Solving volume hiring for Australia’s largest private employer

How Woolworths Supermarkets used Sapia.ai to achieve ad to offer in under 24 hours.

Before COVID hit, Woolworths Group had just completed its biggest recruitment drive ever and were realising that they needed to invest in more efficient recruitment processes to keep up with demand.

The COVID hiring surge meant that Woolworths had to hire 27,000 team members into its supermarkets in under 10 weeks.

Not only did they have to totally re-imagine recruitment, but they also needed to improve their time to hire.

With a video interview experience that was sub-par for candidates and frustrating for hiring managers, they wanted to drastically improve their candidate experience, making it more efficient and engaging.

Given their market penetration, they needed to create a great experience that turned candidates into advocates for Woolworths.

And due to the volumes they dealt with, the solution had to do all of this while being cost-efficient and integrated into their ATS, SuccessFactors.

Key context:

• 1 million candidates apply for Woolworths in a year for 40,000 roles
  
• 87% of Woolworths recruitment is for casuals
  
• 60% of hires are made between August and December
  
• Woolworths Group holds the largest share of the Australian grocery retail market: 37.4%

How Sapia streamlined Woolworths’ recruitment process

With a completely automated smart interview process, every retail candidate has the opportunity to interview with Sapia’s Smart Interviewer through an online chat interview.

Every candidate receives personalised insights, and the interview is designed to be completely fair, ensuring a diverse shortlist of the best candidates.

The need to solve for the sheer volume of second interviews that had to occur in the next step made Woolworths a perfect candidate to roll out Video Interview – a video interview that candidates can do in their own time and that doesn’t require any scheduling input from hiring managers.

Automatically shortlisted candidates progress directly to Video Interview, capturing the best candidates quickly and reducing time to offer.

Integration into SuccessFactors enables a seamless experience for hiring managers, as the end-to-end process is managed within the ATS.

“We love the tool, we knew candidates would love it because it’s mobile, it’s interactive. We love the fact that we could measure advocacy for Woolworths at the end of it.” – Keri Foti, HO Advisory & Talent Acquisition Services

The results

Ad to offer in 24 hours

Almost 50% of candidates complete both interviews on their mobile, making it easy for candidates to interview literally anytime, anywhere.

Automating the end-to-end experience has given time back to extremely time-poor hiring managers, who no longer need to manage shortlisting or scheduling and can simply review the video responses of the top candidates as they come in.

In some cases, candidates have moved from ad to offer in 24 hours – giving Woolworths an edge as they can move quickly to capture candidates who otherwise might have accepted offers elsewhere.

Candidate feedback

“It was great. I like the potential to retake videos and how quick you’ve responded.”

“Everything was amazing! By far the best interview system I’ve encountered! It allowed me be comfortable and be myself, it really allowed me to take my time with my responses rather than stutter over my words.”

“I found the process to be reflective and I liked how they wanted to know about me.”

“I felt really calm during this interview, which I definitely would not be in physical interviews. I was able to really sort out my thoughts and express myself to the fullest. I really love this format of interviewing!”

“The chat makes you feel like you’re in a safe space – it gives everyone an equal opportunity instead of in-person interview as people can get extremely nervous.”

“I LOVE THE FACT IT’S NOT TIMED.”

“This text message format is pretty smart and intuitive.”

“One of the best interviews I’ve ever faced.”

“I really liked it, I think it’s really engaging and that it will help people with their nerves and get them used to interview-like questions.”

“I think this is a great way to get to know someone. Great questions!”

“I really liked this interview process because it allowed me to be myself and answer in my own time.”

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