Seeing an eighty-three percent culture match, meant we knew we should meet this candidate
Beth Prior
December 18, 2025
How the Botanist hired for culture, over CVs
Imagine a hiring process that feels less like volume hiring and more like building a team that truly belongs. That’s the story at The Botanist, where immersive experiences, strong culture and storytelling sit at the heart of everything they do.We sat down with Ollie Anthony – The New World Trading Company’s Talent Partner – to hear how they’ve approached growth, recruitment, and why Candid has become part of their hiring journey.
💡 Hiring at scale without losing culture
With just shy of 30 locations, The Botanist has hired thousands of people over the years – but culture has always mattered just as much as capability.
“Culture match and capability are measured equally; we are clear and honest around the demands of the role, what it feels like to work here and why we think you’ll love it here.”
Ollie, Talent Partner @ The Botanist
Hospitality isn’t easy, and the team is upfront about that.
“Hospitality is challenging, make no apology, we thrive off making long lasting memories for all guests and look for like-minded individuals to do the same.”
🚀 The switch: why Candid?
What attracted The Botanist to Candid was a desire to move away from volume hiring altogether. Highlighting how each potential candidate would fit into, and add to, the existing culture at The Botanist within Candid, is helping to achieve this goal.
“Seeing culture match in a measured form which supports in reducing the bias from a hiring manager if the experience for the role doesn’t quite match their high passion to deliver is a game changer.”
Ollie, Talent Partner @ The Botanist
🎯 The result: An 83% match
When the team matched with Demi (‘Naan bread pizza’), culture spoke louder than experience.
“Seeing an 83% culture match meant we knew we should meet with the candidate regardless of experience in the role based on the level of position in application.”
Ollie, Talent Partner @ The Botanist
Demi has joined the front of house team at The Botanist in Newcastle. In fact the entire process from her matching on Candid to officially joining the team, took less than two weeks. Despite joining at the busiest time of year, Demi settled in fast.
“Demi already feels part of the furniture and has taken to us incredibly well in such a short time frame. We are thrilled to have her on the team.”
Ollie, Talent Partner @ The Botanist
🤝 Why it worked
For The Botanist, hiring goes beyond the CV.
“Passion – this doesn’t have to come in the form of transferable industry skills or relation to the role in application.”
What really matters is seeing someone at their most confident.
“Seeing someone light up when they get to talk about something they truly love is magical and goes a long way when helping us make the decision on if we think our guests would be well looked after by this hire.”
✨ Final thoughts
For The Botanist, Candid delivered exactly what they were looking for – a new source of applicants who truly fit.
“Having a new source of applicants that are an ideal fit for us, not having found them using more traditional methods with a time to hire equally faster than our usual average.”
Effective Date: 09.07.2025 Last Updated: 09.07.2025
Welcome to Candid’s Refer-a-Legend scheme – our way of rewarding you for growing a community of incredible hospitality talent.
These Terms & Conditions outline how the referral rewards work, what you need to do to qualify and the fine print we need to cover to keep things fair for everyone involved.
1. Who Can Take Part The Refer-a-Legend scheme is open to all Candid users who:
Have signed up as a candidate.
Are based in the UK.
Have a unique referral link generated by the Candid platform.
2. How It Works You complete your Candid profile.
Receive your unique referral link via email and/or in your dashboard.
You share your link with your network via WhatsApp, socials, email, text… wherever you like.
When someone signs up using your link and completes their candidate profile, it counts as a referral.
You’ll receive updates as your referrals come through, and rewards will be unlocked as you hit key milestones.
Note: Referral links must be shared organically. Paid promotion, bulk messaging or use of bots/automated scripts is not permitted.
3. Reward Milestones You’ll earn rewards based on the number of successful candidate sign-ups using your unique link:
3 Sign-ups
Community Builder badge on your candidate profile, visible to employers
5 Sign-ups
Exclusive Candid merch drop delivered to your door (UK only)
10+ Sign-ups
Upgrade to Candid Champion badge + invite to join our private community group
Referral leads to interview
Receive a £25 voucher each as a thank-you from the Candid team
4. The Small Print (But Important!)
Referrals must be genuine new users who haven’t previously registered on Candid (duplicate or spam accounts won’t be counted).
Referral links must be shared organically (e.g. through personal messages or social posts). Paid promotion, bulk messaging, or automated scripts are not allowed.
We reserve the right to monitor, verify or disqualify any referral if fraudulent or suspicious activity is detected.
Physical rewards (e.g. merch) can only be shipped within the UK. Rewards are non-transferable, have no cash value, and cannot be exchanged or resold.
The £25 voucher will be issued digitally via email. Voucher options are selected at Candid’s discretion.
A referral voucher is considered when the referred candidate is progressed by an employer via the Candid platform.
Referral milestones and reward structures may be reviewed or updated at any time. If changes occur, we’ll communicate them in advance.
Candid reserves the right to suspend or terminate the Refer-a-Legend scheme at any time. If we do, we’ll give reasonable notice via email or platform update.
We process referral data in line with our Privacy Policy. No personal information about your referrals will be shared without their consent.
5. When Will I Receive My Rewards? Badges are added to your profile automatically once a milestone is hit.
Merch and voucher rewards will be processed within 14 days of reaching your milestone.
You’ll receive an email confirmation with next steps when a reward is unlocked.
6. Data & Privacy We process your referral data in accordance with our Privacy Policy.
Rest assured:
Your referrals’ data remains private
No personal information will be shared without consent
We remain GDPR-compliant and committed to protecting your data
7. Need Help or Have a Question?
We love hearing from our community!
If something’s unclear or you want to chat about your referral progress, drop us a message:
