Founded in 1880, Wella hails as one of the world’s leading cosmetics suppliers, and since 2003, it has been part of the global Procter & Gamble portfolio.
First and foremost, the business growth relies on strong sales teams on the ground. Wella offers opportunities for rapid progression to its successful Business Development Representatives. This means they constantly need to find and recruit new talent in order to fill the ‘grass roots’ sales roles.
Since Discovery started working with Wella, we have successfully filled all their entry level business development roles, with bright, enthusiastic Graduate talent. They come without the legacy of bad sales habits and make an ideal intake for Wella’s own sales training programme.
ATTRACTION
Wella was simply not getting enough of the right applications for its sales roles, headquartered in Basingstoke. There was a definite mis-match in the expectations between the in-house recruitment team, ad-hoc recruitment agencies and the Graduates, who perceived it to be a ‘traditional’ Graduate scheme with departmental rotations within a glamorous industry, which it absolutely is not.
Discovery then worked with the in-house team at Wella to clearly define the roles and build their brand as an aspirational sales employer. Through an innovative online and offline attraction strategy, we cast the net wide on Wella’s behalf, to attract enough applications from good Graduates with a genuine desire for a career in sales.
www.wellacareers.co.uk
RECRUITMENT
The number of sales roles to fill for Wella this year doubled and at the same time the delivery timeframe was halved from four months to two months. Having attracted a record level of applications, Discovery processed these rapidly, freeing up Wella’s own in-house recruitment resources.
After CV screening and preliminary interviews, selections were made for the regional assessment centres; the logistics for which were wholly managed by us. With Wella’s management team in attendance for the final stages, we made offers to successful candidates within 24 hours, to ensure we snapped up the best Graduates before competitors.
We recruited excellent individuals destined for sales success at Wella, with a 3:1 interview to offer ratio.
Since 2006 we have recruited in excess of 30 graduates for Wella. The business has analysed their performance and concluded that typically the Graduates progress quicker within their roles and are more flexible when considering new opportunities.