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Company Overview

Kona Grill is an upscale casual restaurant serving American cuisine, sushi, and cocktails. Founded in 1998, the company owns and operates 46 restaurants in 23 U.S. states and Puerto Rico, as well as three international locations operating under franchise agreements. Kona Grill used PeopleMatter (now owned by Snag), another applicant tracking system (ATS) prior to using CareerPlug. With their previous ATS, the company experienced a lack of applicant flow and had to pay to post to job boards, in addition to what they paid to PeopleMatter.

Their Challenge

Kona Grill was looking to increase their applicant flow while also reducing their budget. They struggled to make management and hourly hires due to low applicant flow and needed to make a change. For Kona Grill, this meant finding a way to reach more potential applicants without having to dig deep into their budget. They needed to have the tools available to reach their ideal candidates, tailor their job application to that group, and increase staffing across multiple locations.

Our Solution

CareerPlug worked to provide Kona Grill the results they needed, fast. Within the first two years of the partnership, management hires have increased 45%. Kona Grill has enjoyed receiving 400% more applicants than their previous provider after switching to CareerPlug. Kona Grill attributes this to the customizable workflow and job templates, free job syndication, and personal account manager all offered by CareerPlug. They have found the mobile optimized platform and Spanish application option, a key edge in the restaurant industry, extremely useful as well. Through CareerPlug’s competitive pricing and offerings, Kona Grill was able to reduce spend while increasing applicant flow. Kona Grill also has a path for future success through customized reporting, allowing them to track metrics to continue to make improvements.

Company Overview

Gold’s Gym Houston, part of the Gold’s Gym franchise group, has six locations in the Houston area. Gold’s Houston advertised for open positions with “we’re hiring” signs posted throughout their gyms and spoke one-on-one with members about job opportunities. Each location handled their talent pool and hiring process differently.

Their Challenge

Gold’s Houston wasn’t generating the applicant flow they needed from their current channels and was struggling to make the hires they needed to run their business. They needed to attract a higher quantity and quality of applicants, as well as find a way to standardize their hiring process so all locations could implement an effective recruiting and hiring strategy. In fact, in 2014 the company made ‘Hiring & Staffing’ one of their main objectives for the year, focusing on finding solutions that would centralize their hiring process and increase applicant flow.

Our Solution

CareerPlug worked with Gold’s Gym to implement our system and distribute job postings to high-traffic job boards, making their positions visible and attractive to applicants. By utilizing the system at all of their locations, they were able to standardize their hiring process, while efficiently educating all of their owners and managers. Gold’s Gym Houston began to see an immediate increase in applicants and actually received more applicants during the first two weeks using CareerPlug than during the entire previous two years.

Company Overview

Founded in 2001, Wireless Advantage is a Verizon Wireless Premium Retailer based in Dothan, AL. In the last decade the company has expanded to over 40 store locations. Before CareerPlug, their talent pipeline relied heavily on a major job board with limited postings and paper resumes. When applications came in, they used a combination of emails and spreadsheets to track and move applicants through their hiring process.

Their Challenge

Wireless Advantage needed a way to distribute their job postings widely and effectively without tying up their recruiting budget with a single website or job posting. They needed to cast a bigger net to capture a larger, more qualified talent pool. They also needed a solution that would create a centralized, more organized hiring process, making it easier to use for their store managers. A lack of a centralized hiring process contributed to a higher employee turnover rate for their stores and made it difficult for the corporate office to monitor the recruitment and staffing process. Wireless Advantage needed to hire long-term employees who could build relationships and experience over years at the company—and, as a result, enhance the level of expertise they offered their customers.

Our Solution

CareerPlug and Wireless Advantage worked together to implement the hiring software at all Wireless Advantage locations. CareerPlug was able to distribute job postings to multiple highly trafficked job boards and work with Wireless Advantage to create postings that were both visible and attractive to quality applicants. Wireless Advantage also began using candidate personality assessments offered by a CareerPlug partner. The assessment data and clear hiring steps laid out in the software allowed managers to easily evaluate and track applicants, which led to more consistent and effective hiring decisions across the company. As Wireless Advantage worked with CareerPlug to make quality hires, they have seen a turnover reduction of 25% across the organization.

Company Overview

Dick Morrett has been a State Farm Agent in Lebanon, PA since 1970. He serves customers throughout Pennsylvania and has earned awards like the National Multiline Sales Award and the National Quality Award. With a small team of six, their agency is committed to making a big impact in their customers’ lives and within their communities.

Their Challenge

While going strong for over forty years in the insurance world, it became clear that Dick’s team was spending too much time recruiting. Between sorting through resumes, proctoring assessments, and keeping up with candidate communication, their small business was spending 10-15 hours a week on hiring. This was a significant portion of time when team members could be focused on other priorities. Something had to change.

Our Solution

The Richard Morrett Insurance Agency partnered with CareerPlug in 2013 and immediately received a return on their investment in the form of regained hours they had previously spent recruiting candidates. The agency generally spent 10 – 15 hours of time in recruitment efforts each week, but after partnering with CareerPlug they reduced their weekly time spent hiring to just 2-4 hours—a 73% time savings—due to their new ability to manage the process in one centralized platform and use integrated personality assessments to identify top candidates. This was essential when they needed to find strong replacement hires following unexpected turnover as soon as possible. The easy-to-use system and CareerPlug’s exceptional customer service turned the agency into loyal, lasting customers who proudly recommend CareerPlug’s products and service.

Company Overview

Planet Fitness is one of the most successful and fastest growing fitness franchises in the country with over 900 locations across North America and more than 6 million members. Their corporate headquarters used an applicant tracking system (ATS) that was not user-friendly, which hiring managers found difficult to navigate. Because of this, many Planet Fitness club managers were not utilizing the ATS. Instead, they used independent hiring methods which focused on online classified ads. Both walk-in and online applicants were instructed to submit a general employment application which did not specify what role they were applying to. This was often a deterrent to applicants and an inefficient use of time for both managers and prospective candidates. These outdated practices made the resume database difficult and cumbersome for the club managers to navigate through.

Their Challenge

Planet Fitness Headquarters was expanding their corporate team and needed a resource to support their growing hiring needs. Since their corporate office positions required relocation to New Hampshire, it was important for them to sell potential applicants not only on the position but also on the lifestyle and benefits of the position’s location. Club managers wanted a simple way to increase their applicant pool and improve their current application process, while also giving applicants the opportunity to apply directly from their mobile devices.

Our Solution

CareerPlug built a custom careers page for Planet Fitness’ corporate headquarters where they could present company photos and details about moving to the area. They immediately found CareerPlug’s software to be intuitive and easy to use. Because of the ease of use, they rolled the system out to their corporate-owned fitness clubs along with a streamlined, mobile-friendly application process. In the first month these clubs received 5 times more applicants than the previous month. This success led Planet Fitness to offer CareerPlug’s hiring software to all of their franchise owner groups with the same application process and integration to the Planet Fitness website. The significant increase in applicant flow and streamlined hiring processes have helped Planet Fitness franchisees keep their hiring on pace with their rapid expansion.