Athena: Achieved 94% message automation

A comprehensive solution to hiring limitations

Finding top-tier executive assistants to meet the needs of Athena’s influential client base is no small task. With hundreds of thousands of applicants per year, Athena’s recruiting department was inundated with manual tasks, like screening and scheduling interviews. The company tried various ATSes but none were able to successfully fulfill their hiring needs.

“One of our problems was there were so many applicants coming in on a day-to-day basis, and our system created excess applicant records because of the way our recruitment process looks,” said Bonilla. “We have a lot of assessments and a lot of stages that a candidate goes through before the first human interaction with a recruiter. Our old system created a new record after various candidate actions, which resulted in a lot of manual labor on the backend to organize applicant data.”

Athena needed a solution that would automate and simplify the workflow so the recruiters could focus on getting the most qualified candidates hired quickly.

“Our top priority was to have an ATS that can eliminate all of the other applications that we were also using,” said Bonilla. “We wanted an ATS that had everything we needed to screen candidates already built into the platform.”

An all-in-one ATS

Having to manually transfer applicant data from one platform to another was a major pain point for Athena and resulted in wasted recruiting hours. But with Fountain Hire, the Athena hiring team can stay within the platform and seamlessly move candidates through the workflow with little to no manual effort. Fountain partners with over 25 companies to help customers simplify their hiring process and increase productivity throughout the funnel.

One example of how Athena has used Fountain Hire to streamline operations is through calendar-scheduling capabilities. Applicants can schedule and reschedule interview times, and this data is automatically tied to their application. This helps reduce the manual effort of having to sort and organize every candidate action or transfer that information to an applicant profile.

Document-signing features within Fountain Hire have also played an instrumental role in the efficiency of Athena’s current process.

“All we needed to do was to create the template and create the stage it goes in,” said Bonilla. “It does not require any manual intervention, and whatever document the candidate signed is now linked to their profile, making it easier for us to track.”

The coupling of automation and built-in applications allows the Athena team to scale and grow while minimizing spend.

“Fountain helped us bring down the cost-per-hire because now we’re not manually sending the documents one by one and then storing the documents one by one for each applicant,” said Bonilla.

Automated text messages have also helped the Athena team increase recruiter productivity. Ninety-four percent of all their messages sent are now automated, freeing up time for recruiters to focus on screening candidates.

Adjustable workflows to optimize processes

An ATS with flexibility is crucial for Athena. With an ever-changing market and the unique needs of their clients, the company needs to be able to make adjustments to their hiring process quickly to meet demand.

“We need to change the assessments, update them, and move things around depending on which are more effective,” said Bonilla. “The way that Fountain is set up, it’s easy for us to quickly change the flow of the recruitment process as we see fit.”

Fountain Hire allows companies to easily rearrange workflows depending on role or location so recruiting teams can make sure they are only talking to the right applicants every time.

“As we evolve, we also need our ATS to have the ability to keep up with the rapid rate of changes,” said Bonilla.

Continued support for customer success

Since implementing Fountain Hire, Athena has been able to streamline their hiring process, resulting in the hiring of more qualified candidates with a reduction in manual lift from the recruiting team. Fountain’s Customer Success team has played a key role in ensuring Athena gets the most out of their investment.

“Our account manager helps us identify things, like where the applicants usually drop off in the recruitment stages, and gives us recommendations on how to optimize the process in order to maximize the number of applicants we’re getting,” said Bonilla.

One of the ways Fountain’s Customer Success team was able to improve Athena’s workflow was by reevaluating where the introduction video played in the process. By moving the introduction video to after an offer letter is extended, as opposed to before the interview stage, the Athena team saw a 31.6% increase in conversion.

Athena has a large top-of-funnel, and Fountain Hire’s customization and automation abilities allow them to sift through the applicants and only interview the best candidates for each role. The Fountain Customer Success team works with Athena on a regular basis to continue to test and monitor ways to improve.

“It has been great having an account manager who looks at our workflow with an objective view based just on the numbers and the performances of the stages,” said Bonilla.

Prepared for future growth with a scalable solution

Athena has achieved remarkable growth in just five years as a business. One of the major factors that sets them apart from their competitors is their selective hiring process. Fountain Hire enables Athena’s recruiting team to focus on identifying the best candidates for their clients, ensuring they deliver the highest quality service.

“Fountain is vital for us because it’s vital for us to be as flexible as our business needs are,” said Bonilla.

With Fountain Hire, Athena can continue to grow and thrive, knowing that their hiring process is efficient, effective, and scalable.