How Kingfisher scales hiring to find the best talent fast


Headquarters:
London, UK
Industry:
Home improvement retail
Founded:
1982
iCIMS customer since:
2018
Company size:
78,000
iCIMS products:
Applicant Tracking System

Kingfisher, a brand with a large global footprint that includes B&Q and Screwfix, receives 500,000 job applications across seven countries every year. Of these, just 20,000 are hired. It once used a centralized recruiting model that made high-volume hiring difficult. So Kingfisher turned to iCIMS to help transform its talent acquisition process, enable efficiency and create lasting candidate experiences.

5x

faster time to offer

3x

higher offer acceptance rate

50%

reduction in time to hire

The Kingfisher approach 

Kingfisher transformed its entire talent acquisition model by using data to gain a holistic view of its candidates. By creating quick, easy onboarding experiences, the Kingfisher team finds the best, most engaged talent quickly and secures specialized tech talent faster than its competitors.

Screwfix employees stand next to a floor display
Kingfisher employee

Scaling across hiring locations

Changes to the talent acquisition process started with B&Q, a subsidiary of Kingfisher. Hiring managers have more control at the local level and are able to make hiring decisions faster and tailor the candidate experience to their individual stores.

One major key to success has been a recruiting tech stack that is configurable to local needs while being simple enough for busy store managers to use without taking away from their other responsibilities.

With less time spent on individual store hiring, the talent teams at B&Q are able to focus their time on using data and insights to drive a better candidate experience.

Using data to drive candidate experiences

Kingfisher’s team uses data to improve the recruiting experience for candidates. With iCIMS, the team has visibility into hiring data for specific teams, functions and roles, as well as other metrics including internal engagement, employee performance and the diversity of their talent pool.

“A stellar candidate experience is about using data to truly understand what your audience wants,” says Steph McGinty, Head of Talent Acquisition at Kingfisher. “We hear a lot about shortening the application process, but data showed us that our candidates are happy to answer a few extra questions to gain an understanding of our values as an inclusive and diverse employer.” As a result, Kingfisher’s application drop-off rate is lower than ever.

Kingfisher employee restocks aisle

Delivering candidate efficiency demonstrates our ability to stand by what we say and deliver on time. It shows candidates that our people matter to us.

Steph McGinty

Head of Talent Acquisition, Kingfisher

Kingfisher employees pose for a photo

A faster onboarding process

Prior to iCIMS, Kingfisher’s recruiting team relied on time-consuming, manual processes. It often took recruiters an entire week to deliver an offer letter to candidates. Now Kingfisher’s team delivers contracts within 24 hours and with significantly less human error.

“The offer experience is one of the moments that matters most to candidates. With iCIMS, we’ve elevated the process and seen a shift in our ability to drive better experiences and outcomes,” says McGinty.

The recruiting team now has functionality and autonomy across each hiring location, providing a sleek onboarding process for candidates and recruiting managers.

Securing specialized tech talent faster than competitors

Kingfisher doesn’t only hire customer-facing retail positions. To make the business run, a variety of tech, engineering and data roles are needed. Manual processes meant that the team used to struggle to process job offers faster than talent competitors. As a result, they often lost out on the best candidates.

With a new and improved onboarding system and a reduced contract delivery time, Kingfisher cut the offer decline rate from 1 in 6 to 1 in 20. The team is now able to track hard-to-fill roles, enhancing their recruiting process and cutting time to hire for tech roles by 50% in just one year, from 42 to 21 days.

Kingfisher employees at a Camden store pose for a picture

With iCIMS, we can access our own data, configuring the platform to each user. We have autonomy in how we gather data, helping us make quick decisions and move fast.

Steph McGinty

Head of Talent Acquisition, Kingfisher

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