In an effort to localise and streamline its recruitment process, the Shoprite Group – in partnership with South African SMME, the OTB Group (OTB) – has created a centralised platform that simplifies applications and prioritises nearby jobs for applicants. This new platform aims to reduce hiring time, improve matching, and bring recruitment closer to home.
By matching candidates to stores close to their homes, it makes it easier to apply for jobs, cuts travel costs and reduces safety risks – while at the same time giving hiring managers faster ways to find the right people.
The Group’s internal target is to hire employees who live within 15km of a store, but with the help of this new technology, the current average is just 7km. It reduces the time and money employees spend travelling, strengthens retention, and helps ensure jobs are more accessible to people in the communities the Group serves.
For applicants, the system streamlines the hiring process and makes interviews more accessible. For recruiters, it standardises assessments, accelerates screening and scheduling, and creates a local talent pool.
The in-house system is the result of a multi-year project brought to life by OTB, supported by Shoprite Next Capital, the group’s enterprise and supplier development division.
After identifying OTB as the preferred local tech partner, Shoprite Next Capital provided milestone-based funding to get the undertaking off the ground. This investment enabled OTB to expand its team, meet the Group’s deployment deadlines, and develop a scalable solution tailored to the retailer’s needs.
“Our new recruitment platform addresses a critical need for greater job access. In developing this platform, the Shoprite Group specifically sought out a South African SMME to digitalise the hiring process for all our supermarkets… [thereby] expanding our efforts to assist small suppliers beyond our retail operations,” says Maude Modise, enterprise and government relations executive at the Shoprite Group.
The project has already created at least six permanent jobs within OTB, while including hosting, security and support partners that have generated a further 12 indirect jobs.
“As South Africa’s largest private employer, we recognise that our almost 170,000 employees are not the only people impacted by our retail operations. It is imperative that we continue being deliberate in our support of small businesses to help grow the economy, and, in this case, to develop a recruitment platform that enables us to provide jobs closer to home, in the very communities that we serve,” says Modise.
