September 2, 2025 • 22 mins
Frontline recruitment isn’t just hiring at scale—it’s an entirely different discipline from traditional corporate hiring. In this episode of the HRchat Show, Fountain CEO Sean Behr pulls back the curtain on the unique challenges of recruiting hourly workers and shares strategies that help employers keep pace in an increasingly competitive market.
Unlike corporate hiring, where companies may only need to fill a handful of roles, frontline hiring often means recruiting hundreds or even thousands of workers at once. As Sean explains, that scale alone completely changes the rules of the game. Standard applicant tracking systems weren’t built to handle that kind of volume, which is why businesses need new tools and processes if they want to stay ahead.
Communication is another big differentiator. White-collar candidates may check their emails or LinkedIn messages, but frontline candidates live on their phones. They apply late at night, respond to text messages instead of emails, and often juggle multiple applications at once. As Sean points out, the convenience of mobile hiring is a double-edged sword—while it makes applying easier, it also means candidates are only “one click away” from a competitor’s job.
To help employers succeed, Sean highlights innovative approaches across the entire hourly worker lifecycle. From AI-powered, on-demand interviews that accommodate non-traditional schedules to paperless onboarding that replaces mountains of first-day paperwork with meaningful orientation, these solutions are reshaping how companies attract and retain talent. He also introduces Fountain’s new Shift product, designed to tackle one of the biggest reasons frontline employees quit: mismatched schedules. Because for many hourly workers, flexibility and compatibility with their lives matter just as much as pay or job satisfaction.
For HR leaders who feel overwhelmed by the idea of revamping their entire hiring system, Sean offers practical, actionable advice: don’t try to fix everything at once. Start by identifying the single biggest pain point in your frontline hiring process—whether it’s candidate drop-off, interview scheduling, or day-one experience—and focus your energy there. Solving one critical problem at a time not only drives real results but also builds momentum for broader change.
If your organization relies on frontline workers, this conversation is a must-listen. Sean’s insights will help you rethink your approach, em
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome to the HR Chat Show, one of the world's
most downloaded and sharedpodcasts designed for HR pros,
talent execs, tech enthusiastsand business leaders.
For hundreds more episodes andwhat's new in the world of work,
subscribe to the show, followus on social media and visit
hrgazettecom.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
Welcome to another episode of the HR Chat Show.
Hello listeners, this is a veryhappy Bill Bannum, your host
today.
Why are you happy, bill?
Well, it's because I've got myfriend back on the show his
third appearance we were justtalking about, and that is Mr
Sean Baer, ceo of Fountain, andhe's back on the show to shed
(00:46):
some light on strategies andtechnologies driving the
recruitment of hourly workers in2025.
We're going to talk about timeand attendance, we're going to
talk about I-9s and a wholebunch more.
Mr Baer, how are you doing?
Welcome back to the show.
Speaker 3 (01:00):
Bill, it's always great to be here Third time, but
you know I'm going for I wantto be number one on the
leaderboard, so I'll have tocome back again real soon and
move myself up again.
But it's always fun to talk toyou and I love, obviously.
I love talking about frontlineworkers and you're one of the
experts to talk with about it,so thanks for having me having
(01:27):
me Thank you, and a third time'sa charm.
Speaker 2 (01:28):
Okay, so let's get into it.
You've said that most applicanttracking systems Sean, aren't
built for hourly workers.
What makes hiring or hiringhourly workers so fundamentally
different from traditionalhiring, and how does Fountain
address some of thosedifferences?
Speaker 3 (01:42):
Yeah, you know, it is the thing, you know.
It's so different.
It's such a fundamentaldifference when you're hiring a
frontline worker versus a youknow, maybe somebody in your, in
your headquarters or yourcorporate office.
When you're hiring a corporateoffice employee, you're
generally hiring very few ofthem, relatively, and when you
(02:03):
put together a job requisitionand a job description, you
generally write that jobdescription and you hire a
single worker to fill that role.
When you're hiring in thefrontline, you write the job
description and then you have tofind a thousand of those people
.
You're not looking for oneperfect person, you're looking
(02:25):
for a thousand great people whocan do the job really well.
So the tactics and thetechnologies that work when
you're doing a one-to-one hiringversus a one-to-one thousand
hiring, they just don't work.
Corporate hiring is just a.
It's a really importantfunction, by the way, and I want
to make sure our listeners knowI'm.
(02:46):
You know we hire lots ofcorporate workers at Fountain.
It is such a criticallyimportant activity, but it is
fundamentally different thanhiring a frontline worker where
you're hiring thousands of themand you know just little.
Things are very different.
For instance, corporate workersgenerally have a CV or resume
(03:07):
and you probably can look themup on LinkedIn before you even
interview them.
Most frontline workers theydon't have a CV and they
certainly don't have a LinkedInprofile, so you can't kind of go
on the internet and find out,hey, where did they work before?
You can't do that with afrontline worker.
