Securatech, like many businesses, has a small recruiting team. The job of this two-person HR department is to steadily find and hire security guards, tech personnel, and analysts, which can be difficult. The industry has a high turnover rate making their work even more challenging. The team found that many applicants are not able to break away from their work to conduct a phone interview during typical 9-5 hours. Keeping up with fluctuating hiring demands and a unique industry made the HR team’s day-to-day stressful. It became clear that they needed to either hire an additional recruiter or find a tool that could lighten their workload.
Previously
Securatech did all of its hirings through individual phone calls. An application would come in, the recruiter would review it, then schedule a phone call, conduct an interview, share their notes with a hiring manager, then move on from there.
Now
Securatech is able to receive an application and then send an on-demand interview invitation. Candidates call in and record their answers whenever it’s convenient for them. Today, Securatech can review more candidates with less work.
The Challenge
For the Securatech team to hire just 6 security guards, they would need to conduct roughly 100 phone interviews. The time it took to schedule and conduct each of those phone interviews was eating up all of Abbie Jackson's schedule.
“I'll be honest. It was overwhelming,” says Jackson, the HR and Recruiting Manager for Securatech. “It was very overwhelming. Then, there were a lot of projects and things that I worked on that were just getting put on the back burner. There just weren't enough hours in the day. It felt like to get everything done.”
The Process
Before introducing Qualifi into the hiring process, Sturm recalls a lot of time spent on the phone. It became difficult to keep the application process short and sweet.
“Now I'm able to communicate with them through email, send them [an interview invite in] Qualifi, be able to review that, and then decide who I want to move forward with,” says Jackson. “ It's really been great. It's been a good time saver for me. I've spent less time on the phone, which has been really, really nice.”
Jackson uses the extra time to focus on candidate sourcing and improve their intake meetings with hiring managers. Jackson is able to connect with new communities like schools or the VA. Finding footholds in new sourcing ecosystems has allowed Securatech to bring in more quality applicants. Sturm also found that having a transcription of the phone interviews — a feature of Qualifi — it was easier for hiring managers to review each applicant and make a quick decision.
“Using Qualifi has helped our recruiting team get time back.” — Elizabeth Sturm, HR Director
The Result
Securatech needed to find a way to reach more candidates without hiring more staff. Stacked against them is a high-turnover industry and candidates who need interview flexibility. After using Qualifi, they were able to win back their time and improve the hiring process.
“It's been nice that they've been able to go in and do the interviews on their own time instead of us having to schedule it during my business hours,” says Jackson. “Because when we're hiring security guards, we have a lot of them who they're working all day, so they don't have that time to sit down and do an interview with me. They are able to go home at seven o'clock at night and do the interview on their own time, which has been really great.”
The HR Director of Securatech, Elizabeth Sturm even noted that Jackson is able to get so much more done with Qualifi at their side. “She doesn't feel like she's so overwhelmed because she can get through more people with less time.”
“[Qualifi is] short and simple,” says Elizabeth Sturm. “Just to see the quality of her working life that Abbie has gotten back from having a tool to help her do her job, that's not very difficult to use. Qualifi can save you time, it can save you money, and it can save you extra personnel.”
One of the surprising benefits of Qualifi for us is its ability to bridge generational hiring gaps. “For texters and people that don't want to talk on the phone, they're able to text and listen to it on their own time. Also, people that are in the working generation that are looking for something new, they obviously can't get away for an interview during the middle of their workday. It's convenient for them. Also, some of the people may be hard of hearing or an older generation. It might be hard for someone to understand a question when we call and our questions are very in-depth… [Jackson's one-way phone questions are recorded] very clearly, loudly enunciated, so that it is able for the candidate to hear the question very clearly.”
After using Qualifi, Securatech found that they were able to:
- Shorten their hiring time by an entire week
- Reach more candidates through one-way phone interviews
- Meet the needs of intergenerational candidates
- Save money by not needing to hire another part-time recruiter
Qualifi Tip!
Use Qualifi to see where a candidate is in the hiring pipeline. Clearly see if they have clicked the interview invitation link, taken their interview, and where they need to go next.
