Dutch Bros’ $800K Cost Savings with Virtual Hiring Events

At Dutch Bros, every shop manager started as a "broista." That’s not just a fun fact. It's the entire leadership pipeline. Hire the wrong person at the window, and the problem compounds. Hire right, and you're building the next generation of operators (managers who have been promoted up from the broista role).

The stakes only get higher when you're opening a new shop every three days and targeting over two thousand locations by 2029. At that pace, flying team members to "hotel hiring parties" and running 200 back-to-back interviews on a Saturday doesn't scale.

At IAMPHENOM 2026, Breanna Buchanan, Director of Talent Acquisition, and Danni Burkard, Talent Attraction Manager, walked through how Dutch Bros went virtual with its hiring events and hit a higher conversion rate than in-person events ever produced.

Watch the full session here, or explore the highlights below.

When Do In-Person Hiring Events Stop Working for High-Volume Hiring?

When Dutch Bros was smaller, hiring parties worked. Operators would book a hotel, candidates would show up (sometimes hundreds of them), and the team would conduct back-to-back interviews for hours. The first impression candidates got of Dutch Bros was a hotel lobby, and scheduling ran across Calendly, Eventbrite, and manual intake processes that didn't connect to each other.

The pace of growth made all of it unsustainable. Operators moving to new markets were being asked to hire a full crew two weeks before a store opened, sometimes before they'd even relocated. Candidates who didn't show up got no follow-up. There was no way to prioritize interview slots by fit, and no automated path to re-engage someone who applied but never finished the process. In a company where the broista hire feeds the entire leadership pipeline, funnel drop-off is more than a recruiting problem.

Related: Cboe's Early Talent Investment: Maximizing Impact with Phenom Recruitment Events

How Did Dutch Bros Rebuild Its Hiring Events Strategy Around Virtual Interviews? 

The shift to virtual required rethinking the entire candidate journey, not just the meeting format. Rather than sending event invitations broadly, Dutch Bros replaced open sign-ups with a targeted invite-only workflow. Using Phenom Fit Score and Phenom Talent CRM, the team pre-selected candidates based on fit, availability, and work experience — then invited only those flagged as strong matches to register. A shop manager opening a new location might receive 10 to 15 well-qualified candidates scheduled across a week rather than coordinating hundreds of walk-ins on a single day.

Phenom Recruitment Events handled scheduling, reminders, and follow-up automatically. Candidates received reminders 24 hours before their interview. Anyone who applied but didn't finish the process, or who never registered for an event, was targeted through the Talent CRM as a lead. As Burkard described it: "If someone didn't finish an application that's tied to an event, we'll go in and market to them: 'Hey, please finish your application. By the way, please also register for a hiring party.'"

The follow-up loop extended beyond the event itself. Candidates who attended but weren't selected received an automated email redirecting them to Dutch Bros’ Talent Community to stay connected to future openings. In a company where today's applicant could be tomorrow's operator, that continuity was intentional.

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What Impact Can Virtual Hiring Events Have on Hiring Speed?

Within just four months of going live with Recruitment Events, the results addressed the team's central concern head-on: could a virtual format actually convey what in-person hiring parties had built? Absolutely.

• 47 virtual interview events conducted

• 3,296 people attended

• 140 campaigns launched

• 70% conversion from campaign to completed application

• 1,200 hires attributed to virtual interview events

• $800,000 saved by shifting hiring events virtual

“We've been able to save almost a million dollars just in taking these events virtual," said Buchanan. On attendance, "We're seeing the rates of people attending just as high as we would for any of our in-person events,” she added. Candidates targeted through Phenom campaigns weren't just registering; they were showing up.

The skeptics came around quickly, according to Buchanan. "Once we had one crew do it, then everyone's like, 'Let's go. " It's the only way, because it's really helped the business."

Burkard credited the platform's ability to keep candidates moving through the funnel: "Just through this all-in-one platform, it has actually netted us some really great hires."

Where Is Dutch Bros Taking Its Events Strategy from Here?

Adoption remains the near-term focus, making sure field teams across all markets are consistently using the tools and building confidence in the virtual model. Dutch Bros had already taken the events infrastructure beyond broista hiring, using Phenom to host virtual FAQ sessions for its internship program. The results were strong enough to signal that the same model could apply across campus recruiting and corporate roles.

Burkard summed up one of the biggest takeaways recruitment teams care about: "A candidate who applies but doesn't register for an event isn't lost. They're a lead." In a company where the entire leadership pipeline starts at the window, that distinction matters.

Learn more about Phenom Recruitment Events