How L’Occitane improved their candidate Net Promoter Score by 60%

L’Occitane’s challenge is one retailers know all too well: To create a compelling candidate experience that moves fast enough to hire a high volume of talent before they accept roles elsewhere. But L’Occitane’s legacy Applicant Tracking System (ATS) was only holding them back.

Their previous tool was primarily an HRIS, so it sounded like a good idea to use their built-in ATS solution—but in practice, the recruiting functionality fell short. The workflow builder was unintuitive, so making changes was overly time-consuming and difficult. “It didn’t empower our hiring managers to look after their roles,” Sam told us. 

Things came to a head during the holiday recruitment rush in 2021, when it became clear that the old ATS did not meet L’Occitane’s needs. Hiring managers had “gone rogue” with individualized workarounds (such as spreadsheets and their own work emails) to source candidates, so the talent team used Indeed as a makeshift ATS. According to Sam, it was a painful way to discover that the tool “wasn’t fit for purpose” and was hindering their hiring processes.

To regain hiring manager buy-in, Sam involved them in the ATS selection process from the beginning. “We felt it was important they were involved in choosing the software they’d be using to hire,” she explained. When Pinpoint emerged as the clear winner, Sam was sold by both the platform’s functionality and the transparency of Pinpoint’s pricing model. 

“Sales can be great, and then it turns out you’ve got something completely different than the dream you were sold. That’s not the case with Pinpoint.”

1. Spot-on employer branding

To stand out in a competitive market, Sam and her team needed a way to tell L’Occitane’s story. The old system had few options for incorporating their employer brand, so Sam sought out a flexible solution to give them more control over their careers site. 

With Pinpoint, they built the L’Occitane’s careers page in a fraction of the time anticipated, and her team is proud of the way it captures L’Occitane’s health- and eco-conscious brand. “The Pinpoint design team nailed it early on,” she said. “It always felt very consultative, like a true partnership.” 

Now, applicants have a place to view videos and other media that help them understand the brand before they apply. 

2. Actionable candidate feedback

A better candidate experience was at the top of Sam’s priority list for a new ATS. Pinpoint’s candidate experience surveys allow them to better understand the candidate experience, make adjustments, and track improvement to their candidate NPS over time. 

The comments from the surveys are sometimes painful to read, but they are also a gold mine of valuable feedback. For example, when Sam noticed candidates were confused about where they stood in the recruitment process, she set up automated messages to give them an estimated response date.  

Since implementing Pinpoint, L’Occitane has received increasingly positive candidate feedback, and their NPS has increased to a world-class rating of 80.

Hiring managers have also found Pinpoint to be so user-friendly that they’re now working within the platform to respond to candidates faster, rather than using individualized workarounds.

By increasing recruitment efficiency without sacrificing candidate experience, L’Occitane has been able to shorten time to fill by 23%. 

3. Adaptable workflows and templates

Sam’s recruitment team has regained control over the hiring process now that they can quickly modify workflows and templates. In one recent example, Sam was able to respond instantly to a candidate’s suggestion by adding options to their diversity questionnaire that accurately reflect L’Occitane’s candidate pool.

4. Increased hiring manager visibility

Transparency has played a vital role in Sam’s success. She involved hiring managers in the process early on to ensure that Pinpoint became L’Occitane’s system, not just TA’s. 

Sam is a strong believer in overcommunication, and that belief paid off when she was rolling out Pinpoint. She invited small groups of hiring managers to “beta test” the platform as it was being implemented. In the early days, she regularly shared hiring updates and stats to demonstrate Pinpoint’s value. Today, their 150+ hiring managers don’t need any convincing. 

Whenever additional support is needed, Pinpoint is just a quick phone call or chat message away. Sam has trained the hiring managers to use the chat as a first option and raves about Pinpoint’s responsiveness. “There’s never been a question they couldn’t answer,” she says. 

5. Seamless onboarding

After an offer is made, there are a series of steps a new hire must take before their first day at L’Occitane. With their previous ATS, L’Occitane used a tool called Enboarder to build out these workflows, but it was an imperfect solution.

When candidates had to jump from the ATS to the onboarding solution, the inconsistent user experience caused unnecessary confusion and a myriad of questions. It was also easy for accidents to happen with data entry—in one instance, a cohort of candidates weren’t able to onboard on time because an entire process had to be fixed. Important compliance tasks like right-to-work checks were reliant on hiring managers completing them correctly in-person, which opened up another opportunity for error.

Now that they have Pinpoint, L’Occitane has created a seamless employee onboarding experience. They’ve integrated with Zinc to manage important background and professional reference checks directly within their ATS – something they couldn’t do before. Candidates are already accustomed to Pinpoint from the hiring process, so they are able to complete tasks autonomously. “Once we make a hire through Pinpoint, we invite the candidate to complete a Zinc background check. The integration is seamless,” said recruiter Sam Webster.

Candidates know what to expect with Pinpoint, so their onboarding checks come back in less than three days on average. And because data flows both ways, Zinc’s reporting comes straight back into Pinpoint, where the team can review any flags and recommend follow ups. “With Zinc, you’re given peace of mind to know that checks have been done and it’s by experts in the field,” Sam explained.

The Zinc integration was so easy to set up that it “could have been done by anybody”—but don’t underestimate the power in its simplicity. Zinc has saved the team 90 minutes per hire, which is approximately 44 business days worth of time to date. “Over the holidays, we’re able to trust the system to help us hire over 250 people at once,” Sam said.

Depending on the new hire’s department, L’Occitane’s onboarding process could involve between 4-8 steps and a variety of stakeholders, including managers, IT, and head office reception. Pinpoint’s flexible recruitment workflows and notifications allow the L’Occitane TA team to tailor onboarding processes so candidates can complete the appropriate tasks, and the right people are informed. 

With a central view over progress for each new hire, L’Occitane has removed the “question mark” of onboarding and improved internal transparency. 

With less time spent on manual admin tasks, Sam and her team are free to focus on what’s most important: creating an unparalleled experience of L’Occitane’s employer brand.

After the successful implementation of Pinpoint, Sam Webster has been appointed as the Global Talent Acquisition Process Owner. Sam Lucking, the Talent Acquisition Lead, explains that this change highlights the significance of automation in providing a consistent and high-quality candidate experience.