How Cresco Labs Cut their Recruiting Time in Half and Saved Star Employees from Churning
See how Cresco Labs, one of the nation's biggest cannabis providers, used a total rewards framework to align compensation and job titles to improve employee retention and improve recruiting efficiency.
Rebekah Alexander
Total Rewards
July 10, 2023
When Cresco Labs had just hired their 600th full-time employee within a 12-month span, it was a rising star in the cannabis industry. This brought their total employee count to 3,000. Cresco operated in multiple states and acquired multiple competitors.
They could no longer be called a “start-up”.
But one area still needed work. With Cresco’s employee base ballooning, requests to HR to promote titles and raise compensation increased significantly. The team was reactively fielding requests one-by-one. With so many requests, recruiting and promotion processes came to a halt.
And there were lots of bad habits built up through the years.
Managers learned to give out inflated titles as free employee recognition. Companies they had acquired in different regions had completely different titles for the same job. For example, Logistics Agent and Delivery Driver each described roles where individuals distributed products in trucks across their districts.
Employees were becoming disgruntled when it wasn’t clear how to get to the next step in their career or how to receive a raise. Star employees started leaving, wiping out 100s of hours of collective effort spent to bring them onboard and train them.
Cresco knew they needed help. They needed a system that supported the fast-paced needs of a growing organization hiring dozens of new roles per week. They needed a job structure.
Like many start-ups, they had managed to grow without setting role criteria; they didn't have a job description bank, role competencies or qualifications, and they had no guidelines for title usage. Big consulting firms moved too slowly to help. They take 18-24 months to solve these types of problems. Then once they’re done, there’s a massive change management process that often fails.
Instead, Cresco hired one of our compensation experts to build a new system.
Cresco’s results.
Increased employee engagement through career path and pay raise transparency.
Increased offer letter acceptance through improved recruiting process speed and improved candidate experience.
Increased financial forecasting accuracy through modeling the current workforce’s career path.
Want an experienced partner to help build your Total Rewards program?
The solution
Cresco needed a scalable solution that could be implemented quickly because it was growing so fast.
Solution 1 - Aligning job requisitions to a compensation structure
We created an automated intake form for processing new requisition requests using low-cost, cloud-based tools that we could implement without external support. This automated form accelerated the recruitment process exponentially--but not only that, it eliminated communication errors with candidates.
Getting the compensation consultation to the front of the recruitment process meant that misinformation wasn't delivered to candidates, mistitling didn't make its way into the company systems, and pay inequities were tackled head on. A better candidate experience, and long-term employee engagement was formed from the start.
How it worked:
Hiring managers completed basic information about the job they wanted to open, including whether the requisition was a new or existing role.
New roles prompted for additional job details and routed to the compensation team for job evaluation and market pricing.
We determined whether the role was properly titled and provided the salary range, bonus eligibility and equity award eligibility by role.
We reviewed each job description, making sure our intended future job structure was being represented accurately in the duties and skills listed.
If necessary, meetings were conducted with the hiring team to educate and contextualize any major misalignment. This was a natural entry point to discussion that kept information flowing and removed post-hiring resistance to disruption.
This information went straight to the legal team for compliance evaluation, and finally the recruiting team to post the role.
Solution 2 - Promotion request technology and process design
While the recruitment process enhancement stopped the flow of new hire misalignment, Cresco also faced an onslaught of mistitlings due to internal promotions and job movement. Compensation consulting stepped in again with an internal promotion intake process.
How it worked:
Using smart change forms, promotion requests were again routed to compensation for review.
Employee salaries and bonus target changes were reviewed to ensure they were commensurate with job levels. This review ensured employees who may already be over- or mis-titled were not perpetuated.
In partnership with the business leader, any pressing promotions were evaluated holistically, with an outline of all levels of the team drawn out for delivery to each team member.
Extensive coaching and consulting was conducted, helping managers deliver line of sight to their employees about their path to promotion and job expectations--both in a potential new role and in response to a declined promotion.
An eye toward the future
Now that both new hires and incumbent processes were covered, Cresco was able to comfortably focus on long-term job structure and salary range delivery projects that fit within their compensation strategy.
With compensation consulting, Cresco was able to assess their immediate and long-ranging compensation priorities in a timeline that fit their business growth.
