Customer success stories

Kingfisher

How a global home improvement company scaled hiring to meet the rise in DIY home renovation and repair.

Headquarters:
London, UK
Industry:
Home improvement
Company size:
80,000
Revenue:
£13.2 billion
Locations
1,500
iCIMS products:
Applicant Tracking System
Candidate Relationship Management
Text Engagement
Digital Assistant

With a large global footprint, Kingfisher, a brand that includes B&Q and Screwfix, used a centralized recruiting model that made high-volume hiring difficult.

That became even more of a challenge in 2020. One downstream consequence of the pandemic was an explosion in the home renovation DIY market, accompanied by a shift from customers shopping in stores to making purchases online. Faced with the need to hire for a lot of new roles quickly, Kingfisher turned to iCIMS for the technology and experience to help transform their talent acquisition process.

Kingfisher’s approach 

Kingfisher’s new process gives hiring managers more control over the hiring process at the local level. This allows hiring mangers to make decisions quicker and tailor the candidate experience to their individual stores.

One major key to success has been a recruiting tech stack that balances configurability at the local level with enough simplicity for busy store managers to use on top of their other responsibilities.

Screwfix employees stand next to a floor display
View down an aisle of a B&Q store

Scalable approach

Changes to the talent acquisition process started with B&Q, a subsidiary of Kingfisher. With less time spent on individual store hiring, the talent teams at B&Q were able to serve as centers of excellence, creating blueprints and best practices that other locations, including those in France and elsewhere in continental Europe, could replicate.

Kingfisher’s new talent acquisition model helped the company meet its high-volume hiring goals and create a better candidate experience by connecting hiring managers with future employees at the start of the hiring process.​

iCIMS is user-friendly, slick, easy to use and makes it easy for retail store managers to provide a good candidate experience.

Head of Attraction & Resourcing, B&Q (Kingfisher subsidiary)

Learn how iCIMS can help you drive ROI

Thank you for your interest in iCIMS. A Sales representative will be in touch with you shortly.