Skills-based hiring is on the rise. It uses a more expansive approach and considers individuals otherwise overlooked. Some potential candidates may not quite fit the template for a role but have other adjacent skills and experience that can be applied to the job. 

With the talent shortfall widespread, skills-based hiring opens new talent pools. It requires a different recruitment approach and an ATS that allows one to review thousands of resumes quickly and efficiently and pick up transferable skills. 

Significantly, to achieve success, it is critical to have crucial information in one place. YUPRO Placement is at the forefront of the skills-based hiring revolution. This case study showcases YUPRO Placement’s transition to Tracker to consolidate a disparate tech stack and meet its skills-based hiring needs. 

  

About YUPRO Placement 

YUPRO Placement is a Public Benefit Corporation that empowers individuals from marginalized communities to achieve economic mobility through skills-based hiring. It believes this approach creates equal opportunities for everyone, regardless of background, to access higher-paying jobs and build fulfilling careers. YUPRO Placement is dedicated to eliminating systemic barriers in the hiring process and promoting inclusive practices. 

The business isn’t a traditional staffing firm. “We are very niche. We do everything traditional staffing firms do, but there are many unique layers to our services and the way we support job seekers,” said Kelsey Weaver, YUPRO Placement’s Deputy Chief of Staff. 

  

Challenges before Tracker 

YUPRO Placement highlighted several inadequacies in its existing systems, in particular its separate ATS and CRM. It described its processes as ‘very disconnected’ and its team as ‘administratively burdened.’ 

Significant issues included: 

• Disconnected Systems: Separate ATS and CRM created inefficiencies and hindered collaboration.
• Data Duplication and Errors: Manual data entry across multiple platforms led to inaccuracies and wasted time.
• Administrative Overhead: Staff spent valuable time on repetitive tasks instead of focusing on strategic initiatives. 
• Communication Barriers: Fragmented communication channels made it difficult to track candidate interactions, progress, and competencies. 
• Limited Visibility: Lack of comprehensive reporting hindered data-driven decision-making. 
• Slow or non-existent support: Systems were slow, difficult to use, and lacked a real support team, leading to frustration and missed opportunities.  

A review of processes revealed many workflow inefficiencies due to multiple systems leading to a drain on staff time. 

   

Results and Benefits: The All-in-One Solution  

YUPRO Placement implemented Tracker’s integrated suite of tools to address their challenges head-on. 

Improvements include:

• One system
• No duplicate data entry, fewer mistakes
• Time savings
• Slicker communications
• Productivity
• Data and reporting
• A standardized recruiting process
• Cost efficiencies
• Improved talent pipeline
• AI functionality
• User friendliness
• Automation
• Tracker support
• Relationship building
• Confidence in the future

One system 

Many ATSs don’t have a built-in CRM, so having Tracker’s combined ATS, CRM, and recruitment automation has been a game-changer for the business. “Now everything is tied together,” said Kelsey. “The fact that everything is in one place is the biggest benefit to our team right now.” 

  

No duplicate data entry, fewer mistakes 

Previously, working with multiple systems, there was so much room for human error. Team members were using two or three different systems and had to upload information in each. Now, with one system, there are fewer mistakes and more accurate data.

  

Time savings 

With our old systems that weren’t integrated, much staff time went into administrative work.

Since Tracker – “It’s cut out a ton of administrative work time (up to 66%) for the team so they can get on with doing their actual jobs of recruiting and supporting our talent and clients.”   

“Tracker has cut the time of onboarding in half.” 

  

Slicker communications 

Internal communication before Tracker was quite fragmented, involving meetings, emails and texts, but with no central place or easy way to manage and record conversations and action points. 

Tracker has eliminated the need for so many touchpoint meetings, outside chats, and emails. The ability to internally tag one another within the Tracker system has removed a lot of the superfluous chat that happened previously outside of the system. Communications are much slicker, and a lot less time is wasted. 

  

Productivity 

Huge productivity savings are being reported simply from having everything in one place, in a single system. 

Other productivity-saving examples include Tracker’s Ring Central functionality, which automatically captures texts and calls with candidates. 

Overall, Tracker provides better functionality than the previous ATS, and the tools’ conciseness means that productivity has increased significantly. 

  

Data and reporting 

Kelsey said Tracker’s reporting capability has given more visibility than before.

“Of course, we had reporting in our old CRM but didn’t leverage many reporting tools in our old ATS. Bringing all that information together in Tracker and allowing the systems to talk to one another has been great.” 

The business also has to share a lot of data with its parent organization. Tracker’s report-to-excel feature has helped smooth this process considerably, and it also enables live data sharing. 

  

A standardized recruiting process 

Recruitment workflow has improved, especially with a standardized, easy-to-see process for tracking candidates. Prior to Tracker, a lot of time was spent making disparate tools and processes work. 

