With retail recruitment proving tougher than ever, LinkedIn’s Luke Mckend shares how the business is working with Boohoo to attract the people they need – and how other retailers can do the same
The UK retail labour market is facing one of its most challenging times. There are fewer retail jobs and vacancies, and competition is rife.
According to data from the British Retail Consortium (BRC) for Q4 2024, there has been a 6% decrease (-190,000) in retail jobs since before the pandemic in Q4 2019 – down to 2.959 million.
There has also been a 21.7% decrease in wholesale and retail jobs since before the pandemic – and 5.1% lower than Q3 2024.
Wages are also rising, making it harder for retailers to secure talent; the same BRC data reports median payroll growth of 8% compared with the UK average of 6.9%.
So how can retailers get in front of the candidates they want to reach and make their recruitment drives more successful?
LinkedIn has been working with Boohoo to make their recruitment strategies work harder.
Boohoo
For fashion giant Boohoo, the business has been on a mission to reduce its reliance on external agencies and drive more direct applications to its vacancies.
This meant the business needed to strengthen its employer brand and upskill its recruitment team.
In 2023, Boohoo worked together with LinkedIn to revamp its hiring strategy by joining LinkedIn’s Enterprise Program.
Soon after, Boohoo’s eight-strong talent acquisition team began utilising LinkedIn’s network to connect directly with top talent.
Boohoo has strengthened its recruitment process as a result.
Boohoo group head of talent acquisition Gemma Kyle said: “By focusing on direct sourcing, reducing agency spend and strengthening our brand presence, we have not only been able to develop a self-sufficient hiring process but also achieve remarkable success.”
Boohoo’s brand awareness has increased by 97% with the retailer’s time to hire more than halved from 45 days to just 20 days.
Moreover, the business has reduced its recruitment agency spend by 95%.
Luke Mckend is senior director of talent solutions for UK at LinkedIn
Luke Mckend advises some of Britain’s leading companies on their workforce strategy, helping them to hire and develop the talent they need to succeed and grow their organisations.
Mckend previously led LinkedIn’s academic and government business across EMEA and LATAM, working with national and local government, educational institutions and non-profits.
Mckend has also held senior roles at Google, as well as a number of successful European start-ups, where he focused on building high-performing teams.
