How to Improve Quality of Hire of Managers Working in Retail

By Jessica Miller-Merrell

One of the most frustrating things for a recruit is going through the entire process of hiring a candidate only to find out that they aren’t a good fit. Usually a good recruiter prevents this from happening, but every now and then someone falls through the cracks. Hiring good managers in retail is important to keep customers happy and the flow of each store constant. When the workflow is interrupted because of scheduling issues, breakdowns in communication, or other various reasons customers tend to get upset and chaos ensues.

In order to prevent these types of mistakes it’s important that recruiters are able to produce top-notch managers through a serious of initiatives in approving quality of hire. Here are some specific ways that recruiters are able to improve quality of hire in the retail industry:

Hire model employees. When you’re decided to make your next manager take a look at each and every one of your employees and pick out the one you consider a model employee. Once you’ve done that build a recruitment process on finding managers similar to your model employee. Creating a standard within the retail industry allows for a recruiter to have a benchmark. It also allows employees who are working towards a position to understand the behaviors and work ethnic needed to go further in the retail industry.

Test various skills. When hiring a manager in retail it might be better suited to test specific skills that you feel are weaker than others after the entire process. The problem with standardized assessment testing is that it’s trying to encompass a broad range of subjects. Most managers have a skill set they’re strong in so don’t waste their time or your money testing them. Instead, figure out areas of weakness and make sure they’re on par with your company.

Refine your hires. Once you’ve made a hire it’s not enough to let them loose on your store. It’s important to constantly refine your managers to mold them into the type of manager you want them to be. After 90 days of being on staff you should audit each of your hires and make necessary improvements based on best practices. In the retail industry it’s important to do this because of the constant day-to-day interaction between a manager and customers.

The cost of making a bad hire can sometimes cripple a retail store, especially if the store is new. Without clear benchmarks and proper testing a recruiters job can be hard and mistakes made. It’s important to understand when hiring a manager the process doesn’t stop once they’re hired. Continual training and development is essential for retaining a strong workforce. With a strong management team with a clear direction your company can grow as big as you want. Follow these steps provided to take a step in the right direction of a successful future.

Jessica Miller-Merrell, SPHR is a workplace and technology strategist specializing in social media. She’s an author who writes at Blogging4Jobs. You can follow her on Twitter @blogging4jobs. 

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Seasonal Hiring Best Practices in Retail

By Jessica Miller-Merrell

The holiday shopping season is one of the busiest of the entire year. Black Friday, the official start to the mayhem and madness of shoppers flocking to reduced prices while wanting to get their shopping done early. By this time recruiters have slaved for months, like they do every year, to make sure positions are filled and season hires have passed all the necessary tests to start working. In order to be successful at seasonal hiring here are a things that every recruiter needs to follow:

Start early. When hiring a mass influx of staff it’s important that recruiters allow themselves enough time to hire effectively. You’ll want to make sure new employees are ready to start working right when the peak season hits.

Train. One of the most important things you can do is make sure all the employees you hire are trained efficiently. I’m not sure what’s worse, waiting in line for an hour or getting to the register and your cashier not knowing a single thing. Ensuring proper training about your company, procedures and culture will keep everyone from bickering and destroying the culture by gossip and childish behaviors.

Recruit former employees. In order to save money on time and recruitment opportunities take a few and call past seasonal employees and see if they are interested in working again. You save money in training, time during the interview process, and less applications to wade through.

Don’t compromise your standards. During the holiday seasons a customer expects nothing but exceptional service. 99% of the time they’re not going to know that an employee isn’t a permanent employee. The quality of service the receive will dictate if they finish shopping and complete a purchase within your store. When hiring temporary employees it’s important to never compromise your standards because even temporary employees can ruin your brand image.

Plan the interview process. With massive staff increases the interviews can get a little hectic and scheduling that mean interviews can be overwhelming. Develop a plan to handle the increased number by asking for other managers in your department to conduct some of the interviews. Before doing so make sure to develop a standardize list of questions so they avoid any type of possible legal problems.

Every one of these suggestions will help recruiters gain the upper hand on their competition when it comes to seasonal hiring. It’s important to keep your standards as high as they are despite hiring temporary workers. When training leave enough time to explain everything important to your company so that they’re able to carry on your values.

Jessica Miller-Merrell, SPHR is a workplace and technology strategist specializing in social media. She’s an author who writes at Blogging4Jobs. You can follow her on Twitter @blogging4jobs. 

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How to Use Social Media to Recruit in Retail

By Jessica Miller-Merrell

Using social media to recruit in the retail industry is becoming a necessity. Organizations who rely on hourly and part-time employees usually have the largest workforce so it’s imperative that recruiters seek out innovative ways to recruit through social media. With the introduction of social job boards, social media has played a big part in several companies hiring and retaining employees.

One of the best examples of a company effectively recruiting through social media is Macy’s. With over 160,000 employees Macy’s saw the need to boost their hiring efforts as they were expanding quite frequently. With help from an outside partner Macy’s was able to launch their portal site, macysJOBS.com that allowed them to send all social media recruits as well as job fairs, etc. to this site, which they were able to track their visitors. Macy’s was able to use the power of social media as a key element in their branding strategy to drive over 69,000 new hires in 2009.

Here are a few things to learn from Macy’s and their commitment to hiring retail employees through social media;

Don’t put all of your eggs in one basket. Like Macy’s, they used social media as one element of their overall strategy. When you first start using social media as a recruiting tool it’s important to make it just an element of your strategy. By itself social media isn’t as powerful as traditional recruiting approaches. Especially when recruiting in the retail industry, you must have objectives and overall material that supports your use of social media. It needs to match up with the demand for jobs at your company as well as the specific positions you’re hiring for.

Improve the experience. Sometimes people ask why is it important to make the experience of apply for a company a good one. Some might argue that they’re only hourly employees and easily replaceable. In some instances that might be true, but looking at it on a much grandeur scale, the people you hire today will become brand ambassadors, customers, and essentially someone who is going to increase your bottom line. Retail is one of the few places where people will actually shop where they work. The experience you bring to these hourly employees who are applying, shopping, and talking up your brand comes in handy. Even if the candidate isn’t hired, if they had a good experience, they will want a job with your company.

Make it easy. You aren’t hiring someone to run and implement high-leveled strategies. Normally your hourly employee will be a cashier, stocker, bank teller, or a job that is more in demand than others with a constant flow of applicants. There is no need to make the hiring process long and drawn out. Don’t ask them 100 questions before they can work to be a cashier for your company. Make it easy to submit a resume, fill out a general application and if you need more information ask it in the interview. Rarely is there a need for a second interview in these cases. Keep it short and simple.

With 42 million retails jobs in the United States alone using other methods such as social media to start recruiting is a smart and imperative move. Although it’ll help, it’s not the end all solution and social media should be tied into your overall strategy. Macy’s was able to hire over 69,000 jobs in two years because they used social media as a strong element of their strategy, improved the experience of each candidate and made it easy.

Jessica Miller-Merrell, SPHR is a workplace and technology strategist specializing in social media. She’s an author who writes at Blogging4Jobs. You can follow her on Twitter @blogging4jobs. 

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