Second thing is, like mostcorporate workers, most
(03:27):
corporate workers, you send theman email and they will write
back with a very well-craftedemail back to you.
Frontline workers good luck.
Most of them are using textmessaging.
In fact, when most corporateworkers apply for their job,
they sit down at their laptopand they type up their cover
letter and their CV and theypolish up their LinkedIn.
(03:48):
The frontline worker pulls uptheir phone and does a search
and says I'm looking for a jobnear me in a restaurant, and so
the tactics and the technologiesjust are very, very different.
And obviously at Fountain we'refully focused on that frontline
worker, both in hiring them butobviously managing and
(04:09):
retaining that work over time.
Speaker 2 (04:12):
Thanks for listening to this episode of the HR Chat
Podcast.
If you enjoy the audio contentwe produce, you'll love our
articles on the HR Gazette.
Learn more at HRGazettecom.
And now back to the show.
Hr Gazette Learn more athrgazettecom.
And now back to the show.
So what works best, then, interms of engaging those
(04:32):
potential candidates, is thatWhatsApp?
Is that text message?
Is that calling?
Speaker 3 (04:38):
Yeah, you've got to meet this worker where they are.
So, you know, one thing is toalways pull up the job
description on a mobile device.
That's the way that the workeris going to see it.
That's meeting them where theyare.
Pull up the job description andthe application in the language
of the country you're hiring.
(04:58):
So pull it up in French ifyou're recruiting in France, or
pull it up in German if you'rerecruiting in Germany.
See what it looks like.
And then you know most of theseworkers.
You know, send them a WhatsAppmessage.
Okay, that's meeting them wherethey are.
That's how you're going to getthem, how you're going to engage
with them.
(05:18):
You know I've said this before,I say it internally a lot.
You know, the ability for afrontline worker to use their
phone to apply for a job isgreat.
It opens up opportunities,which is our mission, opens up
opportunities for the worker.
They can access newopportunities.
The flip side, though, is it'sso easy that you're only one
(05:43):
click away from someone else'sjob application, and so you know
, knowing that, if your processseems a little challenging, a
little hard, a littleinconvenient, that worker, all
they have to do is click acouple of buttons on their phone
and they're now applying for acompetitive job and so knowing
(06:04):
where they are meeting, wherethey are using WhatsApp, using
SMS messaging, being cognizantof the language and the location
and the device, and making sureyou have a technology partner
that can support you indelivering meeting where you are
to those frontline workers.
Speaker 2 (06:22):
And how young and trendy do we need to get with
this stuff?
So, for example, I've spoken topeople before who say TikTok
works pretty well for certaincandidate attraction.
Do you guys venture into thosesorts of social medias?
Speaker 3 (06:37):
Yeah, absolutely.
We have a product that'sdesigned to go after those
passive job seekers.
Obviously, any good applicanttracking system will connect you
to the big job boards andthat's a critically important
source of candidates.
But increasingly, you do needto go find candidates who are
(06:59):
not on the big job boards, andthat might be TikTok, you know.
That might be Instagram, thatmight be Facebook, you know any
of those places where you canfind the candidates you're
looking for that maybe aren'tparticularly on a big job board
today, and that's superimportant.
The more specialized the role.
(07:21):
So what do I mean by that?
If it's a, you know, arelatively simple you don't need
any special license.
You don't need any specialqualifications to do the job.
You know, probably have lots ofapplicants for that job, but
there are lots of roles whereyou need a specific license, and
maybe it's in a rural area ofthe US and you need a specific
(07:44):
license or a specific kind ofexperience.
Maybe it's an automotivetechnician that needs a certain
certification.
Those people may or may not beactively searching for a job
right now, but if you can reachthem on a TikTok platform or,
you know, instagram I don't wantto play favorites among all the
(08:04):
different channels, butsometimes reaching those passive
job seekers on those newchannels can be a really great
way to find those specializedcandidates for those specialized
roles.
Speaker 2 (08:15):
Now, before we hit record today, you were sharing
that the fountain i9 center uhis growing great guns yeah yeah,
it's a, it's a, it's a great,great product.
Speaker 3 (08:27):
Um, you know, look, we all know that filling out
government paperwork is.
Maybe there are some people wholove it, but most of us hate it
.
Most of us hate it.
It's a pain, it's complicated,it's difficult to do.
You know, what we've done withour product is to make filling
(08:49):
out that government paperwork asfun as possible or as easy as
possible, and what I think we'reseeing is workers are able to
complete that in an error-freeway like they've never done
before.
And what's even really powerfulabout it is they're actually
showing up for work and they are, instead of spending the first
(09:11):
couple of hours of their firstday doing paperwork, they're
actually spending the firstcouple of hours of their career
at this new company, learningabout the history of the company
, learning about the role,learning about the
responsibilities, learning onthe job, training versus what
typically happens, which is hey,welcome to the first day of
(09:32):
work.
Go over there into the breakroom and spend the next couple
of hours filling out these forms, and then we'll start to tell
you about how great of a companywe are.
