Miller Brothers Staffing (MBS) is a family-owned business that makes about 5,000 annual hires of candidates who specialize in light-industrial labor, construction, engineering, and manufacturing. With 21 recruiters based across 10 locations throughout Ohio and northwestern and central Pennsylvania, they’ve grown into the go-to skills trade business in the region since their inception in 2010.
MBS sets itself apart from the competition with their unique and proven recruiting process that is designed to connect with only the most qualified candidates. Their patented screening, interviewing, and testing approach identifies and prioritizes candidates with the required skills and experience for each role they recruit for. But as an organization that makes a significant number of hires each year, engaging quality candidates at scale requires automating much of the recruiting process.
“The more people you reach, the more likely you are to hire someone,” says Recruiting Manager Javar Manning. “With automated texting, we can reach about 500 people a day which is about three times more than we used to reach with phone calls. That means we’re filling more positions and working much more efficiently.”
Around 2017, the team at MBS noticed the recruiting landscape was changing and becoming more competitive. It wasn’t just important to hire quality candidates anymore — roles needed to be filled as quickly as possible.
They also noticed that new competitors from as far away as California were suddenly recruiting in their region. For an organization that had long prioritized phone screenings and in-person interviews, they realized it was time to evolve to remain competitive by increasing efficiency with recruiting automation.
They started by implementing an automated text messaging platform but, unfortunately, the solution didn’t deliver the results they had hoped for. “There was lag time with the delivery. We would send messages in the morning and hope they were delivered by the end of the day,” says Recruiting Manager Jason Wilson. “Besides that, the capabilities were limited. Everything just compounded and we weren’t able to do what we hoped with it.”
MBS implemented Sense in 2020 and quickly realized they had found the solution to their automation challenges. “When we first saw Sense, it was everything that we were looking for as far as texting, faster delivery, and automation,” says Javar.
At the time, they had a manual process for following up and reengaging past candidates. In addition to being slow and inefficient, the process had two glaring problems — some recruiters were so busy they didn’t have time to follow up with candidates and many candidates were simply falling through the cracks and not receiving messages that could result in them being hired.
With Sense Journeys, that manual process is now completely automated, giving recruiters precious hours back and ensuring candidates receive the right message at the right time.
“We no longer have to worry about recruiters updating candidate information or remembering to send follow-up messages. Today, everything is automated,” says Javar.
MBS’s recruiting workflows are now so dialed in that they’re on track to reach more than 250k candidates, save about 13k recruiters hours, and make nearly 1,000 hires with Sense by the end of the year.
While MBS initially implemented Sense for automated text messaging and candidate communication, they were pleasantly surprised to find that it offers much more than they expected. In addition to Sense Messaging and Sense Journeys, they also use the Sense Chatbot to automatically screen applicants on their website, Sense Referrals to expand their talent pipeline, Sense Analytics to track recruiter performance, and Sense Discover to reengage candidates in their Bullhorn ATS.
“All in all, Sense is a one-stop shop for us. We’re using all of the capabilities in the platform right now,” says Javar.
Sense Discover has helped MBS get greater value from their ATS. They had accumulated a substantial number of candidates in their Bullhorn database over the years but never had a streamlined and affordable way to reactivate that talent. “We had always wanted to reengage our candidates in Bullhorn but it would have cost too much,” says Jason. “Once we implemented Sense, we saw how easy and inexpensive it was to take those passive candidates and make them active again.”
Sense Chatbot has also grown to be a valuable asset for the team. Like a lot of recruiters, the MBS team was initially wary of conversational AI after being accustomed to communicating directly with candidates for so long. But after meeting with their Sense account manager, they saw how it was another avenue to meet their efficiency goals. Their chatbot automatically generates job applicants, screens candidates, and schedules interviews with no action from their recruiters required. A process that used to take days or sometimes weeks is now accomplished in mere seconds.
MBS says that working closely with the Sense team has been instrumental in helping them get the most out of the platform. They have regular calls with their account manager to discuss their recruiting and business goals and how Sense can help them meet those objectives. “Customer support has been a huge part of our relationship with Sense,” says Javar. “I can’t say enough good things about the team we work with.”
Even though MBS is using all of the Sense features, they plan to do even more with the platform in the near future. Their goal right now is to make sure every candidate who has ever interacted with their 21 recruiters is being engaged. They’ve already begun working with their account manager to identify any candidates who should be added to relevant journeys in Sense.
They’ve also started using Sense for sales and marketing automation to win new customers. They recently kicked off a pilot program and early results are promising. “We’ve tested it out and actually landed a few contracts,” says Javar.
Overall, MBS has modernized their operations with Sense — helping them recruit faster and more efficiently and increase revenue.
“Today, we’re all about speed to market. The faster and more efficient you are, the more hires you make and revenue you generate,” says Javar.
Want to learn more about MBS? Visit millerbrotherstaffing.com
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