Buehler's Simplifies Its Hiring Process and Improves Workforce Productivity

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Family-owned Buehler's Fresh Foods started with a single store in Ohio in 1929. Today Buehler's operates 13 full-service grocery stores serving Northeastern Ohio. Several locations include a Buehler's restaurant, and many include a community room for local events.

The mission statement at Buehler's is to "offer an exceptional shopping experience that exceeds each customer's changing expectations through friendly, caring people and personal relationships based on trust." For Buehler's, repeat business is key. And more than anything else, repeat business depends on the relationships between customers and employees.

Automation increases accountability, consistency

Buehler's hiring process for hourly employees used to be a time-consuming and inefficient paper process handled at the store level. There was no accountability for finding the right person for the right job. No set expectations for interviewing or reference checking. And no consistency across the organization. "Managers were hiring the first person who came along — they were just not spending enough time on hiring," says Director of Training and Development Greg Buehler.

Buehler's also had seasonal hiring challenges. One day it would have no staffing needs and the next day it would have ten openings. To solve this issue, the company needed a pool of qualified candidates ready to hire. And this meant implementing an automated hiring system. This would not only solve Buehler’s accountability and consistency concerns. It would enable the company to monitor hiring trends at each location. And dramatically improve workforce productivity.

Buehler's Fresh Foods decided to implement Kronos^® Workforce Acquisition™ for its frontline hiring. And within three months the Kronos solution was deployed at all 13 locations. "We thought the execution might be a monumental task, but the Kronos implementation team made it a very doable process," says Buehler.

Behavioral assessments = better quality hires

In order to select the right people who fit the company mission of "friendly and caring," Buehler's is using the Kronos Customer Service Assessment. This behavioral assessment helps identify applicants who have personality traits that can lead to strong service orientation and good people skills.

Buehler's is also using the Kronos Safety, Supervisor, and Reliability Assessments for additional screening. These assessments help identify those who are more likely to work in a careful manner; those with core traits needed to effectively manage others; and candidates who are more likely to be terminated for delinquent behavior or quit after a short time on the job.

Green, yellow, red makes selection simple

When a candidate completes the application process, their results become available to the hiring manager almost immediately. Candidates who don't meet minimum requirements are screened out prior to taking the assessments. Remaining candidates who take the assessments are ranked "green, yellow, or red," indicating their level of fit for a particular position. The manager can also view the candidate’s schedule availability, experience, and other relevant information.

Buehler is a fan of the simple process. "Kronos enables the manager to identify potential applicants and have them in process for a second interview or to make an offer," he says. "This helps shorten the hiring process when we have a position to fill. We want to help our managers save time, and Kronos helps by identifying qualified applicants."

During the interview process, managers use a behavioral interview guide. This helps them conduct focused, productive interviews and make rapid, informed decisions. And this not only saves time. It minimizes the chance of a bad hire.

Accountability drives better results

With no accountability, Buehler's was lacking consistency in its hiring process. But this is a thing of the past with Kronos. With Workforce Acquisition all actions are tracked, such as dates for phone screens, interviews, or reference checks. Now the Buehler's management team knows if hiring managers across store locations are responding quickly to qualified candidates.

"We had an idea of which locations were screening applicants prior to Kronos. But Kronos helped us identify and confirm our idea, and then work with those locations to improve the process," says Buehler.

Applicant pooling shares candidates between stores

The pooling of applicants makes life easier for Buehler's locations in close proximity. Once an applicant applies at one location, they stay exclusive to that location for a specified length of time. But if they haven't been matched to a position, they go into a pool from which other Buehler's markets can hire.

"This creates a little friendly competition for applicants, which I like," says Buehler. It is also cost efficient, as stores can look out for each other's hiring needs. And it's good for the applicant as well — they only have to apply once, and the company gets the benefit of a larger pool of applicants ready to be hired.

Most Buehler's locations keep all positions open on an ongoing basis. This way, when hiring needs increase a manager can easily match open positions with existing applicants. But some Buehler's locations would rather only show positions that need to be filled right away. They think some candidates may feel they have wasted their time if they complete the application process, only to find that they will be pooled until needed. Workforce Acquisition solves this problem by giving stores the flexibility to easily turn positions on and off.

"We are a family business and we want to keep people happy," says Buehler. "If we're not going to hire someone we want them as a customer. We want the applicant to think, 'Here’s an organization that knows what it's doing. Too bad I can't work for them right now, but why would I do my grocery shopping anywhere else?'"

Automated hiring makes Buehler’s more competitive

Workforce Acquisition has given Buehler's access to a new segment of the hiring population. "I think using an online system makes you more competitive," says Buehler. "There was a whole piece of the population that we were missing out on because they couldn't sit in their living rooms to learn about us and apply online. We saw Workforce Acquisition as an opportunity to address a segment of potential candidates that we were not identifying with." All in all, Workforce Acquisition gives Buehler’s an edge in hiring the best hourly workers in a very competitive industry.


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