Christmas
trees and yuletide cheer may seem a long way off, but HR practitioners at music
retailing giant HMV have started gearing up for the busy festive season already.
The
retailer has just started making preparations for a recruitment drive over
Christmas, when it regularly needs more than 2,000 extra temporary workers to
deal with the festive rush.
To
help win the fight for talent over Christmas the firm is using a new online
system to attract and manage candidates more efficiently.
HMV
piloted the online system in 2003, attracting 12,850 applications to work at
its 160 sites.
The
scheme helps the HR team manage the recruitment process because the website
uses an interactive, criteria-based form that gives candidates immediate
feedback on their suitability.
This
saves time and manpower by weeding out unsuitable candidates during the initial
process, and removes the need for manual CV screening.
The
system, designed by Changeworknow, also provides a database of screened
candidates ready to be deployed at short notice, as the demand increases
towards Christmas.
Sam
Pearce, head of retail HR at HMV, said the initiative brought down the cost of recruitment by 62 per cent and reduced
the overall timescale needed to bring in seasonal workers.
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"The
key benefit for our store managers is the reduction of their workload. They
don’t have to deal with every single CV and they only see suitable
candidates," she said.
Last
Christmas, 4,326 people submitted a formal application with 62 per cent meeting
the firm’s requirements.
