Background

With over 1,100 locations across the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico, Lids Inc. is a leading North American sports retailer specializing in headwear and fan gear.

Challenge

To support new store openings and combat high rates of industry turnover, Lids typically needs to fill between 7,000 and 10,000 roles a year. On top of that, they must frequently adjust their staff to accommodate busier retail seasons and new brand partnership opportunities.

However, without a unified job posting strategy, store managers struggled to meet demanding hiring goals. In fact, Carlie Mueller, Manager of Talent and Development at Lids says, “Our managers were trying to find candidates by doing what they thought worked best in their region. They’d advertise jobs on random sites and the results were not great. We really needed one effective way to get our jobs in front of lots of people.”

Solution

Lids partnered with ZipRecruiter to increase applicant traffic and establish a company-wide approach for candidate sourcing and job posting. ZipRecruiter’s powerful AI matched them with thousands of qualified candidates they were previously missing out on. Lids also used ZipRecruiter’s Resume Database to proactively reach out to passive candidates during busier nationwide hiring events and store openings—instead of waiting for them to apply.

Results

Lids saw a 15% increase in apply rates across all retail roles and a significant improvement in candidate quality. They eliminated other tools that were not delivering and now rely on ZipRecruiter as their primary recruitment source to support company growth.