What’s the Best Applicant Tracking System for Franchises?

Recruiting and retention are two big challenges faced by all business owners, including franchisees. Most franchisees rely on playbooks from the franchisor for many aspects of operating their business. Hiring is the exception and is something most franchisees must figure out on their own.

Fortunately, there are some helpful tools that business owners can use to help them run their business. One thing that should be in every franchise employer’s toolkit is an applicant tracking system (ATS), like CareerPlug. An ATS is a software that helps you automate recruiting, hiring, and onboarding candidates.

As a franchisee, you probably face a lot of choices when it comes to running your business. It can be hard to weigh your options and decide which software and systems you truly need. 

Let’s talk about some of the benefits of using an ATS and why CareerPlug is the best choice for franchises all around. 

Why CareerPlug is the best ATS for franchises 

At CareerPlug, we are on a very important mission: to make it easier for businesses to hire and develop the right people. We know that not everyone is an HR expert, so we created a software that’s easy to use and automates all the tedious steps in a typical hiring process. 

We’re proud to be trusted by over 30,000 businesses, including franchises in a variety of industries like restaurants, retail, home services, and more. Why do they choose CareerPlug? Because our software is both easy to use and packed with features that make it stand out from the competition. 

Let’s start with a quick overview of how CareerPlug works in the video below.

Make the right hires with a proven process

When choosing an applicant tracking system, you want to make sure the software actually gets results! Since 2007, CareerPlug has been helping franchisees make the right hires with software designed by hiring experts. Our software was built on a proven process that guides you through all the hiring steps easily so you can leave out the guesswork and be confident in your hiring decisions.

Let’s take a closer look at how CareerPlug helps franchises hire better.

Job posting process

The right job posting is the first step in attracting the right applicants to your open roles. We know that crafting the perfect job description can be time consuming. That’s why we offer templates that can be customized to get your job posted sooner. 

We know how to help your jobs stand out and get results with detailed job description fields and red flag warnings to help you avoid keywords that hurt your searchability. 

Once you create your job description, it’s important to distribute it to as many sites as possible. Manually doing this can take up a lot of your precious time! That’s why we automatically send your job postings to all the major job boards (like Indeed, ZipRecruiter, Facebook Jobs, and many more) instantly connecting you to thousands of job seekers. 

Careers pages

High quality candidates do their research when it comes to applying for a company, and a branded careers page on your website can help you stand out. In fact, candidates who apply from a business’s careers pages are 7 times more likely to become hires than candidates who come from job boards. 

A huge benefit of using an ATS like CareerPlug is that we create a branded careers page that can include your logo, pictures of your team, employee testimonials, and more. 

Huddle House careers page

Hiring automation 

You may already have other aspects of your business automated. Automation for things like client relationship management can save you time and energy and give your business much needed consistency. Automating your hiring is no different! 

One of the biggest reasons to invest in an ATS is for hiring automation that helps you move applicants through your pipeline quicker and provide all candidates with a seamless hiring experience. 

Make it easy to apply from any device

Now more than ever, it’s important to make the application process smooth and easy. Candidates have a lot of options and they’ll skip an application process that takes too long. 

Since many people job search on their phones, CareerPlug has mobile-optimized applications so that job seekers can apply from any device. 

Prescreen candidates quickly

Our applications include prescreen questions that can help you identify top applicants right away. And when a “Fast Track” applicant applies, we’ll instantly send you an email or text message to let you know. 

We’ll automatically remove unqualified applicants from consideration and send out a professional rejection email for you. Clients tell us these features give them an advantage against the competition and save them hours per week.

Interview scheduling 

We help you streamline all your interview scheduling from the initial phone screen to final interviews. Our in-app calendar invitation syncs with all of the major calendars like Apple, Google, and Outlook. You can either schedule your interview the old-fashioned way, or you can let candidates choose from a set of available days/times you’ve set aside. 

You can also text or email interview reminders automatically to help eliminate uncertainty and scheduling insanity. 

While other applicant tracking systems promote features like allowing candidates to upload a video introduction to employers, we actually discourage our clients from using one-way video interviews. Why? Because we know that’s not a good hiring practice. Instead, we focus on giving you the tools to provide a great candidate experience, which can help you make more hires. 

Evaluate candidates quickly

By sticking to a structured candidate evaluation process, you can make better hiring decisions. We’ve built our assessments to help you learn everything you need to know about your candidates, including:  

  • Personality assessments
  • Cognitive assessments (measuring math and verbal skills)
  • Role specific scorecards and assessments

Plus, our interview guides have helped our clients make tens of thousands of great hires.

Text recruiting

Any business owner who uses text recruiting will tell you it’s a game changer. Text messages have higher open rates and faster response times than email. CareerPlug’s text recruiting software allows you to quickly send text messages to your applicants to schedule and confirm interviews and keep them moving through your hiring process. 

