Earlier in the summer, I collaborated with the SmartRecruiters team to interview four fantastic practitioners who spoke on The Hiring Without Boundaries stage at RecFest in London. We recorded the conversations backstage at the event, and this is the first of three podcast episodes where I will be sharing them.

Hiring for frontline retail positions has always been a challenge, but since the pandemic, it is a challenge that has increased exponentially. So how does an expanding retail group fill 30,000 roles a year at pace while ensuring a high-quality candidate experience that reflects the fact that their candidates are literally their customers?

My first RecFest guest is Adam Reynolds, Head of Talent at Frasers Group. Frasers Group is a multi-brand international retail chain, and Adam and his team have used technology to transform their TA strategy to meet the needs of the business in a very tough talent market.

In the interview, we discuss:

• Recruiting challenges

• Growing hiring exponentially

• Urgency, pace, and velocity

• Getting stakeholder buy-in

• Quality communication at scale

• Automation without being robotic

• Storytelling

• The fundamental role of technology

• Ratios and data

• Talent pooling silver medallists

• How will the role of the recruiter evolve in an AI-driven future?

Listen to this podcast on Apple Podcasts.