How WeBuyCars Improved Their Recruitment Process

In fast-growing businesses, hiring often becomes the thing that slows everything down. The roles are there. The demand is there. But finding the right people, quickly and consistently, is where things start to strain.

For Rikus Blomerus, Chief People Officer and Chief Marketing Officer at WeBuyCars, improving the recruitment process wasn’t about small tweaks. It required a complete shift in how hiring was viewed and how it functioned inside the business.

In a conversation with Francois de Wet on Solving the People Puzzle, Rikus shares how WeBuyCars turned recruitment from a manual, time-consuming task into a system that actively drives growth.

When Hiring Can’t Keep Up with Growth

WeBuyCars has scaled rapidly, growing into one of South Africa’s largest car buying services, with thousands of employees across the country. But that kind of growth brings pressure, especially on hiring.

At one point, even bringing in 30 to 40 people a month stretched the team. Interviews filled entire days. Calendars were packed. And despite the effort, the process still felt inefficient.

As Rikus recalls, there were days where eight interviews were scheduled back-to-back. The real challenge wasn’t just the volume. It was the uncertainty. CVs didn’t always tell the full story, and too much time was spent meeting candidates who weren’t the right fit.

The process worked, but it didn’t scale.

Rethinking What the Recruitment Process Should Do

The turning point came from a simple but important shift. Instead of asking how hiring could be done faster, the team started asking how it could be done better.

That meant rethinking the role of recruitment in the business. Not as an administrative function, but as something directly tied to growth. Because if you can’t hire the right people at the right pace, everything else slows down.

In Rikus’ words, people are often the biggest constraint in scaling a business. Getting hiring right unlocks everything that comes after.

Using Technology to Improve the Recruitment Process

One of the first changes was introducing video interviews into the early stages of hiring.

It sounds simple, but the impact was immediate. Instead of scheduling large volumes of in-person interviews, the team could review candidate responses upfront and move forward with the ones who showed the most potential.

This reduced time spent on unnecessary interviews and allowed hiring managers to focus their energy where it mattered most.

More importantly, it created a process that respected both sides. Candidates could engage on their own time, and the business could make quicker, more informed decisions.

A Shift in Mindset: From Cost to Capability

While technology improved efficiency, the real transformation came from how it was viewed.

Too often, recruitment tools are seen as a way to cut costs or reduce admin. But at WeBuyCars, the mindset shifted. Technology became something that enables the business, not something that simply supports it.

That meant asking a different question: not “Will this save time?” but “Will this help us hire better people, faster?”

That shift changed how decisions were made and how investment in recruitment was prioritised.

Scaling Hiring Without Losing Quality

With the right systems in place, WeBuyCars increased its hiring capacity significantly, moving from around 40 hires per month to over 120.

But what stands out is that this wasn’t just about speed. It was about improving the quality of hires at the same time.

By adding structure to the process and filtering earlier, the team could focus on candidates who were more likely to succeed. That meant better performance, stronger teams, and improved retention over time.

Moving Towards a More Data-Driven Approach

Another key part of improving the recruitment process was becoming more intentional about data.

Instead of relying heavily on CVs or instinct, the team began looking at what actually makes someone successful in the business. What skills matter? What traits show up consistently in top performers?

From there, they built a more structured approach to assessing candidates. This included skills testing, psychometric insights, and clearer evaluation criteria.

As Rikus puts it, a CV doesn’t always tell the full story. And when you rely on it too heavily, you risk overlooking people who could thrive in the role.

By bringing in better data earlier in the process, hiring decisions became more consistent and more accurate.

Improving the Candidate Experience Along the Way

As the recruitment process evolved, so did the candidate experience.

When hiring is unstructured or slow, candidates are often left waiting, unsure of what’s happening next. That uncertainty shapes how they see your brand.

A more integrated approach makes it easier to manage communication, track progress, and give candidates a clearer journey from application to decision.

For a business like WeBuyCars, where application volumes are high, that consistency matters. It protects the employer brand and builds trust with potential hires.

Challenging How Hiring Has Always Been Done

One of the broader themes in the conversation is the importance of questioning tradition.

Many hiring processes still follow outdated patterns, simply because they’ve always been done that way. But what worked before doesn’t always hold up when scale and speed become critical.

Improving the recruitment process often starts with asking uncomfortable questions. Where are we wasting time? What are we assuming is working? What would we change if we designed this from scratch?

That willingness to rethink is what creates real progress.

The Future of Recruitment

Looking ahead, the advantage will sit with businesses that know how to combine technology with strong people practices.

Not replacing human judgment, but supporting it. Not removing the human element, but strengthening it with better tools and better data.

As Rikus puts it, the organisations that succeed will be the ones that use technology to enable their people to do their jobs better.

The Path Forward

Improving the recruitment process isn’t about adding more steps or more tools. It’s about building a system that works, for the business, for the hiring team, and for the candidates moving through it.

WeBuyCars shows what’s possible when you approach hiring with intention. Start with the problem. Be willing to rethink how things are done. And build something that can scale with you.

Because recruitment isn’t just about filling roles. It’s about creating the momentum that allows a business to grow.

Listen to the full episode with Rikus here