Retail Recruitment Lead & Academy Partnerships

Emax Corporate; Kuala Lumpur; On-site; MYR 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

EMAX Group is seeking a hands-on Recruitment Lead to lead our Recruitment Department and deliver talent across brands and outlet locations. The primary focus is frontline retail recruitment and EMAX Academy student and trainee recruitment, spanning beauticians, beauty therapists, sales consultants, outlet managers and other customer-facing roles.

You will lead the team, source candidates, conduct interviews, close offers and build pipelines.

Qualifications

• Diploma or Bachelor’s degree in Human Resources, Business Administration, Psychology or a related field, or equivalent relevant professional experience.
• 8+ years of experience in recruitment or talent acquisition, with at least 5 years in a leadership role.
• Proven experience recruiting frontline employees across multiple outlets or locations. Experience in beauty and wellness, retail, hospitality, food and beverage or other customer-facing service environments is relevant; direct beauty-sector recruitment experience is an advantage.
• Strong hands‑on sourcing and candidate engagement skills, including direct outreach, social media recruitment, employee referrals, recruitment events and partnership development.
• Ability to manage multiple hiring priorities, coach recruiters, engage hiring managers and follow recruitment activity through to successful joining.
• Comfortable using applicant tracking systems, spreadsheets and recruitment dashboards to identify problems, monitor progress and improve results.
• Experience attracting students, trainees, interns or fresh graduates through academies, colleges, vocational institutions or community partnerships would be an advantage.
• Proactive, resourceful and accountable, with strong communication skills and willingness to visit outlets, engage education partners and participate in recruitment activities as required.

Responsibilities

• Lead recruitment delivery for beauticians, beauty therapists, sales consultants, outlet managers, retail leaders and other customer-facing positions across the Group’s brands and locations.
• Translate approved manpower requirements into clear hiring priorities, recruitment activities and delivery timelines. Personally manage an agreed portfolio of critical or difficult-to-fill vacancies, including sourcing, interviewing, candidate engagement and offer follow-through.
• Oversee the recruitment process from vacancy briefing through successful joining, ensuring that candidates are suitable for the role, outlet requirements and working environment.
• Lead, coach and manage the existing recruitment team, including the Recruitment Manager and recruitment executives. Establish clear responsibilities, individual hiring portfolios, performance targets and service standards.
• Conduct regular reviews of vacancies, candidate pipelines, hiring progress and team performance. Identify gaps, provide practical coaching and ensure agreed actions are completed.
• Work closely with hiring managers, Retail Operations, Brand Leaders and HR to secure timely interviews, feedback and decisions. Escalate unresolved issues with clear recommendations rather than allowing vacancies to remain stalled.
• Develop and execute sourcing strategies through direct candidate outreach, employee referrals, social media, job platforms, industry networks, recruitment events and community engagement.
• Build relationships with beauty schools, colleges, vocational institutions and relevant organisations to create a regular flow of potential employees, students and trainees. Organise and participate in recruitment drives, walk-in interviews, career talks and open days.
• Maintain candidate pipelines for recurring vacancies and hard-to-fill locations. Test new sourcing approaches and assess their effectiveness based on suitable candidates, interviews, successful joining and hiring quality.
• Work with EMAX Academy to plan and deliver student and trainee recruitment against agreed intake targets and training capacity, including outreach campaigns, education partnerships, enquiry follow-up and enrolment activities.
• Ensure prospective students and trainees receive accurate information about programme requirements, training pathways and potential career opportunities within the Group.
• Coordinate with the Academy, HR and Retail Operations on internship and graduate placement. Track the progression from enquiry to enrolment and placement, and work with the relevant teams to address recruitment-related drop-off and placement challenges.
• Develop practical recruitment campaigns that communicate EMAX Group’s career opportunities, working environment, training pathways and career progression to the relevant candidate audiences.
• Guide content or social media personnel assigned to recruitment and Academy attraction activities. Work with Marketing to produce job advertisements, employee testimonials, student stories and other relevant recruitment content.
• Monitor how recruitment content and campaigns contribute to qualified applications, enquiries, interviews and enrolments. Recommend improvements to messaging, targeting and candidate follow-up.
• Ensure timely, professional communication throughout the recruitment process, including clear information on job responsibilities, outlet location, working arrangements, remuneration structure and applicable employment requirements.
• Improve screening, interview coordination, candidate follow-up and offer management to reduce unnecessary delays and candidate drop-off. Ensure offers and recruitment documentation follow the Company’s approval procedures.
• Coordinate onboarding handovers with HR and hiring managers. Participate in early new-hire follow-up and work with the relevant teams to address expectation mismatches, placement concerns and preventable early departures.
• Maintain accurate recruitment and manpower dashboards covering vacancies, vacancy ageing, hiring progress, source effectiveness, interview attendance, offer acceptance, successful joining and Academy recruitment outcomes.
• Manage recruitment activities within approved budgets and monitor the effectiveness of advertising, recruitment events, partnerships and agency spending. Recommend resource allocation based on results.
• Analyse recruitment bottlenecks and propose practical improvements. Highlight issues involving candidate availability, remuneration competitiveness, hiring requirements, decision‑making delays or early attrition for joint action with management, HR and Retail Operations.

Education

Diploma or Bachelor’s degree in Human Resources, Business Administration, Psychology or a related field, or equivalent relevant professional experience.

Job description

EMAX Group is seeking a hands-on Recruitment Lead to lead our Recruitment Department and deliver talent across brands and outlet locations. The primary focus is frontline retail recruitment and EMAX Academy student and trainee recruitment, spanning beauticians, beauty therapists, sales consultants, outlet managers and other customer-facing roles.

You will lead the team, source candidates, conduct interviews, close offers and build pipelines.