Transforming talent attraction: Lessons from Molson Coors and Primark UK

As any business will know, attracting top talent remains a significant challenge. To stand out, businesses must rethink traditional approaches, broadening their appeal to diverse candidates while fostering an environment that prioritises retention. In today’s dynamic market, adapting your strategies is not optional—it’s essential for staying ahead.

Top Employers Institute data shows that nearly three-quarters (72%) of certified UK Top Employers are currently evolving their talent acquisition processes. The question, of course, is: “How?” For the answer, it is worth looking at how certified Top Employers such as Molson Coors and Primark are going about the task.

Molson Coors Beverage Company: Skills-based hiring… No CV? No problem.

Molson Coors has used a hiring for potential programme, focused on recruiting for skills and behaviours, rather than traditional methods, to transform their organisation. This has resulted in a broader and different type of applicant pool and workforce.

In collaboration with its partners, the organisation developed pilot programmes for skills-based assessments. The success of this saw Molson Coors remove ‘experience’ as a requirement for certain roles, in favour of strengths, skills and the potential of new talent. Post-pilot, the organisation then identified specific roles that could benefit from this approach, such as additional sales positions, technical representatives, mobile technicians and supply chain roles within their breweries.

Molson Coors has seen a large increase in the number of candidates, plus they have sustained high retention rates for new hires. Gender representation and the match of applicants has also significantly improved, and the business has since fine-tuned the assessment to be more effective in identifying candidates who could fit their business needs.

Primark: A team to focus on removing barriers.

Primark UK created a ‘Removing Barriers’ team, dedicated to supporting those candidates who require reasonable adjustments before and during their application and interview stages, and to handle ‘Access to Work’ requests. Primark UK realised they needed to have a dedicated team to offer specific expertise and to review the store recruitment process from an unbiased, impartial perspective.

The team helps in all aspects of the application and interviewing process in the following ways:

• Pre-application: The team offers support through guidance, prepping and liaising with a designated support worker or one of the charities they work with.
• During application: This includes phone or technical support or additional time for assessments, according to individual needs.
• Interview stage: The team may contact the interviewing store to arrange support and provide coaching and guidance to the interviewer where needed.

This support system was established in 2018, and since then, Primark UK has supported over 500 candidates. Ensuring equity in candidate consideration and hiring decisions is important as one means to remain truly inclusive of underrepresented talent. Through this example, Primark UK offers some practical advice on how to systematically remove barriers in the application, interviewing and hiring process.

Driving inclusivity through smarter hiring practices

Both organisations – along with other certified Top Employers – are committed to being more inclusive in their recruitment processes, placing a particular emphasis on providing more opportunities to underrepresented groups, offering new approaches and more assistance throughout each stage of the hiring process.

To improve the quality and number of applicants, all organisations must have a clear diversity, equity and inclusion strategy in hiring practices. And by taking away unconscious bias, prioritising skills and offering more support to underrepresented groups, applicants can have renewed confidence when applying for roles.

Top Employers Institute inspires and enables organisations around the world to become Top Employers using its Certification and data-led insights as the trusted foundation. Is your organisation ready to become a Top Employer?

Q&A with ABB UK

In our latest Q&A with the team from ABB UK, we explore what makes ABB a Top Employer, its biggest people challenges, key HR initiatives, and what’s next.

Tell us about your organisation

ABB is a global technology leader in electrification and automation, enabling a more sustainable and resource-efficient future. By connecting its engineering and digitalization expertise, ABB helps industries run at high performance, while becoming more efficient, productive and sustainable so they outperform. At ABB, we call this ‘Engineered to Outrun’. The company has over 140 years of history and more than 105,000 employees worldwide.

Part of the ABB Group, ABB in the UK is headquartered in Warrington, Cheshire and employs 1750 people operating from 22 locations nationwide. We supply around £0.5bn of innovative solutions, products and services annually in the UK to clients in a wide range of market sectors.

What makes ABB UK a Top Employer?