If you can flip that, youwelcome them in and they start
to learn about their job.
They start to learn about theirteam, they start to learn about
the company from the firstminute.
(09:54):
It's just a much betterexperience, not only for the
company because they get moreproductivity, but frankly, it's
a better experience for theworker.
Nobody wants to go sit in abreak room and do paperwork for
a couple of hours.
That's no one's job.
Maybe there is somebody whothinks that's fun, but most of
us don't think that's a greatway to start.
(10:14):
So yeah, that product's been ahuge hit and it's delivering
great results for our customer.
Speaker 2 (10:20):
Very good.
Something else you sharedbecause you guys have got so
many features these days.
Something else you sharedbefore we hit record today is
you've got a new time andattendance product and in fact,
by the time this goes live, it'sgoing to be out there so we can
talk all about it in thisinterview right now.
It's called Shift.
Can you share some moreinformation around Shift?
Speaker 3 (10:41):
Yeah, yeah, fountain Shift.
Look, we're a multi-productcompany.
We believe in supporting ourcustomers from job board to
departure date and helping themmeet these frontline workers
wherever they are in their lifecycle of work.
So maybe it's helping them onthe job boards and maybe it's
(11:01):
helping them get.
So maybe it's helping them onthe job boards and maybe it's
helping them get hired and maybeit's helping them fill out
their government paperwork.
But we obviously know, for thisfrontline worker, shift and
shift availability is a reallycritical aspect of a frontline
worker's journey.
You could argue maybe the mostimportant one.
I may love the company.
I may love the people on theone.
(11:23):
I may love the company.
I may love the people on theteam.
I may love the job.
If it doesn't work with myschedule, you know, I may love
it.
It's just not going to work forme If this job requires me to
work nights and instead I go toschool.
That's just not going to workfor me.
And so we know how importantshifts are to this frontline
worker and the product we'vebuilt is basically the world's
(11:46):
most flexible shift managementproduct out there.
It's also an incredibleexperience for the frontline
worker.
Obviously, we build everythingwith that frontline worker in
mind, and so we meet them wherethey are.
And then, lastly, I would say,is it adds to productivity for
customers.
You know it makes customersmore efficient, more effective
(12:06):
and more productive.
From a flexibility standpoint,we support multi-location.
So maybe one day you're workingat store A and the next day
you're going to work at store B,right, maybe you want to be
able to work different shiftswith different pay rates.
We have the world's mostflexible shift management
technology product and, again,it's really powerful when you
(12:29):
hire the worker and then youknow what their dream schedule
is during the hiring process.
If you can use AI and put thatinto your shift management
technology, you can start toreally deliver schedules that
work for workers.
That's at the heart of whatwe're trying to do.
Ultimately, we think that thatproduct, along with our hiring
(12:49):
product and our I9 product andour Communicate product, are
designed to help customers notonly hire the best talent for
them, but increasingly andimportantly, manage and retain
those workers over time.
So if I can retain thoseworkers longer and keep them
inside my company, meet themwhere they are and engage with
(13:09):
them, the business results forme are going to be incredible.
Speaker 2 (13:13):
So last September, I was walking the floor of HR Tech
Conference.
This pod is two or three,depending on the month in the
world, based on downloads andengagement in the category of HR
Tech.
And yeah, I've never beenbefore because I'm not a huge
fan of Vegas, frankly, althoughI like Arizona.
That's nice.
I'll drive around thereafterwards.
Anyway, I'm going somewherewith this.
It seemed like every singlestand at HR Tech was AI-powered.
(13:37):
This AI-fueled that you guyshave some actually reliable AI
technology behind what you do,right.
Speaker 1 (13:47):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (13:49):
How do you now differentiate yourselves, how do
you stand out in a market, in acrowded market, when everybody
professes that what they do isagentic?
This AI powered that.
Speaker 3 (14:01):
By the way, it is the buzzword of the uh of the year.
It was the buzzword of lastyear.
I think it's still the buzzwordof this year.
Everything has to be AI and um.
I think the core question is um, experimenting with AI
technology is super interestingfrom a technology perspective.
As an an entrepreneur and atechnology entrepreneur at heart
(14:21):
, there's some incredibletechnology behind the scenes.
The question is can youactually deliver business
outcomes using AI?
Because if it's all it is is,hey, this product is now agentic
AI, that's really great.
(14:41):
The question that we always askat Fountain is so what?
No, so what, like?
What's the business outcome?
What does it do for the worker?
What does it do for the hiringmanager?
What does it do for the head ofHR?
Right, and so we bring that toheart AI technology at its core.
(15:04):
We believe fundamentally that,despite the fact that everyone
talks about AI, there will besome companies within the HR
tech landscape that reallyunlock the power of AI to
deliver those business outcomes,and we want to be one of those
(15:26):
companies.
But we don't throw AI in assort of like the cherry on top
of the sundae, because then yousort of get like, yeah, it's AI,
okay, great, but can youactually use AI to really impact
a company's operations, theirbusiness, their hiring process?
