Introduction: A Hiring Challenge Built on a Growing Foundation
In the fast-moving world of commercial construction, the ability to recruit skilled workers quickly and efficiently can make or break a company's growth trajectory. For Elite Construction Solutions, a rapidly expanding commercial roofing and general contracting firm operating across nine major U.S. cities, this challenge became impossible to ignore. As the company scaled through acquisitions and geographic expansion, its hiring process remained fragmented, costly, and inconsistent.
That all changed when Elite Construction Solutions implemented Workable, an applicant tracking system (ATS) that transformed their recruiting operations within a week of going live. The results were nothing short of remarkable: total hires increased by 78.3%, cost per hire dropped by $1,400 — a 41% reduction — and employee retention improved by 20%. This case study explores exactly how they achieved those outcomes and what other construction and trade companies can learn from their experience.
Who Is Elite Construction Solutions?
Elite Construction Solutions is a commercial roofing company that provides reliable, high-quality solutions for businesses of all sizes. Over the years, the company has significantly expanded its footprint by acquiring construction firms that offer general contracting services, widening both its capabilities and market reach.
Today, Elite Construction Solutions operates across a broad geographic landscape that includes Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati, Milwaukee, Chicago, St. Louis, Indianapolis, Phoenix, and Minneapolis. This multi-city presence demands a workforce that is not only large but also consistently trained, reliable, and retained over the long term.
To support this level of growth, the company centralized its recruiting operations in 2024 under a dedicated team led by recruiting leader Sean Kelly. Before settling on Workable, Kelly tested nearly eight different ATS platforms — a rigorous evaluation process that ultimately pointed to one clear winner based on speed, usability, and scalability.
What Hiring Looked Like Before Workable
Before implementing a centralized ATS, Elite Construction Solutions struggled with a hiring process that was disorganized and heavily dependent on individual managers. The problems were systemic and compounded across every location the company operated in.
- Managers were responsible for their own hiring on top of their daily operational duties, meaning recruitment was never a focused effort and often fell behind.
- Heavy reliance on job board spending meant the company was investing significant budget in sourcing candidates without a structured way to track or evaluate the return on that investment.
- No standardized hiring pipeline existed across locations, which led to inconsistent candidate experiences and unpredictable hiring timelines.
- Data and reporting were essentially nonexistent, making it impossible for leadership to understand where bottlenecks existed or how to improve the process.
- High cost per hire was draining resources that could have been reinvested elsewhere in the business.
The company needed a solution that could centralize operations, reduce spend waste, and give the recruiting team the tools to work at scale without sacrificing quality.
Why Elite Construction Solutions Chose Workable
After evaluating nearly eight different applicant tracking systems, Sean Kelly and his team selected Workable for three core reasons: speed of implementation, ease of use, and the platform's ability to scale alongside the company's ambitions.
Unlike many enterprise-level HR platforms that require weeks or months of onboarding, Workable was live within less than a week. For a company already operating at full capacity and hiring in multiple cities simultaneously, this rapid deployment was not just convenient — it was critical.
Workable also offered an intuitive interface that hiring managers across various locations could adopt quickly without extensive training. In the construction industry, where operational leaders are typically focused on job sites rather than software dashboards, this usability factor was a decisive advantage.
The Results: By the Numbers
Since implementing Workable, Elite Construction Solutions has seen measurable and sustained improvements across every key recruiting metric that matters.
- Total hires increased by 78.3%, effectively doubling the company's hiring volume and enabling it to staff new projects and markets more effectively.
- Cost per hire was reduced by $1,400, representing a 41% decrease that frees up significant budget across a high-volume hiring operation.
- Employee retention improved by 20%, suggesting that the quality of hires — not just the quantity — improved as a result of a more structured and consistent recruiting process.
- Time to go live was less than one week, demonstrating the platform's accessibility and the speed at which even complex organizations can get up and running.
The Broader Lessons for Construction and Trade Industries
The Elite Construction Solutions story is a powerful reminder that the construction and skilled trades industries are not exempt from the benefits of modern HR technology. In fact, these sectors often have the most to gain from investing in structured recruiting systems because of the high turnover rates, competitive labor markets, and the operational complexity of managing workers across multiple job sites and regions.
A centralized ATS does more than just organize resumes. It creates a consistent candidate experience, enables data-driven decisions, reduces dependence on expensive one-off job board postings, and gives leadership the visibility they need to continuously improve. When these systems are implemented correctly — as Workable was at Elite Construction Solutions — the impact on both hiring efficiency and workforce quality can be transformative.
Key Takeaways for HR and Recruiting Leaders
If your organization is still relying on spreadsheets, email chains, or disconnected job board subscriptions to manage hiring, the results from Elite Construction Solutions should serve as a compelling call to action. Here are the most important lessons from their experience:
- Centralization drives consistency. Moving from decentralized, manager-led hiring to a dedicated recruiting function with proper tooling is one of the highest-leverage changes a growing company can make.
- Speed of implementation matters. An ATS that takes months to deploy may cost you more in delayed hires than it saves in the long run. Prioritize platforms that can be operational quickly.
- The right ATS pays for itself. A $1,400 reduction in cost per hire across a high-volume recruiting operation adds up to enormous savings at scale — savings that can be reinvested directly into the business.
- Better process leads to better retention. A structured, consistent hiring process doesn't just fill seats faster; it helps ensure the right people are placed in the right roles, which directly impacts how long they stay.
Conclusion: Building a Stronger Workforce with the Right Tools
Elite Construction Solutions proves that with the right ATS in place, even industries as traditionally operationally focused as commercial construction can revolutionize their hiring. By choosing Workable for its speed, usability, and scalability, Sean Kelly's team transformed a fragmented, costly recruiting process into a centralized, data-driven operation that delivered results almost immediately.
For companies facing similar challenges — whether in construction, manufacturing, logistics, or any other industry with high hiring volume — this case study makes the argument clearly: investing in the right recruiting technology is not an overhead expense. It is a strategic growth decision with measurable, real-world returns.