How Peak Support reduced hiring-related overtime by 92%

HEADQUARTERS

Massachusetts. USA

INDUSTRY

Support

PRODUCTS USED

Applicant Tracking System

Pre-Recorded Video Interviews

Live Video Interviewing

Skills Testing

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Green down arrow 20%

APPLICANT DROP-OFFS REDUCED

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INDIVIDUAL OVERTIME DROPPED 92% FROM 25 TO 2 HOURS A WEEK

JUST

7 Days

TO HIRE ASSOCIATE ROLE EMPLOYEES

Peak Support + VidCruiter

Peak Support started working with VidCruiter in September 2021 to reduce the manual work required while hiring their growing team. We spoke with Aurea Rica Zagala, a Talent Acquisition Specialist at Peak Support to learn more about their story. Rica assists with the full recruitment process, helping Peak Support to hire for non-associate roles such as team leaders, team trainers, and quality assurance analysts.

About Peak Support

Peak Support is a fast-growing business process outsourcing company based in Massachusetts, with offices in the US and the Philippines. They offer outsourced support such as customer service, tech support, and back-office operations to high-profile and high-growth companies.

The Challenge

An administrative-heavy hiring process and a high rate of applicant withdrawals

As a growing company, Peak Support was originally using a highly manual approach to recruit new hires. “We basically did everything manually. We’d take applicant information from our application forms and input details into our database. Then, we’d manually invite them to an interview, scheduled over Skype,” Rica shares. The administrative-heavy process caused Rica and team to work overtime to get all the work done, “I personally rendered 25 hours of overtime a week.”

Rica explains using Skype for interviewing created timely issues for the team. “Sometimes applicant’s user names weren’t active [on Skype] anymore, so we had to go back to them again through email. Additionally, the video recordings expired every month. So we’d have to download them, which took up space and caused latencies.”

For associate positions, such as customer representatives, candidates would complete a chat interview directly before their Skype interview. The hiring team would often interview around five candidates via chat at once. The chat interview took at least 30 minutes depending on how fast they responded and the video conference took another 30 minutes. Rica explains that this process was simply too long for some candidates and they’d withdraw their applications mid-chat interview or even mid-video interview. “44% of our applicants withdrew their application from the old process,” Rica tells us.

“It’s definitely smoother in comparison to our process before, primarily because everything is already in VidCruiter.”

The Solution

Using VidCruiter’s ATS and interviewing tools to create a centralized and automated workflow

When Peak Support had to increase hiring efforts to support its growing customer base, it made sense to look for a more streamlined recruiting solution. “We got to the point where we couldn’t really manage with what we did before, especially if the operations team or a specific client required a big number of hires,” Rica says.

One of Peak Support’s core values is ‘continuous improvement’, which played a big part in their decision-making. Rica tells us they were looking for a solution that worked for everyone involved in the hiring process, “We wanted to make sure that, as we improved the hiring process, we were also providing the best candidate experience.”

Peak Support now uses VidCruiter’s ATS, skills testing, pre-recorded video interviews, and live video interviews. To ensure the team was set up for a successful hiring experience, Peak Support was never far from assistance. “Ramzi [Peak Support’s designated client success manager] would meet with us almost every week just for us to get familiar with the process. And now, if we have small questions, it’s really helpful to use the VidCruiter chat support.”

Now, Rica and team have two main hiring processes – one for associate roles and another for non-associate roles. For associate roles, candidates are moved through a process that is far more automated, while still providing PeakSupport with a holistic view of their skill set. “Prospective associates fill out an application form, then proceed to a skills test consisting of multiple choices and several long-form answers. If they pass the test, they’re automatically moved on to a pre-recorded interview. After we review their interview, they’re moved onto a live video interview with our operations team.”

And for non-associate roles, the process allows the hiring team to review each applicant while using one platform that centralizes the workflow. “The candidates fill out an application form and are approved manually for a pre-recorded video interview. They’re then moved onto a live video conference.”

“Reviewing the answers of our candidates [via pre-recorded video interviews] is easier than conducting chat interviews with five candidates at a time, at different paces.”

Aurea Rica Zagala

Talent Acquisition Specialist

Peak Support

The Results

A smoother hiring process with less manual work and a higher applicant completion rate

Peak Support has gone from using a highly manual, multi-platform hiring process, to using a workflow that’s far more centralized and has the ability to be automated. “It’s definitely smoother compared to our process before, primarily because everything is already in VidCruiter, from housing the applicants’ information, through to generating reports for a certain account or a certain position that we’re hiring for,” Rica summarizes.

VidCruiter’s workflow allows candidates to be automatically notified about their next steps based on calculated results and hiring decisions. This means Peak Support doesn’t need to manually reach out to candidates as often. As Rica mentions, “The exchange of emails between us and the candidate has been minimized as compared to what we used before with Outlook and Skype.”

Rica also tells us about other ways the process has freed up time for the hiring team “I think we’re all good with the process, especially the associate hiring team. Reviewing the answers of our candidates [via pre-recorded video interviews] is easier than our old method where we’d sometimes conduct chat interviews with five candidates at a time, at different paces.” And the 25 hours-a-week overtime that was needed to keep up with hiring demands has decreased significantly. “Now that we’re using VidCruiter, overtime is at about two hours only a day, or two to four hours a week, depending again on if we have a lot of candidates to process,” Rica shares.

The new hiring process has made a big difference to the applicant pool, with completion rates skyrocketing. “We have lesser fallouts now, compared to what we had using Skype and Outlook,” Rica tells us. In comparison to the 44% of drop-offs experienced in the previous process, Rica shares they’ve seen a 20% decrease in applicants removing themselves from the process.

“Rica and the Peak Support team reached out to us to take their recruitment process to the next level. Thanks to their passion for continuous improvement and innovation, we were able to create a more efficient hiring process and a clearer end-to-end view of their recruitment operation. Working with Rica and the Peak Support team was a sincere pleasure, and I look forward to our continuing partnership!”