What does it take to hire effectively in a fast-moving, high-volume environment?
For established organisations like WHSmith, the answer goes beyond experience and interviews alone.
While the brand continues to evolve, one thing remains constant: great customer experiences start with great people. As WHSmith expands its global travel retail business, the need to attract, assess and retain the right talent has become even more critical. In a fast-paced, high-volume environment, traditional hiring methods can only go so far. This is a challenge many organisations face as roles become more complex and fast-paced.
That’s why WHSmith integrated The Predictive Index (PI) to bring greater objectivity, insight and consistency into its recruitment approach, combining data-driven decision-making with a strong people-first ethos.
Roles within WHSmith’s Commercial Travel division demand a unique blend of agility, resilience and commercial awareness.
Employees need to think quickly, adapt to constant change and manage multiple priorities – often all at once. While experience and interviews provide useful indicators, they don’t always reveal how someone is likely to perform in this kind of environment day to day.
WHSmith recognised the need for a more structured and science-based approach to hiring, one that could better define what drives success within WHSmith’s unique culture, reduce bias and improve fit across roles.
By integrating The Predictive Index into its hiring process, WHSmith introduced a new layer of insight into how candidates think, behave and perform.
PI assesses both behavioural drives and cognitive ability, helping hiring managers understand how candidates naturally approach their work. This is increasingly important, as organisations move beyond CVs to predict how individuals are likely to perform in real-world conditions.
This allowed WHSmith to:
Importantly, PI didn’t replace existing recruitment methods, it enhanced them. Interviews and experience still play a key role, but are now supported by deeper, data-led insights.
One of the most impactful changes came through job profiling. Using PI data, WHSmith rewrote job adverts to better reflect the behavioural requirements of each role. This resulted in a stronger, more relevant candidate pool and a more efficient shortlisting process. How a role is defined and communicated early on often has a significant impact on candidate quality and long-term fit.
PI has also been used to support senior-level and project-based recruitment, adding consistency and rigour to critical hiring decisions.
Since implementing The Predictive Index in early 2024, WHSmith has seen tangible benefits across its recruitment and talent strategy:
These outcomes highlight the powerful impact of incorporating behavioural science into a clear people strategy. For many organisations, this is the missing link between hiring decisions and long-term performance.
WHSmith’s approach to recruitment is closely aligned with its wider people philosophy: For Every Career Journey.
This commitment is reflected in initiatives such as WHShine, the company’s talent development programme, and the Journey 4 Success (J4S) framework. From apprenticeships and digital learning to international career opportunities across Europe, North America and Australia, WHSmith provides clear pathways for growth within a diverse and inclusive culture.
The Predictive Index plays a key role in this by helping to ensure that individuals are placed into roles where they can genuinely thrive long term.
As one WHSmith team member explains:
“PI has changed the way we think about recruitment. We don’t just want to fill roles, we want to find the right people who will grow, lead and stay. The data helps us make confident decisions, faster.”
Encouraged by the success of implementing PI across its existing operations, WHSmith is now rolling out the approach into its North American business, with further international expansion under consideration.
This next phase reflects a broader ambition: to create a consistent, scalable and people-centred approach to recruitment across the organisation.
For WHSmith, innovation goes beyond products and locations, it’s about how the business supports its people. By combining behavioural insight with a strong commitment to employee development, WHSmith is redefining recruitment as a more thoughtful, intentional, data-driven, but still fundamentally human process.
Because when you place the right people in the right roles, you build stronger teams, unlock better performance and create more meaningful career journeys.
Curious how this could work for your business?
Explore our services at RPX2 Ltd and see how we support organisations to hire smarter and build high-performing teams. Get in touch today for an informal chat and more information. We’d be very happy to help.