Holiday Stationstores Improves Hiring, Minimizes Compliance Risk for Corporate and Franchise Locations
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Headquartered in Bloomington, Minn., Holiday Stationstores is a recognized leader in the convenience store industry, with 329 corporate-owned stores and 109 franchise stores located throughout 12 states. The organization strives to offer a different kind of convenience shopping: bigger stores, wider aisles, a large selection of ready-to-eat food products, stateof-the-art car washes, and — most important — friendly employees. Holiday Stationstores’ mission is to create a loyal customer base with great customer service, be an employer of choice, and be a good neighbor.
To consistently provide great customer service to every customer in every location, Holiday Stationstores needed a reliable method to find and hire quality people. Holiday wanted to create consistency in the store hiring process. It wanted to improve the flow of new hire paperwork. It needed to eliminate time-consuming, productivity-killing, paper-based applications. And it had to improve compliance with hiring procedures.
It didn’t take long to find a solution that offered the functionality that Holiday was looking for: The Kronos® Workforce Talent Acquisition application was the answer, and Holiday implemented the solution at all 329 corporate stores simultaneously.
PROJECT BENEFITS
“Allowing managers to search through qualified candidates, review screening information, use recommended follow-up questions, utilize applicant pooling — the list of improved processes and efficiencies goes on and on.” Darin Averill, Manager of Training and Recruiting
• Automated processes reduce costs, minimize compliance risk
• Improved workflow, less paperwork improve manager productivity
• Applicant pooling provides quality applicants to stores
• Franchise stores gain a hiring edge with online applications and assessments
Category: Retail business, Convenience store
Employees: 329 corporate, 109 franchises
Kronos Products: Workforce Talent Acquisition™
Applicant pooling improves hiring and productivity
To increase the flow of applicants and minimize paper waste, Holiday wanted to offer job seekers online applications. The organization also wanted the ability to pool applicants within given geographic regions so managers could draw from available talent within their areas. And organization leaders needed recruiting reports that gave them insight into regional and store-level challenges and successes.
With Kronos, it was all possible. “We gained buy-in from our store manager group because of the improved processes, and they were excited to share applicants through the automated pooling system,” says Darin Averill, manager of training and recruiting for Holiday Stationstores. “Many managers depend on applicant pooling — in the bigger cities, it’s essential for providing quality applicants during times of need.”
Another benefit: “Keeping track of applications electronically instead of saving paper applications is huge,” says Averill. “Allowing managers to search through qualified candidates, review screening information, use recommended follow-up questions, utilize applicant pooling — the list of improved processes and efficiencies goes on and on.”
Staffing new stores is also easier. The organization “turns on” the Web application for a new store about a month before the store is scheduled to open. This allows managers to build an applicant pool in advance and open a new store faster and more efficiently.
Compliance risk minimized with automated processes
Holiday’s old paper-based assessment required store-level administration, which enabled store managers to hire applicants who did not score well on the assessment. Now with Kronos, all applicants go through an online prescreening and assessment process. Ineligible candidates are automatically screened out, and best-fit candidates continue on in the process. An added benefit is that Holiday is reducing paper, printing, postage, and storage costs while saving time for both managers and applicants.
Holiday has also improved hiring compliance with automatically generated federal and state forms. And a click of a button initiates background checks. These automated processes have reduced costs and improved compliance with regulatory requirements. Another bonus: Now Holiday is able to take advantage of WOTC tax credits with its automated Kronos hiring system.
Gone is the excess of late, incomplete, incorrect, or missing new-hire paperwork. New Holiday employees are now getting integrated and beginning work more quickly. With Kronos, Holiday is creating a positive onboarding experience during a new hire’s first exposure to the organization’s culture, making the new hire’s first impression of the organization a great one.
Franchise locations benefit from automated hiring
The Holiday Franchise Program creates the opportunity to share in the brand recognition and marketing success experienced by Holiday. “Franchise stores using the system have found they have a significant hiring advantage because of the online application and applicant pooling with corporate stores,” Averill says. “If a franchisee doesn’t have Kronos or another method of capturing online applicants, it’s missing out on 60 percent of potential applicants — plus the entire applicant pool shared within our Kronos system.”
Many Holiday franchisees also use third-party job boards to help find applicants. When people apply for jobs on the Holiday Web site or through a job board, they are redirected to the Kronos application. Explains Averill, “Having an account with Kronos generates applicants for franchisees because they are listed as choices to job seekers within the Kronos system.” Franchise stores are also pleased with the automated prescreening and assessment tools they now have access to.
Improved branding creates great applicant experience
Branding is important for Holiday Stationstores, not only for its corporate and franchise stores but for attracting applicants as well. Workforce Talent Acquisition allows Holiday to build and configure an applicant experience that resembles its Web site. The technology allows the organization to market a cohesive corporate image and present a seamless experience to potential applicants. Presenting a positive image to potential employees through the application process is an important way to attract, win, and retain high-quality talent.
Holiday gains in-depth reporting
New recruiting reports help save payroll dollars and identify localized talent shortages or management problems. Now organization leaders can apply resources where they are needed to increase applicant flow and/or assist managers in finding the applicants they need within the existing talent pool. Reporting also helps identify times and days that are best for recruiting efforts on site.
In the future, Holiday plans to use more in-depth reporting to identify and address local and regional hiring issues and to identify where applicants heard about Holiday so it can direct resources to the most successful sourcing channels.
Holiday Stationstores’ management knows that attracting and hiring quality applicants has a direct impact on organization profits. “Poor hiring decisions affect the whole company,” Averill says. “Investing in a hiring solution to help ensure that we employ the highest-quality people available is the right thing to do.”
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