Industry
Retail Sales & Merchandising
Company Size
29,000
Recruiting Focus
Merchandisers
Industry
Retail Sales & Merchandising
Company Size
29,000
Recruiting Focus
Merchandisers
34%
faster
hiring
33%
cost
saving
66%
reduction in terminations
due to misconduct
Context
Smollan offers outsourced field sales and merchandising services to many of South Africa’s leading FMCG businesses, including Tiger Brands, Lactalis, Mondelez, Unilever and Heineken. They successfully piloted JOBJACK in the first half of 2024, after which they rolled out the platform to all their South African business units.
“Our recruiting process is so much easier to manage with JOBJACK.
We have detailed reporting on all jobs down to a business unit and line manager level, making our recruiting process a lot more transparent, and allowing us to address bottlenecks quickly.”
Allison Mlenzana
Talent Acquisition Lead: SA Operations
Before JOBJACK, Smollan had a large internal recruiting team managing their entry-level recruiting for merchandisers and sales assistants. The team used a largely manual process that included assessments from an international provider, and a long two-week turnaround time for risk checks. As a result, the Smollan team struggled to fill roles quickly, and sometimes received negative feedback from their customers about staff quality. The manual recruiting process had little reporting, which meant low visibility on bottlenecks, making it hard to improve. Their recruiting costs (internal team, assessments and third party risk checks) were also increasing. All these factors prompted Smollan to seek a new solution that was automated and could easily be accessed by their mobile workforce, enabling them to hire faster, manage their recruiting costs and provide them with the right candidates to grow their business.
Implementation
Alternatives
Smollan ran an RFP process and considered a number of alternatives before selecting JOBJACK for their deep understanding of the South African entry-level recruiting market.
Challenges
Smollan uses the JOBJACK Assessment Battery and integrated risk checks across all business units; they also use JOBJACK’s Document Upload feature to automate the collection of documentation (ID documents, bank details, etc.) for all candidates.
Results
After implementing JOBJACK across all their business units, Smollan saw that:
-
Overall terminations reduced by 38% within the first 6 months
-
More specifically, the rate of bad terminations (due to misconduct) amongst merchandisers sourced via JOBJACK was 66% lower than for merchandisers hired via other sources - i.e. JOBJACK hires were much less likely to be terminated due to misconduct
Smollan is also able to fill roles much faster with JOBJACK:
-
The time taken to fill roles dropped by 34%
-
Some roles are filled in as little as 1.85 days
-
They saw an 86% reduction in turnaround times for risk checks, down from 2 weeks to less than 48 hours
-
Smollan uses JOBJACK’s reporting to identify bottlenecks in their recruiting process, to unlock even more efficiency
Overall, Smollan have saved 33.8% in recruiting costs by moving to JOBJACK, and are able to fill roles 34% faster, with the right candidates to grow their business.
34%
faster hiring
33%
cost saving
66%
reduction in terminations
Context
Smollan offers outsourced field sales and merchandising services to many of South Africa’s leading FMCG businesses, including Tiger Brands, Lactalis, Mondelez, Unilever and Heineken. They successfully piloted JOBJACK in the first half of 2024, after which they rolled out the platform to all their South African business units.
“Our recruiting process is so much easier to manage with JOBJACK.
We have detailed reporting on all jobs down to a business unit and line manager level, making our recruiting process a lot more transparent, and allowing us to address bottlenecks quickly.”
Allison Mlenzana
Talent Acquisition Lead: SA Operations
Implementation
Smollan uses the JOBJACK Assessment Battery and integrated risk checks across all business units; they also use JOBJACK’s Document Upload feature to automate the collection of documentation (ID documents, bank details, etc.) for all candidates.
Results
After implementing JOBJACK across all their business units, Smollan saw that:
-
Total terminations reduced by 38% within the first 6 months
-
More specifically, the rate of bad terminations (due to misconduct) amongst merchandisers sourced via JOBJACK was 66% lower than for merchandisers hired via other sources - i.e. JOBJACK hires were much less likely to be terminated due to misconduct
Smollan is also able to fill roles much faster with JOBJACK:
-
The time taken to fill roles dropped by 34%
-
Some roles are filled in as little as 1.85 days
-
They saw an 86% reduction in turnaround times for risk checks, down from 2 weeks to less than 48 hours
-
Smollan uses JOBJACK’s reporting to identify bottlenecks in their recruiting process, to unlock even more efficiency
Overall, Smollan have saved 33.8% in recruiting costs by moving to JOBJACK, and are able to fill roles 34% faster, with the right candidates to grow their business.
Challenges
Before JOBJACK, Smollan had a large internal recruiting team managing their entry-level recruiting for merchandisers and sales assistants. The team used a largely manual process that included assessments from an international provider, and a long two-week turnaround time for risk checks. As a result, the Smollan team struggled to fill roles quickly, and sometimes received negative feedback from their customers about staff quality. The manual recruiting process had little reporting, which meant low visibility on bottlenecks, making it hard to improve. Their recruiting costs (internal team, assessments and third party risk checks) were also increasing. All these factors prompted Smollan to seek a new solution that was automated and could easily be accessed by their mobile workforce, enabling them to hire faster, manage their recruiting costs and provide them with the right candidates to grow their business.
Alternatives
Smollan ran an RFP process and considered a number of alternatives before selecting JOBJACK for their deep understanding of the South African entry-level recruiting market.
FOOTWEAR & APPAREL RETAILER
Learn how a footwear and apparel retailer saw a 6% sales uplift after partnering with JOBJACK for seasonal hiring
Hunadi Matlala, HR Manager, shares Baobab Brands’ journey to improving their talent pipeline, reducing terminations and saving on hiring costs with JOBJACK
HR Executive for FPG Foods, Hennie Niemand, explains how JOBJACK helped FPG Foods reduce terminations and disciplinary procedures in their Western Cape stores
How other companies use JOBJACK
FOOTWEAR & APPAREL RETAILER
Learn how a footwear and apparel retailer saw a 6% sales uplift after partnering with JOBJACK for seasonal hiring
Hunadi Matlala, HR Manager, shares Baobab Brands’ journey to improving their talent pipeline, reducing terminations and saving on hiring costs with JOBJACK
HR Executive for FPG Foods, Hennie Niemand, explains how JOBJACK helped FPG Foods reduce terminations and disciplinary procedures in their Western Cape stores