As one of New Zealand’s most established and wide-reaching organisations, The Salvation Army has long been committed to making a difference in people’s lives. With over 2,100 employees and around 300 hiring managers spread across the country, recruiting the right people in a consistent, efficient, and values-aligned way is a critical part of that mission.

With operations spanning everything from social services and retail/Family Stores to farm and adventure centre, the organisation’s structure is wide-reaching and decentralised. That scale brought its own challenges when it came to recruitment. With different hiring processes being used in pockets across the organisation, most of them manual and form-driven, there was a pressing need for a unified and modern approach.

The right partner to support change

Having successfully worked with SnapHire at two other organisations, Anoka Nallaiah, Recruitment Manager at The Salvation Army, knew what was possible with the right platform and the right partner. So, when it came time to review recruitment systems at The Salvation Army, SnapHire emerged as the strongest contender.

“We looked at about four tools. My role was to show the business what was possible, take them on that journey, and make sure we ended up with a product that was easy to use, fairly intuitive, and customisable,” explains Anoka.

It was evident that SnapHire’s platform’s flexibility would make it easier to find common ground across varied departments, while still allowing for exceptions, such as hiring volunteers or meeting unique team needs. “We were able to say, okay, here are the must-haves. But can we allow for exceptions? That’s the flexibility we needed.”

Creating consistency and removing friction

With SnapHire, The Salvation Army has been able to unify its recruitment processes into a single, intuitive system that supports both central visibility and local flexibility. Managers can now easily post jobs, review candidates, and complete key hiring steps within a streamlined workflow, saving time and improving the experience for candidates.

One of the biggest transformations has been in simplifying and streamlining the hiring experience. Where once managers hunted through outdated forms, the process is now consolidated into a single, user-friendly system. “We removed a good 15 different manual forms. Managers don’t need to go looking for anything anymore—it’s all embedded in the process. It’s a one-stop shop.”

SnapHire’s ability to integrate with tools like CV Check and Referoo has also added valuable automation to previously manual tasks, such as reference and background checks. The introduction of quarterly reporting has been another key win, bringing a new level of insight and accountability to the recruitment function while giving leadership greater visibility into trends and performance across the organisation.

“We’ve made a lot of information—previously invisible—available to the leaders who need it to make decisions.”

Evolving in partnership with SnapHire

What has stood out most, however, is the ongoing partnership with the SnapHire team. “One of the things we’ve really appreciated is how responsive and open the SnapHire team is. I can reach out to Jess and say, ‘This is what I need,’ and the team will consider out-of-the-box solutions. They understand our challenges and have been willing to explore creative options that meet our specific needs. That’s been invaluable.”

“They are a really good team of people to work with, people who are specialists, dedicated and take their job seriously, are lovely to work with and they’re local,” says Anoka.

With SnapHire as a partner, The Salvation Army is proving that even the most established organisations can embrace innovation, while staying true to their values and people-first approach.