Talent Acquisition Specialist, Shyla Hibbett, and Head of People Experience, Jonathan Stanford, sat down with us to discuss LEVC’s incredible recruitment journey, which has seen them attract higher-quality candidates, reduce their time to hire, and increase employee retention.

LEVC’s history began in 1908 when the first dedicated black cab was specifically designed and commissioned for use in London. Priding itself on sustainable innovation, LEVC introduced its latest taxi model in 2018, the electric TX, as it now leads the way in focusing entirely on producing ultra-low emission vehicles.

Both Shyla and Jonathan are key cogs in influencing LEVC’s innovative and thriving work culture, now driving growth for a talented team of over 500 across various regions. 

Time to hire - decreased from 30 days to 21.5 days
Retention rate - increased from 72% to 95%

One of our candidates left us feedback saying it was one of the best candidate experiences that they’d ever had. Being able to have those informal conversations with candidates as they move through the process really helps them feel part of it and feel connected before they join.

Jonathan Stanford, Head of People at LEVC

Recruitment challenges

We know we have around 120 direct competitors within a 30-mile radius of our HQ in Coventry so making sure we try different things to attract candidates is very important. 

About a year ago where we had a surge of new roles, in a number of different areas within the organisation. It got to the tipping point where we were asking whether to increase the personnel in the talent team, or improve the systems and processes that we currently have. It was at that stage that we sought to find a new ATS that could help us accommodate that increased volume.

First impressions of Teamtailor

The setup was super simple and it was very easy for us to make our hiring extremely personal. One of the main areas we wanted to make sure came across clearly on our career site was our vision, but also something that’s new for LEVC is our guiding principles, which is what we really utilise when attracting the right people. These principles are also used as a benchmark throughout our hiring. For instance, our interview process is fully based around them. 

On an employee’s first day, the induction and merchandise that they receive is heavily linked to our sustainability and innovation values. We strive to really showcase why it’s important here at LEVC so certainly the career site itself was a big reason as to why we switched to Teamtailor.

To someone that is considering using Teamtailor, it’s a great tool to collaborate with your teams for your recruitment and improving your candidate experience. It’s a brilliant tool and a system that's very easy to use.

Showcasing the employer brand

Our career site has definitely attracted some really good quality candidates so that’s been great for us in terms of improving the overall candidate experience. We find that we can screen candidates quicker and hiring managers are responding and providing feedback quicker to candidates too. Prior to that we weren’t following any strict processes and hiring managers were liaising with agencies, so our spend on these has also decreased. 

Some of the job boards that we use have certainly attracted a higher calibre of candidates that are more specialist for the roles we’re trying to fill. As a result, we’re able to attract the best talent for the technical parts of our roles in the automotive industry.

Reducing time to hire, increasing retention rate and improving candidate experience

Pre-Teamtailor, we were at just over 30 days for our time to hire. We’re now averaging 21.5 days so of course that’s the part that gets me out of my seat and I’m excited, because I know that our hiring managers want us to be bringing people in as quickly as possible. And certainly for our candidates it feels brilliant that we’re able to place them so smoothly and so quickly. What we really like is the ability to send emails to candidates through the system and the hiring managers are able to see every communication, so everything is very clear and we’re all on the same page when it comes to knowing how far along candidates are in the process. One of our candidates left us feedback saying it was one of the best candidate experiences that they’d ever had.

For me it’s about having some of that personal touch, which you perhaps wouldn’t necessarily think of as being the ‘go-to’ for a system, but it is. Being able to have those informal conversations with candidates as they move through the process really helps them feel part of it and feel connected before they join.

We also typically measure retention stats within the first three months of an employee starting, and this has increased from 72% to 95% since using Teamtailor. For us, that proves how smooth the process is as a candidate and them feeling part of the organisation long before their first day of onboarding.

If you'd like to see Teamtailor's AI assistant Co-pilot in action, click below!