Kempinski Hotels, a symbol of luxury in the hospitality space for over 120 years, is no stranger to these challenges. With a network of over 80 hotels across 35 countries, Kempinski has built a brand around creating memorable customer experiences. They decided it was time to roll out the same red carpet for their candidates, which meant switching from using their HRIS to a dedicated applicant tracking system (ATS).
Samy Hamza, Kempinski’s HRIS Technical Lead, and Global HRIS Coordinator Daniel Dos Santos had faced some challenges while using a large HRIS as an ATS. Despite their HRIS having a lot of bells and whistles, the system was not always user-friendly, causing some employees to work outside of it, while the configuration was intensely time-consuming for the corporate team.
Kempinski’s recruitment process suffered due to manual workarounds and unsustainable workflows. This resulted in inconsistent employer brand, unexceptional user experience for both hiring managers and candidates and low application rates.
That’s when they decided on Pinpoint, the ATS that could fast-track their hiring processes and improve candidate communication, job postings, and cost efficiency.
Key info
- Locations: Over 80 hotels across 35 countries
- Industry: Luxury hospitality
- Headcount: 10,000+
- Size of talent team: 2
The challenge
By the time they landed on Pinpoint, Samy and Daniel had just one month to launch a new global ATS. In adding a dedicated ATS to their tech stack, they hoped to enhance candidate communication (both internal and external), gain better insight into critical metrics, attract more applicants, and keep costs under control.
The old system had placed more than a few barriers in their way:
- Decentralized data: Samy and Daniel were looking for improvements across three key metrics: time to hire, number of applicants, and the number of global opportunities. Without a centralized platform to measure each KPI across locations, they lacked precise insight into what could be improved. A global push to promote internal mobility made the need for centralized data even more pressing.
- Long time to hire: Hiring timelines were the team’s biggest challenge. Disparate property-specific teams across regions and borders made structure difficult, and manual workarounds outside their old system slowed things down even further.
- Inconsistent employer brand: Every Kempinski property is unique intentionally—but without centralization or control, the talent team struggled to create a unified brand experience.
- Poor candidate experience: Kempinski is dedicated to providing bespoke guest experiences, and they longed to create a similarly high-quality experience for their candidates. Without an ATS, the team struggled to keep track of the high volume of candidates, respond quickly, and provide feedback.
- Lack of support: Kempinski’s large HRIS provider lacked a responsive, hands-on team to help them adapt the system to their specific needs.
The net result was low hiring manager engagement, fewer applicants, and excessive manual admin for the central HR team. Time to hire suffered alongside the candidate experience—hence the urgency to roll out a new tool in just 30 days.
How Kempinski gave their recruitment a five-star upgrade with Pinpoint
1. Centralized location for all hiring info
With Pinpoint, Kempinski was finally able to bring all hiring into a single platform across all of their locations.
Templates and user permissions have ensured consistency and control while preserving each property’s freedom to adapt content into their own language. Property-specific teams now have better insight into what’s happening at their location, while regional and corporate HR teams have a full view of every location they oversee.
Hiring managers have been especially excited about Pinpoint’s Talent Pool and Referral features, which give them more control over their hiring than ever before. Internal candidates now enjoy a user-friendly portal to view and apply for vacancies, and global HR has eyes on Kempinski’s internal mobility metrics worldwide, fulfilling one of the company’s core objectives.
2. User-friendly hiring manager experience
Kempinski’s hiring managers found it convenient to have a centralized system using Pinpoint’s intuitive interface. This made it easier for them to access the information they need quickly and efficiently.
Their favorite feature? Automated interview scheduling, which auto-syncs their calendars and lets candidates self-select an interview time that works for them, eliminating the manual back-and-forth.
Our hiring managers were really excited to have something central and very easy to use that covers all their needs.
3. Intuitive and easy-to-build reports
With all of Kempinski’s global recruitment data flowing into one place, the team now benefits from unparalleled visibility into location-specific and regional performance, time to hire, and overall candidate experience. “Pinpoint’s reporting is ready to go out of the box,” said Daniel. “We’re very happy that it’s so easy to use.”
Information is intuitive and easy to find, which makes progress-tracking a breeze. Hiring managers are currently being trained in how to use this data, an opportunity that was not available with the old system.
4. Responsive customer support
Pinpoint’s reactive and flexible customer support helped Kempinski launch a new ATS to their global team in just three weeks. With less than a month to get it all done, Samy and Daniel focused on launching critical functionality first, such as posting vacancies, collecting applications, scheduling interviews, and gathering feedback.
Their Pinpoint customer support rep, Alex, provided them with a roadmap to help them stay on track while providing support every step of the way. In addition to supporting the configuration process on the back end, she delivered webinar trainings for various teams.
I like structure, and the implementation was really structured. During implementation, when you don’t know a completely new system yet, that’s a really good experience.
5. Adaptable career sites and templates
Pinpoint’s adaptable career site widget and templates allow each property to showcase their unique identity while maintaining the high global standards of their luxury brand. Each location now has its own careers site with global branding elements, making it easier to share vacancies and attract the right talent while creating a personalized experience.
We needed to do everything very fast, but it was important for us to let each hotel use their own identity and logo.
The result
Kempinski’s transition to a new Applicant Tracking System (ATS) marked a significant step forward in refining their recruitment process. Moving from a complex system to a more efficient and user-friendly platform was accomplished in just 30 days.
Since going live with Pinpoint in December 2023, Kempinski has increased their average number of applications per day across their global portfolio. Hiring managers now work within their ATS instead of around it—a big win for Samy and Daniel.
- 500+ jobs posted
- 750 applications per day
- 30,000+ applications
- Launched in less than 30 days
- 1,000+ active users a month
Changing to the Pinpoint platform has facilitated a smoother workflow for our hiring managers, allowing them to fully utilize the ATS
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