Targeting Job Candidates with AI and LLMs w/ Courtney Dempsey – The Shaker Green Room at RecFest USA, Ep. 9

[Music] thanks for hanging out with us today uh who are you and why are you here that’s awful it’s a very it’s a loaded question yeah no I appreciate that I’m like the token nonta person here so my name is Courtney Dempsey and I’m with southern rock restaurants oh and I just want to throw this out there out there Crystal what’s in there Chad Oh no you’re going to have to look for that later but that’s that’s high that’s high that’s High um and we’re the largest licensed franchisee of mallister stelli and we’re located here in Nashville very nice very nice so let’s look let’s look forward real quick into into 2025 what advice would you give your peers uh in the New Year moving into the new year Embrace technology Embrace technology did they have a choice say more I think there are a lot of people still fighting it um look for companies that have open API I cold call a lot of open API companies okay um and I asked to beta test them and see if we can integrate their open API systems into the current system that we’re utilizing which is paradox yeah um I love llms it’s like my best I like I this is your time this is my time I’m a one woman show I did you love them when they weren’t cool or before they were cool I had to teach myself so I was python back in the you know the early days of that um as said Professor Chuck taught me how to follow data yeah and I just kind of rolled with it and um I listen to your podcast and any company that talks ill of another company I’m like I’m absolutely 100% calling them because they obviously don’t like them for a reason and I will become their best friends so we U make sure we integrate that too so what are some tools technologically that you find invaluable in your everyday life or business speed is essential um in the qsr tech not drugs tech oh you have to be be fast kills you know you want to be methodical in your approach but I um will run you off the road cuz I have to and we’re a mom and pop shop we have 160 restaurants um I can’t compete with the larger organizations but I sure try we average between 2,900 and 4,000 applicants a week wow with 20% spend we saved almost $2 million in ad spend and 80% of that is organic how do you do that yeah how’ you say more about how you’re doing that I might have to come on show you can’t open that box the box without pouring a drink just give us a little bit we’ll we’ll we’ll we’ll do an extended version later I think if you utilize llms you’re able to Target the exact audience that you want at the exact time so I can tell you with an 100% accuracy that Wednesdays at 8: a.m. today for instance was the perfect time for me to advertise for all of our restaurants in Missouri what I don’t advertise is more than one position uhhuh I coach down hiring is critical so if you’re running or advertising for a shift whether that person is qualified to be a shift lead or not they’re going to apply for it because the money is better than an hourly so you lead with your best foot forward and you trickle down from there wow so in 2024 what has surprised you the most the great stay the what the great stay the great stay managers aren’t leaving um and those that are lifers have already expired out in our side of the business so the influx of retail that I’m seeing right now is about 85% to our lack of 15% of actual people that work in the restaurant industry that was extraordinary to me yes so we have to coach on how to read a resume from the bottom up now versus the top down I love your attention to the Strategic element of timing yes I assume that speed to connect is very important to to you what are you finding is the most effective is it is it SMS text messaging is it iMessage is it WhatsApp like how do is it phone like what what mediums are the most effective for you to get that sale get that get that lead quickly so for us we utilize Paradox obviously so the conversational aspect of that is critical the constant engagement um and then I will reutilize indeed I I do all my advertising and with some exceptions for x scrapes um I will say that 85% we just did a data poll on that because I love data I love analytics that 85% of our applicants are between the hours of 12:00 a.m. and 5:00 a.m. so just the engagement process with that has been critical um the speed of posting those ads with the attent knowing the attention span of of our applicants are less than 72 hours is the flight time of our runs I don’t want to oversaturate the market with our ads um grab we only have you know 160 stores so I want to make sure there’s no Market fatigue so I’m very strategic on the days and times that I post and when they should expire out and then I have our competition chasing us trying to figure out how it is that we’re doing um and as long as it fits in on a a device so I don’t do any garbage you’re a dishwasher I don’t need to list out sounds like it’s all automated you got the right ads at the right time and you have an automated 24/7 communication device yes to get them whenever whenever they come into the door which I think is impactful but I also realized that unless it fits on the phone then the applicant is not going to scroll through a job description oh yeah so why would I have to advertise a job description you should be leading with Benefits the culture and then close out with the culture like I want you to work for us so I’m selling you on our company yeah and then the the reception we’re captured a higher rate for us now are you leveraging are you leveraging video and if so how uh for our managers we are um it’s not mandatory um for our management applicants we do encourage them to upload a video a 30 second to a minute long video on why you want to work for our company yeah and um I will say the engagement of that it’s about 50/50 we just introduced that within the last 90 days nice so in 2025 what’s your main priority to maintain our 100% perfect record of fully Staffing and with I I’m more open into more open AI um I just think that that’s just the way with the future the more layers you can add within your own platform because you’re you’re only as relevant today as you were yesterday you you can’t become stale in this space you have to be more creative and you have to Target more to the traditional markets that you want to like for us we’re not targeting gen Z anymore the Gen Z market we’ve we’ve oversaturated we’ve infiltrated I’m intentionally targeting ARP members and Veterans wow we want an adult in the room in our space we need an adult in the room Kills baby cream C rules everything around me thanks for hanging out with us today for our listeners and viewers who want to connect with you learn more about employment opportunities where should they go uh LinkedIn Courtney Dempsey and I’m with Southern rck restaurants thanks Courtney thank you guys come by enjoy the show thank you [Music]