“With Tracker, we have spread the recruiting workload across more people. We have the same number of people in the team, but more focus on recruiting as part of their duties rather than back office.” 

Allocation of work has also become more manageable with Tracker. 

  

Cost efficiencies 

Tracker’s all-in-one software has reduced the business’s tech stack, bringing significant cost savings. 

  

Improved talent pipeline 

Tracker has improved visibility. One project worked through with the Tracker team was to import all conversion leads.

“This is the first time that we’ve been able to track the data so cleanly and see all the opportunities for potential conversions and get a candidate-by-candidate breakdown,” said Kelsey, adding, “There are cost savings that come with that, but also new capabilities. Tracker has increased our visibility to sales opportunities. Now we can be more proactive going after these.” 

“One of our key metrics is to showcase the volume of active candidates in our system from each training provider that we partner with, along with the skillsets they are trained in. Tracker is helping us with that visibility, giving us a clearer look at where we need talent pipelines and skillsets.” 

  

User-friendliness 

The team has found Tracker to be extremely user-friendly. Kelsey also remarked that newer team members can be trained pretty quickly on how to use Tracker’s tools.

“Everything is easy to see, and all the pieces are talking to one another again.” 

  

AI functionality 

“We love the new AI feature for recruiting,” said Kelsey. “It’s enabled us to find candidates more aligned to specific skill sets faster. This means we can serve our clients quicker and more effectively.” 

  

Automation 

The templates and sequences in the Tracker system have been crucial to YUPRO Placement’s work. Previously, templates were stored outside of systems in document form. The team would have to search for the right one for each scenario and manually paste it into the relevant system. 

Now, all standardized templates, such as those used for activation forms, emails, screening calls, etc., are in the Tracker system. This has also helped streamline the language and standardize communication, improving consistency in service provision. 

  

Tracker support 

YUPRO Placement is a very data-driven organization, so importing leads was a considerable project. Tracker helped the company through that.

“On specific challenges, Tracker has been very responsive and a perfect thought partner, troubleshooting with our team to find a solution that fits our unique needs.” 

For a smaller company, YUPRO Placement works with many partners and encounters many challenges. It needs a responsive support team, and Tracker has been very good at that.

“They’ll send us video screenshots to ensure we are on the same page. It’s a small thing but so helpful. Tracker helps us be creative and ensures we are on the same page when working through any challenges together.”   

Tracker proactively offers guidance and suggestions that help achieve better results. 

  

Relationship building 

Tracker has helped YUPRO Placement improve its understanding of and map out relationships at every level, supporting its MSP strategy, which was established to navigate the current economic climate. Companies are making cuts, but there is still as much talent looking for jobs.   

Tracker helps the business better understand the market and gain greater visibility into the roles that are available. 

Another critical area Tracker has helped is transitioning alumni from YUPRO’s parent company, Year Up, which offers skills-based training programs to young adults to improve professional and personal skills. 

“Tracker is enabling us to see the bigger picture and helping us focus our efforts on capturing internal conversions. People are coming over from Year Up internships to us as contractors. It is part of the road to securing a full-time role eventually. We can do all of this with Tracker.” 

    

Confidently Facing the Future 

YUPRO Placement’s partnership with Tracker has empowered them to achieve their short-term and long-term goals.  In the short term, they plan to fully implement Tracker’s invoicing feature for seamless financial management. Long term, they aim to expand their services to meet the evolving needs of their training partners and continue to foster economic mobility for underrepresented talent.

“We want to ensure that our talent has access to upskilling, that they’re competitive in the job market, and that they have access to job opportunities that can lead to great careers overall. That means being innovative and creative and ensuring that we’re meeting clients’ needs while also finding opportunities for our talent to thrive and grow into their careers.” 

  

Why YUPRO Placement Recommends Tracker 

• “Tracker has allowed us to come together, collaborate, and have everything all in one place so we can be much more productive.” 
• “Tracker has helped us save up to 66% on admin time.” 
• “The tools and tricks have cut down our tech stack and made it easier on the team.” 
• “The automation templates are a favorite tool, making communications more aligned and our team more productive.” 
• “Everything is in one place, and you can pull information quickly and easily from different records. Before Tracker, we had to find information from up to ten different places!” 
• “Our whole team is on the same page and speaking the same language.” 
• “We love that Tracker is integrated with LinkedIn and can bring candidates into the Tracker system.” 
• “I love the chat feature and support. The Tracker team is always quick to answer; we are talking to real humans, not bots. The chat feature for support has been crucial for us to work fast and get the answers we need in real-time.” 
• “We now have the ability to build tools that can bring everything required into a single document.” 

Kelsey Weaver, Deputy Chief of Staff.