Imagine you’re an HR manager working for a busy, multi-site hospitality franchise. Recruitment is overwhelming, to say the least, consisting of stress-filled days writing job descriptions, sifting through endless CVs, and juggling interviews for multiple roles across various locations – each with their own specific demands.
But, what if you had access to ELLA – a 24/7 AI for HR assistant?
Dive into a day in the life of an HR manager with ELLA at their fingertips, and discover how this powerful AI tool can reshape recruitment into a far more streamlined, strategic and productive process.
8:45am – Morning kick-off
I don’t know about you, but I like to arrive at work 15 – 20 minutes early so I can set up my desk, get myself a nice fresh cup of tea, look at my schedule and plan my focus time.
As I was making my morning tea, Ryan, our South East Regional Operations Manager, came into the kitchen and asked if we had any good candidates for the Restaurant Manager role in Reading for him to interview next week.
We posted the job role on our internal and external job boards last week, so I am sure by now we have had some good candidates come through the pipeline.
But instead of sifting through an abundance of applications, I turn to ELLA.
“Good morning, ELLA. Can you show me the top 5 candidates for the Restaurant Manager role at the Reading site?”
“Hello, Shani. Based on current application data, here are the top 5 candidates ranked by overall skill and experience for the Restaurant Manager role at Reading:
- Alex Carter – 8 years of experience within the organisation as team lead.
- Priya Sharma – 2 years as assistant manager at the Watford site.
- Jamie Liu – 5 years of multi-site hospitality managerial experience – both internal and external.
- Morgan Blake – 7 years of experience in high-volume restaurants.
- Samir Patel – 5 years of external multi-site hospitality managerial experience.”
“Thanks, ELLA. Now, can you reorder the list based on ability to travel to the site within 30 minutes?”
“Of course. Here is the same list, ranked by proximity to the Reading site:
- Jamie Liu – 15-minute commute.
- Alex Carter – 20-minute commute.
- Samir Patel – 22-minute commute.
- Priya Sharma – 25-minute commute.
- Morgan Blake – 30-minute commute.”
“Great. Lastly, can you filter this list based on experience working in multi-site hospitality roles?”
“Certainly. Here are the candidates with multi-site hospitality managerial experience:
- Jamie Liu – 5 years.
- Samir Patel – 5 years.”
“Perfect. Can you send Jamie and Samir an email advising of their successful application and include a link to book in a first-stage interview with myself and Ryan Jones, the Regional Operations Manager?”
“Done. Would you also like me to send an email to all other applicants, thanking them for their application and encouraging them to apply for future opportunities?”
“Yes, please, ELLA.”
And just like that, using our internal templates for candidate communications, ELLA efficiently personalises and dispatches emails, ensuring every candidate – whether successful or not – receives timely, professional updates about their application status.
Fantastic. And all that was done before I even my finished my morning tea – win. Now I have an extra two and a bit hours to crack on with the new flexible benefits campaign we are soon to be launching before the 12pm senior leadership meeting.
Want to learn more about ELLA? Click here to learn more about how it can benefit your HR function
12pm – Mid-morning announcement
Today’s senior leadership meeting brought some major news: our newest site, in London, which we’ve been working on for the past few months, finally has an opening date. And it’s in 3 months.
We’re going to need a full set of staff, from:
- 10 kitchen staff
- 5 cleaning personnel
- 20 rotating waiting staff
- 4 front desk staff
- 6 bar staff
- 1 restaurant manager
- 2 assistant restaurant managers
Now, before ELLA, this kind of announcement would have left me slightly overwhelmed. Ok, if I am completely honest, my heart still skipped a beat when I heard just how many staff we’d need.
But deep down, I know we’ll be fine because we have ELLA, our agentic 24/7 AI recruitment assistant.
“ELLA, can you write a job description for a Head Chef role? Please focus on experience in Japanese cuisine, fine dining, and leading a large, high-paced kitchen team.”
[ELLA shares a job description]
“Certainly! Here’s a draft job description tailored to those requirements.”
“Perfect. Now, can you align this with our company values and tone of voice? Use past job descriptions for Head Chef roles as a guide.”
“Done. The job description has been updated to match your tone and values.”
“Great. Can you now post this job to our internal communications platform, internal job board, and all relevant external job boards?”
“All postings are live. Would you like me to notify internal staff?”
“Yes, why not. Thank you, ELLA.”
Within seconds, ELLA sends me the job description, I authorise the send-off and voila, everything has been published.
That’s one job. Now, I have a couple of interviews that I need to attend for the rest of the afternoon.
