AI hiring cuts churn by 89% for global wellbeing retailer 

Holland & Barrett is one of the world’s leading health and wellness retailers. It has over 1,600 stores and operates in 19 countries.

In 2021, the new Head of Recruitment, Maria Dvorman, set out to modernise a recruitment process that relied on assessing candidates using large numbers of CVs. Maria’s team had also recognised that experience and education were not good indicators of whether a hire would be a good fit.

The company knew they needed smart technology to enable a hiring process that would help them find the people who would thrive at the retailer, and stay. With a focus on inclusion and a strong consumer brand, the team needed to build a candidate experience that would amplify their brand while being fair. It also needed to integrate with their ATS eArcu for a seamless experience for hiring managers and candidates.

The problem

Over-reliance on a candidate’s education and experience

• Choosing candidates by their experience and education, with no visibility of soft skills
  
• Low diversity of employees, that didn’t reflect the geographical diversity of Holland & Barrett’s operation
  
• An inefficient hiring process and poor candidate experience
  
• High employee churn rate despite high investment in training
  

The solution

An AI-generated shortlist that favours potential over past experience

What candidates get

Candidates now complete a mobile-friendly, five-question interview over chat. The interview is low-pressure and inclusive. It’s untimed and candidates can leave and return as they need before they submit.

All candidates receive personalised feedback with coaching tips, creating brand advocates with every interview.

What hiring managers get

Holland & Barrett integrated Sapia.ai with their existing applicant tracking system, eArcu, in a matter of weeks.

Managers can quickly review and shortlist candidates and are given the necessary data to make the right decisions. Sapia.ai infers personality, behavioural and communication skills using only the candidate’s written responses. The ethical AI looks for potential, not past privilege based on experience or education.

The outcome

Happier, more engaged hires that stay longer

Providing hiring managers with a vetted shortlist of candidates and additional insights has resulted in massive efficiency gains and a better quality of hires. After one year, early churn had dropped from 77% to 29%; and in year two it dropped again to just 12%.

Average time to hire has been reduced from 21 days to 11 days, greatly improving the experience of candidates and getting them into their new roles faster.

The recruitment team were finalists in two categories in the In-House Recruitment Awards 2023 for Candidate Experience and Candidate Assessment, taking away silver in the Candidate Assessment category.

“We all know that opportunity is not distributed evenly, or fairly. But good talent can come from anywhere. And when you’re dealing with a labour shortage, it certainly pays to open yourself up to as much talent as possible.” – Maria Dvorman, Head of Recruitment & Employer Brand, Holland & Barrett

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