As one of the nation’s leading retailers, you would think 7-Eleven’s hiring process was as fast and seamless as their business. But 7-Eleven’s stores faced challenges with recruiter centralization that led to a disjointed, clunky experience for candidates and hiring teams. So 7-Eleven made a switch: Their franchised stores would have a decentralized approach, with store leaders handling their own hiring. But managers didn't have the bandwidth to handle both store operations and hiring logistics, leading to a slow hiring process with high drop-off.
“By the time candidates got scheduled, they had found jobs elsewhere,” said 7-Eleven Head of Talent Acquisition Rachel Allen.
The centralized corporate-owned locations had similar challenges, taking 10 days to fill a single role. So when 7-Eleven acquired Speedway and its 3,800+ new decentralized locations, they decided to start empowering their managers with the right hiring resources.
Automating the hiring process.
7-Eleven began its strategic TA tech overhaul to improve their time-to-hire while creating a streamlined hiring process across centralized and decentralized locations. To do it, they partnered with Workday Paradox, who Speedway had already implemented at a small scale. Together, the two companies built an end-to-end hiring machine, all powered by an AI agent named Rita.
Available 24/7 via career site widget, job advertisement, or in-store QR code, Rita guides candidates through the early phases of the application process over text in minutes, and handles post-interview correspondence in a way that’s frictionless for everyone. With Rita handling admin work, recruiters and store leaders are freed up to do valuable work.
Paradox is the first solution that really knew how to do high-volume recruitment. It’s been a game changer.
Head of Talent Acquisition
An application process that’s as simple as texting.
With Rita, 7-Eleven turns job applications into simple conversations. If candidates have questions, Rita can answer instantly. If a candidate is ready to apply, Rita makes the screening process engaging and easy — it’s all done in a few simple text messages. "It's been earth-shattering for our recruitment process and the candidate experience,” said Allen.
Rita also streamlines interview scheduling by texting qualified candidates with open interview times based on store leader or recruiter availability. Once a time is selected by the candidate, Rita automatically notifies the interviewer and blocks the time off on their calendar. And store leaders, who know best when their stores are busy and when they’ll have some free time, are able to configure Rita to only schedule during specific blocks of time to ensure smooth location operation.
The time savings is mind boggling. We’re so thrilled to give those hours back to the stores.
Head of Talent Acquisition
A new system of record: Workday Paradox Conversational ATS.
Fifty-five percent of 7-Eleven’s stores are franchise operated — 7-Eleven empowers those locations with Workday Paradox Conversational ATS, an AI-driven candidate management platform. Built to hire frontline roles at scale, Workday Paradox Conversational ATS makes job management as easy as turning a toggle on or off. Once a manager opens a role, Rita does the rest: screening,scheduling, post-interview offers, and onboarding. If desired, store leaders can set volume limits to increase optimization, or manually take action on any candidates in just a few clicks.
Leveraging an integration with Workday Recruiting.
7-Eleven’s corporate-owned locations report to a centralized TA team that uses Workday Recruiting. For these locations, 7-Eleven opted to minimize change management and integrate Workday Paradox Candidate Experience Agent with their existing ATS. Under this workflow, Rita still screens and schedules candidates in minutes; candidate information is then seamlessly stored in a back-end that recruiters know and use everyday.
Recruiters recruit. Managers manage. And AI does the rest.
Head of Talent Acquisition
A new role for recruiters, and an improved in-store experience.
With Rita handling 95% of the hiring process, 7-Eleven has been able to repurpose their resources into opportunities and roles for their centralized recruiting team. “The people who had always been burdened by busywork are freed up to be consultants and advisors and do more people-centric work,” said Allen.
And franchise locations enjoy the benefits as well. With thousands of hours returned per week, managers are able to focus on hiring the right candidates, who compound the improved customer experience made possible by Rita’s automated screening and scheduling.