Tim Sackett: Hey everybody, Tim Sackett coming to you live from HR Technology Conference 2025 in the Paradox booth, and I get to join like a friend of mine, and also VP of HR Gustavo Serbia. Tell tell people everybody like what is and give us give us the insight.

Gustavo Serbia: It's a private uh chain of hair salons, primarily on the East Coast, about 530 uh salons, Florida, Virginia, Maryland, about 5,500 employees, and we hire stylists. That's what we look for.

Tim Sackett: Yes. A lot of stylists.

Gustavo Serbia: Yes, a lot of stylists.

Tim Sackett: How many a year?

Gustavo Serbia: About 2,500.

Tim Sackett: About 2,500. That is awesome. So, you guys have you were early in on using AI, automation, all this stuff in terms of of hiring because it's so it's so competitive in the industry that you're in. Talk about what like what you've learned, what are some of those advantages of of what works, has worked really well for you.

Gustavo Serbia: You know, we needed to streamline the process, and, you know, luckily we found Paradox and helped us eliminate some of what I call the junk of the process, right? You have to create an account to apply, for example. We were able to get rid of that.

Tim Sackett: It's so frustrating.

Gustavo Serbia: Now, we are a little bit unique in the sense that if you have a license, I want to talk to you. Yeah. If you don't have a license, I can't talk to you because I cannot employ you. So our capture screening process is fairly short and quick.

Tim Sackett: Yeah, either you do or you don't. Let's go.

Gustavo Serbia: So we needed a tool that didn't have all these bells and whistles that you really don't need. I just need to be able to ask a few questions, get you in front of a recruiter, and get you an offer. Yeah. And we were able to do that, and with the automation, in this case, of the self-scheduling, it made it even better because it allows us to expand the number of people we can accommodate.

Tim Sackett: Yeah, when we first started talking, it was it was crazy that you have this traditional kind of apply process where you're you're having these people go through this entire process. And the reality is is like at the end you're like, hey, well, do you have a license? Like, that's really I need that right now. All I need to know that.

Gustavo Serbia: I just need to know that. Yes.

Tim Sackett: Because if you don't have that, it doesn't matter.

Gustavo Serbia: No. Yeah. To me, once I started talk talking to ATS's out there, the moment they talk about, well, you have to create an account, it was a non-starter. So some of the best players out there, we didn't even look at because of that simple question, do I need to create an account? Yes, then I can't talk to you.

Tim Sackett: No, and we know like the data shows it. I think it's like close to 70% of of potential candidates that are going to go through that process when you click on that and they like click on, hey, I want to I'm interested in this job. And and they go, oh, now you got to fill out this profile. Give us your username. Immediately they just go, no.

Gustavo Serbia: I don't want to do it.

Tim Sackett: I'm out. Get out of here.

Gustavo Serbia: I've done it myself. Like I don't want to give you anything right now.

Tim Sackett: Oh, what's this going to turn into?

Gustavo Serbia: Yes, yes.

Tim Sackett: Um so you're you're at the show. There's all kinds of technology. You're one of the HR leaders that I know like in the country that you're very invested into the technology, really understanding what it does. What are you seeing out there that you like?

Gustavo Serbia: I I got to navigate through all the AI uh hoopla. Yeah. But the reality is that automating more of the processes to free up, in this case recruiters, to do more of um important tasks. Uh that's what excites me. Yeah. There's a lot of tools out there that are able to get you there, but it's figuring out which tool can get you there, but it doesn't decrease uh uh doesn't increase drop off. It doesn't increase or creates other obstacles. So that is the difficulty that I'm finding, but it is a lot easier to have conversations with vendors today because everybody sees the possibilities already. So connecting the dots becomes a lot easier where two years ago it wasn't there even though we were talking about it. Now I can feel it. I can see it, and I can talk to a vendor and the vendor immediately goes, I know what you're talking about. Yeah. Here's how we can do it. Yeah. Where two years ago it was like, hmm, maybe... I don't know if we can build it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Definitely.

Tim Sackett: You made a statement about it frees up our recruiters to do more important stuff. Yeah. What is that more important stuff? Because that's the thing I think that we're struggling to answer. Yeah. What is that for you guys?

Gustavo Serbia: For us, it's really understanding what the salon needs are. Yeah. Really getting to know where is the salon located? Uh how many uh staff do we have? What is the production of those stylists? Because if I'm going to talk to you as a stylist, I need to talk about what is the productivity of the stylist there to see if you're going to make money. How much people are making tips. And if I have 100 salons that I'm responsible for, but I'm also taking notes on interviews and I have to worry about scheduling, I can't I can't focus on learning all this having all this knowledge for all of these locations. So I really need them to be able to know who their DLs are, who the SL is, what is around the salon. Oh yeah, there's a Publix, or there is a Giant, and that's going to drive traffic to be able to articulate that versus um, well, I don't know exactly if I can schedule this person because my availability may not be there. Let the system do all of those things.

Tim Sackett: It allows our recruiters to really sell the job to the to the candidate. Before it was just like, we're just processing, processing, processing, and then you're so many, there's so many false positives that show up for interviews versus going, hey, I really worked with this person enough that they know the value of what this location is, what this position is, what this leadership team is. Correct. And I know I'm going to like this. And so then that high it's a higher quality of hire ultimately.

Gustavo Serbia: Well, that that's the next evolution for us, quality of hire. But ultimately, that's what we're finding, that the recruiters are now busy with a lot of tasks that we know AI can help us automate to really free them up to focus on that individual. You know, something as simple as being on an interview like this and not having to worry about taking notes. Where right now, if this was an interview, you're I'm half listening, half writing, right? I'm taking notes, and I'm only trying to satisfy the notes because the notes is what HR is going to be after me, where are the notes, right? Versus if I don't have to worry about that, the system is transcribing everything automatically. I can focus on you, really listen to what is important to you, and then try to sell based on that.

Tim Sackett: That's awesome. Thank you so much for sharing. I appreciate that. Everybody, HR Tech 2025, we will see you soon.

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