City Wide Facility Solutions, a venerable third-generation, family-owned enterprise established in 1961, has successfully leveraged an advanced Applicant Tracking System (ATS) to dramatically enhance its recruitment efficiency across its expansive network of 110 locations in the United States and Canada. This strategic implementation has resulted in an average time-to-fill of just 16 days, a remarkable feat given the company’s complex, distributed operational model and diverse hiring needs. The company, which manages a comprehensive suite of building services ranging from janitorial operations and landscaping to maintenance and specialized facility tasks through a unique business-to-business (B2B) model partnering with independent contractors, has found its scalable solution in Workable.
A Legacy of Service Meets Modern Recruitment Challenges
Founded over six decades ago, City Wide Facility Solutions has grown from its humble beginnings into a national and international powerhouse in the facility services sector. The company’s longevity is a testament to its commitment to quality and adaptability. However, operating across such a vast geographical footprint, with each location potentially requiring different skill sets and management structures, presents unique challenges, particularly in human capital acquisition. The facility management industry, projected to reach over $1.5 trillion globally by 2027, is highly competitive and labor-intensive, demanding constant innovation in operational efficiency and talent management. For a company like City Wide, which prides itself on its B2B model and partnerships with independent contractors, the internal hiring for its franchisee and franchisor roles is critical to maintaining its service standards and growth trajectory.
Kelsey Herbig, a pivotal figure in City Wide’s talent acquisition strategy, oversees a recruitment landscape that spans a wide array of positions, from essential night managers and dedicated sales executives to critical C-suite leadership roles. With an annual hiring volume of 30 to 50 individuals for the corporate and franchise leadership teams alone, the imperative for a centralized, scalable, and efficient ATS became undeniable. The previous system, CareerPlug, while functional, lacked the modern capabilities and flexibility required to support such a dynamic and distributed organization. This growing need for a robust technological backbone in recruitment mirrors a broader industry trend where companies are increasingly investing in sophisticated HR tech to gain a competitive edge in attracting and retaining talent.
The Quest for a Unified Hiring Platform: Workable Emerges as the Solution
Approximately five years ago, City Wide embarked on a comprehensive evaluation process to identify a modern ATS that could consolidate its hiring efforts, streamline workflows, and offer unparalleled scalability. Kelsey Herbig spearheaded this critical initiative, meticulously comparing leading platforms in the market, including UKG, ADP, BambooHR, and JazzHR, against Workable. The selection criteria were stringent, demanding a system that could accommodate the unique needs of a franchise model, facilitate rapid hiring cycles, enhance candidate experience, and offer robust automation capabilities.
The decisive factor that set Workable apart from its competitors was its distinctive pricing structure and inherent structural flexibility. For an organization with 110 distinct locations, the conventional per-user fee model prevalent among many ATS providers would have resulted in prohibitive costs and administrative complexities. Workable offered a "one-stop shop" approach, allowing each location to have its own user space and departmental separation without incurring additional user-based charges. This cost-effective and adaptable model was crucial for City Wide, enabling a unified hiring system that could support its extensive network without compromising on individual franchise autonomy or budget constraints. Kelsey Herbig articulated this pivotal advantage, stating, "We have 110 locations. We needed each person to not have their own platform, but their own user space… A lot of other places will charge you user fees for everybody. Workable is a one stop shop."
Beyond the pricing model, Workable’s feature set and user-friendly interface were also significant considerations. The platform’s ability to integrate various stages of the hiring process—from initial application to offer letter and background checks—into a single, cohesive workflow was highly appealing. This holistic approach promised to reduce administrative burden, minimize errors, and accelerate the overall recruitment timeline.
Tangible Outcomes: A New Benchmark in Hiring Efficiency
The implementation of Workable at City Wide Facility Solutions has yielded a suite of quick, impactful results, transforming the company’s talent acquisition landscape. These outcomes highlight the strategic value of investing in the right technology for a complex, multi-location business:
- Hiring Efficiency: The most striking outcome is the average time-to-fill of just 16 days. This metric significantly outperforms industry averages, which often hover around 30-45 days for comparable roles. Such rapid hiring cycles are critical in the facility services industry, where operational continuity and timely client service delivery depend heavily on having a full and competent workforce. Faster hiring translates directly into reduced vacancy costs, quicker onboarding of essential personnel, and an immediate positive impact on service quality and client satisfaction.
- Scalability: Workable’s design flawlessly supports City Wide’s 110 franchise locations, providing separate departments and user spaces without the burden of per-user fees. This capability has been instrumental in enabling a unified hiring system that centralizes data and processes while allowing for localized recruitment efforts. The ability to scale without linear cost increases is a significant business advantage, particularly for growing franchise models.
- Automation & Communication: The platform has enabled City Wide to achieve 100% applicant response rates through automated and scheduled communication. In an era where candidate experience can make or break an employer brand, ensuring every applicant receives a timely response, whether an interview invitation or a polite rejection, is paramount. This commitment to communication strengthens City Wide’s reputation as a desirable employer, fostering goodwill and potentially attracting higher-quality talent in the future.
- Process Consolidation: Workable has become the central hub for critical hiring functions, integrating assessments, offer letters, and background checks directly within the platform. This consolidation eliminates the need for multiple disparate systems, reducing manual data entry, improving data accuracy, and significantly streamlining the end-to-end hiring workflow. The efficiency gained allows recruitment teams to focus more on strategic candidate engagement rather than administrative overhead.
