.jpg){kind=avatar}
Almost 70% of TA leaders say time to hire is the most important part of high-volume hiring. Not a shocker, right? In high-volume, speed is everything.
Until you hire the wrong person.
If your new hire quits, then all the time, energy, and money you spent hiring them goes out the door, too. Now you have to start over. Your store manager has to read resumes and play phone tag, all while running a smooth operation. Oh, and by the way, the lunch rush just got here and you’re down a fry cook.
Nine out of ten restaurant operators say understaffing is a significant issue. It’s just the reality of the restaurant industry, and a reality that Captain D’s, a 500+ location fast casual seafood restaurant, was dealing with.
Well, dealt with.
By introducing a two-minute personality assessment into the process, Captain D’s drastically reduced turnover in their 287 corporate-owned locations without sacrificing speed or conversion. And the reduction is so great, it’s directly driving massive cost savings for the business:
- 38% reduction in employee turnover.
- Hires decreased from 12,000 to 8,000 YoY.
- Hundreds of thousands of dollars saved.
Captain D’s was able to solve understaffing by addressing the root of their hiring problem: They never needed more candidates, they just needed to hire more of the right ones. And it turns out that you can find the right ones by adding an extra two minutes to the application process.
Two minutes. To save dozens hours, and thousands of dollars. This is the story of how Captain D’s started hiring better by simply understanding their candidates a little bit more.
Issues with understaffing.
Prior to adding the assessment, Captain D’s had a 211% turnover rate. To make up for it, they were hiring 12,000 new people every year. On average, that’s 30 new employees per location annually. Which is more than two per month.
That’s a lot of extra work for managers. And valuable time being spent on not managing their teams, stores, or customers.
“We were talking to and hiring 30% of people that weren’t great fits for the organization,” said VP of HR Sean MacMillan. “That doesn’t just negatively affect costs, but culture too.”
For Captain D's — and basically every fast casual restaurant — being understaffed meant a vicious cycle of hiring "wrong fit" employees that never stayed long-term. And that caused a trickle-down effect that directly impacted their bottom line:
- The restaurant is understaffed.
- Current team members have to take up the work of multiple people.
- Overworked and frustrated, those team members decide to move on to a less stressful job — ipso facto, more turnover.
- Less team members mean longer lines and less fulfilled tickets during peak hours. AKA: profits go down.
- Less team members means a slower customer experience, jeopardizing return visits. AKA: Profits go down even more.
Captain D’s realized that if they could assuage their turnover problem, then they could increase their profit margins in turn. And solving turnover isn’t something that is fixed after a new hire starts their first day. No, it starts at the beginning: When you hire better, you retain better.
So the organization sought a solution that could help them identify best-fit candidates early on in the process — all in an effort to help their bottom line.
Finding the “right” restaurant hires.
First and foremost: They wanted something that talked with their other technology. Already operating Paradox’s Conversational ATS, they utilized an AI assistant named Maya that automatically helped candidates apply to jobs over text. Maya greatly increases candidate engagement and response time — but it was an added personality assessment integration that gave Captain D’s the secret to stopping turnover.
When candidates apply to a job, Maya now texts them a link to begin Traitify’s short, visual-based personality assessment. Candidates look at a series of images and simply select “Me” or “Not Me.”
Sounds simple enough, right? Well, it is. From the candidate’s perspective, the whole process only takes a few minutes. Which means that it’s not turning candidates away — since the introduction of Maya and Traitify, Captain D’s has actually seen a 20% increase in applications.
And the data that Captain D’s receives from the assessment is invaluable. Candidate responses are synthesized together and compared to a benchmark profile — one that Captain D’s partnered with Traitify to create based on the Big Five personality model. Hiring managers can immediately identify and spend their energy interviewing candidates that are more likely to stay with Captain D’s for longer.
“We’re now bringing on people that are suitable for the role, people who are cut out for the role, people who will excel in that role,” said MacMillan. “Our hiring managers aren’t spending time and money training people that wouldn’t be a good fit”
And it’s working. Since implementing the assessment, Captain D’s has been able to cut their seven-day turnover by 85%, their 30-day turnover by 64%, and their annual turnover by 38%.
“We just don’t have to constantly find new talent anymore,” said Michael Ditrich, director of talent and training. “We're making the right decision almost every time.”
Fiscal impact of personality assessments.
Here’s the fun part: That 38% reduction in turnover starts a massive domino effect on Captain D’s operations and bottom line.
With more of their candidates staying on for longer, the number of open positions in restaurants has lowered drastically. So while Captain D’s used to have to hire 12,000/year to keep up with turnover, that number has dropped to just 8,000 in 2024. That’s a 33% YoY reduction in open positions — not from a decrease in headcount, but a decrease in turnover. And to fill those reduced openings, Captain D’s can be even more selective about finding the right people.
“We’ve been able to go from a ‘hiring perspective’ to a ‘selection perspective’,” said MacMillan. “The Traitify assessment has everything to do with that reduction in hire rate and increase in retention.”
With 4,000 less people to source, the hiring team is gaining significant capital. Captain D’s is spending less time talking to candidates who would be more likely to leave, spending more time supporting and onboarding better fits, and shifting investments towards internal development.
“We see lots of cost savings when we hire the right people,” said Ditrich. “Our hiring managers don’t waste money and time in recruitment. And the employees that stay on longer are more productive, which we see improves our revenue.”
Select better. Retain better. Save more.
We just don’t have to constantly find new talent anymore. We're making the right decision almost every time.
"Hires that don’t stay with us for two months will each cost us a couple thousand dollars, easily,” said MacMillan. “So when we hire the right people, we save that money that we were losing.”
In an industry rife with understaffing, Captain D’s successfully fought the norm by adding an assessment into their hiring process. Without sacrificing speed, they now identify best-fit candidates early on, which has dramatically impacted their staffing levels and bottom line. They’re hiring less people, saving more money, and keeping employees on for longer.
