The health and beauty retailer is using the software to establish profiles for roles it wishes to fill, and match them with the best applications it receives.

Superdrug introduced an online job board facility when it launched its first branded web site last year, allowing applicants to send their curricula vitae (CVs) direct to the company through the site.

But it soon found that this process was difficult to manage.

‘We wanted applicants to apply to us directly, for us to own the whole recruitment process,’ said Kate Parkes, Superdrug human resources (HR) manager.

‘But, with 2,000 CVs posted online each month, our HR department could not deal with this volume of applications.’

The site has been updated with the ActiveRecruiter web-based software, from vendor Jobpartners, to match candidates to jobs.

When applicants submit their CVs and fill in an online application form, the Jobpartners-hosted software allows Superdrug to perform searches according to relevant skills or experience.

‘We can contact the qualified candidates directly, and arrange interviews and the rest of the recruitment process more quickly than before,’ said Parkes.

She says the candidate software is helping to attract, retain and manage the applicants for store, pharmacy and head-office based jobs, including a position that Superdrug hopes to fill for a trainee store IT systems developer.