Lindt & Sprüngli has been part of our lives for over 175 years and is widely known as a leading chocolate manufacturer. The company has locations all over the world and has been present in Scandinavia for 20 years, where it focuses on sales and marketing to major supermarket chains rather than production. The Scandinavian headquarters is located in Solna and employs 40 people. In addition, there are regional sales offices in Oslo and Helsinki.

Lindt & Sprüngli also has a business unit dedicated to the 11 (soon 12) Lindt stores in Scandinavia, where they offer a slightly broader assortment than in supermarkets. In total, 140 people work for Lindt & Sprüngli in Scandinavia. All products are sourced from the various Lindt & Sprüngli factories across Europe.

In this case study, we spoke with Katarina Edlund Holmberg, HR Manager at Lindt & Sprüngli, about her experiences using various components of the Talentech platform.

From outsourced recruitment to an internal recruitment tool

"I started just over three years ago at Lindt & Sprüngli, and at that time we didn’t have an HR function at all," says Katarina.

"About a year and a half ago, I began exploring options for implementing a recruitment system. Until recently, we worked with external partners and didn’t have the ability to receive applications directly through a portal. This was our starting point for finding a recruitment system that was simple and flexible, would work across all four Scandinavian countries, and also allowed for digital signing of employment contracts. These were our key requirements, and we also wanted onboarding to be integrated."

Onboarding especially valuable for seasonal workers

- For us, the onboarding module was important because we are in an expansion phase and many people start in seasonal roles in our stores. We wanted to provide a modern, consistent way to communicate information to our new colleagues and engage them even before they start. This way, they stay curious, and if we can share information in advance, they are better prepared and feel more confident on their first day, allowing them to ask all kinds of questions.

The store managers who have used the onboarding program were pleasantly surprised by how much content it includes. They probably expected more of a simple checklist initially," Katarina jokes.

Employee networks – a source of new candidates

- "We don’t have a large following on LinkedIn," Katarina says, "so we thought recruitment through networks could be a way to help each other spread the word about the vacancies in our networks. We haven’t started referral recruitment yet, but we look forward to launching it soon."

Advertising on social media

"One advantage of the recruitment system is all the integrations, such as LinkedIn, social media, and other channels we use locally in other countries. We’ve tried Social Media Ads with a few campaigns and achieved very good results in terms of reach and clicks. It will be exciting to see where this leads in the next phase."

Building your employer brand

"We can add value both externally and internally by showing that we are investing properly in our recruitment processes. I think we are also proud internally that we have achieved this. The fact that we can now offer spontaneous applications and subscriptions to vacancies is exciting," says Katarina.

"And the fact that we are now investing in a solid onboarding program for our new colleagues might be even more exciting."

What is the benefit of connecting the entire process in one system?

"From a user perspective, it’s very convenient," Katarina explains. "The ability to post a job ad, find a candidate, hire them by sending a contract directly through the system, and then move the new employee into onboarding — including all relevant information — makes it a very smooth process. An interface where everything is available in one place when you log in, including the administrative side, makes it all extremely convenient."

Katarina believes that as a candidate or employee, you might not realize it’s the same system, but this is reflected in the design, with images, text, and language, making it feel like a cohesive experience — and above all, like Lindt & Sprüngli.

Collaboration with Talentech

"The collaboration with Talentech has been excellent from the start. Communication was easy, I received information quickly, and everything felt very professional. The implementation team was fantastic and explained the capabilities of the different modules in a very instructive way. They were always available and answered all my questions promptly. In addition, they managed to make a fairly extensive implementation process run very smoothly through short, recurring meetings," concludes Katarina.

"Social Media Ads make it possible to promote vacancies directly from our recruitment system on social media."