And that's where you get realpower.
(15:49):
And we have an AI interviewertoday.
That's an incredible productand it does an incredible job of
doing initial phone screens forour customers.
And what's amazing is it meetsworkers where they are.
Workers are actually able tointerview with our AI agent
according to their schedule, notwhen a recruiter can talk to
(16:10):
them.
It's for the first time ever.
It's like on-demandinterviewing for the frontline
worker.
And we see workers interviewingat 11 pm at night, not because
that's when they're applying forthe job, it's when they got off
their last job.
It's when they got off theirlast job, it's when they got off
their shift and that's when itworked for them to engage and do
(16:34):
the interview.
And what's even great about it?
If we see workers, sometimeswe'll start the ai interview and
then say something like hey,I've got to go.
And what happens?
They come back an hour later ortwo hours later and our
technology is aware and says hey, bill, welcome back, let's pick
(16:54):
up where we left off, which isjust incredible and incredible
convenience for the frontlineworker.
Speaker 2 (17:02):
Yeah, I can never do that.
I'd spend about 10 minutesrecapping before we got back
into it.
I've only got four more minuteswith you because I know you've
got a hard stop here.
So just a few more questions foryou.
So so far, we have spoken aboutthe sourcing process, we've
spoken about the talentacquisition process.
We haven't really got intoretention yet, so let's just
talk about that briefly.
Um, retention is, of course, atop concern for hr leaders
(17:23):
managing hourly teams.
What are some best practices,sean or or features within
Fountain that support betterengagement and retention?
Speaker 3 (17:32):
Yeah, so obviously we think that one doing a really
great job on hiring andonboarding leads to better
retention.
So that's kind of step one.
That's table stakes.
Do a great job of hiring, hirethe right kind of talent, put
them in the right kind of joband make sure they're ready to
work on day one.
They're going to more likely tostick with you long-term.
(17:54):
But that's not enough, right?
Finding a way to engage withthis population of workers is
really challenging.
Again, I mentioned they don't.
They don't reply to emails,right, and so you emailing them,
you might as well just saveyour energy.
They're not going to read thatemail.
Ok, you know, putting up aposter in the break room, that's
(18:20):
not.
That's just going to getignored.
If a worker's on their break,you know where they're looking.
Where they're looking Righthere, by the way, where most of
us are looking when we're ridingthe bus or the subway or the
train or the you know sitting inthe back of a car or a taxi,
we're looking on a phone.
It's the way to engage withthat worker.
(18:41):
You want to deliver a message,deliver it to that worker's
phone.
Now you need a system that cando that and can reach that
worker via WhatsApp can reachthat worker in the language in
which they converse in.
You need a technology that doesthat.
Fountain Communicate is one ofthose technologies that does
that.
Second thing is you want to knowhow they're doing, and in the
(19:02):
corporate world you could send asurvey once every six months
and get good results.
In the frontline worker world,surveying people every six
months is way too low.
What you need to do is find outhow was that workers first day,
how was that workers first weekand that workers first month?
(19:22):
And then what's great aboutthat is you can compare location
A to location B.
You can say wow.
Everyone that works at locationA says the first day was chaos.
Everyone that starts atlocation B says the first day
was amazing.
What is location B doing thatbrings a welcoming sense and a
(19:47):
calmness to day one?
Let's copy that and bring itover to location A.
Let's find out do people who,after the first week, they feel
like they're doing great?
Do those people stick aroundfor 90 days, 180 days, 365 days?
If we find that out, then weknow that that first week is
(20:10):
really critical time to drivelong term retention, and that's
the kind of thing our productsdo Things like Fountain Pulse
and Fountain Communicator inthat space.
Speaker 2 (20:20):
Oh man, I've got so many more questions for you, but
we are almost out of time here,so I'm going to come back, bill
for sure.
You are coming back.
I'm going to do your job foryou right now.
If you want to connect withSean, look for Sean Bear with an
H on LinkedIn.
Go to fountaincom.
It's that easy to learn moreabout the product.
And that gives me one moreminute, sean, to ask you one
(20:42):
more question, so I'm going tochallenge you to answer in 60
seconds or less.
What advice do you have to HRleaders who are hesitant to
overhaul their legacy systems atthe moment, but they know that
they need to improve theirfrontline hiring experience?
Speaker 3 (20:57):
Yeah, great question.
I will try to do it in 60seconds, I hope.
The thing that I would try todo is to come up with what is
one or two areas of ourlifecycle cycle that are that
are in need of the mosttransformation.
So I would not try to try tobite the whole pizza pie at once
(21:18):
.
I'd pick an area like hey, forus it would really be great if
we could focus on this one sliceof the pie, which is I don't
know job offer to day one thatweek before that worker starts.
That's where we want to reallydial in, and then what I would
try to do is go out and meetwith some great technology
(21:38):
vendors, maybe go to an HR techor a conference, but with a
laser like focus on that onepart of the experience.
Anybody you engage with, justsay how can you help me improve
this part of my process?