How Cresco Labs Cut their Recruiting Time in Half and Saved Star Employees from Churning
See how Cresco Labs, one of the nation's biggest cannabis providers, used a total rewards framework to align compensation and job titles to improve employee retention and improve recruiting efficiency.
Rebekah Alexander
Total Rewards
July 10, 2023
When Cresco Labs had just hired their 600th full-time employee within a 12-month span, it was a rising star in the cannabis industry. This brought their total employee count to 3,000. Cresco operated in multiple states and acquired multiple competitors.
They could no longer be called a “start-up”.
But one area still needed work. With Cresco’s employee base ballooning, requests to HR to promote titles and raise compensation increased significantly. The team was reactively fielding requests one-by-one. With so many requests, recruiting and promotion processes came to a halt.
And there were lots of bad habits built up through the years.
Managers learned to give out inflated titles as free employee recognition. Companies they had acquired in different regions had completely different titles for the same job. For example, Logistics Agent and Delivery Driver each described roles where individuals distributed products in trucks across their districts.
Employees were becoming disgruntled when it wasn’t clear how to get to the next step in their career or how to receive a raise. Star employees started leaving, wiping out 100s of hours of collective effort spent to bring them onboard and train them.
Cresco knew they needed help. They needed a system that supported the fast-paced needs of a growing organization hiring dozens of new roles per week. They needed a job structure.
Like many start-ups, they had managed to grow without setting role criteria; they didn't have a job description bank, role competencies or qualifications, and they had no guidelines for title usage. Big consulting firms moved too slowly to help. They take 18-24 months to solve these types of problems. Then once they’re done, there’s a massive change management process that often fails.
Instead, Cresco hired one of our compensation experts to build a new system.
Cresco’s results.
Increased employee engagement through career path and pay raise transparency.
Increased offer letter acceptance through improved recruiting process speed and improved candidate experience.
Increased financial forecasting accuracy through modeling the current workforce’s career path.
Want an experienced partner to help build your Total Rewards program?
The solution
Cresco needed a scalable solution that could be implemented quickly because it was growing so fast.
Solution 1 - Aligning job requisitions to a compensation structure
We created an automated intake form for processing new requisition requests using low-cost, cloud-based tools that we could implement without external support. This automated form accelerated the recruitment process exponentially--but not only that, it eliminated communication errors with candidates.
Getting the compensation consultation to the front of the recruitment process meant that misinformation wasn't delivered to candidates, mistitling didn't make its way into the company systems, and pay inequities were tackled head on. A better candidate experience, and long-term employee engagement was formed from the start.
How it worked:
Hiring managers completed basic information about the job they wanted to open, including whether the requisition was a new or existing role.
New roles prompted for additional job details and routed to the compensation team for job evaluation and market pricing.
We determined whether the role was properly titled and provided the salary range, bonus eligibility and equity award eligibility by role.
We reviewed each job description, making sure our intended future job structure was being represented accurately in the duties and skills listed.
If necessary, meetings were conducted with the hiring team to educate and contextualize any major misalignment. This was a natural entry point to discussion that kept information flowing and removed post-hiring resistance to disruption.
This information went straight to the legal team for compliance evaluation, and finally the recruiting team to post the role.
Solution 2 - Promotion request technology and process design
While the recruitment process enhancement stopped the flow of new hire misalignment, Cresco also faced an onslaught of mistitlings due to internal promotions and job movement. Compensation consulting stepped in again with an internal promotion intake process.
How it worked:
Using smart change forms, promotion requests were again routed to compensation for review.
Employee salaries and bonus target changes were reviewed to ensure they were commensurate with job levels. This review ensured employees who may already be over- or mis-titled were not perpetuated.
In partnership with the business leader, any pressing promotions were evaluated holistically, with an outline of all levels of the team drawn out for delivery to each team member.
Extensive coaching and consulting was conducted, helping managers deliver line of sight to their employees about their path to promotion and job expectations--both in a potential new role and in response to a declined promotion.
An eye toward the future
Now that both new hires and incumbent processes were covered, Cresco was able to comfortably focus on long-term job structure and salary range delivery projects that fit within their compensation strategy.
With compensation consulting, Cresco was able to assess their immediate and long-ranging compensation priorities in a timeline that fit their business growth.