Click here to learn more about how you can use AI to enhance your HR operations
3pm – Multi-site coordination
Finally back at my desk from the interviews. They all went pretty well (besides the inevitable no-show. There is always one).
The Regional Manager and I have both agreed to offer the first candidate the stewardess position in Reading. And even though the second candidate missed the position by a thin line, I believe she will be great for the new London site.
I’ll call her tomorrow to see if she’s interested in the London position. If so, we can start her training at the Reading site so she can help with onboarding in London.
But for now, let’s check in with ELLA for an update on our current recruitment campaigns.
“ELLA, can you check which job postings across all sites are nearing their expiration date?”
“Certainly! Here’s the latest update on job postings:
- Reading Site – 2 Bar Staff and 1 Kitchen Assistant roles expire in 3 days.
- Manchester Site – 1 Restaurant Supervisor role expires in 5 days.
“Can you provide a breakdown of applications per job board, including conversion rates from applications to interviews, so we can determine which platforms are performing best?”
I get a detailed breakdown of the top-performing sites, and I can see that one of them is significantly outperforming the others in terms of application volume and interview conversions.
“Sure, here is a breakdown:
- Platform B has generated 185 qualified applicants across 6 locations, with a 65% application-to-interview conversion rate and an average time-to-hire of 7 days.
- Platform A brought in 132 applicants but with only a 25% conversion rate and a longer time-to-hire of 14 days, making it less efficient and more expensive by 40% per hire.
- Internal referrals, although lower in volume (58 applicants), resulted in the highest quality hires, with a 90% retention rate over 12 months and the lowest cost per hire.”
I ask ELLA not to post new job listings on Platform A as it is costing us more than it is worth at the moment. And I will start looking into optimising our recruitment costs next.
But, can we take a moment to appreciate how fast that was completed?
This would have taken me a good couple of hours to pull together the reports, analyse the data, and then execute.
And now, 5 minutes, tops?
4pm – Streamlining recruitment costs
So, with this added time, I can now focus on optimising our recruitment budget, ensuring we invest in the most effective hiring channels and eliminate unnecessary expenses.
This is something I rarely had the capacity to do before ELLA came into the picture. It was that task that, while high in priority, always got overrun by high urgency admin tasks. Now, I finally have the headspace to do the kind of strategic, high-impact work that really makes a difference.
Because let’s face it, everyone is feeling the economic pinch and as HR Managers, our processes and labour budgets are going to be one of the first to face the cut.
So, let’s start with our recruitment platforms because, as we have seen before, some serve us less than others.
“ELLA, evaluate the effectiveness of recruitment sources for each of our locations and roles we hire within the organisations and recommend cost-effective platforms for future postings.”
A full report with insights on where our recruitment spend is most effective. I can now see which platforms provide the highest volume of quality applications, where our strongest hires have come from, and which sources are underperforming.
“ELLA, based on this report, can you recommend an optimised posting strategy that prioritises high-converting platforms and reduces spending on low-performing ones?”
“Certainly! Here’s the recommended strategy:
- Reduce job ad spending on Platform A, as its cost per hire is 40% higher than other sources.
- Increase visibility on Platform B, which has delivered the most successful hires for front desk and kitchen roles.
- Allocate more budget to internal referrals, as they have the highest retention rate across all locations.
Let’s give this a try. We can monitor this new strategy and revisit it next month to see if it was effective. But I have full faith in ELLA, my trusted HR AI assistant, as all its recommendations are based on our company data.
Now, don’t get me wrong. I am still very much in control. And I tend to remain in control. Yes, ELLA enhances what I do. But every decision still goes through me. I have the final say.
ELLA simply removes the noise, cuts down the admin, and gives me the insight I need to make smarter, faster, and more confident decisions. I like to call it human-led hiring, just with a lot more power behind it.
5pm – Wrapping up for the day
Can you believe it’s 5 pm already? How time flies.
Wrapping up my day feels entirely different now. I’m no longer overwhelmed or feeling guilty about clocking off. Instead, I’m empowered to truly enhance our workplace and know that everything will be handled with care and efficiency.
Thanks to elementsuite and ELLA, our agentic AI recruitment assistant, my role has evolved from mere recruitment management to strategically shaping our organisation’s future.
The difference is remarkable, and our team’s performance and morale reflect it every day.
What else can ELLA do?
ELLA’s functionalities are not limited to recruitment. ELLA empowers people in every corner of the organisation. Whether it’s answering employee queries or providing managers with business insights – such as absence and turnover rates – find out what ELLA can do for you.
Book a demo today to see how ELLA can help you and your team get more time back to focus on the more strategic tasks that drive your business forward.
