Bennet is one of the leading grocery retailers in Northern Italy, with 49 hypermarkets and 53 shopping centres, more than 100 locations managed on two fronts by the same HR function. Sales assistants, butchers, bakers, apprentices, trainee store managers: in a chain this size, which made more than 1.000 hires in 2025, recruiting never has an off-season.
Today Bennet runs all its recruitment with StepsConnect. This is the story of how a small team manages an enterprise-scale volume, with a single entry point for candidates and one workflow for all locations.
VOICES OF BENNET
"Simple yet comprehensive: we were self-sufficient from day one."
"We're growing together: we were among StepsConnect's first ATS customers."
BEFORE STEPSCONNECT
From a CMS to a single software for all recruitment
Bennet was one of the first companies in Italian grocery retail to adopt an ATS. Before the platform, recruitment ran through a database-driven CMS, adapted to the needs of the moment and shared among users. Choosing an ATS met 2 clear goals: bringing everything into a single software and performing better at screening, working by search rather than candidate by candidate.
WHY STEPSCONNECT
Simple yet comprehensive,customizable, fast
These are the words the Bennet team uses to describe the choice: an intuitive platform that's quick to get to grips with and can be used independently from day one; customizable to the organization's needs; portable, because you can work from anywhere with the same responsiveness. And a platform that keeps evolving: every release adds new features or improves existing ones, and customers are involved in the learning, with the StepsConnect team guiding every new feature.
Simple
Customizable
Fast
ATTRACTION
The career site as the top source of talent
The most surprising figure: 90% of applications come from Bennet's "Work with us" page, while the ATS partner channels account for 5%. It's no accident. For Bennet the website is the consumer's home, and the stated goal is to turn customers into colleagues: someone who has had a good experience as a customer brings something extra as a candidate, and the chances of a successful hire go up. That's why "Work with us" sits on the home page, with featured positions, as the first point of contact for the customer-candidate: it's the second most visited page on the site. StepsConnect gives this flow its infrastructure: every ad published from the ATS appears on the career site and collects applications in the same recruitment path.
ORGANIZATION
One flow,no application forgotten
14,000 applications in a single pipeline, with a status assigned to 94% of profiles. In a sector where applications "vanishing into thin air" are the norm, Bennet knows at any moment where each candidate stands. Even applications that arrive outside the platform, by email, through customer service or via referrals and internal word of mouth, 700 over the period, are uploaded manually and follow the same path: Bennet listens to everyone. Replying quickly isn't just efficiency: it's the impression of the brand that the candidate, often already a customer, takes home.
94%
700+
13 a month
TALENT POOL
A talent poolthat works for the future
24% of applications are unsolicited: people who put themselves forward to Bennet without waiting for a specific position, from Cashiers to Trainee store managers. On top of these there are 950 candidates marked "to call back" and a database of 17.000 profiles. When a department or a new store opens, Bennet doesn't start from scratch.
24%
950+
> 17,000
TEAM ORGANIZATION
Central screening in the morning,then the field network
Recruitment at Bennet rests on 3 words: reach, timeliness, analysis. Screening is corporate and centralized: every morning the HR team at head office, 5 accounts, works through the applications received and shares them with the 15 field recruiters, who follow the candidates in their own area with dedicated queues and statistics. 144 job description templates make sure that an ad for Lavena Ponte Tresa and one for Pieve Fissiraga speak the same language. The market moves fast: screening that isn't timely puts the company out of step with the market, and data analysis, read every day, keeps the method aligned. One tool, one team sharing the same data.
5
15
144
A TRUE STORY
A search closed from a park bench
Portability isn't a detail. Alberto tells of a search followed and closed entirely from his phone, sitting on a park bench: applications, assessment, decision, with the candidate's full file at hand. For anyone bringing an ATS into their organization, this is the point: optimized processes and more attention to profiles, wherever you are.
THE RESULTS
What changed for Bennet
14.000
Applications in a single flow. From the career site, job boards, email and referrals, all on the same recruitment path.
90%
Applications from the career site. The brand attracts, the platform collects and organizes; partner channels account for 5%.
94%
Applications with a status assigned. No profile left in limbo.
+1.000
Hires in 2025 through the ATS, with data readable by recruiter and by location.
> 17.000
Profiles in the database and more than 950 candidates to call back: a talent pool ready for upcoming openings.
ADVICE FROM EUSTACHIO TARQUINIO
To other HR teams in large-scale retail
Look for the balance between the operational side, the technical side and the assessment side, without losing touch with the market: managing relationships remains the heart of this job.
Sector
Large-scale retail
Stores
49 hypermarkets + 53 shopping centres
Location
Northen Italy
HR team
5 HR accounts + 15 field
recruiters
Modules
MOST SOUGHT-AFTER ROLES
Sales assistant
Qualified butchers
Trainee store managers
Sales assistant apprentices
Bakery apprentices
