Finding the right fit
Since 1975, Australian swimwear and fashion apparel brand Seafolly has been an international wholesaler sold in over 41 countries with 25 retail stores open to date. One continual challenge Seafolly has is dealing with a rush of candidates during their busy seasonal recruitment period.
“Seafolly is a very strong brand, and we have a lot of loyal people that know Seafolly,” explained Samantha Robertson, Head of HR (People and Culture). The company’s challenge, especially in the niche swimwear category, was focusing on making the right hire particularly during their busiest season.
While reporting wasn’t carried out during the company’s spreadsheet days, Samantha is now working with JobAdder to generate reports that will show a return on investment using the recruitment software. Seafolly encourages all candidates to apply for a role through JobAdder to enable effective reporting.
“What we’re finding is that some [candidates] are coming through our email address or they’re just putting their resume directly into the retail store. We’re trying to funnel it in to make sure that we can report on it at the end of the season, and then make improvements,” she added.
A more efficient hiring process
Samantha was quick to point out JobAdder’s efficiencies as a recruitment platform.
“JobAdder is a step above some of the recruitment platforms I’ve used. It makes the process more efficient in really sifting through what’s coming in,” she said.
Since implementation, JobAdder has been able to help make Seafolly’s “processes easier and the steps shorter,” said Samantha. “Having [a candidate] start in their role quickly is more achievable through this system than my team recording the process on a spreadsheet,” she added.
Through the Hiring Manager portal, Seafolly has been able to shift part of the recruitment process to other team members. Having the hiring managers involved at the start of the process helps with selecting the right people.
“I think it’s great for [hiring managers] to look at the resume because they know what they are looking for in a good candidate,” Samantha explained.
Recently, Seafolly had roles for marketing and finance and the hiring managers were able to easily open and look at resumes on their mobile phones, and then decide whether to progress the candidates.
“We’re a flat structure in the HR team so to have a tool that involves the hiring manager is fantastic and makes the process more efficient,” she said.
Top of the list
“I’d never used JobAdder before and I was able to use the system very quickly,” Samantha said. The intuitiveness of the platform has enabled Seafolly’s users to learn and use JobAdder in a timely manner. “Being able to work alongside JobAdder has helped me learn more and more about what the system is capable of,” she said.
Samantha also found the integrations to be extremely useful. “It’s great that you can plug into these systems to help with your recruitment process, which can sometimes be tedious and long. I find that JobAdder can open up that integration and we can quickly connect it and we’re done,” she added. Seafolly recently integrated an online reference checking tool which, at the click of a button through JobAdder, sends the candidate details on how to progress through the reference checks.
“If you were trying to sell JobAdder to someone and they came and asked me for my opinion, integrations would definitely be high on that list.” It makes processes more efficient to give my team more time to work on bigger people initiatives.
Another great feature of JobAdder is the ability to see what job boards the candidates are being sourced from. “What I like about JobAdder is it shows me where people are coming from,” said Samantha. “From here I can see what job boards are worth investing in.”
The candidate experience
Candidates can be existing or potential customers, which is why the candidate experience is a high priority for Seafolly. With customisable email templates, “we have the flexibility to put whatever we want into the emails,” Samantha said. “We always need to be mindful that a candidate could be a potential customer so we want them to have a great experience applying for a role with Seafolly even if they aren’t successful in securing a role,” she added.
Samantha noted that sending templated emails directly to candidates who were either unsuccessful or coming in for an interview, was completed in an efficient and timely manner with Jobadder.
She was confident that JobAdder would send information out to candidates because she could preview, change and see it at any time. “Years ago we used templates in emails and it was a bit clunky,” whereas now she can decide how to automatically progress 20 applicants all at once.
JobAdder has resonated with Seafolly and ticks the box that ensures people will still have a good experience, to perhaps even “come back and purchase with us or re-apply in the future,” she said. The platform is “definitely helping with the candidate experience.”
The core system
Seafolly is going through a period of significant change. “For me, at the moment it’s about making sure that the basics and foundations are right and I think we’re getting there,” said Samantha.
There’s also a push for the company to get out there and be ahead of the rest. “You’ve got to throw yourself into these systems and work out how to use them – you can’t break JobAdder, it’s a friendly system to use, and now that I’ve found the interactive training, I know that I’m confident I’ll be able to find what I need,” she added.
Seafolly has found JobAdder to be exactly what they were looking for. “We know that JobAdder will be the best recruitment tool for us – it doesn’t matter what country,” Samantha said. Of course, “it’s part of having the right people in place from the beginning to get to the goal in the end. So I feel like it’s a long-term relationship with JobAdder,” she added.
Recommending JobAdder
Since using the platform Samantha highlighted her top three takeaway points that resonated the most.
Her first point was JobAdder’s “ease of use in making the recruitment process easier and quicker.” With a fast and intuitive platform, she knows that JobAdder is “a tool that will be able to help in the recruitment process on a daily basis.”
The most stand-out feature within the platform for Samantha was, “definitely the JobAdder integrations with so many different options.” Finally, the “ability to be able to just hop onto the Internet and access [JobAdder] anywhere – you don’t need to have it loaded on your computer and you don’t need any special training,” summed up her recommendation.
JobAdder has streamlined Seafolly’s recruitment process and helped achieve its goal of making the right hires especially during their busiest season. And what of Seafolly’s future end goal? To be a “profitable company by having the right people in place.”