CareerPlug text recruiting software

Customer service 

When choosing an ATS for your business, you want to be sure that great customer service is included. Everyone at CareerPlug is trained to be a hiring expert in order to provide the best guidance and service. This sets us apart from other ATS platforms. 

We are also highly experienced in working with franchises. This is huge! You want a platform that knows how your business operates. We understand franchises and their unique needs. 

CareerPlug has hiring experts standing by to answer your questions directly either through email or a quick phone call. We take a consultative approach and can give you advice on both using the platform and general advice on how to hire better.  

CareerPlug team

Hiring expertise

CareerPlug also makes hiring easier by providing a ton of additional resources for employers like offer letter templates, interviewing tips, onboarding forms, and more. We’re constantly doing research and updating our blog where we share the best recruiting and employee management tips for employers and hiring managers, including franchise and industry specific content. 

These additional resources along with our software’s capabilities, team of hiring experts, and vast experience with franchises make us the right addition to any business’s playbook.

Do you need an applicant tracking system?

Our software adds value to a hiring process from the very first job posting to the offer stage and beyond. Click the button below to learn even more about why an ATS like CareerPlug is the absolute best choice for franchises. 

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CareerPlug testimonial

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5: AUTOMATE

Hiring is hard, but partnering with us makes it easier. From posting jobs to scheduling interviews, CareerPlug allows you to automate certain parts of the process to improve your results and save you time.

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3: EVALUATE

Once you think you have found the right person, use our reference and background check resources to verify them. Then, send an electronic offer letter from CareerPlug to close the deal!

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4: HIRE

Use our prescreen questions and assessments to identify the best applicants. Then use our interview questions and scorecards to evaluate for the right things consistently.

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2: COMMUNICATE

Use our notifications and automations to be the first to respond to qualified applicants. Send texts and emails from directly from CareerPlug to convert applicants to scheduled interviews.

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1: ATTRACT

Use our templates to create an attractive careers page and job posting. Then promote it through our job board partners, as well as directly with your employees, customers, and social network.

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Brandy Lee

Business Intelligence Manager

Eric Morales

Manager of Account Executives

Kirsten Penaloza

Director of Client Experience

Zach Garcia

Senior Manager of Operations

Tulay Solak

HR Manager

Tyler Berndsen

Manager of Partnership Account Executives

Ashley Johnson

Senior Manager of Partner Services

Originally from small town in central Texas, Ashley Johnson graduated from Texas State University in 2013 with a degree in Business Administration. She was hired by CareerPlug as a Talent Specialist in 2014, and moved up to ultimately lead the Recruitment Services team. From there, she pivoted to Implementation, and is now the Implementation Manager.

As the Implementation Manager, Ashley and 3 direct reports function as a transition between Sales and Partner Success in helping our clients get set up and established in our software. She spends her free time raising her 2 dogs, playing cornhole, and perfecting the art of charcuterie.

Kate Sensmeier

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Ashley Garia

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Andrew Robinson III

Vice President of Product and Engineering

Chris Igou

VP of Business Development

Chris accidentally started a 20-year career in franchising when he was 18 years old and took a job painting houses for College Pro Painters. That job turned into the ownership of his first franchise (a house painting franchise). While at Monmouth College in IL, he operated his business, played on the varsity football team, and studied to become a teacher.

The taste of entrepreneurship and desire to coach others led Chris deeper into franchising, working with a few franchise brands helping them grow their businesses. He lived in the Chicagoland area his entire life until recently moving his family to Austin, TX.

In his free time Chris coaches youth sports, especially youth football, and spends as much time as he can with his wife and 2 children.

Jenny Leman

President

Native to Texas, Jenny graduated from the University of Texas at Austin in 2004 and joined CareerPlug in 2017. She retired her first career path as a Registered Dietitian after 10 years, and has found her true belonging in business operations.

As CareerPlug’s President, Jenny leads all teams to an aligned effort toward achieving our vision. She works to build healthy and scalable internal systems to equip and empower the CareerPlug teams to bring their best for our clients. She loves contributing new ideas and rethinking the status quo. Jenny really connects with the company’s core values, but especially with our intent to “Keep Growing.”

In her non-work life, Jenny enjoys time with her family, playing drums and performing with the Austin Samba School, and finding excuses to be on the lake.

Clint Smith

Founder & CEO

Clint founded CareerPlug in 2007 with the simple idea that there was a better way to help employers connect with quality applicants. Today Clint works every day to fulfill CareerPlug’s mission: Make Hiring Easier. Leading by example, Clint loves spending his time developing new ideas and teaching others.

After graduating from the University of Florida, Clint worked in investment banking and strategic marketing; both experiences influenced the development of CareerPlug. He also spent a year away from the business world teaching 5th grade in Boulder.

Clint is passionate about helping others succeed and is involved in numerous mentoring programs. He and his wife, Sarah, are also foster parents. Clint enjoys family time, beach volleyball, and outdoor adventures.