There are so many tech vendors out there. How do you make sure you find the right ones?
It's a lot. One of the biggest tips I can give is just try to aim towards simplicity because there are so many options and it's hard to figure out which one's the right one. Sometimes it's better to go with the simpler option, and I've often compared it to a Samsung versus an iPhone. You can perhaps do more things in a Samsung phone, but the iPhone is simpler to use. And it’s usually a faster adoption for someone who has never used an iPhone before.
So you can apply that same logic to recruiting tech. Take into consideration your end users and their level of digital knowledge and how likely are the users to adopt anything new. Because that makes a difference. You could have the world's greatest technology, but if it's too complex and you have too many choices, then nobody is going to use it.
So it’s important to be realistic with where you are in your journey, and don’t try to do too much too fast. Pinpoint your specific problems and think about the experience for your specific users and candidates first and foremost. And then find the technology that can enable and support that, versus trying to build your process around the capabilities of the technology.
And how has 7-Eleven specifically built their tech stack to complement how the business is structured?
Within retail or anywhere there's high volume hiring, it's not a one size fits all. The way that we find talent and recruit in our stores is going to be different from someone we hire into a logistics role. So when it comes to the technology piece, it should always be driven by a strategy to hire the right person into the right role, and the technology is there to enable what you're trying to achieve, versus trying to build your processes and your strategy around the capability of a tool you already have.
For us at the store level, the reason that we ended up going with an AI assistant was driven by a business decision first. Previously, we had hundreds of recruiters out in the field specific to store level jobs. And as a business we made a decision for store leaders to own and have accountability around their labor hours and the operations. When that happened, we eliminated that recruiting coordinator role, and in order to be successful and enable store leaders to be held accountable to their labor hours and to enable them to hire the right people, we knew that technology was going to be key in that. And then that's how we went down the path of Paradox.
Again, I think that's one of the biggest pitfalls in implementing technology and trying to build out your tech stack. A lot of times organizations are building it in a vacuum, and then real life happens. You need to be able to pivot versus just bulldozing through it.
When it comes to the technology piece, it should always be driven by a strategy to hire the right person into the right role... versus trying to build your processes and your strategy around the capability of a tool you already have.
How do you gain C-Suite buy in for new technology like AI?
You definitely need a strong change management plan which includes getting leadership buy-in. Even if you don't need it. But when you can bring people along with you on the journey versus making it feel like they have no choice, that makes all the difference in the world. And then you have a whole bunch of cheerleaders trying to make it happen for you because they were a part of the journey.
And the number one way to do that is to speak the language of the business. Often we can lead with ‘why we want this for our recruiters or why it'll make the process easier’, but instead we should be leading with the business results it's going to help drive.
What's your advice for teams facing increased demands with reduced budgets?
The best solution is finding the right technology. Ultimately, you need to get more efficient and effective with the dollars you already have and implementing a new system is costly. So in that business case that you build you absolutely have to include how ultimately you save money. You've got to show and put dollars behind where you're building efficiencies and saving time or removing certain processes. There's dollars to be saved in the end, even if it's not crossing off something on a budget.
I can tell you what we immediately saw at the store level when we implemented Paradox. We were averaging over 10 days to hire, and we immediately cut that in half. And we are now less than three days. Time is money. And if our stores are staffed, we are able to provide a better experience for our customers. So by being staffed we estimated we saved 40,000 hours a week for our store leaders.
What would tell someone who is still fearful about adopting AI into their hiring process?
Having a healthy amount of fear is good because you don't want to be too quick on making decisions. And I think each organization has a different level of risk tolerance as well. But my thought on AI, or any new tech, is that it’s not always going to work out perfectly, so if you do fail, fail fast and make adjustments and then just keep going. To be fair, you have to be in an organization where that strategy is supported. But I have found that there are huge payoffs if you’re willing to take on a healthy amount of risk. You need to be bold and take on some of that risk or else it's never going to be transformational.
But do the research you need to do. Ask all the people that you need to ask so that you're making a very educated decision on the risk you're willing to take on. Be clear on what you are hoping to deliver. Be very, very transparent with everyone involved. And I think the best way of doing the research is talking to other clients of whoever that partner is going to be, and trying to find clients that have a similar risk tolerance that you do, a similar sized industry, and similar outcomes. Try to find the most clear comparison that you can and have all the conversations that you need in order to feel comfortable around it. I was absolutely fearful in moving forward with Paradox at the store level, but I knew that it was worth taking that risk. And I’m so glad I did.
