. So we're bringing back an entire new group of people that haven't existed probably for the last three years or so, and bring them back to lifer because hospitality industry is incredible.

Josh Secrest (00:53:36):

It is I think for probably a lot of the audience, it's like a breath of fresh air. It feels like oxygen of just like being able to see how how quickly you were kind of get able to get to maintenance phase, your, your term maintenance phase. Yeah. But then what that allows for you to, to think about, because I think it's where a lot of us want our brains to be able to be. 'cause I think everything you just mentioned there is like we're, we're getting the wheels to spin faster and more smoothly, and we're thinking about how we can drive business results versus just like, I will hire any, anybody that comes in because we're you know, we're so understaffed right now, right? Like that's an appealing place to be. This allows for us to be more, more strategic. Are you game for a few questions? We've gotten a, a quite a few in the, the q and a.

Courtney Dempsey (00:54:22):

Oh, that's exciting. Yeah. Let's him,

Josh Secrest (00:54:24):

Okay, cool. I'll, I'll do my best. All feel free to ask some more Q and a or questions within the, the chat too. I will do my best to summarize these for, for Courtney. So the first one was was the transformation from 10 plus days to hire to one and a half days immediate, or was there a gradual process over and what did that look like?

Courtney Dempsey (00:54:44):

So that reflected calendar management, right? So there in paradox, you have the ability, or the admin has the ability availability to take it from 14 days that the applicant has to choose from down to seven, which we did a four hour, anywhere from an eight, you know, 8, 12, 4 hour notification to the manager. And I took that down to less than one. So that was the, the, the decision that I pivoted on. I did not adjust the operator's hiring calendar. I adjusted the time and the lag of time between application to interview and I really consolidated that, and that happened like within five days across the board. So I took charge of that and that's where we started seeing the uptick.

Josh Secrest (00:55:32):

Oh. this is another timing based question. You were able to talk about that going from stage one, stage two to stage three. What were kind of like the, the timeframes be between those with

Courtney Dempsey (00:55:44):

What kind of I'm, I can't divulge too much, but I'll, I'll tell you, I've only been doing this for 18 months.

Josh Secrest (00:55:51):

Alright. That's,

Courtney Dempsey (00:55:54):

I'm not giving up all our secrets. <Laugh>, that's proprietary that David Blackburn knows that information.

Josh Secrest (00:56:02):

This is another one that we might be getting too deep into your specific data, but what percentage of people who go through the process and schedule an interview show up? So do you have any drop off between scheduling an interview and showing up for interview?

Courtney Dempsey (00:56:17):

So yeah, rule of thumb is 10% attrition, correct? Well, we're less than that. Only because of the engagement. Again, conversational a t s is a game changer. It keeps the applicant engaged. So we went from, you know, 20 applicants in one day and, you know, maybe one would show, and now, you know, out of 20, applicants 15 will show. So the conversational part of this is what's most important and which, again, separates it from any other hiring module, is that it gives the applicant a, a reminder an hour before the interview reminder and the ability to have to reschedule should that opportunity arise. So

Courtney Dempsey (00:56:59):

Again, conversational a t s this is a game changer.

Josh Secrest (00:57:03):

We're the chat is and the q and a is geeking out a little bit more on your like, retention numbers. Can you go into maybe the main causes you're seeing for like reduced reten, reduced turnover within manager space? Contrast it to maybe team member space?

Courtney Dempsey (00:57:24):

Again, it goes back to taking the pressure and the burden off of the operators. They're able to actually do their jobs. So the utilization of the Paradox mobile app, so they don't have to keep running back to their desktop again, that's also available within the system. It's less than a five minute process. They just log in and they scroll through their interviews and they're able to see who's coming in and that's it. They're done. They, they don't have to go through all the nonsense of going back and like calling the applicant, here's the paperwork, you know, no, they know who's coming in at what time, and then literally off their phone after they interview. So we went from a 30 minute interview period to a 15 minute interview period, because that's really all you need. They're able to click onboard or hire, or future considerations. So we don't reject any applicant. That's again, something that we're different. We always wanna keep that applicant engaged and have the opportunity to reapply in the future, but it made for a much better work environment and because they're able to do their jobs and not be burdened with more responsibility in the store.

Josh Secrest (00:58:28):

And then the last one was just your maybe like the steps you took with, with AI is really the question. You know, like what what were you all testing before you met Paradox and, and how, how did you kind of like step, step into starting to to use that?

Courtney Dempsey (00:58:50):

I, well, paradox was our, our platform before I, in, before I took it over 18 months ago. So that was the platform that we were introduced to. And that's the platform that the decision made by David and Carrie to utilize at that point. So then we just took that, that module and we just kept enhancing and growing and developing with it.

Josh Secrest (00:59:14):

Yeah, and I think that's, that's great. You know, I think a, a big part of it is the tech you use, but then also the, like, the ways that you're testing it and playing with it and, and making sure that it fits for, for your hiring needs. Okay. so I think that that's gonna wrap us. We've got a couple other questions. Anyone who's asked questions, we're gonna make sure to get back to you on it. They're really amazing amazing conversation going on. But Courtney, just thank you for your transparency. It's not often that I think we all get to learn from someone who's thought about it strategically, and then you also kind of got to have your, your hand on the wheel with your team to, to try a bunch of different things out. You're doing some really unique things in the space and I think the way that you're articulating how you're making these changes, what works, what doesn't work is I think just super easy for us all to understand. And I think there are five or six things that, you know, I think people can go back regardless of your restaurant or, or hotel hospitality convenience, grocery industries, and be able to, to deploy some of those, those tips and tricks right away. So just, just thank you. We, we love getting to partner with you and, and the Southern Rock team and keep it up and hopefully get to do part two here shortly. I'm

Courtney Dempsey (01:00:30):

Looking forward to it. Thank you all so much.

Josh Secrest (01:00:32):

Thanks all. Bye

Courtney Dempsey (01:00:33):

Josh.

Josh Secrest (01:00:34):

Bye Courtney.

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