The key to Stanley Steemer International, Inc.’s success is not the breadth of cleaning services; it’s the technicians who provide them. That makes Stanley Steemer’s hiring paramount to the business. A shortage of quality technicians directly impacts the bottom line and the company’s reputation.
Fortunately, candidate interest is high—Stanley Steemer processes 115,000 resumes every year. But sorting through that many candidates is no easy task, especially when hiring duties fall on Stanley Steemer’s busy branch managers’ shoulders.
Our branch managers oversee hiring, daily routes, cash and technicians for their locations. If someone is having issues or a van breaks down, the branch manager is expected to help.
Director of Human Resources
Because daily operations are a priority, hiring often took a back seat. When managers finally had the time to focus on recruitment, the manual, monotonous process of reading resumes and calling candidates to schedule an interview proved inefficient.
While Stanley Steemer utilized technology, it relied on multiple vendors to handle different phases of the hiring process, which complicated communication and strained the recruiting budget. The company needed a solution to streamline its hiring and remove administrative burdens from branch managers. By automating these tasks, managers could focus more on what really matters: selecting the best candidates.
An AI-powered solution that automates hiring work.
To solve their hiring challenges, Stanley Steemer implemented Workday Paradox Conversational ATS, a dynamic frontline-first platform that turns job applications into two-minute conversations. Candidates simply express interest in an open position on Stanley Steemer’s career site, and their AI agent Maria takes care of the rest.
The process is seamless: If a candidate has a question, Maria answers it in seconds. When a candidate is ready to apply, Maria verifies their qualifications through text and suggests interview times based on branch managers’ calendars. Branch managers need only manage their own calendars; Maria handles everything else, including the offer and onboarding process should managers decide to make the hire.
“Maria gives managers time back in their day, and she also gives candidates a smoother process,” said Operations Recruiting Manager Diana Fry. “It's a win-win all around.”
The challenges we had before Paradox are no longer there because of the automation. And the impact it’s had on our managers has been very rewarding to see.
Operations Recruiting Manager
Streamlined hiring saves more than $110,000 annually.
To ensure candidate quality, Stanley Steemer puts each candidate through two rounds of interviews: a group interview and then a 1:1 interview with the branch manager. The organization used to have different vendors help with each of these processes, while also contracting another vendor that offered video interviewing.
“We were using a couple of vendors to do our scheduling for us,” said Director of Human Resources Jolene Hostal. “Putting that all through Paradox has really helped consolidate and drive those costs down. We reduced our cost-per-hire by 40%.”
By implementing AI, Stanley Steemer created more room in its budget, allowing the company to reinvest its annual savings into employee skills and operational efficiency. “In our first full year with Paradox, we saved 28% in total procurement costs and $55 for each candidate we hired," said Fry.
We've had massive savings, and I owe it all to Paradox and the automation that Maria brings to the table.
Operations Recruiting Manager
A focus on being strategic.
Without the need to read thousands of resumes or spend hours scheduling interviews, managers have more time to focus on impactful, strategic work, allowing them to serve as talent advisors for their locations.
“Our branch managers are now more strategic with their time,” says Hostal. “They’re able to focus on business needs and how we can get the best quality candidates.”
As Stanley Steemer looks to the future, it plans to automate further to increase efficiency across the entire team.
“Automation is always going to play the role it does today, but I think it’s going to play an even greater role in the future,” says Hostal. “It will free up more time for our managers, our recruiting team, and our HR team to be more strategic and focus on the needs of our business.”