6 Best Hiring Software for Zaxby's Franchisees

Zaxby's had 969 U.S. locations at the end of 2024 and was on pace to cross 1,000 in 2025, with plans to open 60 new stores that year alone. The brand is pushing into new states: Arizona, Maryland, Ohio, Chicago, markets where most of the incoming franchisees are operating without an established local labor pool and a brand that applicants in that market may not know yet. That's a harder staffing situation than operating in a market where Zaxby's has been around for years. You're building your team from scratch, often in a hurry, often in a location where your name recognition alone won't do the recruiting work for you.

Industry-wide, QSR turnover hit 75% in 2025. Even in established Zaxby's markets, that means the hiring cycle never really stops. Someone always needs to be replaced. Somebody new always needs to be onboarded. Whether you've been operating for five years or you're three weeks from opening your first location, you need a hiring process that works without consuming your week.

We evaluated 10 platforms and ranked 6 for Zaxby's franchise operators, based on mobile experience, time-to-hire, multi-location functionality, and genuine fit for QSR hourly hiring.

Ranking criteria:

Relevance to QSR, chicken fast-casual, and franchise hourly hiring
Verified user reviews from G2 and Capterra
Practical fit for operators running locations without a dedicated HR function

1. HigherMe: Best Overall for Zaxby's Franchisees

HigherMe was built for this from the beginning. Not a general HR platform that expanded into restaurants, not a tool that added franchise features after the fact. An hourly hiring system designed specifically for operators who are managing fast-paced locations, high-volume turnover, and mobile-first applicants — without a dedicated HR team to absorb any of it.

Zaxby's franchisees get exclusive pricing, and HigherMe already runs inside brands like Dunkin', Domino's, Tim Hortons, and Chick-fil-A, operators dealing with the same combination of fast growth, high turnover, and lean management structure that Zaxby's franchisees know well.

What it delivers for your Zaxby's locations

The application is entirely mobile. Under five minutes, no account creation, no resume required. For Zaxby's operators expanding into new markets, this is particularly critical. You can't rely on walk-in applicants who already know the brand. You need to attract candidates who are applying quickly across multiple options, and if your process slows them down, they're already gone. A frictionless mobile application captures candidates before they close the tab.

The ATS pulls applications from Indeed, ZipRecruiter, Google, Snagajob, and other major job boards into a single dashboard. The Candidate Score ranks every applicant automatically, by proximity to your store, availability, and experience. You open the platform and your best candidates are already sorted. No manual triage, no cross-referencing between job boards.
Text-to-Apply is particularly valuable for new market entries. When you're opening a Zaxby's in a city where the brand hasn't been before, every piece of local visibility matters. A Text-to-Apply poster in the window, at the construction site, or on a nearby bulletin board turns local foot traffic into applicants before your store even opens. People who are curious about the new location can apply with one text. That early pipeline is what gets you to a full opening crew.
NextMatch AI runs the entire pre-screening process automatically. Every applicant gets a structured, role-specific interview, questions calibrated to the position, consistent scoring across candidates, no manual follow-up. Your GM reviews a ranked shortlist, not a raw inbox. For a Zaxby's operator who's also handling vendor deliveries, shift scheduling, and prep during the day, this is the feature that makes the difference between hiring being manageable and hiring being a second full-time job.
Video cover letters give you something a resume simply can't: a read on how a person actually presents themselves. Zaxby's is a brand with real personality - the food, the sauce lineup, the customer culture all carry an energy. You want people who match that. Thirty seconds of someone talking tells you more about whether they'll work on a busy Friday night than their work history does.
Paperless onboarding handles all pre-start paperwork before the new hire's first shift: tax documents, handbook acknowledgments, direct deposit, all completed on their phone. No first-day admin delays, no printing, no chasing forms. HigherMe's platform data puts first-month retention at 4 out of 5 hires when onboarding is done this way. That number matters differently for a brand opening in new markets, where your early hires set the culture and the operational standard.
Multi-unit operators get a centralized dashboard with full pipeline visibility across every location. One login, all your stores. Open roles, active candidates, recently hired, visible from one place. For Zaxby's operators managing three, five, or ten locations across one or more markets, that consolidated view is what separates organized growth from constant firefighting.

HigherMe integrates with ADP, Paychex, Checkr, and 7Shifts, connecting to the operational stack you're already running.

Why HigherMe fits Zaxby's specifically

Zaxby's franchisees operate in a competitive chicken QSR segment where response speed and team culture both matter. The features that make HigherMe work: mobile applications, AI screening, video intros, automated scheduling, paperless onboarding, multi-location visibility, were built for exactly this kind of operator. The platform averages 6 hours saved per hire, 3x more interviews completed through automated scheduling, and a one-day average time-to-hire. For a brand on an aggressive growth path, those numbers compound fast.

2. Harri

Harri is built for restaurants and hospitality, genuinely, not as a marketing positioning. Recruiting, scheduling, time and attendance, and team communication all live in one system, and the product reflects a real understanding of how restaurants actually run. For Zaxby's operators who want to handle workforce management and hiring under one roof, it's one of the more relevant options on this list.

The trade-off is that Harri is a full platform, which means more setup, higher cost, and more system to manage. If your immediate problem is hiring faster and you don't need a broader workforce management suite on top of it, the investment may not match the problem's scope. The value increases as your location count grows and the operational complexity with it.

Good for: Multi-unit Zaxby's operators who want recruiting and workforce management integrated and have the operational scale to justify a full platform investment.

