Why Dymocks’ Christmas Recruitment Budget Is Zero

We’ve been rabbiting on about social recruitment for some time now. Here’s a case study that proves just how powerful it can be - and how it can not only substantially reduce recruitment spend but also create engagement with potential employees even before they’re working for you.

The beacon of bookselling, the Dymocks’s flagship George Street Sydney store has been a partnering with Workible to help us develop our social recruitment platform from day one. HR Director, Paul Swain, saw how Workible could solve one of his unique pain points from the get go.

Dymocks is a franchised book selling business, in fact, Australia’s largest bookseller. For our American friends, it’s Australia’s equivalent to the giant Barnes and Noble. Booklovers of all genres literally lose themselves for hours in the book aisles, comfy chairs and coffee shops in a Dymocks store.

For many bookworms, the opportunity to work in Dymocks is a dream job hence Dymocks staff are constantly bombarded with walk-in job applicants and over-the-counter resumes.

When we first started working with Paul, he mentioned that his franchisees had asked if there was a way that, rather than sorting through dusty piles of resumes on the floor, the company could compile a database of these resumes so that they could tap into them the next time they needed staff. But, Paul argued, how much time would that take and how could they ensure that those people were still looking for work the next time someone needed to hire?

So we stepped in to solve all of those problems with a solution already built into Workible.

Now, at the Dymocks flagship store, staff no longer take over-the-counter resumes. Instead, they hand out cards directing Dymocks’ jobseekers to the Dymocks’ Shortlist on Workible. Like a dynamic resume, jobseekers build their profiles on Workible which include something that most resumes don’t - the days, times and hours they’re available.

And with Workible unique push-notification reminders, jobseekers profiles are always up to date.

Dymocks now has over 5,000 enthusiastic bookworms (and jobseekers) on their Shortlist (TM). Now when they need to hire, they simply post a position to their Shortlist members. Those who matched to skills, availability, location and experience are push notified immediately and invited to apply.

Last week Dymocks posted a role for a Sales Assistant to their shortlist. Within 24 hours they had 156 applications, ordered for them by our unique algorithms from best matched down. With the ability to check out the profiles from a desktop or smartphone, filter, shortlist and even request a short video interview, Workible makes it easy to fill roles in less than a week.

Dymocks has been using Workible now for over twelve months. Last Christmas they filled a new pop-up store with staff within 5 days — and, without spending an extra cent!*

The next step is for Dymocks to be able to engage with their Shortlist members around other things Dymocks, such as in-store offers and Dymocks news and info, to create a truly engaged potential - and contingent - workforce that’s on-tap to them at any time. That’s feature that will be rolled out in Workible in the coming months.

Dymocks truly recognize the power of creating brand engagement, not only for employees but also for potential employees.

Want to know how we can do that for your brand and revolutionise your Christmas casual hiring strategy?  Drop us a line.

*Workible’s Brand Builder package involves a monthly platform fee.