A few weeks ago I noticed on the Benefit job search part of their site that they were holding a recruitment day within Debenhams in my city, and as I've always loved the idea of having a part time sales assistant role with them I took the day out of my week to go along to it yesterday, I've been using Benefit for over eight years so I'm certainly no stranger to the brand or their products.
It all started fairly well with all the girls who worked there being super smiley and welcoming until eventually there were so many candidates that had turned up that we all were crammed around the small shop floor space, if I were a customer I wouldn't have wanted to try and fight for space that's for sure. This was for the initial interviewing process which took around five minutes per girl and was done by both a Benefit and Debenhams employee (not too sure exactly what their job roles are). I'm never one to complain about having to wait, it's just a part of life, so I wasn't too bothered about being the last of around ten girls to get seen. Once I was taken in for an 'interview' (by the Debenhams woman) I was sat back to back with another girl being interviewed in a tiny room that four of us only just squeezed into, I can't say it felt very professional. I was taken through what felt more like a quiz as every question I answered there was no engagement on my answers, for example I told the lady that I write a blog and I've been to a few Benefit blogger events to which she seemed completely uninterested which was slightly disheartening. I was told after a couple of minutes that I'd got through to the next process but I'd have to come back the next week as they'd filled up all the slots for that day but was called back half an hour later being told someone had dropped out so I could go back that day if I wanted to which I was happy to do.
It all started fairly well with all the girls who worked there being super smiley and welcoming until eventually there were so many candidates that had turned up that we all were crammed around the small shop floor space, if I were a customer I wouldn't have wanted to try and fight for space that's for sure. This was for the initial interviewing process which took around five minutes per girl and was done by both a Benefit and Debenhams employee (not too sure exactly what their job roles are). I'm never one to complain about having to wait, it's just a part of life, so I wasn't too bothered about being the last of around ten girls to get seen. Once I was taken in for an 'interview' (by the Debenhams woman) I was sat back to back with another girl being interviewed in a tiny room that four of us only just squeezed into, I can't say it felt very professional. I was taken through what felt more like a quiz as every question I answered there was no engagement on my answers, for example I told the lady that I write a blog and I've been to a few Benefit blogger events to which she seemed completely uninterested which was slightly disheartening. I was told after a couple of minutes that I'd got through to the next process but I'd have to come back the next week as they'd filled up all the slots for that day but was called back half an hour later being told someone had dropped out so I could go back that day if I wanted to which I was happy to do.
I went back in the afternoon (two hours later) with all the girls that I had seen in the morning which obviously made that whole process a complete waste of time since no one had actually been 'short-listed' as we were made to feel would happen. I have a beauty NVQ2 qualification and I'm well trained in all types of waxing whereas most other girls were aged around 17 and didn't have a single beauty qualification to which I was a little surprised they were asked back. After a bit more of us all standing around like lemons on the shop floor we were eventually all taken up to the training area within Debenhams. The next part we all sat around a table and were shown a role play of how to approach a customer (within Debenhams and not actually at the Benefit counter) to then tempt them to come over to Benefit for a free mini make over which they referred to as 'pamper session'. We were talked through all the ways to rebuff a customers initial decline of having the pamper session such as them saying they don't have the time etc, this included a demo on how to usher someone using your hands and body language which was more a how to of invading someone's personal space. When did it become ok for brands to actually encourage their employees to go up to and psychically grab hold of strangers? This describes it perfectly..
Next we got in pairs and had to show off our acting skills of this process to the whole room, I wasn't majorly bothered by it and found it quite fun if not a little cringe. After this we watched a demo of how we'd be applying five key make up items to a customer, there wasn't much said about each individual product and it was almost as if we could have been working for any brand as it felt like we were being taught how to sell, not how to sell Benefit. Sales is sales and I get that completely but I think it's more appropriate to teach it to your actual employees and not to candidates. I did start to wonder at this point if we had just been brought in to be used to make sales that afternoon rather than being put through a proper recruitment process.
Next we got in pairs and had to show off our acting skills of this process to the whole room, I wasn't majorly bothered by it and found it quite fun if not a little cringe. After this we watched a demo of how we'd be applying five key make up items to a customer, there wasn't much said about each individual product and it was almost as if we could have been working for any brand as it felt like we were being taught how to sell, not how to sell Benefit. Sales is sales and I get that completely but I think it's more appropriate to teach it to your actual employees and not to candidates. I did start to wonder at this point if we had just been brought in to be used to make sales that afternoon rather than being put through a proper recruitment process.