I don't want to talk aboutanything else.
And anybody you engage with,just say how can you help me
improve this part of my process.
I don't want to talk aboutanything else.
And if you can't, give me yourcard and I'll, or let's connect
on LinkedIn I'll keep you inmind.
So for me, it would be focuseddeeply on one area and then go
(22:03):
meet the leading companies inthat space.
How's that?
60?
Speaker 2 (22:07):
seconds.
I'd say it's about 60 seconds.
I think I've used all the timethat you have with me for today,
so that just leaves me to sayfor today, but we'll get you
back on again soon.
Sean bear, thank you very muchfor being my guest.
Absolutely, bill.
Great to be here and listenersas always.
Speaker 1 (22:22):
Until next time, happy working thanks for
listening to the hr chat show.
If you enjoyed this episode,why not subscribe and listen to
some of the hundreds of episodespublished by HR Gazette and
remember for what's new in theworld of work?
Subscribe to the show, followus on social media and visit
(22:44):
hrgazettecom.
Welcome to the HR Chat Show, one of the world's
most downloaded and sharedpodcasts designed for HR pros,
talent execs, tech enthusiastsand business leaders.
For hundreds more episodes andwhat's new in the world of work,
subscribe to the show, followus on social media and visit
hrgazettecom.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
Welcome to another episode of the HR Chat Show.
Hello listeners, this is a veryhappy Bill Bannum, your host
today.
Why are you happy, bill?
Well, it's because I've got myfriend back on the show his
third appearance we were justtalking about, and that is Mr
Sean Baer, ceo of Fountain, andhe's back on the show to shed
(00:46):
some light on strategies andtechnologies driving the
recruitment of hourly workers in2025.
We're going to talk about timeand attendance, we're going to
talk about I-9s and a wholebunch more.
Mr Baer, how are you doing?
Welcome back to the show.
Speaker 3 (01:00):
Bill, it's always great to be here Third time, but
you know I'm going for I wantto be number one on the
leaderboard, so I'll have tocome back again real soon and
move myself up again.
But it's always fun to talk toyou and I love, obviously.
I love talking about frontlineworkers and you're one of the
experts to talk with about it,so thanks for having me having
(01:27):
me Thank you, and a third time'sa charm.
Speaker 2 (01:28):
Okay, so let's get into it.
You've said that most applicanttracking systems Sean, aren't
built for hourly workers.
What makes hiring or hiringhourly workers so fundamentally
different from traditionalhiring, and how does Fountain
address some of thosedifferences?
Speaker 3 (01:42):
Yeah, you know, it is the thing, you know.
It's so different.
It's such a fundamentaldifference when you're hiring a
frontline worker versus a youknow, maybe somebody in your, in
your headquarters or yourcorporate office.
When you're hiring a corporateoffice employee, you're
generally hiring very few ofthem, relatively, and when you
(02:03):
put together a job requisitionand a job description, you
generally write that jobdescription and you hire a
single worker to fill that role.
When you're hiring in thefrontline, you write the job
description and then you have tofind a thousand of those people
.
You're not looking for oneperfect person, you're looking
(02:25):
for a thousand great people whocan do the job really well.
So the tactics and thetechnologies that work when
you're doing a one-to-one hiringversus a one-to-one thousand
hiring, they just don't work.
Corporate hiring is just a.
It's a really importantfunction, by the way, and I want
to make sure our listeners knowI'm.
(02:46):
You know we hire lots ofcorporate workers at Fountain.
It is such a criticallyimportant activity, but it is
fundamentally different thanhiring a frontline worker where
you're hiring thousands of themand you know just little.
Things are very different.
For instance, corporate workersgenerally have a CV or resume
(03:07):
and you probably can look themup on LinkedIn before you even
interview them.
Most frontline workers theydon't have a CV and they
certainly don't have a LinkedInprofile, so you can't kind of go
on the internet and find out,hey, where did they work before?
You can't do that with afrontline worker.
Second thing is, like mostcorporate workers, most
(03:27):
corporate workers, you send theman email and they will write
back with a very well-craftedemail back to you.
Frontline workers good luck.
Most of them are using textmessaging.
In fact, when most corporateworkers apply for their job,
they sit down at their laptopand they type up their cover
letter and their CV and theypolish up their LinkedIn.
(03:48):
The frontline worker pulls uptheir phone and does a search
and says I'm looking for a jobnear me in a restaurant, and so
the tactics and the technologiesjust are very, very different.
And obviously at Fountain we'refully focused on that frontline
worker, both in hiring them butobviously managing and
(04:09):
retaining that work over time.
Speaker 2 (04:12):
Thanks for listening to this episode of the HR Chat
Podcast.
If you enjoy the audio contentwe produce, you'll love our
articles on the HR Gazette.
Learn more at HRGazettecom.
And now back to the show.
Hr Gazette Learn more athrgazettecom.
And now back to the show.
So what works best, then, interms of engaging those
(04:32):
potential candidates, is thatWhatsApp?
