Futureshop: Screening job applicants

Above-average use of the web to streamline the application process and realise real savings in recruitment costs.

The Site

Futureshop is a fast-growing retailer of consumer electronics with 100 outlets across Canada and an expanding ‘webstore’. It employs more than 8,500 “associates” and includes a Careers link on the main navigation bar of its sales-led home page.

Within the Careers section prospective employees can search for current openings in any of four general categories (retail, retail management, corporate and distribution centres/service depots). Alternatively, they can filter their enquiry through a Search Current Opportunities option. Vacancy notices lead eventually to an online application form, which mixes standard questions with job-specific ones. No alternative avenue is offered for pursuing an application. For sales associates, the site states clearly that anyone wanting to apply must complete the “online interview”, a series of simple options that end the ‘interview’ if an answer does not fit the job profile.

The Takeaway

Careers sections are a de facto standard feature of company sites, but Futureshop goes further than most in exploiting the potential of the web to streamline the application process and realise real savings in its recruitment costs.

One of the biggest recruitment headaches for companies is dealing with the sheer volume of applications and sorting out the serious and suitably qualified from the speculative. Futureshop’s online system acts as a sophisticated filter, not only getting applicants to do all the form filling and skills matching themselves but, in the case of sales associates, effectively eliminating them for a ‘wrong’ answer. The system is also sufficiently flexible to allow standard forms to be customised for particular skill sets or vacancies. All this requires meticulous planning but the reward is a much reduced, suitably qualified pool of applicants that has cost much less to process and means an appointment can be made that much more quickly.

First published on 05 October, 2004