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Ulta Beauty
Case study

How Ulta Beauty achieved a 53% YOY increase in holiday hires

Ulta Beauty has emerged as an industry outlier. In a time when many retail companies struggle to keep shop doors open, Ulta Beauty has been growing at a record pace. On an impressive course to open 500 new stores in five years, Ulta Beauty is set to grow its physical locations by over 70% and add at least 2,500 associates to its existing workforce of nearly 20K in-store employees. 

Key results

70%

increase in applicants

53%

increase in seasonal hires

150%

 of hiring goal achieved

Holiday Hiring: The race for high-demand seasonal talent

With 100 new stores to staff annually, in addition to staffing existing stores across 47 states, Sean Taylor, Director of Talent Acquisition at Ulta Beauty, looked to ramp up his strategy and technology to meet unprecedented hiring demands, especially during retail's busiest season of the year—the holidays.

In the second year of its five-year expansion plan, Ulta Beauty braced for another record holiday shopping season. In preparation for the hiring rush, Taylor and team decided to expand their recruitment strategy in one particular area that had yet to be leveraged by the organization to its full hiring potential—social media.

 

"We needed at least 10K seasonal hires to support Ulta Beauty stores during that holiday season. By partnering with CareerArc, we received 121K job applications—a 70% YOY increase—and made 15K hires, which is 53% more hires than the previous year. It was remarkable, and we attribute this success to CareerArc."
Sean Taylor

Sean Taylor

VP, People Success

Sean Taylor

Targeting the right talent through strategic social recruiting.

To edge out the holiday hiring competition, Taylor and his team worked closely with their CareerArc client success manager to develop a targeted approach to finding and engaging with candidates on social media.

Leveraging CareerArc's social recruiting platform, Ulta Beauty distributed job tweets to reach both active and passive candidates. By researching and including specific hashtags—such as #PTholiday and #makeupjunkie among others—CareerArc helped optimize the visibility of each tweet aimed at Ulta Beauty's target audience.

This approach generated qualified, active candidates who were interested in seasonal part-time work as well as culture-fit passive candidates who identified and engaged with makeup and cosmetics enthusiasts and influencers online.

Sample job and employer branding social media posts from Ulta Beauty
"We saw an instant increase in our applicant pool just because of the awareness we were getting through our partnership with CareerArc."
Sean Taylor

Sean Taylor

VP, People Success

Sean Taylor

Key outcomes

Record-breaking sales and hires

The holiday season marked a milestone quarter for the company both in hiring and in sales. By partnering with CareerArc , Ulta Beauty exceeded its minimum target for seasonal hires by 50%, which supported the company's record 25% YOY increase in revenue for that quarter.

Support at the right pace, place, and time

Taylor reflected on the success of their holiday hiring push and identified what he thought set CareerArc apart.

"We knew from the start there was more we could be doing on social. But instead of simply listing what was missing and prescribing instant changes, CareerArc met us where we were. They did a great job in really listening to what we needed and knew the right steps to take at each moment. And it worked. It really worked."

Attracted and aquired more qualified, culture-fit talent

Bracing for yet another record holiday season, Ulta Beauty partnered with CareerArc to develop a targeted approach to reaching and engaging with qualified, culture-fit talent on social media. Launching highly targeted campaigns through CareerArc's social recruiting platform generated 70% more applicants and 53% more hires for Ulta Beauty than the previous year, all while exceeding their seasonal hiring target by 50% and boosting employee retention.

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