Is that text message?
Is that calling?
Speaker 3 (04:38):
Yeah, you've got to meet this worker where they are.
So, you know, one thing is toalways pull up the job
description on a mobile device.
That's the way that the workeris going to see it.
That's meeting them where theyare.
Pull up the job description andthe application in the language
of the country you're hiring.
(04:58):
So pull it up in French ifyou're recruiting in France, or
pull it up in German if you'rerecruiting in Germany.
See what it looks like.
And then you know most of theseworkers.
You know, send them a WhatsAppmessage.
Okay, that's meeting them wherethey are.
That's how you're going to getthem, how you're going to engage
with them.
(05:18):
You know I've said this before,I say it internally a lot.
You know, the ability for afrontline worker to use their
phone to apply for a job isgreat.
It opens up opportunities,which is our mission, opens up
opportunities for the worker.
They can access newopportunities.
The flip side, though, is it'sso easy that you're only one
(05:43):
click away from someone else'sjob application, and so you know
, knowing that, if your processseems a little challenging, a
little hard, a littleinconvenient, that worker, all
they have to do is click acouple of buttons on their phone
and they're now applying for acompetitive job and so knowing
(06:04):
where they are meeting, wherethey are using WhatsApp, using
SMS messaging, being cognizantof the language and the location
and the device, and making sureyou have a technology partner
that can support you indelivering meeting where you are
to those frontline workers.
Speaker 2 (06:22):
And how young and trendy do we need to get with
this stuff?
So, for example, I've spoken topeople before who say TikTok
works pretty well for certaincandidate attraction.
Do you guys venture into thosesorts of social medias?
Speaker 3 (06:37):
Yeah, absolutely.
We have a product that'sdesigned to go after those
passive job seekers.
Obviously, any good applicanttracking system will connect you
to the big job boards andthat's a critically important
source of candidates.
But increasingly, you do needto go find candidates who are
(06:59):
not on the big job boards, andthat might be TikTok, you know.
That might be Instagram, thatmight be Facebook, you know any
of those places where you canfind the candidates you're
looking for that maybe aren'tparticularly on a big job board
today, and that's superimportant.
The more specialized the role.
(07:21):
So what do I mean by that?
If it's a, you know, arelatively simple you don't need
any special license.
You don't need any specialqualifications to do the job.
You know, probably have lots ofapplicants for that job, but
there are lots of roles whereyou need a specific license, and
maybe it's in a rural area ofthe US and you need a specific
(07:44):
license or a specific kind ofexperience.
Maybe it's an automotivetechnician that needs a certain
certification.
Those people may or may not beactively searching for a job
right now, but if you can reachthem on a TikTok platform or,
you know, instagram I don't wantto play favorites among all the
(08:04):
different channels, butsometimes reaching those passive
job seekers on those newchannels can be a really great
way to find those specializedcandidates for those specialized
roles.
Speaker 2 (08:15):
Now, before we hit record today, you were sharing
that the fountain i9 center uhis growing great guns yeah yeah,
it's a, it's a, it's a great,great product.
Speaker 3 (08:27):
Um, you know, look, we all know that filling out
government paperwork is.
Maybe there are some people wholove it, but most of us hate it
.
Most of us hate it.
It's a pain, it's complicated,it's difficult to do.
You know, what we've done withour product is to make filling
(08:49):
out that government paperwork asfun as possible or as easy as
possible, and what I think we'reseeing is workers are able to
complete that in an error-freeway like they've never done
before.
And what's even really powerfulabout it is they're actually
showing up for work and they are, instead of spending the first
(09:11):
couple of hours of their firstday doing paperwork, they're
actually spending the firstcouple of hours of their career
at this new company, learningabout the history of the company
, learning about the role,learning about the
responsibilities, learning onthe job, training versus what
typically happens, which is hey,welcome to the first day of
(09:32):
work.
Go over there into the breakroom and spend the next couple
of hours filling out these forms, and then we'll start to tell
you about how great of a companywe are.
If you can flip that, youwelcome them in and they start
to learn about their job.
They start to learn about theirteam, they start to learn about
the company from the firstminute.
(09:54):
It's just a much betterexperience, not only for the
company because they get moreproductivity, but frankly, it's
a better experience for theworker.
Nobody wants to go sit in abreak room and do paperwork for
a couple of hours.
That's no one's job.
Maybe there is somebody whothinks that's fun, but most of
us don't think that's a greatway to start.
(10:14):
So yeah, that product's been ahuge hit and it's delivering
great results for our customer.
Speaker 2 (10:20):
Very good.
Something else you sharedbecause you guys have got so
many features these days.
Something else you sharedbefore we hit record today is
you've got a new time andattendance product and in fact,
by the time this goes live, it'sgoing to be out there so we can
talk all about it in thisinterview right now.
It's called Shift.
Can you share some moreinformation around Shift?
Speaker 3 (10:41):
Yeah, yeah, fountain Shift.
Look, we're a multi-productcompany.
