GAIL’s, the neighbourhood bakery business, has selected talent acquisition technology scale-up inploi to upgrade its candidate experience.

With 150 bakeries across the UK, GAIL’s currently employs 2,500 people and has implemented inploi’s technology to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of its talent attraction process. inploi will be powering GAIL’s recruitment marketing, in addition to the deployment of a new inploi-built GAIL’s careers hub with upgrades to their careers pages, job search, and application processes. GAIL’s will also be utilising inploi’s data and analytics platform to monitor the effectiveness of their talent attraction activity. 

Prior to working with inploi, GAIL’s relied on traditional job boards to advertise vacancies; interested candidates had to apply via long, form-based applications, and the site was not compliant with web content accessibility guidelines. Over 70% of applicants were dropping off before completion. 

Working with inploi, GAIL’s has now deployed a new careers hub that reflects its brand identity and delivers a world-class candidate experience throughout the hiring process. All open vacancies are easily navigated via an intuitive map-based search, with applicant data captured through inploi’s AI-chatbot technology, typically improving applicant completion rates by an average of 50%. Other value metrics impacted include improvements in time to hire, recruiter time savings, and substantial reductions in recruitment marketing spend.

Jordan Moore, Head of Talent Acquisition at GAIL’s commented: “GAIL’s is an aspirant brand and needs a candidate experience to match. We set out to tailor our hiring process to appeal to the next generation of talent in the business. Integrating inploi into our TalentFunnel ATS opens a new door to quality candidates, who are exposed to the essence of our brand from the very start of the process. Launching our new website alongside this has ensured that we’ve been able to share GAIL’s passion and culture with all future candidates.” 

Alex Hanson-Smith, CTO and co-founder at inploi, commented: “At inploi, we believe that the best work happens when we combine our software and service with the client's understanding of their challenges and domain expertise. Our partnership with GAIL’s and the work we are doing together encapsulate this ethos perfectly. We are not just delivering a careers site or improving recruitment efficiency; rather, we are on a mission to set a new standard for hiring experiences in the hospitality sector. When you walk into a GAIL’s bakery, you immediately feel the attention they pay to the customer experience — great service, beautiful design, and arguably the best baked goods in the country. We are on a mission to build experiences that treat GAIL’s candidates with the same care and attention. This is just the beginning.” 

GAIL’s joins a growing list of well-known high street brands including wagamama, Côte Brasserie and The Compass Group in selecting inploi as its talent acquisition technology partner.

About GAIL’S Bakery

GAIL’s was started by Yael (Gail) Mejia in the early 1990’s serving top chefs and food venues in London. In 2003, Tom Molnar and a few friends joined Yael’s premium wholesale craft bakery and grew the business by opening modern neighbourhood craft bakeries that bring communities together to enjoy chef-quality baking. The first GAIL’s bakery opened in 2005 in Hampstead, serving fresh, handmade bread, sandwiches, salads, pastries and cakes, alongside their carefully sourced house blend speciality coffee and barista made drink range. GAIL’s mission to make world-class craft baking a part of every neighbourhood has seen it open in 125 neighbourhoods across UK including London, Cambridge and across to Oxford, Brighton and Manchester. GAIL’s has their own delivery and click & collect service, as well working with Deliveroo. They are one of London’s most loved residential and corporate catering vendors and partner with premium supermarkets to make their bread more accessible, including Ocado and Waitrose. GAIL’s is a multi-award winning bakery receiving a number of accolades for their products, places and people including collecting 58 Great Taste Awards since 2015; awarded ‘Best European Coffee Chain’ in 2017 and 2022 by Allegra World Coffee Portal; named as ‘Operator of the Year: Equipment Innovation’ at the Food Service Equipment Awards 2022; and most recently recognised as a ‘Top 25 Best Big Companies to Work For’ in the UK 2023 by Best Companies.

GAIL’s believe that craft baking and craft principles are currently underrepresented in today’s food landscape and that society is better when we eat better. They are aligned with those in the sector – chefs and buyers – who are working hard to provide an alternative to industrialised food production and shift power back to chefs, bakers and others dedicated to quality. 

In 2011 GAIL’s received investment by Risk Capital Partners and most recently in 2021 it secured investment from BAIN Capital in partnership with EBITDA Investments, the food ecosystem Fund, backed by entrepreneurs Henry McGovern and Steven K. Winegar. This board of investors support the neighbourhood craft bakery as it moves into the next growth phase, with a shared objective of championing craft and growing the brand. www.gailsbread.co.uk

About inploi 

inploi is a UK-based talent acquisition software scale-up, on a mission to help employers forge authentic connections with the future of their workforce. inploi’s platform enables large companies in high-volume hiring sectors to deliver world-class candidate experiences, while maximising the efficiency and effectiveness of their talent acquisition and people teams. inploi’s suite of SaaS solutions seamlessly integrates with other HCM systems to maximise their effectiveness and improve hiring outcomes for large employers: cutting recruitment costs, increasing revenue, and filling vacancies with great people. Existing clients include The Compass Group, Bourne Leisure (Haven and Warner Leisure Hotels), wagamama, and the AS Watson Group (Superdrug, Savers, The Perfume Shop).