Rituals builds a modern talent acquisition engine with Strada and Workday

An interview with Anne Albracht, Global Director of Talent Acquisition & Employer Branding, Rituals by Diego Serna Neira 

Rituals has grown rapidly in recent years, expanding to more than 1,400 stores across 36 countries and strengthening its position as a global wellbeing brand. With this expansion came a new level of pressure on its talent acquisition function. The systems and processes that supported Rituals in the past were no longer enough to keep pace with the demands of a fast‑scaling retail business. To deliver the hiring experience the brand is known for, Rituals needed a unified and consistent approach to recruitment, built on Workday Talent Acquisition and supported by modern tools that could reflect its brand values and provide a seamless experience for candidates and hiring managers. 

Why Rituals needed a new approach to talent acquisition

Rituals was experiencing significant hiring volume and market expansion, yet its recruiting processes were fragmented across systems and countries. Candidate feedback often took too long and time to hire could stretch as high as 65 days, which was especially challenging for a consumer brand that prides itself on service, speed and experience.  

Hiring managers, many of whom were store managers, were spending as much as 14% percent of their time on recruitment activities. The process had become inefficient for teams on the shop floor and created an inconsistent experience for candidates across regions. 

Watch the Rituals full story with Anne Albracht

Rituals also wanted to move away from traditional CV driven hiring and toward a more skills based, capability led approach. The talent acquisition team recognised that their tools and processes needed to evolve to support the organisation’s growth and maintain the Rituals brand promise across every touchpoint. 

“Change was needed to support growth and to ensure every candidate, no matter the country, received a consistent and meaningful experience.”

Anne Albracht Global Director of Talent Acquisition & Employer Branding Rituals

How Rituals built the foundation for change with Strada, Paradox and Workday

Rituals partnered with Strada to redesign the entire recruitment journey using Workday Recruiting as the core platform. This shift was not only about replacing a system, it was about rethinking the process from end to end and ensuring that every component reflected Rituals’ brand, values and ambitions. 

The transformation relied on a tightly connected ecosystem where Workday, Paradox and Strada each played a different but essential role. Workday Recruiting provided the backbone of the new hiring process. Paradox delivered automated candidate engagement and communication accelerated with AI. Strada guided the overall redesign, implementation and alignment to meet Rituals’ global people strategy. Together, these elements created a single streamlined workflow that hiring teams could rely on in every market.  

Rituals established global processes with minimal localisation so that candidates would experience a unified and consistent journey across regions while still meeting the regulatory and operational needs of individual markets. This balance of global consistency and local adaptation created a strong foundation for long term scalability. With Strada guiding the implementation, Rituals used this moment to redesign hiring making it faster, fairer, and more effective. 

“The strength of this project came from the balance between Workday, Paradox and Strada. Each partner played a different role but together they created one connected journey that we can rely on in every market. That combination made this transformation possible.”

Anne Albracht Global Director of Talent Acquisition & Employer Branding Rituals

Creating a connected and candidate friendly recruitment experience 

Rituals wanted to redesign the hiring process so that every applicant, wherever they applied, experienced consistency and fairness. A holistic recruiting workflow brought together four essential elements. Workday Recruiting, automation and experience tools, integrated assessments and a structured hiring process that could be completed within ten days. Each element reinforced the other. Removing even one piece would weaken the overall experience. 

Candidate experience was a central priority. With modern game-based, automated communication, and simplified workflows, candidates could move through the process more easily, receive timely feedback, and avoid unnecessary disappointment. Roles were automatically closed once three high-fit candidates were identified, ensuring transparency and fairness, while hiring managers could focus on meaningful interactions rather than repetitive administrative tasks. 

Supporting hiring managers and returning time to the shop floor 

A critical goal for Rituals was giving time back to store managers so they could focus on leading their teams and serving customers. Before the transformation, managers were spending significant time manually reviewing applications and coordinating hiring tasks. With the new Workday powered process, hiring managers immediately received between three and three and a half hours back per hire. Some managers saw time savings as high as six hours for a single recruitment cycle.  

Store teams now have a more modern, intuitive system that supports faster decisions and enables them to rely on data driven insights rather than repetitive manual effort. 

“It was essential to give hiring managers more time with their teams and customers. The new process already gives them hours back every time they hire.”

Anne Albracht Global Director of Talent Acquisition & Employer Branding Rituals

Early impact and setting Rituals up for scalable recruitment and future success 

• Early signs show time to hire improving from a sixty five-day cycle to a ten-day cycle 
• Hiring managers regain between three and six hours per hire to focus on teams and customers 
• Decentralised recruiting processes replaced with one global approach for all markets 
• A future target of a three-day time to hire supported by a fully integrated recruiting ecosystem. 

Rituals has always believed in creating global processes that scale easily across markets. With Strada and Workday, the organisation now has a connected recruitment foundation that will support future expansion, new store openings and additional country rollouts. 

The next phase will bring full integration between Workday and Rituals ecosystem of assessment and automation partners, enabling real time data handover, removing the remaining manual steps and improving onboarding readiness across all markets. This evolution also creates space for the recruiter role to grow, as the system begins to automate repetitive tasks and allows the team to focus more on insights, proactive talent engagement and strategic workforce planning instead of administration. 

Looking ahead to a fully integrated recruiting journey

The journey is still evolving, but the foundation is strong. Rituals and Strada are already preparing for a fully integrated end to end recruiting process where every partner system connects seamlessly with Workday. This will support faster hiring, improved candidate quality, stronger retention and simplified onboarding. It will also help Rituals deliver a consistent employer brand experience across every country in which it operates. 

Rituals continues to model what it means to think boldly, design intentionally and build scalable people processes that match the beauty and purpose of its brand. 

Advice for others on the same journey 

Anne’s advice is simple and powerful: Do not be afraid to rethink long standing processes because that is what sets you up for scale and consistency. Invest the time to make your Workday integration seamless and make sure your assessments and supporting tools connect properly. Once you have a strong foundation, you remove duplicate work, create a better experience for candidates and give your teams more time to focus on what really matters.