ABB is dedicated to investing in its people with a global people strategy that focuses on three key components of ‘Empower’: our “high performance – high integrity” culture is grounded in empowerment and engagement, ‘Grow’: we innovate in a changing world to solve the challenges of today and tomorrow, taking responsibility to learn, connect and grow, and ‘Impact’: we impact a more sustainable, equitable and inclusive workplace and society.

ABB is a company that continually strives to improve for its people and its customers, challenging the status quo and exploring new ways to innovate. We are proud of the various people innovations and best practices launched at ABB such as our global DEI strategy, open job market, and our upcoming global transformation project, which will bring numerous efficiencies to our HR team, our managers, and our employees around the world.

What is the biggest people challenge your business currently faces? And what are you doing to meet this challenge?

ABB is no different to many other engineering organisations when it comes to increasing the number of females in engineering as well as skill gaps. As part of our overall People Strategy we are striving to become a more equitable and inclusive workplace.

In ABB UK we are proud to be partnering with educational establishments, including, primary schools, secondary schools and universities to inspire the talent of the future. These partnerships enable our employees to speak passionately about the opportunities available in the world of engineering, something which is available to all, either joining the organisation straight from school or as an apprentice or a graduate.

Tell us about a recent HR initiative you have instigated within your organisation that you are most proud of?

The UK HR team is set to launch a volunteering policy as part of our overall corporate social responsibility strategy. ABB already partner closely with Macmillan Cancer Support, which provides different opportunities to volunteer and raise both awareness. Our new volunteering policy will enable the business to expand on this and apply formal recognition and structure to our employees for their volunteering passions. The HR Team recently partnered with a local disability charity close to our UK Head Office. A team of six volunteers supported a local initiative ran by the charity aimed to positively impact young people with disabilities and their families over the festive period. We look forward to continuing this partnership and future partnerships and beyond.

How is AI affecting your business? Is it helping or challenging you in terms of your people practices?

ABB has already started using Generative AI, to the advantage of customers as well as internal applications. For example: Intuitive user interaction with ABB Ability™ Genix Industrial Analytics and AI Suite. AI@ABB’s aim is to accelerate the development, deployment and use of AI – both analytical and generative – across ABB divisions and functions to drive innovation for our customers, enhance internal efficiency and further strengthen our technology market leadership.

Which wellbeing offerings in your business are proving the most popular with employees?

ABB are proud to have an established wellbeing offering globally and locally. Influenced by our Wellbeing Board within the UK we offer a range of support mechanisms from our qualified wellbeing first aiders, local awareness campaigns and initiatives, and our Employee Assistance Programme providers are also on hand 24/7. Offering our employees a multidisciplinary approach enables individuals to select the best approach for them. Sine the impact of COVID, we have focused our initiatives on bringing people together to build connections and create networking opportunities without our various locations.

What’s next? Tell us about a new initiative that you’re most excited about?

ABB is embarking on the implementation of a new people management platform, which will provide employees and line managers with access to data and processes at the touch of their fingertips. The new platform will create a more engaging workforce, which in turn will amplify many organisational efficiencies.

Puma’s secret to their people-first culture and sustainable HR practices

Puma has achieved a remarkable milestone in 2025. They are Certified as a Top Employer on a Global and Enterprise level while also reaching the phenomenal achievement of being Certified in all 50 countries where they operate. This accomplishment underscores Puma’s unwavering commitment to fostering a people-first culture and sustainable HR practices. David Plink, CEO at Top Employers Institute, sat down with Dietmar Knoess, CHRO at Puma, to uncover Puma’s secret to their people-first culture and sustainable people practices.

How does Puma respond to the challenges of the future

The future is not something that HR teams can predict anymore. As Dietmar explained to David in their conversation, “We need to live with the new fact that we can’t predict the future anymore. We can hardly affect the next twelve months. That means that you need to be on your toes.” This sentiment shows how critical it is for Puma, an organisation that prioritises its people-first culture, to be proactive in facing the challenges of a changing business landscape. He continued, “You need to make quick decisions and communicate it to your organisation quickly.” That is the role that HR plays at Puma.

