Client story · Hunkemöller
Time to hire dropped 50%
With mobile-first, AI-driven recruitment.
How Hunkemöller keeps store candidates moving, not waiting, with Bowy, an AI recruiter that screens and schedules on WhatsApp across Europe.
When a customer feels the energy in a Hunkemöller store, they don't just shop, they want to join. We helped Hunkemöller orchestrate that moment into a fast, fair, and candidate-first hiring journey, now live across eleven European markets.
50%
faster time to hire in the Netherlands
11
European markets live in nine months
84%
of Dutch hires still in the role after 30 days
Industry
Retail
Team
HR & Recruitment
Markets
NL · DE · AT · CH · BE · FR · LU · ES · DK · SE · NO
Scale
~700 stores
Agent
Bowy
What the agent does
Pre-screening, interview scheduling, reschedules and reminders
Channels
WhatsApp (text and voice), voice calls
The challenge
High volume shouldn’t mean low touch.
In retail, your candidates are your customers. Across around 700 stores, growing application volumes met manual first contact and manual scheduling. Replies were slow, strong candidates drifted away, and store teams spent time coordinating interviews instead of being on the shop floor.
Assessments were rigid, and application, assessment and HRIS weren’t connected, so data and momentum leaked at every step. Without a predictive fit check, avoidable turnover and mis-hires crept in.
The solution
Meet Bowy. Hunkemöller’s AI recruiter.
The moment someone applies, Bowy says hello on WhatsApp or by voice call and runs the pre-screening chat. Candidates then take Equalture’s short, game-based assessment and see straight away whether the role fits their strengths.
Bowy checks store calendars, books the interview and handles reschedules and reminders, with everything kept in sync in Workday. Each market runs in its own language, with its own compliance and calendar rules. When a question needs a person, Bowy hands over to the recruiter with the full conversation.
Watch the journey
From one market to eleven in nine months
January 2026
Netherlands pilot
April 2026
Germany, Austria, Switzerland
June 2026
Belgium, France, Luxembourg
October 2026
Spain, Denmark, Sweden, Norway
The results
Candidates moving, not waiting.
Faster didn’t mean worse. The candidates Bowy moves through the funnel get hired and stay. Recruiters didn’t disappear either: they stopped doing repetitive first contact and got back the parts of the job that need a human.
50%
Faster time-to-hire
Time-to-hire in the Netherlands dropped by half.
75%
Assessment completion
Up from 22% with the previous tool.
42.5%
Invited candidates hired
Measured in the Netherlands.
80.7%
Screenings that finish cleanly
No chasing, no drop-off.
+12%
Sales from new hires
Hires who came through the new journey sell 12% more.
29%
Conversations after hours
Plus 18% at weekends, handled with no recruiter on shift.
"We needed a hiring journey that respected candidates’ time and worked at the speed of our stores, without compromising fairness or quality. This change allows us to do that at scale."
Daphne Koning-Olde Dubbelink
Global Recruitment & Employer Branding Manager
"With Bowy reaching out immediately via WhatsApp, candidates experience a level of responsiveness and clarity that feels personal and genuine. There’s no more waiting or guessing — just a smooth, intuitive start to what we hope becomes a long relationship."
Daphne Koning-Olde Dubbelink
Global Recruitment & Employer Branding Manager
More client stories
