42%
6 days
5 min
Shoe Station Group is a national footwear retailer with more than 430 stores across the United States. Its stores are the core of the business, so it needs a fast, reliable and consistent hiring process in every location to keep them fully staffed. Fountain’s mobile-first, automated hiring platform helped Shoe Station Group replace manual, store-by-store processes with one scalable hiring engine. Managers got their time back, and every store now works to the same hiring standard.
The Challenge: Vacancies, Phone Tag and Manual Work at Every Store
With hundreds of locations and fast-paced store environments, Shoe Station Group couldn’t fill open roles as quickly as the business needed.
“Before Fountain, we had vacancy issues. We weren’t able to fill those vacancies as fast,” says Diana Boshears, Regional Director of Operations.
Much of the hiring work fell on store managers. They scheduled interviews themselves, followed up with candidates by phone, and spent hours at a desk instead of on the sales floor.
“Before Fountain, we were doing quite a bit of manual work,” says Stacey Lloyd, Sr. Manager, Talent Acquisition. “At the store level, they were scheduling all of the interviews themselves.”
Candidates didn’t wait. About 60% of applicants dropped off before finishing the process, and time-to-hire averaged 14 days.
“Our managers aren’t spending two, three days playing phone tag with candidates [anymore],” says Rob Tant, Manager of Talent Acquisition, describing what changed.
The Turning Point: A Platform Built for Retail at Scale
Shoe Station Group needed a hiring platform built for the speed and volume of retail, one that would work the same way in 430 stores as it would in one.
“Fountain is built for retail and high volume hiring,” says Stacey. “We have over 430 stores.”
Fountain’s mobile-first design was key. Store managers could now run hiring from their phones instead of being tied to a back office.
“They don’t have to sit behind a desk. They can do it all from the phone,” says Diana.
“Because Fountain was built with a mobile application in mind first, that’s really put our stores in a position where they can communicate via text,” adds Rob. “That was a game changer for us.”
From Hours to Minutes: Scaling Consistent Hiring Nationwide
With Fountain, Shoe Station Group rebuilt hiring around automated, repeatable workflows that run the same way in every store. Corporate job postings that once took 2 hours now take just 5 minutes, so the team can staff locations across the country quickly.
“Now with Fountain, we can automatically open a requisition, and within minutes, the stores have applicants in their system,” says Diana.
Automated communication and candidate self-scheduling replaced manual coordination entirely.
“With Fountain, it’s pretty much immediate scheduling,” says Stacey. “The way that Fountain communicates with the candidate has really decreased our no-show rate for interviews.”
The results showed up across the funnel:
- Time-to-hire dropped from 14 days to 6 days
- Applicant drop-off fell from 60% to 35%
- Job posting time went from 2 hours to 5 minutes
“Within minutes, the candidate is receiving an offer letter,” says Diana. “It’s definitely lessened the time for the candidate as well as the stores.”
Most importantly, the process is now the same across the whole store base.
“These stores have a specific need on scheduling requirements. They’re very high paced,” says Diana. “Fountain has improved the consistency of hiring.”
Putting Managers Back on the Sales Floor
For Shoe Station Group, the time Fountain saves matters because stores drive the business.
“Our stores are the number one driver of our business,” says Rob. “Fountain has put a lot more time in the manager’s day. It puts them back out on the sales floor.”
Store teams notice the difference every day.
“The number one comment from our stores is the fact that they don’t have to consistently call and try to reach out to candidates,” says Diana. “The system’s doing it for them.”
Smarter Insights With Cue
Shoe Station Group also uses Cue, Fountain’s AI copilot, which lets the Talent Acquisition team find insights and take action in seconds. Manual work moving candidates between stages dropped from an hour to just 5 minutes.
“Previously, we’d have to pull four or five different reports just to get to one thing that might lead to a solution,” says Rob. “With Cue I can quickly run a report that’s going to suggest: ‘hey, here are the areas that have the biggest opportunities in your overall pipeline health.'”
“Cue has been a game changer for us,” says JaDrien Sutton, Talent Acquisition Specialist. “It’s like night and day.”
A True Partnership
For Shoe Station Group, Fountain is more than a hiring platform.
“It’s catered directly towards us, towards our needs, towards what makes us successful as a company,” says Diana.
“We feel lucky to have the team that we work with at Fountain because we do feel like they’re truly a partner,” says Stacey. “They want our business to do well.”
The Results: Doing More With Less
Since implementing Fountain, Shoe Station Group has changed how it hires across its national store base. Hiring is faster and more consistent, candidates stay engaged, and managers have their time back. With Cue, the team gets instant insight into where to focus next.
“The biggest impact Fountain has had is it’s made the process of getting an applicant and moving them through the system to hired much faster,” says Diana.
In her words: “We’re able to do more with less with Fountain.”