While Puma always felt that they had an exceptional HR team able to react to the challenges of the market, they wanted an unbiased assessment of their practices. That is where the Top Employers Certification helped Puma. It offers Puma validation of their people practices. It gives them access to benchmarking and analytics to improve their practices yearly, enabling them to stay competitive in the talent market.

This global recognition as a Top Employer celebrates Puma’s achievements and reinforces its commitment to continuous improvement and employee satisfaction. By fostering a culture that values and supports its employees, Puma sets a benchmark for excellence in the industry, allowing them to execute their goal of being Forever.Faster.

For more insights into Puma’s journey as a Top Employer, you can watch the entire conversation between Dietmar and David. You will be able to get a look into:

• How Puma attracts, retains and engages top talent in a competitive talent market.
• The biggest challenges shaping the future of work and how HR teams can respond to these challenges.
• And what it means to lead the market with sustainable HR practices and policies.

How Postbank is accelerating its talent strategy with AI-powered innovation

Integrating Artificial Intelligence (AI) into HR practices can be daunting for many organisations, especially those with advanced practices and policies. The promise of enhanced efficiency, personalisation, and innovation often clashes with practical hurdles like adapting legacy systems, ensuring user adoption, and maintaining a human touch in recruitment.

Certified Top Employer Postbank has embraced this challenge and turned it into an opportunity to lead by example. By leveraging cutting-edge AI technologies like the AI Story Builder, AI CV Assistant, and AI Interview Trainer, Postbank has redefined its approach to recruitment and talent development. These tools have transformed their gamified career website into a hub of personalised and dynamic candidate experiences, setting a new standard in the industry.

This is just a snapshot of Postbank’s innovative best practice; you can find the entire practice in our HR Best Practices database, which is exclusively available to Top Employers. Get inspiration and insight into the approach, challenges, and learnings from leading organisations. As a Top Employer, you can now access the complete best practice via thePortal. If you are not yet Certified, learn more about it here!

Reimagining Recruitment with Generative AI

Postbank’s AI Story Builder, AI CV Assistant, and AI Interview Trainer all use generative AI, like ChatGPT, to power these three AI features on its career site. These tools align seamlessly with the bank’s HR strategy, which prioritises gamification and personalisation. By openly embracing these priorities and using new technologies, Postbank is committed to candidate care and innovation in improving the workplace environment.

Why Postbank see AI as the future

Postbank’s strategic decision to implement AI began from a need to tackle the common challenges of recruiting younger talent. The banking industry has been known to struggle with recruiting young people because of its perception of being overly conservative. Postbank, one of Bulgaria’s leading banks, wanted to counteract this view proactively and for their organisation, AI tools provided a fresh perspective by:

• Supporting candidates in highlighting their unique strengths, even when they lack traditional experience.
• Shifting the focus from past roles to key skills essential for career success.
• Encouraging flexible thinking and skills development in applicants.

Yordanka Kostova Postbank`s Director Talent Management & Employer Branding, further explained that some of the reasons they chose to implement AI in their recruitment were inspired by “[several previous] who, despite initially lacking the conventional education or experience for a given role, have demonstrated skills and qualities that have led to their success. These stories have inspired us to embrace innovation and align with the growing trend that skills are the new currency. As part of this, we are introducing AI-driven tools designed to assess and develop candidates’ specific skills, helping unlock their full potential.” 

Innovative AI-Powered Features

In the first quarter of 2024, Postbank unveiled its new AI tools as part of a broader strategy to attract interns and young professionals during its annual Internship Programme. Here’s more on each feature:

1. AI Story Builder:

• Empowers candidates to share personal stories that highlight their strengths.
• Offers personalised feedback and analysis, allowing candidates to create a skill-based profile beyond the traditional CV.

2. AI CV Assistant

• Guides candidates in crafting more effective and tailored CVs.
• Provides technical and personalised feedback to improve chances of success in job applications.
• Enhances the overall candidate experience by helping applicants understand how to present their skills more effectively.

• Simulates realistic interview scenarios to help candidates prepare.
• Offers tailored suggestions for improvement and boosts confidence.

