Home Depot is betting on new technology to help streamline its hiring process.
The retailer says it will use an unnamed technology developed by staff engineers to help fill 80,000 associate positions for spring, which is the company’s busy season. While details are scarce, a spokesperson for Home Depot told Employee Benefit News the tech was launched this year and is meant to track applicants through the stages of the hiring process. There are approximately 2,000 U.S. stores and more than 100 distribution centers hiring seasonal, part-time and full-time positions, the employer says.
“Technology is at the forefront of everything we do at The Home Depot, and that includes taking care of our associates,” Tim Hourigan, the company’s executive vice president of human resources says in a statement. “We continue to invest in technology so we can help candidates control their own journey and welcome new hires into our family faster than ever.”
Last spring, Home Depot launched candidate self service, another technology developed in-house, that allows applicants to schedule their own interviews. Since its release, the company says that nearly 1 million candidates have used the technology.
“The goal of both of these tools [that were built by Home Depot engineers] is to speed up the hiring process and make it easier for candidates to control their hiring journey,” a spokesperson told EBN.
Other large retailers are using technology developed in-house to simplify employee training and scheduling. For instance, Walmart recently rolled out a simulation training
Home Depot also has text-to-apply and mobile apply capabilities. For onboarding, the retailer offers associates a PocketGuide for training, or a mobile application that uses gamification to help workers learn on the job.
