River Island case study v2.indd
Transcription
River Island case study v2.indd
Brought to you by Access Group Innovation in mobile recruitment How mobile is changing the face of recruitment River Island A new approach to recruitment River Island is a retailing success story with over 250 stores in the UK, Ireland, Europe and the Middle East. The business needed a robust, flexible and candidate-focused recruitment system to enable them to attract and sign up the most talented people that will see them stay at the top of the high street. Previously River Island employed a totally manual approach to its Sales Advisor recruitment. “As a business we recognised the need to give candidates a better experience and relieve the burden of recruitment from store managers.” The labour-intensive recruitment system used by River Island also put a great deal of pressure on the Central Recruitment team, led by Head of Talent Acquisition Janine Jenkinson. Changeworknow was selected to develop a recruitment solution that would not only manage the volume but also provide the means for the recruitment team to provide a better candidate experience. “Often vacancies remained unfulfilled because we simply couldn’t process the sheer number of applications received. Because we weren’t able to track candidates once they had made an application, we frequently weren’t able to offer news or feedback to anyone who contacted the team to check on the progress of their application. As a team and an organisation we recognised the need to give candidates a better experience and relieve the recruitment burden from Store Managers giving them more time to drive sales” she says. Immediately the pressure was on to ensure this approach to recruitment was ready for the upcoming Christmas trading season. By going live as early as possible the system would ensure River Island could attract the best candidates early in the season and ensure they filled as many of their vacancies as possible. UTILISING TECHNOLOGY TO MANAGE TALENT The recruitment solution recommended by Changeworknow included leveraging the skill and expertise of the Central Recruitment team to post vacancies on the corporate website and manage candidates once applications had been submitted. By using technology to manage the volume and quality of candidates through screening and filtering of suitable applications it was possible to preserve the time expertise “Our expectations were entirely surpassed by 51,000 applications that were submitted and the overall quality of the candidates who want to work with us.” of Store Managers. Key functionality in the River Island system included: ⋅ Quotas on vacancies to control numbers of quality applicants ⋅ Online interview booking ⋅ Texting interview reminders ⋅ Automatic mailing of attendee lists to Store Managers prior to assessment ⋅ Interactive Candidate Career Portal ⋅ Onboarding capability ⋅ Automated talent pool management ⋅ Visual prompts in the recruitment system to recruiters when action is required by Recruiter or Candidate ⋅ Dynamic Graphical Reports that change in real time for up-to-date accurate management information EXCEEDING RECRUITMENT EXPECTATIONS The number of applications generated by the Changeworknow recruitment system following its launch was staggering for the business. “We were concerned we just wouldn’t get enough applications to fill the 5950 seasonal vacancies we have across the business” admits Janine Jenkinson. “Our expectations were entirely surpassed by 51,000 applications that were submitted and the overall quality of the candidates who want to work with us.” 96,000 people started the River Island online recruitment process for the Chistmas season. Of this group approximately 53% of individuals submitted their application, with the remainder de-selecting themselves from the process based on feedback received on their suitability. To manage the vast number of applications received the River Island team worked closely and quickly with Changeworknow to tighten the scoring of applications and use the vacancy quota functionality to ensure only the highest quality candidates were selected and invited to attend their local recruitment events. DELIVERING POSITIVE BUSINESS IMPACT Since the launch of the system for Sales Advisor recruitment, the system has been extended to support all recruitment for the business. Due to the agile nature of the software Changeworknow and River Island annually review the current system and make updates to suit the nature of the business as it evolves. A focus on continuous improvement allows River Island to have the slickest, fastest solution available to their needs and has lead to incredible cost saving and time efficient results for the company including: • Number of applications received has gone from an estimated 300,000 per annum to 150,000 per annum. This has amounted to a cost saving of £300,000 • Time setting up interviews has been greatly reduced contacting thousands of candidates to a matter of hours. • Interview slots are set up and communications are automatically generated inviting candidates to book. • Assessment events are getting filled online in 12 minutes • All paperwork gets automatically sent to Store Managers giving River Island a 100% saving in time • Average time to recruit is 19 days for Sales Advisors and River Island make offers as early as October for their Christmas season, giving a distinct competitive advantage. • New stores fully recruited for in just 9 days – and some stores require up to 200 members of staff. • Significant reduction in the work required by store managers as one third of the process has been removed. This has resulted in a saving to the business of £800,000 • Driven out every inefficiency and extended this tool for all store based and head office recruitment. • The technology has resulted in a total cost saving of £1.1 million for River Island. Contact us to discuss your recruitment needs: 01491 410 681 changeworknow.co.uk About changeworknow Changeworknow is one of the UK’s leading providers of cloud based applicant tracking and talent engagement solutions. Changeworknow is well known for its commercial and consultative approach to online recruitment. Several million candidates a year have a Changeworknow online recruitment experience and several thousand HR and Line Managers rely on the intuitive management system to optimise their recruitment programmes. Organisations using the system are benefiting from a best of breed recruitment solution that delivers outstanding results. Classification: Public Contact us: +44 (0)1491 410 681 [email protected] changeworknow.co.uk Write to us: Changeworknow Girdler House Quebec Road Henley-on-Thames Oxon, RG9 1EY