How Iceland saved their store leaders 24,000 hours a year by implementing transformational change – during a pandemic – Iceland Foods in partnership with PredictiveHire.

Automation was critical to increase the time store managers had to trade their stores. Frozen food specialist Iceland receives a high volume of applicants – more than 120,000 per month – and faced a crisis in 2020: increased trade and Covid-19 absence meant that surge hiring needed to be automated, without losing the personal touch. It had to be a simple solution that store managers would understand quickly and trust and used screening tools that candidates would also trust.

• The company’s in-house recruitment team chose PredictiveHire. Candidates have reacted well to the technology, with 99% positive sentiment and 77% of candidates more likely recommend to Iceland as an employer of choice.
• The candidate experience had to be fast, inclusive and human. The tool needed to work for the candidate market which is as diverse as the general population. Against the company’s criteria and internal testing, the PredictiveHire Ai solution (‘Phai’) was superior. Every candidate was interviewed by Phai and received personalised feedback, 20 minutes to complete, with only five open-ended and engaging questions, such as: “At Iceland we are obsessed with quality. How would you help us deliver consistent quality of service?” Adoption was accelerated by embedding a candidate explainer video created by PredictiveHire into the application process.
• There was seamless integration into the company’s recruitment process.
• There was 5x payback in four months, giving back 8,000 hours to the business and costing less than 1p per applicant.
• There was zero gender and race bias, ensuring the hired group are as diverse as the applicant group.
• Three-quarters of hires were from the top-ranking candidates, demonstrating screening validity.

Judges’ comments: “Their simple, straightforward submission ticked every box by demonstrating the contribution the recruitment function played to the success of their overall business. They also clearly demonstrated thoughtful consideration to the fact that many candidates would be applying for jobs at Iceland following the decimation of their previous career paths, for example, aviation industry employees.”

Also: The judges noted that this was yet another strong category that shows how strong technical integration can lead to quantifiable results.