DHL Express hires a lot of logistics employees each year, a high-volume, fast-paced environment where early turnover and inconsistent screening made it difficult to maintain quality and efficiency. They needed a scalable, predictive, and candidate-friendly approach to quickly determine who would thrive in the role.
32%
Reduction in Early Turnover
88%
Assessment Completion Rate
4.2/5
Candidate Experience
58%
Interview-to-hire Rate
Thanks to Equalture, we now know exactly what soft skills make our logistics workers either successful or unsuccessful in their role. This reduced early attrition by 32%, while our candidates have a great first interaction with DHL Express.
Lonneke Schagen
Head of Talent Acquisition, DHL Express
Challenges
From CVs to Character
DHL Express hires more than 500 logistics employees each year, a high-volume, fast-paced environment where early turnover and inconsistent screening made it difficult to maintain quality and efficiency. They needed a scalable, predictive, and candidate-friendly approach to quickly determine who would thrive in the role
Challenges
Why the previous process failed
- CV-based screening provided little predictive value.
- Previous work experience often had limited relevance for logistics roles.
- Applications based on phone numbers only increased volume but reduced quality.
- Recruiters received many candidates but had little insight into motivation or fit.
- Traditional assessments created high drop-off.
- Candidates experienced them as long and text-heavy, resulting in low completion rates
Why did DHL choose Equalture
Engaging candidate experience
- Game-based experience: Traditional assessments often discourage blue-collar candidates. DHL believed that a game-based format would create a more engaging and accessible candidate experience while still measuring relevant behavioural and cognitive traits.
- Success DNA Engine™: DHL benchmarked competencies of their own top performers in logistics roles. How: by asking current top-performers in specific roles to complete Equalture’s game-based assessments first, to identify which competencies differentiate successful employees. This gives us a scientific, objective blueprint of the “DNA” of high performers for each role. Equalture created a role-specific success profile based on these shared traits. Candidates are assessed on how well they match these competencies, increasing prediction quality. This matching helps DHL identify candidates whose behavioural and cognitive traits align with those of their top performers, contributing to the 32% reduction in early turnover. The success profiles are further refined over time by feeding retention and performance metrics of new hires back into Equalture.
Steps
From Applicants to High-Quality Interviews
- Step 1: Candidates answer basic requirements via WhatsApp. (availability, location, must-haves) Conversational AI screens these responses automatically, reducing the candidate pool from 100% of applicants to around 65% qualified candidates.
- Step 2: Qualified candidates receive Equalture’s game-based assessment, which measures the behavioural and cognitive traits linked to success in DHL’s logistics roles.
- Step 3: Only 11% of applicants pass the assessment and schedule an interview.
- Step 4: Recruiters review candidates based on their fit score, focusing only on high-fit profiles.
- Step 5: Hiring managers conduct a single final interview to make the hiring decision.
- Result: 58% of candidates who reach the interview stage are hired.
Modern hiring experience successfully rolled out
32% reduction in first-month turnover
How: By selecting candidates who score highly on Equalture’s fit scores, which compare a candidate’s cognitive and behavioural traits to the competencies shared by DHL’s top performers.
Substantial efficiency gains
How: By automating the initial screening and assessment steps, DHL ensures recruiters focus only on candidates with a high predicted fit.
4.2/5 candidate experience rating & 88% assessment completion rate
How: By offering a game-based assessment format, which is much more engaging and low-barrier compared to traditional, text-heavy, or long-form assessments.