You can also discover more about Postbank’s AI tools on their careers page!

Gamification Meets Personalisation

Postbank has also harnessed AI, Virtual Reality (VR), and Augmented Reality (AR) to create engaging and interactive experiences for candidates and new employees. These include:

• Career Quiz Game: An intergalactic journey on their career site to help users find the best roles for them.
• VR Recruitment Experience: A hybrid quiz and tennis gameplay inspired by their brand ambassador, tennis star Grigor Dimitrov.
• VR & AR Onboarding – gamified experience with different modules of interactivelearning content
• Viber Chatbot: Bulgaria’s first career chatbot on Viber for talent attraction, integrated into Postbank’s recruitment platform.

Results of Postbank’s AI strategy

Postbank’s efforts in their AI strategy have not gone unnoticed. They earned gold at the Employer Brand Stars Awards 2024 for “Use of Digital” and “Candidate Experience” and at the Employer of Choice Awards 2024 for “Innovation in Selection.

Martin Stanoev, an intern at Postbank, shared his opinion of the organisation’s decision to implement AI features on its website. He shared that “the AI assistants on Postbank’s website are highly effective tools for job applicants. They operate intuitively, assisting prospective employees in preparing their applications. My preferred tool is a story builder; I can possiblyuse it in other areas as well. The AI Interview Assistant is also invaluable, as it helps me anticipate various scenarios during an interview.”

Additionally, as part of Postbank’s Summer Internship Programme, they hosted a series of webinars on “AI Tools for Career Development”. They found that the data reflected a positive reception of their AI tools. Some of the feedback they received included:

• 85% of participants rated their experience with the AI assistants as “excellent” or “very good.”
• 90% indicated they would use the AI assistants again.
• 95% said they would recommend the AI tools to others.

Postbank’s use of AI is an excellent example of crafting a recruitment experience that is personalised, innovative, and aligned with the expectations of a tech-savvy workforce. Postbank is building a more inclusive and forward-thinking recruitment process by focusing on skills and potential rather than traditional criteria. Postbank’s AI initiatives showcase how technology can bridge the gap between employer needs and candidate aspirations, ensuring a brighter future for both.

It is exciting to know that they aren’t stopping there. Silviya S. Todorova, Postbank’s Employer Branding Project Manager shared, “We are definitely exploring new opportunities to enhance the project further, with a focus on integrating advanced technologies such as AI, AR, and VR. By combining these innovations, we aim to create even more immersive and impactful tools that will drive our AI efforts forward and strengthen our position as an attractive employer for young talent. These technologies offer exciting potential for transforming talent development and employee engagement in ways that resonate with the next generation of professionals.”

Postbank’s top recommendations

As we close our look at Postbank’s innovative best practice we want to leave you with some inspirational tips for organisations and HR teams looking to follow in their footsteps.

When we asked Postbank to reflect on their journey and anything they would’ve done differently, Silviya shared, “If we could go back in time, one thing we would focus on earlier is aligning our AI initiative more closely with user feedback from the start. While we did gather insights throughout the process, involving end-users – students, interns, and young professionals – right from the idea stage would have helped us tailor the tools more precisely to their needs. One of our biggest hurdles was ensuring that the AI assistants were intuitive and accessible for a diverse group of users with varying levels of tech-savviness. Another challenge was gaining buy-in from stakeholders, which required demonstrating the tangible benefits of AI in talent development and career progression.”

Yordanka Kostova, Director of Talent Management & Employer Branding at Postbank, shared, “Our advice is to create a successful synergy between people and technology. It’s essential to integrate the HR mission into every aspect of the organisation—this is the foundation for success. Every employee has the potential to be an ambassador for your company, and technology offers tremendous opportunities to support and amplify this. Embracing this approach can drive both innovation and engagement across the board.”

Remember that this article does not provide a complete look at Postbank’s inventive practice. You can find the entire best practice exclusively on the Top Employers Portal. If you aren’t a Top Employer yet, learn more about how you can access your one-stop online source of practical and proven HR Best Practices as implemented by Certified Top Employers across the globe. Build a better world of work with us as the #1 global authority on HR strategies and deliver excellent people practices with proven business impact as you attract, engage and retain top talent.

