How Wendy's NZ leverages AI in their hiring process, according to their CEO

Wendy’s New Zealand (NZ) needs an “always-on” hiring process that works around the clock to staff their 21 nationwide locations. But they were previously ill-fitted to handle this task: Their tech stack was primarily based around paper applications.

Danielle Lendich, CEO of Wendy’s NZ, saw an opportunity to optimize how they hired. By partnering with Paradox, the Wendy’s NZ team has been able to return ~200 hours per year to every restaurant.

Paradox CMO Josh Zywien recently got a chance to chat with Danielle about their hiring solution. Here’s a snippet of their conversation:

Josh Zywien: Can you talk about the importance of hiring to the success of the business?

Danielle Lendich: People are very important to our business. We need them every day to come to work and open the doors and serve our customers and give the best experience they can. We need them to make the burgers with love — so recruitment and getting the best people for that role is very important to us. 

JZ: And what problems were stopping you from hiring the people you needed?

DL: Prior to 2020, we had no real systems to try and manage everything, so we often ended up using paper applications in-store. And it was very easy for those applications to get lost amongst all the paperwork. It was very haphazard. When the pandemic hit it became even more difficult to recruit people. There were just too many jobs and not enough candidates. 

JZ: You're competing with every other restaurant and hotel to get top talent. Why was it important to simplify things for the candidate? And can you talk about what that looks like?

‍DL: Speed to market is very important for candidates. If they can apply online and do the whole process very quickly, we can get them from a candidate to an employee within two or three days. 

And rather than being pushed by us, the process is entirely moved forward at the candidates’ own pace. They go through an initial questionnaire and then once it is submitted, they move to the next step. And all the way through it's up to them to move to the next next step. Obviously they still have an interview with one of our store managers so that we can still check that they are the best fit for the business. But Paradox took the whole first interview basically out of the equation. 

We’re no longer wasting a candidate or manager's time doing an interview for someone that's not going to be right for the role. 

‍JZ: Can you talk a little more about how your assistant, Lou, acts as an in-between to help the candidate and the manager?

‍DL: Before, there was a lot of communication that a manager had to do manually: logging onto the Internet or reading the paper application. Ringing the candidate and trying to schedule an interview at a time that suited them both. And if the candidate or the manager needed to postpone or cancel the interview, there would be lots of additional back and forth. 

Lou saves our managers time. He will schedule the interview directly into the system. And then if there's any changes, it's all done through Lou as well. So you don't lose that candidate if they can't make a particular time and need to change it. 

In the old days, we used to spend virtually a whole day on recruiting and scheduling. Now we spend very little time on both of those. And we can get people employed before our competitors even pick up the application to look at it. So that's been great for us. 

It’s led to a huge increase in applicants. And each candidate has a really great experience — even if they don't meet the needs for the role. Because no matter what, they're still dealt with professionally through Paradox rather than the silence that candidates often experience. Every single person is communicated with. 

And the managers receive huge oversight into the candidates that we're getting, which stores are getting a lot of candidates, and which stores aren't getting so many candidates. So if we need to advertise, we can place advertising where we need candidates the most. 

We can actually virtually shut stores down from a candidate point of view so that we're not taking applications for roles that we don't have. So again, we're not wasting candidates' time or managers' time.

JZ: Right. I’m sure there’s a lot more positive impact on your managers. Talk a little bit about what Lou has allowed them to do with that time back.

DL: There's nothing like a shift where the manager's actually there to guide the crew and deal with the customer issues right there and then. That's where we want our people. On the floor. We don't want them sitting on a computer doing administrative work. That's not a fun part of the job. The fun part is getting in there amongst your team and working together to serve our customers. 

‍JZ: That's fantastic. There's one last question I want to ask because we don't interview a lot of CEOs. You understand this stuff on a deep level — what advice would you give other CEOs?

‍DL:  I would say that having an online and AI based recruitment system is the best thing you can do. I would say that this is probably one of the best investments that we've made because it's so simple to use. It's been easy to throw out. All our managers and our stores have been able to understand it and get on board with it. And the candidates love it.

Replicating The Success of Wendy's NZ into Your Hiring Process

Finding and retaining top talent is a constant challenge for many QSRs. Wendy’s NZ faced these same hurdles but transformed their approach by embracing AI with Paradox. Automating the recruitment process helped them reclaim over 200 hours per year per location, significantly reducing the burden on managers and improving the candidate experience.

If you're tired of dealing with lost applications, time-consuming scheduling, and high turnover rates, it’s time to make a change. Visit Paradox’s website to learn how their AI-driven solutions can revolutionize your hiring process. Empower your managers to focus on what they do best – delivering excellent customer service – while AI takes care of the rest. Get started with Paradox today and see the difference it can make for your business.