3. Fountain

Fountain's entire focus is high-volume hourly hiring. Fast candidate funnels, strong mobile experience, automated workflows, all built around the reality that hourly applicants move quickly and your process needs to match. It's a genuinely focused product that does what it was designed to do.

The problem for most Zaxby's operators is where Fountain's scale starts. It's priced and structured for enterprise operators managing thousands of hires across many locations simultaneously. A Zaxby's franchisee running five locations isn't that operator. The setup investment, cost structure, and implementation timeline don't fit individual franchise operators at typical multi-unit size.

Good for: Large Zaxby's franchise groups at 15-plus locations who need enterprise-grade hourly hiring infrastructure and have the bandwidth to implement it.

4. Hireology

Hireology was built with franchise operators in mind. It handles the structural realities of franchise hiring: multi-location posting, brand consistency, the relationship between corporate standards and franchisee execution, better than most platforms on this list. If you've used a generic ATS that treats each of your stores as entirely separate entities, Hireology feels like a meaningful improvement.

Where it lacks depth for Zaxby's operators is on the QSR-specific side. Hireology's franchise DNA runs deeper in automotive and retail. The mobile-first hourly candidate experience, AI screening, and fast-funnel features aren't as developed as platforms purpose-built for restaurant hiring. Good franchise structure, but not built for a chicken concept running drive-through and dine-in simultaneously.

Good for: Zaxby's operators who manage multiple franchise brands across different industries and need one platform that handles all of them reasonably well.

5. PeopleMatter

PeopleMatter has a long track record in QSR and food service franchise hiring. The onboarding module is well-developed, compliance features are solid across multi-state operations, and the platform was built with hourly workers and franchise operators in mind, not retrofitted for them later.

The limitation is recency. The platform hasn't kept pace with the current mobile-first hiring environment. The candidate application experience feels dated compared to what purpose-built platforms deliver today, and there's no AI screening to speak of. For operators already running on PeopleMatter who value stability and compliance depth, staying put makes sense. If you're evaluating from scratch, newer tools offer a better candidate experience and more automation without much trade-off on the structural features.

Good for: Zaxby's operators already on PeopleMatter who need reliable multi-location onboarding and compliance features and aren't looking to change systems.

6. GetHired

GetHired is a food service and hospitality platform for small and mid-sized operators. It understands hourly hiring, it's accessible in price, and for a single-location Zaxby's operator managing recruiting through email and spreadsheets, it's a genuine step forward. Job posting, basic applicant tracking, and onboarding are all covered.

The ceiling shows up quickly. AI screening is limited, multi-location management is basic, and the mobile candidate experience doesn't have the depth of platforms built from the ground up for franchise hiring at volume. Works well as an entry point. Runs short once you're managing regular high-volume hiring across more than two or three stores.

Good for: Single-location Zaxby's franchisees getting organized for the first time who want an affordable, food-service-aware option without a large upfront commitment.

Quick Comparison Table

The Bottom Line

Zaxby's is in real growth mode. New markets, new franchisees, new states, aggressive development targets. For operators inside that expansion, the hiring challenge is front and center, and it's not a challenge that eases up once your store is open. Turnover is persistent in chicken QSR, applicants move fast, and a lean management team can't afford a hiring process that demands constant attention.

Harri works for operators who want workforce management and recruiting together. Fountain delivers at serious enterprise scale. Hireology gets the franchise structure right. But for a Zaxby's franchisee who needs to staff up reliably, whether you're opening your first location or managing your tenth, HigherMe was built for exactly that operating reality. Mobile applications, AI screening, video intros, automated scheduling, paperless onboarding, exclusive pricing for Zaxby's operators. Everything in one place, without requiring an HR team to run it.

Visit higherme.com/zaxbys-hiring-software to see it in action or book a demo.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. What is the best hiring software for Zaxby's franchisees?

HigherMe. It's built specifically for QSR and franchise hourly hiring, offers exclusive pricing for Zaxby's locations, and covers the full hiring cycle: mobile applications, AI pre-screening, automated scheduling, and paperless onboarding, without requiring a dedicated HR team to run it.

2. Why is hiring harder when you're opening a Zaxby's in a new market?

Established markets give you some built-in brand awareness, people know what Zaxby's is and some are already interested in working there. New markets don't have that. You're recruiting from a candidate pool that may not know the brand at all, often on a tight timeline before opening. That means your hiring process has to work harder from the start. A mobile-first application, Text-to-Apply for early local visibility, and automated screening to move quickly through applicants are all more critical in a new market than in an established one.

3. How does HigherMe's AI screening work for a Zaxby's location?

NextMatch AI conducts a structured pre-screening interview with every applicant automatically. No scheduling, no phone tag, no manual follow-up from your GM. It asks role-specific questions, scores responses consistently across all candidates, and delivers a ranked shortlist for your manager to review. By the time your team checks in on the pipeline, the early screening work is already done.

4. How does Text-to-Apply help with staffing a new Zaxby's location?

Before your store opens, you can display Text-to-Apply materials on-site, in the windows, or in the surrounding area. Anyone who sees the construction, knows the location is coming, or happens to walk past can text in and start an application immediately. No job board required. For franchise operators entering a new market, that early visibility converts local curiosity into your first hiring pipeline before you've even turned the lights on.

5. What's the biggest hiring mistake Zaxby's franchisees make? Moving too slowly. Hourly applicants are typically applying to three or four places at the same time. The employer who responds first, with a screening step and an interview scheduled, usually gets the hire. Operators who wait 24 to 48 hours to follow up consistently lose good candidates to whoever moved faster. Automating the initial screening response eliminates that lag entirely.