Pasta Evangelists’ Recipe for 7-Day Hiring at High Volume

Before discovering Talent Gleam, Veronica faced significant challenges as the sole recruiter for a company that’s since doubled in size: 

• Decentralized systems: With a fully manual recruitment process, collaborating with hiring managers was extremely difficult, and the administrative burden fell predominantly on Veronica’s shoulders. Transparency often fell through the cracks because she lacked the time and the tools to keep hiring managers and candidates in the loop.
• Manual processes: Veronica struggled to manage manual hiring processes on her own by painstakingly posting each vacancy; downloading, sorting, and sharing CVs; and arranging interviews.
• Underwhelming candidate experience: Veronica did her best, but was stretched too thin to extend the warm, familial feeling of a cozy Italian trattoria that Pasta Evangelists strive to exude in everything they do. They wanted their candidates to relish the experience, but time-consuming manual processes kept that vision out of reach.

These speedbumps slowed the hiring process, making it impossible to meet the tight time-to-fill timelines for open positions in their cloud kitchens. The team spent more on each hire, and all the time they spent on admin took time away from the candidates themselves, making it difficult to evaluate candidate quality and compatibility.

1. Job applications that pre-vet candidates

One of the first benefits Veronica noticed after adding Talent Gleam was higher candidate quality. In part, that’s because she can use knock-out questions in applications to quickly identify best-fit candidates and rule out those who aren’t compatible. 

The hiring managers are another factor; with lower time-to-hire and time-to-fill metrics, Veronica had more time to train and coach hiring managers through the process. They’re especially excited about using Talent Gleam to flag CVs that jump out at them, further shortening the overall timeline. 

2. Referral functionality to support their top strategy

Veronica has found that referrals are 30% more likely to show up for their interview. They’re also more likely to accept an offer and stay at Pasta Evangelists long-term. This already great hiring tactic didn’t need to change at its core; it just needed a more elegant execution. 

Before Talent Gleam, Veronica coordinated their referral scheme manually, using email and spreadsheets. Now, the whole team stays up to date with real-time visibility into the latest vacancies, which they can easily share with their networks. Veronica can see which candidates were referred by which team members and pay out bonuses with automatic tracking.

While messing with the referral process they’d used for years was intimidating, the team found Pinpoint so easy to use that the change wasn’t a challenge. About 40% of the new hires at Pasta Evangelists are referrals—this ratio has always been high, but thanks to Pinpoint it is now much easier for their team to manage. Rather than updating a spreadsheet multiple times a month, Pinpoint provides a handy dashboard so employees can have visibility over the status of referrals.

3. Centralized candidate management

Veronica screens CVs every day, so she needed a way to pull out the most promising candidates while keeping prospective team members in the loop. To stay on pace, she also needed a tool that minimized the constant back-and-forth that came with scheduling interviews.

CV review is now simple, with custom tagging that helps the team build a talent pipeline for future openings. Candidates can schedule interviews the day they’re invited, automatically blocking time on the hiring manager’s calendar. And thanks to bulk actioning and automation, Veronica doesn’t miss a beat in making candidates feel like part of the famiglia, regardless of the interview outcome.

4. Tailored, editable templates

One of the core requirements for a Pasta Evangelists ATS was reducing time without sacrificing flexibility. Their very short hiring timelines meant that any tool they adopted had to be able to adapt with their needs.

Existing processes that were still needed, like the hiring approval workflow, were optimized but otherwise left alone. For Veronica, the real time savings came via Talent Gleam’s easy-to-use templates for job postings and emails. These templates help her post roles faster and communicate with candidates promptly, while upholding the level of hospitality she wants every candidate to experience.

5. Hiring manager toolkits

Most of the hiring managers at Pasta Evangelists had never touched an ATS before Talent Gleam. Now, they can’t imagine the process without one. They love participating in applicant screening and the increased visibility gives them more control over the process. 

Automated interview scheduling and weekly “open house” interviews take all the hassle out of meeting applicants. Hiring manager toolkits keep all the information they need right at their fingertips: application answers, CVs, notes, and scorecards.

With Talent Gleam, the cost of recruitment has decreased significantly. Everything is done in-house, and the time savings leave plenty of room to assess a candidate’s quality before extending an offer. Pasta Evangelists have kept their time to hire to one week and while boosting candidate NPS to an impressive 9.5. 

The most remarkable improvement? The consistent quality of applicants: “Our Open Days are attended by candidates who suit the requirements of the position and our culture.”