How Cresco Labs Cut their Recruiting Time in Half and Saved Star Employees from Churning
See how Cresco Labs, one of the nation's biggest cannabis providers, used a total rewards framework to align compensation and job titles to improve employee retention and improve recruiting efficiency.
Rebekah Alexander
Total Rewards
July 10, 2023
When Cresco Labs had just hired their 600th full-time employee within a 12-month span, it was a rising star in the cannabis industry. This brought their total employee count to 3,000. Cresco operated in multiple states and acquired multiple competitors.
They could no longer be called a “start-up”.
But one area still needed work. With Cresco’s employee base ballooning, requests to HR to promote titles and raise compensation increased significantly. The team was reactively fielding requests one-by-one. With so many requests, recruiting and promotion processes came to a halt.
And there were lots of bad habits built up through the years.
Managers learned to give out inflated titles as free employee recognition. Companies they had acquired in different regions had completely different titles for the same job. For example, Logistics Agent and Delivery Driver each described roles where individuals distributed products in trucks across their districts.
Employees were becoming disgruntled when it wasn’t clear how to get to the next step in their career or how to receive a raise. Star employees started leaving, wiping out 100s of hours of collective effort spent to bring them onboard and train them.
Cresco knew they needed help. They needed a system that supported the fast-paced needs of a growing organization hiring dozens of new roles per week. They needed a job structure.
Like many start-ups, they had managed to grow without setting role criteria; they didn't have a job description bank, role competencies or qualifications, and they had no guidelines for title usage. Big consulting firms moved too slowly to help. They take 18-24 months to solve these types of problems. Then once they’re done, there’s a massive change management process that often fails.
Instead, Cresco hired one of our compensation experts to build a new system.
Cresco’s results.
Increased employee engagement through career path and pay raise transparency.
Increased offer letter acceptance through improved recruiting process speed and improved candidate experience.
Increased financial forecasting accuracy through modeling the current workforce’s career path.
Want an experienced partner to help build your Total Rewards program?
The solution
Cresco needed a scalable solution that could be implemented quickly because it was growing so fast.
Solution 1 - Aligning job requisitions to a compensation structure
We created an automated intake form for processing new requisition requests using low-cost, cloud-based tools that we could implement without external support. This automated form accelerated the recruitment process exponentially--but not only that, it eliminated communication errors with candidates.
Getting the compensation consultation to the front of the recruitment process meant that misinformation wasn't delivered to candidates, mistitling didn't make its way into the company systems, and pay inequities were tackled head on. A better candidate experience, and long-term employee engagement was formed from the start.
How it worked:
Hiring managers completed basic information about the job they wanted to open, including whether the requisition was a new or existing role.
New roles prompted for additional job details and routed to the compensation team for job evaluation and market pricing.
We determined whether the role was properly titled and provided the salary range, bonus eligibility and equity award eligibility by role.
We reviewed each job description, making sure our intended future job structure was being represented accurately in the duties and skills listed.
If necessary, meetings were conducted with the hiring team to educate and contextualize any major misalignment. This was a natural entry point to discussion that kept information flowing and removed post-hiring resistance to disruption.
This information went straight to the legal team for compliance evaluation, and finally the recruiting team to post the role.
Solution 2 - Promotion request technology and process design
While the recruitment process enhancement stopped the flow of new hire misalignment, Cresco also faced an onslaught of mistitlings due to internal promotions and job movement. Compensation consulting stepped in again with an internal promotion intake process.
How it worked:
Using smart change forms, promotion requests were again routed to compensation for review.
Employee salaries and bonus target changes were reviewed to ensure they were commensurate with job levels. This review ensured employees who may already be over- or mis-titled were not perpetuated.
In partnership with the business leader, any pressing promotions were evaluated holistically, with an outline of all levels of the team drawn out for delivery to each team member.
Extensive coaching and consulting was conducted, helping managers deliver line of sight to their employees about their path to promotion and job expectations--both in a potential new role and in response to a declined promotion.
An eye toward the future
Now that both new hires and incumbent processes were covered, Cresco was able to comfortably focus on long-term job structure and salary range delivery projects that fit within their compensation strategy.
With compensation consulting, Cresco was able to assess their immediate and long-ranging compensation priorities in a timeline that fit their business growth.
Let's see if you'd be a good fit for our services.
Let's see if you'd be a good fit for our services.
Let's see if you'd be a good fit for our services.