The Retail Industry has many challenges when it comes to recruiting good employees. Many unqualified people will apply for retail positions simply because the positions are perceived as entry level jobs that are plentiful. However, even entry level positions require technical knowledge and soft skills, and finding the people with this combination can be made easier by doing certain things.
Emphasise The Technical Aspects And Cross-Training Opportunities
In Your Job Description Retail is increasingly about technology. As this Indeed post says, some of this technical change is about the customer experience, but some of this technical change affects your employees. Increasingly, they have to be able to master Point of Sales technology and scanners just to be cashiers. They will also have to be able to learn other jobs quickly and efficiently. This can be very attractive to an ambitious candidate and candidates who are already technically savvy.
Be Very Specific In Your Job Description
Potential employees want to know what they will be doing once they are employed. It is a good idea to ask people in the position for which you are hiring what they consider their normal workday to be, and then use this information when you write your job description and other recruitment literature. This will discourage the unqualified from applying.
Highlight The Career Path
People often leave retail jobs because they get frustrated in their career path. They often feel like there is no way to get promoted or to increase their responsibilities. This leads to many people not wanting to apply to a job that they think won’t advance them in a career. In our recent survey, 74% of employers were losing employees to companies who offered better opportunities. That is not all however.
You want to attract candidates who want to grow with your company and make long term contributions. You should make clear in your job descriptions that there are opportunities to be promoted to many positions in your company and you should concentrate on creating career paths for entry level employees. Publicize opportunities to be promoted to your staff and make it easy to be trained for a higher position.
Capitalise On Your Employees And Customers
Word of mouth is an excellent way to find good employees. A traditional method of doing this is to provide a hiring bonus to employees who recommend someone, but you don’t have to stop there. You can reward employees for posting about job openings on social media too, or create your bonus system for finding candidates.
Customers can likewise be leveraged into potential candidates. You can set up a computer for applying for entry level positions in your store so that customers can apply while there, and you can hand flyers advertising open positions to people at the cash register.
Sell Your Employer Brand
According to an article in The Independent, 79% of HR managers have noticed that improving their employer brand has decreased the cost of hiring and 75% have said that the quality of applicants for various positions have gone up when a company invests in selling itself as a good place to work. It also increases the number of people interested in applying to your company. Selling your employer brand can take many forms. There is posting on social media about your work culture, producing a website for potential employees that makes it easy to apply for the job, and making videos about working for your company. You will also want to differentiate yourself from other companies in the ways that you compensate your employees and then advertise these compensation packages on various social media platforms. It is difficult to recruit talent for the retail industry, but the above tips should make it easier. For more information on retail recruitment, please feel free to get in touch.