So after all of the role play and practising the mini make overs on each other we were 'let loose' onto the shop floor. Just beforehand we were told that if we hadn't managed to find ourselves a customer wanting a make over within the first half an hour then we would be told to leave as it would be deemed that we weren't appropriate for the job, I found that incredibly harsh and small-minded. The Debenhams itself is fairly small compared to most and happened to be near on empty for most of the afternoon with either a professional on their break with no time spare or an older lady who wasn't so interested in make up, it was like looking for a needle in a haystack with ten other girls passing by you every few seconds. I was lucky enough to find a pair of lovely ladies within the first ten minutes and let another girl take one of them instead of making the customer wait around for me instead. If the manager had actually bothered to be observing us properly then I'm sure this would have been seen as me showing signs of working well in a team. As it happens there wasn't nearly enough space for all of us to do the make overs and in addition wasn't enough products to go round either so we had to spend a lot of time wandering around looking for a particular product or a mirror that we didn't have which wasted much time. I had a great chat with my lady and everything seemed to be flowing well so I was quite pleased at this point and felt relieved to have been getting on so well. Once I'd finished the make over it was back out to the shop floor to fish around for another customer, at this point lots of girls were mentioning to each other that they didn't expect this would be what our afternoon would involve and lots of eye rolling went on. In all of this time I had not once seen either the Debenhams manager or the Benefit manager on any shop floor observing girls, I know they can't be in all places at once and were clearly overwhelmed with the amount of candidates but it felt very unfair. I found it utterly ridiculous to have ten candidates wandering round three floors at a near-empty Debenhams with others completing make overs at the Benefit counter with just two managers to oversee the whole thing.
I have to admit that bothering shoppers who were trying to look at clothing felt rather humiliating and I did get a few sharp responses at times from people who were completely fed up of being asked over and over again. If I were in the store that day as a customer I would have ended up leaving pretty quickly with having girls continuously come up to me trying to get me over to the Benefit counter. The whole tactic felt very cheap and like I was on the restaurant strip in Turkey trying to get people in rather than working for a high-end beauty brand. In my opinion I think a recruitment day should consist of a thorough interviewing process where candidates are then short-listed to around half and then each girl should be respected enough to be given proper time to be observed thoroughly to show their potential rather than it all becoming a game of who can reel in the most people. I also noticed that our skills at applying the make up to clients weren't being noticed and if they were it was clear this was the bottom of the criteria rather than at the top which it should have been. Talking someone into buying products that they most likely can't afford makes me feel incredibly uncomfortable and doesn't float my boat at all, I'd actually rather be jobless than be spending my time exploiting customers who might I add hadn't even come over to the Benefit counter in the first place.
An hour after we began and I found another really kind lady who was wonderfully easy to talk to and called me a sweetheart a number of times. I was really pleased as the products looked lovely on her and she seemed really engaged with the whole process which was completely reassuring. Once I'd finished her make up and was back on the shop floor I took the decision to stand my ground on the bottom floor close to the doors where new people were coming in to avoid the nightmare on the top floors of people who had been asked over and over again. I saw this as taking initiative and being confident enough to be directly in the eye-line of both managers rather than taking the easy option of hiding away on the other floors; apparently the manager didn't agree and shortly after she came over to tell me that they wouldn't be taking me any further and this was the reason. To be told I hadn't got a job on the shop floor with all of the other girls and customers walking by in what took less than 20 seconds was completely humiliating and I was in complete shock that this would ever happen in a recruitment process. The other reason she gave was that 'two customers in two hours isn't good enough', I'm not sure what logic she based that on as I think that's more than good enough in a deserted store with ten girls running around like headless chickens, and if she took the time to give me constructive feedback I could have explained that in fact I got three customers in that time. I was then taken to get my bag and told I would get a 15% discount code (so the thanks I get for making them sales that afternoon and giving up my day is to put money back into their pocket) and to reapply again in six months time.. cheers Benefit and Debenhams. I have to admit I did let out an accidental laugh when she mentioned the discount.. maybe she should have paid more attention to me telling her that I'm a beauty blogger.
Ultimately employers can't employ everyone and that's just life but having a brash and unforgiving attitude towards candidates is absolutely not on. It was my first ever recruitment day and formal interview kind of situation and although I wasn't too nervous I feel incredibly sorry for any of the girls who got the same treatment who struggle with confidence or self-esteem.
I'm going to round off this lengthy blog post now but just to clarify, I don't hold Benefit as a brand completely accountable for the absolute mess of a process that took place yesterday, I've sent in a complaint to both Debenhams and to Benefit to hopefully find out just what went wrong. If this is standard practice and how Benefit usually treat candidates then I'm really disappointed that they are letting themselves down like this! If a beauty brand's price point is set at the luxury end of the scale then they sure as hell shouldn't be trying to teach their employees market stall tactics.
Ultimately employers can't employ everyone and that's just life but having a brash and unforgiving attitude towards candidates is absolutely not on. It was my first ever recruitment day and formal interview kind of situation and although I wasn't too nervous I feel incredibly sorry for any of the girls who got the same treatment who struggle with confidence or self-esteem.
I'm going to round off this lengthy blog post now but just to clarify, I don't hold Benefit as a brand completely accountable for the absolute mess of a process that took place yesterday, I've sent in a complaint to both Debenhams and to Benefit to hopefully find out just what went wrong. If this is standard practice and how Benefit usually treat candidates then I'm really disappointed that they are letting themselves down like this! If a beauty brand's price point is set at the luxury end of the scale then they sure as hell shouldn't be trying to teach their employees market stall tactics.