An Endless Pursuit of Candidates
When Susie started at Ritsema Associates two years ago, there was no HR team at all. Everything was done by paper and pen, including applying for jobs. There wasn’t even a formal recruiting process, which meant when she joined the team she had to start everything from scratch.
She did all the right things—built out their website, added a careers page, got active on social media, advertised jobs on Facebook and Indeed—but she still wasn’t getting the quality applicants she needed. Susie even tried outsourcing to recruiters and staffing agencies, but quickly abandoned that once she realized they could spend tens of thousands of dollars to get just one person in return.
At A Glance
Challenges
Low volume of qualified candidates
Low response rate on emails & phone calls to applicants for interviews
Employees disengaged with feedback surveys
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Outcomes
60% increase in monthly hiring
55% increase in employee survey responses
Increased HR efficiency through automation of low-level, repetitive tasks
A Stretch Goal: Double Last Year's Hiring Efforts
When Susie was given a goal at the beginning of the year to double last year’s hiring efforts, she was nervous about being able to hit it. When she first talked to Team Engine in April, she had hired only 12 people for the year, averaging around 4 people a month. She still had to find 30 qualified new hires to meet her goal of 42 for the year.
But then, from May to August (with the help of Team Engine’s hiring automation software) Susie hired an additional 40+ employees, surpassing her annual goal four months early and bringing her monthly hiring average up to 10!
She says they couldn’t have done it without that extra boost from Team Engine’s data-driven candidate sourcing and automated communication tools. Moving from paper to digital also helped them make it easier for applicants to complete the form.
Simplifying Employee Referrals
Ritsema Associates had a successful employee referral program offering $500 for referrals who stayed at least six months. However, the manual system was inefficient, requiring paper applications and spreadsheet tracking, often burdening the referring employee to prove the bonus.
Now, with Team Engine, Susie can request referrals with a click. Employees receive the request via text, making it quick and easy to submit their referrals. All submissions are automatically stored and tracked, simplifying contact initiation.
This streamlined process has not only increased the number of applicants but also improved cultural fits, boosting morale and employees’ sense of belonging.
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An All-In-One HR Communication Package
At the end of the day, there’s an overwhelming amount of software and tools in the marketplace made for busy HR professionals like Susie. What makes Team Engine different, in her perspective, is how it helped her automate the mundane tasks and freed her up to be more available and engaged with the employees.
"We use it as our ATS for all our recruiting pieces and as our centralized communication platform once they are hired. We add the jobs to the software, and Team Engine pushes it out to all the job boards so we can spend our time actually engaging with great applicants and employees. It's this all-in-one package that, from an HR perspective, checked all the boxes for all the things we need to grow the business."
She’s also thrilled to have found a solution that makes it easy for her deskless workers and job-seekers to communicate directly with her.
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Ritsema's Favorite Features
Automated Employee Surveys
Ritsema has seen their response rate jump by over 50% since implementing Team Engine. Susie credits this to the simplicity of receiving and completing the surveys, which all happens over text now, instead of email.
Pre-Scheduled Text Messages
The ability to pre-schedule messages, reminders, surveys and announcements has been the biggest time-saving feature for Susie.
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Two-Way Communication with HR
Employees who had previously been uncomfortable speaking up in meetings now feel empowered to voice concerns, share opinions, and ask questions over text message.
Start Texting With Your Employees & Applicants Today for a More Engaged Workforce Tomorrow
Make it easy for your blue-collar personnel to communicate with you by meeting them on the channel they prefer most: text messaging. Make it easy for you to communicate with them by using Team Engine’s texting software with automations, surveys, language preferences & more.