This article is brought to you by Sprockets, a NACS supplier member.

“Most employers use an outdated process to recruit workers because they’re not using screening technology to find the absolute best candidate for their business needs,” says Zach Matook, director of marketing at Sprockets, a provider of hiring software that helps businesses source, screen and select the ideal applicants.

And the convenience retail industry is not immune to employee turnover, with the average turnover rate for part-time associates at 152% in 2022, according to NACS data. The cost to hire a part-time associate was $1,022 in 2022.

The QSR industry is a direct competitor to the convenience store industry—not just in the foodservice category but in the applicant pool as well. Many people who apply at a restaurant will also apply to work at a convenience store, so it’s in a c-store’s best interest to see how their competition approaches hiring, according to Matook.

One QSR operator decided to try something different with its hiring process by partnering with Sprockets. The McDonald’s franchisee had experienced many challenges with its workforce that c-stores can relate to, including low retention and understaffing, as well as frequent call-outs and conflicts among workers. It also had a difficult and time-consuming interview process.

Sprockets set the operator up with its Applicant Matching System, which reduces employee turnover by allowing business managers to create a unique success profile based on the mental makeup of their current top-performing employees and then evaluate applicants against this benchmark. Operators can see which applicants are the best fit for the position based on a simple red-yellow-green scoring system within the Sprockets dashboard.

“The results speak for themselves,” said Matook. “The McDonald’s franchisee saw a 24% reduction in 90-day employee turnover, a 20% increase in shift attendance and a 14% reduction in annual employee turnover.”

The matching system also allows employers to engage with new and past applicants via text messages. The system then scores potential candidates based on personality traits shared with a company’s best workers and sends hiring managers instant alerts about top candidates.

“We take the guesswork out of whether a candidate is a good fit or not for a business,” said Matook. “That way, managers can spend less time chasing bad applicants and more time on daily operations.”

Learn more about Sprockets and how c-stores can overcome today’s click-to-apply hiring culture and bring in the right candidate before the competition does in the Thursday, July 20 edition of NACS Daily.

Also, join Sprockets on Tuesday, July 25, for a NACS webinar featuring Sprockets CEO AJ Richichi as he discusses how you can transform your hiring process through a few simple changes, leading to a boost in applicant flow, lower hiring expenses and increased employee retention across all your locations.

This is the first installment of a two-part NACS Daily series on how convenience retailers can use the Sprockets system to hire the best candidate and improve retention. Learn more about Sprockets.