The journey to become an employer of choice with the Zahid Group

“Employer branding is just the end result. It’s all about the culture and people being proud of working here. [Becoming a] Top Employer is a way to express this.” – Amr W. Zawawi, Zahid Group Director – HRD.

Zahid Group, a Certified Top Employer, wanted its employees to seamlessly connect their Top Employers Certification status to the company’s unique culture. While most organisations’ websites start by introducing their products, Zahid Group has a different approach. They introduce themselves first by talking about their employees. You will see on their website that the first sentence sets their people-first culture: “Zahid Group is a Certified Top Employer”.

The group’s long-standing commitment to employee wellbeing and development initially led it to obtain the Top Employers Certification in Saudi Arabia. It was an “easy decision” for them as it aligned with their shared values and strategies.

When they became Top Employers, they had three goals:

1. Measure their HR practices in a structured way to improve and progress.
2. Make sure practices are the same in all countries due to geographical expansion.
3. Benchmark against best in class, globally.

Download the value story for free and discover their complete story to learn how:

• The Top Employers Certification process has contributed to Zahid Group’s internal efficiencies, and their KPIs for the average time to fill a position has decreased by 24%.
• How the international standardisation of Zahid’s HR practices has contributed to their organisational structure and governance score of 92% and maximised their regional reach to 100%.
• The overall business impact of the Top Employers Certification to Zahid Group’s employees.

Meet the 2025 Top Employers: See what excellence looks like in 2025 

The world of work is ever-changing, but one constant remains, exceptional organisations lead with their people. We are thrilled to unveil the 2025 Top Employers and introduce you to the organisations setting the standard for excellent HR practices in 2025. 

We are proud to announce that over 2,400 Top Employers have been Certified in 2025 across 125 countries and regions with over 13 million lives impacted. This recognition underscores these organisations’ commitment to fostering outstanding HR strategies and people practices globally.  

As the global authority in recognising excellence in people practices, Top Employers Programme certifies organisations based on the results of their HR Best Practices Survey. This survey covers six HR domains and 20 topics, including People Strategy, Work Environment, Talent Acquisition, Learning, Diversity and Inclusion, Wellbeing, and more.     

The journey to become a Top Employer is no small feat. It requires a steadfast commitment to continuous improvement and a holistic approach to HR practices. The Certification Programme requires organisations to undergo a rigorous process that ensures that the most exceptional organisations’ commitment to excellence is reflected in their achievement of attaining their Top Employers Certification. 

As we celebrate our 2025 Top Employers, David Plink our CEO has some words that expand on what this year’s Certified organisations embody: “Consistency in a not-so-consistent world? In a time of constant change—where technological, economic, and social shifts are ever-present—exceptional times bring out the best in people and organisations. This year’s Top Employers have showcased this strength, by demonstrating outstanding dedication to their employees. We are proud to celebrate these companies and their achievements in 2025.”   

There are several approaches and recognition options available to potential Top Employers to ensure there’s a path to Certification for organisations of different structures, sizes, and geographic footprints. Those different paths are distinguished by different globally recognised Certification Seals that Top Employers can receive. The different Certification Seals include the Country/region Seal, Regional Seal, Global Seal and Enterprise Seal. 

Global Top Employers are organisations that participate in a minimum number of countries (20 to 25 depending on several regional certifications) and regions (certified in three or four regions) including the global headquarters. Becoming a Global Top Employer signifies an organisation’s commitment to globally aligned excellent people practices. 

These are the organisations that are globally Certified as leaders in HR for their outstanding HR strategies and people practices:  

This is your chance to meet the organisations setting the new benchmark for 2025. 

Discover all the 2025 Top Employers now. 

Could your organisation be next? 

Discover the Top Employers Certification Programme and explore how we can enable your organisation with our data-led insights to stand out as an employer of choice. 

Ready to start your Top Employers journey? Learn more about the benefits of becoming a Top Employer. Contact us now.