Case Study: How Sears Scaled Skilled Trades Recruiting with AI-Interviews

Executive Summary

Sears Home Services, focused on hiring appliance and HVAC technicians for their nationwide operations, transformed their high-volume recruiting process using Classet's AI recruiter, Joy. The result: improved completion rates, reduced interview times, and the ability to scale hiring goals in the competitive skilled trades market.

"For us, we can now scale in ways that we couldn't scale before... We can now grow in ways we didn't think we could grow previously. We currently have 15 recruiters on staff. We've had upwards of 25."

— Leslie Ellis, Talent Acquisition Manager, Sears Home Services

The Challenge: Volume Hiring in Skilled Trades

Sears Home Services needed to hire 30 technicians weekly across appliance and HVAC roles. This is a challenging task in a competitive skilled trades market where candidates often work unpredictable hours and have limited availability for traditional phone interviews.

"That can be a tough place for hiring because it can be harder to reach those candidates. We also don't know when they're working certain hours."
— Leslie Ellis

The core issues were multifaceted:

• Scheduling Conflicts: Technicians working in customer homes all day couldn't take recruiter calls during business hours

• Low Completion Rates: Written assessments had only ~50% completion rates, with candidates struggling with typing requirements

• Time-Intensive Process: 30-45-minute phone screens were consuming recruiter bandwidth

• Resume Limitations: Traditional resumes failed to capture hands-on experience crucial for skilled trades roles

"We had candidates who were delighted they could do it on Sunday morning at 8:00 AM in their pyjamas" — Leslie Ellis

The Solution: 24/7 AI-Powered Interviews

Sears implemented Joy to handle initial candidate screening with round-the-clock availability, allowing technicians to interview candidates at their convenience while providing recruiters with detailed insights before the initial recruiter interaction.

Key Results:

Dramatic Completion Rate Improvement:

"Our completion rate with Joy has gone up significantly. Before Classet, around 50% of people completed our interview form, whereas now we have a significantly higher completion rate, sitting around 70%." — Leslie Ellis

Better Candidate Experience:

"The verbal component of Joy is what has made it a success for us. Because the candidates can just explain in their own words, they don't feel like they have to worry about punctuation or spelling or anything like that." — Leslie Ellis

Scaling with Fewer Resources:

Sears Home Services maintained its 30-hire weekly goal with 15 recruiters instead of the previous 25, significantly reducing payroll costs while improving consistency.

The Human-AI Partnership:

Rather than eliminating human connection, Joy enhanced recruiter effectiveness by providing detailed candidate insights before calls:

"What we have found is that we're able to utilize our time with the candidates much more efficiently. If a candidate is super green, but we want to bring them in and train them up, we know [based on the recorded screening call with Joy] to start our questions there instead of having to go through a litany of questions." — Leslie Ellis

Uncovering Hidden Talent:

"We all know resumes, particularly in blue-collar, often don’t tell the full story. The screening calls with Joy tell us that they know so much more and that they've been doing a lot of handyman work on the side for friends and family." — Leslie Ellis

Brand Alignment Success

The AI interview experience became a reflection of Sears' innovative culture, serving as both a screening tool and brand ambassador:

"Joy is accessible for everybody, and is able to interact in such a human way that takes AI to a whole other level... It gave our candidates a great experience of what Sears is gonna be like, because we as a company are very AI-driven." — Leslie Ellis

Implementation Success

The transformation in candidate perception exceeded expectations:

"My brain has totally been blown by all of these different comments that [Joy] makes, what Joy comes up with, to where I feel hugely confident to recommend it not only to our candidates and encourage them to take it, but also other people in the recruiting field." — Leslie Ellis

The Bottom Line

Sears Home Services' success demonstrates how AI recruiting can solve unique challenges in skilled trades recruiting. By providing flexible, accessible screening that works around technicians' schedules, they've created a competitive advantage in a tight labor market.

"There are so many different places people can work, especially if you're in the trade industry... if you have all these options, we know that your initial interaction with Sears needs to be as positive as possible because we are selling Sears just as much, maybe even more than the candidate is selling themselves to us." — Leslie Ellis

The key insight: AI-powered interviews can transform both operational efficiency and candidate experience, creating a win-win that strengthens brand perception while scaling hiring operations.

About Sears Home Services: A nationwide provider of appliance and HVAC repair services, focused on hiring skilled technicians to serve customers in their homes with innovative, technology-driven solutions.