As a manufacturing plant that runs three shifts across two locations and employs over 320 people, Ridge Corporation is growing by leaps and bounds—and is therefore almost always hiring. When it comes to getting applicants for their jobs, they’ve tried it all: job boards, radio ads, social media, billboards, and even the local unemployment office. And yet, positions still go unfilled, or worse—they get filled with unqualified workers who aren’t a good long-term fit for the job.
The Challenge
The small HR share the brunt of hiring responsibility at Ridge Corporation, along with all the other duties typically handled by an entire HR department: payroll, benefits, employee engagement and more. Like most HR professionals who “wear many hats” in their organization, Ridge HR was spending too much time on hiring and weren’t getting the results they needed.
With no centralized process for posting jobs, they found it cumbersome and inefficient to log in to multiple job boards to review resumes and communicate with candidates. They also spent a lot of time on spreadsheets manually tracking where each applicant came from and how to communicate with them. When candidates did pick up the phone or respond to an email to schedule an interview, there would be occasional no-shows (and more wasted time preparing for them).
Adding to their (and their CFO’s) frustrations, The HR team was spending nearly $1,000 per week on promoted job postings! Something had to change.
Post Once, Publish Everywhere
The HR team knew that there had to be a way to put everything into one platform instead of juggling multiple sites simultaneously. They tried out Team Engine’s free trial and saw immediate results. Not only did jobs post to numerous job boards from one centralized interface, but the software was easy to learn and navigate. In just one-week, the HR team was able to schedule multiple interviews for multiple jobs, whereas previously, some postings would go untouched for weeks at a time
Ridge Corporation now saves over $3,600 a month on job postings, and hours of admin time by managing a much simpler process.
Team Engine funnels everything into one system. It’s organized so that I don’t need to flip back and forth on all the different accounts with multiple job boards anymore.”
Sharon Boatwright
Human Resources Director, Ridge Corporation
Keep The Best Applicants Engaged
With multiple job board accounts came multiple avenues of communication with candidates. If an applicant came in through Indeed, HR used Indeed messenger to reach out. If an applicant came from any other source (such as employee referrals, their own website, or other job boards), they’d play phone tag trying to set up an interview, or send an email and roll the dice on the applicant receiving it, opening it, and replying to it.
With different avenues of communication and countless job boards to log in to, it was chaotic and disorganized to keep up with candidates and schedule interviews. But that all changed when Ridge Corporation started using Team Engine’s automated text messages and emails for interview confirmations, reminders and follow-ups.
The automated messages help us reach applicants quickly, and the auto-reminders for interviews are a savior. If someone can’t make the interview, we actually hear a reason why and can reschedule instead of wondering what happened.
Sharon Boatwright
Human Resources Director, Ridge Corporation
Now, Team Engine does the work for them. When someone applies, Team Engine sends automated text messages to engage the candidate right away, no matter where or how they applied.
But most importantly, this allows them to grab and hold the attention of their most qualified candidates from the get-go. Timely communication from a potential employer signals interest and enthusiasm, which could be the difference between a candidate accepting Ridge Corporation’s offer or their competitor’s.
An Unexpected Bonus:
Improved Employee Communications
More than anything, Ridge was looking to lower hiring costs, get more applicants, and simplify the hiring process. After the one-week trial, it was clear that Team Engine could accomplish that. But what Ridge didn't expect was a streamlined process for internal communications.
Like most manufacturing plants, the HR department leaned on shift supervisors to relay important messages directly to employees during their daily start-up meetings—which wasn’t always reliable. The HR team also made announcements during the monthly all-employee meeting, but those meetings never included third shift workers. They even rotated messages on break room TVs, but employees missed that messaging when they were out on vacation or PTO.
But now, with Team Engine’s employee messaging platform, HR can send one text (from a computer) to everyone’s cell phone with the click of a button. Whether announcing company celebrations, sharing important deadlines, or issuing new policies, HR knows that all employees are not only getting the message, but getting the same, consistent information.
I started using the employee texting feature and that’s working really well. They like the consistency of the messaging. We’re capturing everyone and they’re all hearing the same message across shifts and locations.
Sharon Boatwright
Human Resources Director, Ridge Corporation
To go the extra mile, HR also implemented automated Happy Birthday texts and congratulatory work anniversary texts. It’s a small and simple gesture, but they’ve noticed that employees really appreciate the extra personal touch.
Managing over 320 employees is hard enough without spending hours jumping between websites, spreadsheets, phone calls, and meetings trying to connect with applicants and employees. HR can now focus on the people side of the business while Team Engine unifies and automates personalized communication with every person in the company. They’re finally putting the “human” back into Human Resources.
See Team Engine In Action
Most hiring and recruiting software isn't made specifically for a deskless, blue-collar workforce, but ours is. That's why we're confident you'll love our suite of automated hiring and communication tools to grow and retain your manufacturing team. Sign up for access to our entire HR automation platform for a full week, complete with all features and support from our team every step of the way.
