Transform Hiring Processes Across a Large Enterprise, Twice
In 2018, JYSK sought to transform hiring across its global footprint of retail stores. Knowing that its candidates are also customers brought focus to the transformation; candidate-friendly hiring processes would help maintain its brand reputation, particularly in the smaller cities. “If you don’t treat the candidates properly, they will tell everyone, and then it will be harder to hire,” said Camilla Ölander, Employer Branding Manager.
Shortly after experiencing the benefits of an upgrade to SmartRecruiters from the previous system, JYSK announced that it would merge with Dänisches Bettenlager, a German retailer with more than 1,200 stores. The newly combined company used the merger as an opportunity to evaluate HR systems on both sides and choose the best one. SmartRecruiters won out again. “We picked SmartRecruiters twice,” said Karolína Kroužková, HR Digital Manager at JYSK.
About JYSK
- Industry: Retail
- Region: EMEA
- Employees: 30,000
- Locations: 3,200 in 52 countries
- Headquarters: Brabrand, Denmark
- Hiring Model: Decentralized
JYSK is an international home furnishing retailer with Scandinavian roots that makes it easy to furnish every room in any home and garden.
JYSK is owned by the family behind Lars Larsen Group. Founder Lars Larsen is known throughout Denmark as the country’s leading merchant who always has “a great offer.”
HR Digital Manager
Culture Transfer Creates a Hiring Transformation
In the first implementation of SmartRecruiters, JYSK upgraded from a system that required candidates to create passwords when they applied. The new system had a profound impact on hiring time: streamlined processes, integrations with assessment providers, and mobile access for hiring managers reduced processing time from an average of 56 days to 20 days.
Nearly half of that time had previously been spent in application processing (the time before a candidate reaches the interview stage). The simplified application with knockout questions, such as those relating to certifications or work eligibility, combined with the team’s follow-up helped reduce the application processing time from up to 28 days to 3-4 days.
With its efficient hiring process in place, the Scandinavian company’s culture of decentralized hiring was new to the hiring managers at the German company who were accustomed to a centralized hiring model. JYSK’s historical processes empower hiring managers to manage the hiring process end-to-end. Its newly combined company would have 3,500 hiring managers equipped with a system that automates as much of the process as possible.
The HR departments in each country are responsible for managing the job advertising, and the hiring managers take over once the candidates enter the system. “The store managers are the recruiters,” explained Karolína, “so the system has to be really intuitive. Our job in HR is to empower them to hire the most relevant candidate in the shortest possible time.”
Skipping tasks is a common hurdle with any organizational change, but for the newly-trained JYSK managers, “adoption of the system is high because it’s easy to use,” Karolína said. “Managers can see that administrative steps benefit them in the long term.”
Employer Branding Manager
Efficiency Leads to Continuous Improvement
Even though hiring time has been reduced by 64%, JYSK is still looking to improve. Currently, they are piloting a game-based psychometric assessment with HireVue for two key positions. Hiring managers can view the assessment results from the candidate profile in SmartRecruiters.
At recurring regional meetings, the hiring managers, and HR business partners join to review the metrics, discuss trends in hiring, and determine how to improve. With 50,000 candidates a month coming through the system, there’s plenty to discuss. “Because there is so much data in SmartRecruiters, we pick the focus,” Karolína said, mentioning time-to-fill and sourcing channels as usual topics for discussion. “It’s tough to find the best candidates, so we need to be quick,” she added. “If we’re too slow, the candidates get hired elsewhere.”
Key Outcomes
- Applicant processing reduced from 28 days to 3-4 days
- Time-to-fill reduced from 56 days to 20 days
- 3,500 hiring managers trained to use the system
- 50,000 applicants processed per month
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