The surprising discovery that led us to build an automated scheduling assistant for craft recruiters
On our mission to help fix the labor shortage for leading civil, commercial and industrial contractors, we’ve operated under the assumption that the two biggest transaction costs we needed to eliminate were finding and screening craft workers.
But as we made progress against scaling the supply of craft labor on our platform, and building out data-rich profiles and robust search and screening capabilities, we uncovered a third, equally critical piece of the puzzle: getting recruiters and workers on a phone call together.
Understanding the connection problem.
If I had to place a bet this time last year on the biggest challenge we’d face in connecting recruiters with craft workers, I’d have gone with reaching the worker. After all, they’re out in the field, often have their hands full, and with a labor shortage, they’re no longer picking up calls from unknown numbers.
Turns out, I’d have lost that bet. Late last year, we surveyed over 500 craft workers who had expressed interest in a recruiter’s outreach and 77% of them said they never heard back.
Amazingly, amidst a labor crisis, the biggest breakdown isn’t getting workers to pick up or respond. It’s getting recruiters to follow up.
Even when workers are available, qualified, and interested, recruiters struggle to get them on a call and into an interview. Why? Our data and observations points towards two main causes:
Recruiters rely on outdated, manual processes that don’t scale nor play well with call-based processes (unlike emails or messages, phone calls don’t stack neatly in an inbox. Recruiters are forced to make hundreds of sequential calls with no real system to manage, prioritize, or follow up).
Hiring teams who once operated in markets with plenty of workers have been trained to rely on passive recruiting practices. Those don’t work anymore. Workers now have more opportunities than ever and so if they express interest but don’t hear back, they move on.
The net result is a lot of missed connections, lost hires, and wasted effort on both sides which today’s construction companies simply can’t afford.
Solving the connection problem with Sam, the first automated scheduling assistant for craft recruiters.
While we continue quickly scaling America’s largest network of vetted craft workers, we’re also committed to building powerful innovations that solve the connection problem, starting with Sam.
With Sam, recruiters simply select a craft worker on Skillit and click “Call Worker” to initiate the process. Sam dials the worker first, provides a brief introduction to the recruiter and opportunity, and if the worker is interested, connects them directly.
Thanks to a Skillit-branded caller ID feature, the worker is more likely to pick up but if they don’t, Sam follows up by text, answering basic questions and scheduling a new time.
There’s no chasing or back-and-forth. Sam handles everything including reschedules, confirmations, and reminders and does so around the clock.
When it’s time, Sam calls and connects everyone, then logs the transcript and recording in the recruiter’s dashboard.
If someone misses the call, Sam makes a few more attempts to help ensure the interview happens.
All of this takes place for recruiters through a custom-built dashboard to help track, manage, and stay organized as they move workers smoothly through a call-driven hiring flow. Sam can also handle 10, 20, 50 or 100s of interactions at once.
At the same time, workers feel valued because Sam responds to every worker, keeping them engaged and enjoying their hiring experience.
In short:
✅ Recruiters only reach out once and Sam does the rest, at scale, generating 4x more interviews and while eliminating 90% of the scheduling work.
✅ Workers choose a time that works for them, get a response to every message and enjoy a world-class hiring experience, every time.
If you would like to see Sam Sam in action book a demo today.
