“Praice helped us to become better at matching position and person”

“Praice helped us to become better at matching position and person”

ILLUM has been investing heavily in creating a luxurious international department store with strong brands, exclusive interior and an image which is best in class. But retail is under pressure, demanding ever more from the staffers meeting customers. With the behavioural platform for Praice, ILLUM has formulated the optimal employee which made its successful debut when the department store had to hire 60 assistants for Christmas. HR Manager Claus Moll estimates that ILLUM capitalises on the cooperation with Praice, increasing candidate selection by 250% compared to previous year, while saving more than 50% of time spent hiring.
60
New colleagues
54
Time saving
250
Increased candidate selection
21
Increased performance
80
Permanent employment

It’s one thing to enter a department store, it’s quite another actually making a purchase. This is why the staff is essential; it’s their job to turn you into a customer. At ILLUM they long ago realized that it takes more than employees with a fancy resumé for the renowned department store to win the retail battle of the customers.

”“We’re looking for welcoming colleagues with a desire to surprise and the courage to offer our customers something more than what they thought they were buying. Granted, it’s much easier just standing behind the register, accepting payment, but when you engage the customer you enter the personal sphere, creating customer loyalty. If you do it the right way,”

Claus MollHR-manager i ILLUM

But these competencies are rarely evident on a traditional cv and you won’t necessarily find a connection between a well-written application and the ability to deliver personal service. In short, ILLUM had to find a new solution when recruiting service staff.

6 steps to stronger recruiting

1

Firstly, all employees in the menswear department completed a behavioural profile via their smartphone, both about themselves and their co-workers.
2

At the same time, department managers completed Praice performance evaluations for every single employee
3

Afterwards, Praice was able to correlate great performances with combinations of behavioural traits and create a clear vision of who would be a great addition to the team.
4

A new type of job advertisement, allowing candidates to apply via smartphone, without the hassle of having to write a cv, resulted in more than 800 applicants.
5

Knowing the data behind the best colleague, it was easy sorting through all applicants and selecting the 150 best candidates for a video screening where they were asked to answer a few questions, focusing on retail knowledge, priorities and ambitions.
6

Of 800 applicants, ILLUM hired 60 Christmas Assistants without conducting a single traditional job interview, yet based on a solid data foundation as well as the answers from the video screening. The 60 continued on to a training process.

Praice challenges the traditional candidate evaluation

Claus Moll remains sure that really great candidates have previously been overlooked because they didn’t have comparable experience on their resumé. With the Praice platform ILLUM has flipped its recruiting 180 degrees, making personal traits the first thing getting candidates further in the recruitment process.

”“We believe that personality beats practical experience and Praice challenged us a great deal on the traditional candidate evaluation, ensuring that we prioritise behaviour over experience. This gives ILLUM a different and more diverse field of candidates, it challenges stereotypical thinking and excludes discrimination, making it easier for us to focus on the traits that the customer will actually meet in our store.”

Claus MollHR-manager i ILLUM

New recruiting is a clear advantage

“By focusing on the match between position and person, ILLUM gets a clear advantage when it comes to giving customers the best experiences,” explains Claus Moll, who expects that the new way of recruiting will result in more and more loyal customers because the employees support the brand promise of ILLUM. However, Claus Moll isn’t quite ready to dismiss the personal job interview:

”“It’s all about becoming better at choosing to meet the best candidates, even if they haven’t yet had the opportunity to develop a strong, experience-based resumé.”

Claus MollHR-chef i ILLUM