- Indeed Talent Scout Integration: City Wide’s participation as a beta partner for Indeed Talent Scout within Workable demonstrated immediate value. The hiring of an account manager in a mere seven days through this integrated sourcing tool underscored its effectiveness. This feature has become particularly invaluable for sourcing candidates for hard-to-fill field roles, such as night managers, who are often more active on platforms like Indeed than professional networking sites like LinkedIn.
Seamless Implementation and Daily Operational Excellence
The transition to Workable was remarkably smooth for City Wide, a critical factor for any enterprise-level technology adoption. Kelsey Herbig praised the ease of implementation and training, highlighting the robust support received from Workable’s customer service. This seamless rollout ensured minimal disruption to ongoing recruitment activities and facilitated rapid user adoption across all franchise teams. The quick uptake by diverse users, from seasoned hiring managers to new team members, speaks volumes about the platform’s intuitive design and the quality of the initial setup.
Workable’s impact extends beyond initial setup to the daily operational rhythms of City Wide’s recruitment team. Kelsey Herbig emphasized that Workable functions as a "true one-stop shop," with all aspects of the hiring process running through the platform. This centralization is key to maintaining the impressive 16-day time-to-fill average. The ability to manage candidate pipelines, schedule interviews, and process necessary documentation within a single interface significantly reduces fragmentation and potential bottlenecks.
Streamlined communication stands out as a core benefit. The commitment to responding to 100% of applicants is a cornerstone of City Wide’s candidate experience strategy. Workable’s automated and scheduled email features are instrumental in achieving this, ensuring that candidates receive timely acknowledgments and status updates without overwhelming recruiters’ inboxes. This level of communication not only respects candidates’ time but also reinforces City Wide’s professional image, making it an attractive employer in a competitive talent market. A Workable spokesperson, commenting on the success of their integrated communication features, might observe, "In today’s candidate-driven market, timely and consistent communication is non-negotiable. Our platform empowers companies like City Wide to build strong employer brands by ensuring every applicant feels valued, regardless of the hiring outcome."
Furthermore, Workable has dramatically reduced the time spent on administrative tasks. Features such as automated calendar invites, which seamlessly integrate with the schedules of hiring managers and recruitment teams, eliminate the need for manual coordination. This automation extends to other critical areas, including the creation and management of offer letters, the initiation and tracking of background checks, and the deployment of pre-screening assessments. By automating these repetitive yet essential tasks, Workable frees up valuable time for recruiters to engage more deeply with promising candidates, conduct more thorough evaluations, and focus on strategic sourcing initiatives. The cumulative effect is a more efficient, less burdensome recruitment process that accelerates hiring without compromising quality.
Leveraging Sourcing Advantage: The Power of Indeed Talent Scout
City Wide’s participation in the beta program for Indeed Talent Scout, integrated directly within Workable, provided an early and significant advantage, particularly for sourcing candidates for challenging roles. Kelsey Herbig’s enthusiastic feedback—"I loved it. I hired an account manager in seven days off of it"—underscores the immediate and tangible benefits of this feature.
Indeed Talent Scout proved to be a game-changer for roles that traditionally struggle for visibility on professional networking sites like LinkedIn. Night managers, for instance, a critical but often hard-to-fill position in facility services, are predominantly active on Indeed. The integrated tool allowed City Wide to proactively search for qualified candidates, contact them directly through personalized messages, and track their engagement, all within the Workable platform. This direct sourcing capability dramatically shortened the recruitment cycle for these niche roles and expanded City Wide’s access to a previously untapped talent pool. An industry analyst specializing in HR technology might comment, "The integration of powerful sourcing tools like Indeed Talent Scout directly into an ATS is a strategic differentiator. It moves beyond passive job postings, enabling active recruitment for specialized roles and significantly reducing time-to-hire for critical positions."
As a result of its proven effectiveness, Indeed Talent Scout has become a permanent and integral part of Kelsey Herbig’s sourcing toolkit, regularly deployed to fill roles across the organization. This integration exemplifies the strategic value of an ATS that not only manages the hiring process but also actively facilitates proactive talent acquisition.
Strategic Implications and Future Outlook
City Wide Facility Solutions’ five-year partnership with Workable serves as a compelling case study for multi-location businesses navigating the complexities of modern talent acquisition. The company’s ability to maintain a rapid time-to-fill, uphold a superior candidate experience, and scale its hiring operations across a vast network demonstrates the profound impact of strategic technology adoption. This success story resonates across the broader facility management industry, where operational efficiency and a stable workforce are key competitive differentiators.
For companies in facility services, building maintenance, or any distributed operational model, Workable provides a blueprint for success:
- Centralized, Scalable System: A single platform that can grow with the company, accommodating new locations and diverse hiring needs without prohibitive costs.
- Enhanced Candidate Experience: Tools that ensure consistent, timely communication, fostering a positive employer brand in a competitive job market.
- Streamlined Workflows: Automation of administrative tasks, freeing up recruiters to focus on strategic engagement and talent assessment.
- Integrated Sourcing: Direct access to diverse talent pools through integrated tools, shortening recruitment cycles for even the most challenging roles.
The partnership between City Wide and Workable underscores a significant trend in human resources: the move towards highly integrated, intelligent platforms that not only manage processes but also drive strategic business outcomes. As City Wide continues its growth trajectory across the U.S. and Canada, its robust recruitment infrastructure, powered by Workable, will remain a critical asset, ensuring a steady influx of qualified talent to support its expanding operations and maintain its legacy of service excellence. Kelsey Herbig’s unsolicited endorsement—"I actually have! So much so that I joke that I should get a referral bonus!"—serves as a powerful testament to the tangible value and strategic advantage Workable continues to provide to City Wide Facility Solutions.
