With online shopping becoming a growing trend, brick and mortar retail stores must put in extra effort to attract customers and build customer loyalty. And with back to school shopping season approaching, it’s important to make a good impression on your customers and give them a shopping experience that is as pleasant and hassle-free as possible. In order to do so, you need to staff your stores with the right talent. Recruiting for retail stores can be tough in this competitive job market, and with technology becoming such a popular recruiting tool you may not be aware of some of the most effective retail recruiting best practices. Here are some retail recruiting tips to strengthen your brand and the people that represent it:
1) Re-evaluate job applications
Most of the top retail talent out there isn’t going to bother with a long and drawn out online application process. There are many job ads that are a cinch to apply to and don’t take longer than 5 or 10 minutes. Yet many retail companies still have a tedious online application process that involves so many repetitive, unnecessary steps. As a result they are losing out on some potential star players that could be added to their staff. Making your online application process as simple as possible is one of the most important retail recruiting tips to remember. Also, see to it your job applications are mobile friendly, since many of your most qualified applicants are busy and applying on the go.
2) Build a positive online presence that will wow talent
With so many retail job seekers looking online for opportunities, one of the important retail recruiting tips is to make sure your brand is easy to find online and that there is as much positive information out there as possible. If there are any negative comments our there from former employees, try to offset them by encouraging current employees to comment on positive aspects about working for your company. Also, encourage loyal customers to do the same. Make sure your company website has appealing content and graphics and is optimized with keywords that retail job seekers are likely to search. Also, make sure your website has a separate page with job opportunities that job seekers can apply to.
3) Up your social media game
LinkedIn is an excellent recruiting tool, so it’s essential to have a company page and post job opportunities regularly. Build a network of potential talent and post content to keep them engaged. Also, one of the retail recruiting tips so many employers drop the ball on is to stay engaged with candidates that have applied at your company but didn’t land a position. This will preserve your company’s reputation and give you a pool of talent to reach out to when future opportunities open up. An example of a retail company that has a strong social media strategy is Nordstrom. They shared announcements of their store openings on LinkedIn with fashion friendly and motivational messaging. Then, to retain the interest of potential talent, they made videos capturing the exciting experience of the store’s opening and shared them on LinkedIn. Expand your company’s social media presence to other networks such as Facebook and Twitter as well. Another one of the top social media retail recruiting best practices is to share job postings on Twitter using relevant hashtags such as #retailjobs #jobsearch and #jobopportunities.
4) Snazz up your job advertisements
It’s likely many of your job descriptions need to be updated. If you want to increase your chances of hiring employees that will succeed and stick around, you need to be as accurate as possible about the responsibilities of the job in your job advertisements. See if any of the skills and responsibilities required have changed over the past couple of years. One of the retail recruiting tips that will increase responses to your job postings is to make them as brief and to-the-point as possible. Think of the essential qualities you want in a candidate, and remove any unnecessary information that is likely to overwhelm or turn off qualified talent. Also, include what makes your brand unique and attractive to candidates in job advertisements. This includes any impressive benefits such as vision and dental health care coverage, tuition reimbursement, profit sharing plans, flexible scheduling and opportunities for career advancement.
5) Save time with video interviewing
One of the retail recruiting best practices that will give you a better chance to evaluate candidates before deciding to bring them in for an in-person interview is conducting video interviews remotely. Companies such as Urban Outfitters have found this to be an effective recruiting method that is also favored by candidates. Video interviewing will save your hiring managers time, allow you to rule out unqualified talent earlier in the hiring process, and give you a chance to speak with more qualified talent than you normally would.
Author: Jessica Cody
Jessica Cody, a native of Fairfield County, Connecticut, has a background in online marketing and public relations. Currently, she works at VHMNetwork LLC in the role of Marketing Analyst. She is a graduate of the University of Connecticut, where she studied Journalism and Political Science. She is also an avid runner with a passion for the outdoors.