We believe in supporting ourcustomers from job board to
departure date and helping themmeet these frontline workers
wherever they are in their lifecycle of work.
So maybe it's helping them onthe job boards and maybe it's
(11:01):
helping them get.
So maybe it's helping them onthe job boards and maybe it's
helping them get hired and maybeit's helping them fill out
their government paperwork.
But we obviously know, for thisfrontline worker, shift and
shift availability is a reallycritical aspect of a frontline
worker's journey.
You could argue maybe the mostimportant one.
I may love the company.
I may love the people on theone.
(11:23):
I may love the company.
I may love the people on theteam.
I may love the job.
If it doesn't work with myschedule, you know, I may love
it.
It's just not going to work forme If this job requires me to
work nights and instead I go toschool.
That's just not going to workfor me.
And so we know how importantshifts are to this frontline
worker and the product we'vebuilt is basically the world's
(11:46):
most flexible shift managementproduct out there.
It's also an incredibleexperience for the frontline
worker.
Obviously, we build everythingwith that frontline worker in
mind, and so we meet them wherethey are.
And then, lastly, I would say,is it adds to productivity for
customers.
You know it makes customersmore efficient, more effective
(12:06):
and more productive.
From a flexibility standpoint,we support multi-location.
So maybe one day you're workingat store A and the next day
you're going to work at store B,right, maybe you want to be
able to work different shiftswith different pay rates.
We have the world's mostflexible shift management
technology product and, again,it's really powerful when you
(12:29):
hire the worker and then youknow what their dream schedule
is during the hiring process.
If you can use AI and put thatinto your shift management
technology, you can start toreally deliver schedules that
work for workers.
That's at the heart of whatwe're trying to do.
Ultimately, we think that thatproduct, along with our hiring
(12:49):
product and our I9 product andour Communicate product, are
designed to help customers notonly hire the best talent for
them, but increasingly andimportantly, manage and retain
those workers over time.
So if I can retain thoseworkers longer and keep them
inside my company, meet themwhere they are and engage with
(13:09):
them, the business results forme are going to be incredible.
Speaker 2 (13:13):
So last September, I was walking the floor of HR Tech
Conference.
This pod is two or three,depending on the month in the
world, based on downloads andengagement in the category of HR
Tech.
And yeah, I've never beenbefore because I'm not a huge
fan of Vegas, frankly, althoughI like Arizona.
That's nice.
I'll drive around thereafterwards.
Anyway, I'm going somewherewith this.
It seemed like every singlestand at HR Tech was AI-powered.
(13:37):
This AI-fueled that you guyshave some actually reliable AI
technology behind what you do,right.
Speaker 1 (13:47):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (13:49):
How do you now differentiate yourselves, how do
you stand out in a market, in acrowded market, when everybody
professes that what they do isagentic?
This AI powered that.
Speaker 3 (14:01):
By the way, it is the buzzword of the uh of the year.
It was the buzzword of lastyear.
I think it's still the buzzwordof this year.
Everything has to be AI and um.
I think the core question is um, experimenting with AI
technology is super interestingfrom a technology perspective.
As an an entrepreneur and atechnology entrepreneur at heart
(14:21):
, there's some incredibletechnology behind the scenes.
The question is can youactually deliver business
outcomes using AI?
Because if it's all it is is,hey, this product is now agentic
AI, that's really great.
(14:41):
The question that we always askat Fountain is so what?
No, so what, like?
What's the business outcome?
What does it do for the worker?
What does it do for the hiringmanager?
What does it do for the head ofHR?
Right, and so we bring that toheart AI technology at its core.
(15:04):
We believe fundamentally that,despite the fact that everyone
talks about AI, there will besome companies within the HR
tech landscape that reallyunlock the power of AI to
deliver those business outcomes,and we want to be one of those
(15:26):
companies.
But we don't throw AI in assort of like the cherry on top
of the sundae, because then yousort of get like, yeah, it's AI,
okay, great, but can youactually use AI to really impact
a company's operations, theirbusiness, their hiring process?
And that's where you get realpower.
(15:49):
And we have an AI interviewertoday.
That's an incredible productand it does an incredible job of
doing initial phone screens forour customers.
And what's amazing is it meetsworkers where they are.
Workers are actually able tointerview with our AI agent
according to their schedule, notwhen a recruiter can talk to
(16:10):
them.
It's for the first time ever.
It's like on-demandinterviewing for the frontline
worker.
And we see workers interviewingat 11 pm at night, not because
that's when they're applying forthe job, it's when they got off
their last job.
It's when they got off theirlast job, it's when they got off
their shift and that's when itworked for them to engage and do
(16:34):
the interview.
And what's even great about it?
If we see workers, sometimeswe'll start the ai interview and
then say something like hey,I've got to go.
And what happens?
They come back an hour later ortwo hours later and our
technology is aware and says hey, bill, welcome back, let's pick
(16:54):
up where we left off, which isjust incredible and incredible
convenience for the frontlineworker.
Speaker 2 (17:02):
Yeah, I can never do that.
