Case Study | Retail & Media Talent Acquisition
Fully approved by clientHireQuotient's EasySource delivers 65% reduction in time to close, saved 70% of manual effort and $50,000 in direct costs, alongside closing 14 critical positions, for a PE-owned Retail & Media Giant
Executive Summary
In North America's competitive business intelligence sector, finding specialized talent quickly is essential to driving growth.
Ann Jadown, Chief People Officer, faced a common mid-market challenge: managing niche recruitment while reliant on expensive tools like LinkedIn Recruiter and Indeed.
By partnering with HireQuotient and deploying EasySource AI Autopilot, the team shifted talent sourcing into an agile, automated process.
Roles Closed
14
Critical positions filled
Hiring Velocity
65%
Reduction in time-to-close
Recruiter Time Savings
70%
Time reclaimed in sourcing
Bottom-Line Impact
$50,000+
In direct cost savings
Platform Adoption: Utilized AI to handle sourcer tasks, reduced reliance on LinkedIn Recruiter seats, and filled all roles without a dedicated recruiting team.
The Macro Challenge: Hiring in the North American Retail & Media Sector
The North American media landscape experiences steady structural hiring friction:
Competitive Niche Talent Pool
Media roles require candidates who understand both deep domain operations and modern technology. These passive candidates are routinely targeted by recruiters and often skip generic outreach.
The “Solo Recruiter” Bottleneck
In many mid-sized enterprises, manually sifting through resumes and building custom search strings consumes up to 70% of a recruiter's working hours.
Software Stack Costs
Legacy solutions — specifically enterprise LinkedIn Recruiter licenses and separate data enrichment add-ons — add significant annual expenses per seat, often yielding low response rates.
“I used to spend significant time sourcing and earlier had needed a team (sourcer) to close the positions. EasySource has been transformational since I can now put things on autopilot and it builds funnels on its own every day.”
The Solution: Scaling Talent Sourcing with EasySource AI Autopilot
Ann evaluated EasySource through a 30-day trial before transitioning to an annual deployment to reduce sourcing timelines and limit software expenses.
Traditional Sourcing
EasySource AI Autopilot
Manual search strings
Specific candidate vetting
Hours spent parsing CVs
Custom AI outreach using text and AI assisted calling
Generic cold messages
Niche pipeline in 24 hours
Expensive recruiter seats
Integrated co-pilot
Niche Talent Pools Delivered in 24 Hours
Instead of manually tweaking boolean queries, job requirements and vetting criteria were entered directly into EasySource. The platform mapped relevant passive candidate pools in under a day.
“The fact that the tool can produce a niche talent pool within a day truly amazed me. By simply putting in vetting criteria, I was able to get a very specific talent pool.”
Personalized Candidate Outreach
EasySource's AI analyzes candidate profiles against job descriptions to draft tailored, candidate-specific outreach messages.
“The outreach customization is very smart; it uses AI to tailor the outreach to the candidate by pulling from their LinkedIn profile and the job description to create human-sounding language. It makes candidates feel special by helping them understand why they are a strong fit for a particular role.”
Replacing Legacy Tools & External Dependencies
The team moved workflows to EasySource AI Autopilot, eliminating the need to use enterprise LinkedIn Recruiter as much and associated point tools. This allowed end-to-end sourcing to stay in-house without requiring additional internal talent acquisition staff or third-party agencies.
The Impact & Business Results
Through continuous platform usage over two years, the team realized notable operational efficiencies:
14 Key Positions Closed
Filled specialized leadership and media roles across core North American functions.
70% Time Savings in Sourcing
Reclaimed time previously spent on manual sourcing, giving HR leadership more capacity for candidate engagement and culture initiatives.
65% Faster Time-to-Close
Shortened recruitment cycles by generating active candidate pipelines more quickly.
$50,000+ Direct Cost Savings
Lowered expenses by replacing external agency involvement.
The Product Partnership: Designing for HR Needs
Ann worked directly with HireQuotient's product team to offer direct operational feedback and help refine practical HR features.
“Working with Smarth (the Founder & CEO) twice a week showed that he really cared about ensuring I knew the product inside and out to get the best results... As we interacted, I would see the results of my feedback in the form of new product technology or features. You do not normally see that when working with an AI recruiting tool or any HR tool.”
Key takeaway for people leaders
This approach shows that mid-market HR teams can source top talent efficiently without expanding recruiting headcount or carrying heavy software overhead. Automating key parts of the sourcing workflow allows lean HR teams to match the output of larger groups while keeping operations cost-effective.
Running a one-person recruiting department?
See how EasySource AI Autopilot builds a niche talent pool in 24 hours from your vetting criteria — and writes the outreach for you.
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