I'd spend about 10 minutesrecapping before we got back
into it.
I've only got four more minuteswith you because I know you've
got a hard stop here.
So just a few more questions foryou.
So so far, we have spoken aboutthe sourcing process, we've
spoken about the talentacquisition process.
We haven't really got intoretention yet, so let's just
talk about that briefly.
Um, retention is, of course, atop concern for hr leaders
(17:23):
managing hourly teams.
What are some best practices,sean or or features within
Fountain that support betterengagement and retention?
Speaker 3 (17:32):
Yeah, so obviously we think that one doing a really
great job on hiring andonboarding leads to better
retention.
So that's kind of step one.
That's table stakes.
Do a great job of hiring, hirethe right kind of talent, put
them in the right kind of joband make sure they're ready to
work on day one.
They're going to more likely tostick with you long-term.
(17:54):
But that's not enough, right?
Finding a way to engage withthis population of workers is
really challenging.
Again, I mentioned they don't.
They don't reply to emails,right, and so you emailing them,
you might as well just saveyour energy.
They're not going to read thatemail.
Ok, you know, putting up aposter in the break room, that's
(18:20):
not.
That's just going to getignored.
If a worker's on their break,you know where they're looking.
Where they're looking Righthere, by the way, where most of
us are looking when we're ridingthe bus or the subway or the
train or the you know sitting inthe back of a car or a taxi,
we're looking on a phone.
It's the way to engage withthat worker.
(18:41):
You want to deliver a message,deliver it to that worker's
phone.
Now you need a system that cando that and can reach that
worker via WhatsApp can reachthat worker in the language in
which they converse in.
You need a technology that doesthat.
Fountain Communicate is one ofthose technologies that does
that.
Second thing is you want to knowhow they're doing, and in the
(19:02):
corporate world you could send asurvey once every six months
and get good results.
In the frontline worker world,surveying people every six
months is way too low.
What you need to do is find outhow was that workers first day,
how was that workers first weekand that workers first month?
(19:22):
And then what's great aboutthat is you can compare location
A to location B.
You can say wow.
Everyone that works at locationA says the first day was chaos.
Everyone that starts atlocation B says the first day
was amazing.
What is location B doing thatbrings a welcoming sense and a
(19:47):
calmness to day one?
Let's copy that and bring itover to location A.
Let's find out do people who,after the first week, they feel
like they're doing great?
Do those people stick aroundfor 90 days, 180 days, 365 days?
If we find that out, then weknow that that first week is
(20:10):
really critical time to drivelong term retention, and that's
the kind of thing our productsdo Things like Fountain Pulse
and Fountain Communicator inthat space.
Speaker 2 (20:20):
Oh man, I've got so many more questions for you, but
we are almost out of time here,so I'm going to come back, bill
for sure.
You are coming back.
I'm going to do your job foryou right now.
If you want to connect withSean, look for Sean Bear with an
H on LinkedIn.
Go to fountaincom.
It's that easy to learn moreabout the product.
And that gives me one moreminute, sean, to ask you one
(20:42):
more question, so I'm going tochallenge you to answer in 60
seconds or less.
What advice do you have to HRleaders who are hesitant to
overhaul their legacy systems atthe moment, but they know that
they need to improve theirfrontline hiring experience?
Speaker 3 (20:57):
Yeah, great question.
I will try to do it in 60seconds, I hope.
The thing that I would try todo is to come up with what is
one or two areas of ourlifecycle cycle that are that
are in need of the mosttransformation.
So I would not try to try tobite the whole pizza pie at once
(21:18):
.
I'd pick an area like hey, forus it would really be great if
we could focus on this one sliceof the pie, which is I don't
know job offer to day one thatweek before that worker starts.
That's where we want to reallydial in, and then what I would
try to do is go out and meetwith some great technology
(21:38):
vendors, maybe go to an HR techor a conference, but with a
laser like focus on that onepart of the experience.
Anybody you engage with, justsay how can you help me improve
this part of my process?
I don't want to talk aboutanything else.
And anybody you engage with,just say how can you help me
improve this part of my process.
I don't want to talk aboutanything else.
And if you can't, give me yourcard and I'll, or let's connect
on LinkedIn I'll keep you inmind.
So for me, it would be focuseddeeply on one area and then go
(22:03):
meet the leading companies inthat space.
How's that?
60?
Speaker 2 (22:07):
seconds.
I'd say it's about 60 seconds.
I think I've used all the timethat you have with me for today,
so that just leaves me to sayfor today, but we'll get you
back on again soon.
Sean bear, thank you very muchfor being my guest.
Absolutely, bill.
Great to be here and listenersas always.
Speaker 1 (22:22):
Until next time, happy working thanks for
listening to the hr chat show.
If you enjoyed this episode,why not subscribe and listen to
some of the hundreds of episodespublished by HR Gazette and
remember for what's new in theworld of work?
Subscribe to the show, followus on social media and visit
(22:44):
hrgazettecom.
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