Employee Recruitment in Retail Industry

 

As noted by Ployhart (2006, p. 869), “most definitions of recruitment emphasize the organization’s collective efforts to identify, attract applicants.” In keeping with this definition, define recruitment as involving those organizational actions that are intended to (a) bring a job opening to the attention of potential job candidates; (b) influence whether these individuals apply for the opening; (c) affect whether recruits maintain interest in the position until a job offer is extended; and (d) influence whether a job offer is accepted and the person joins the organization (James et al.,2007).

 

Comparisons of the relative impact of recruitment variables and position attributes have resulted in some individuals questioning whether the manner in which an employer recruits is important. In this context, two factors should be considered (Rynes & Cable, 2003).  First, if an employer does a poor job of recruiting, it may not bring job openings to the attention of the type of persons it seeks to recruit (e.g., employed individuals who are not actively searching for new positions). Secondly, even if a position is brought to the attention of targeted individuals, poor treatment during the recruitment process (e.g., a poorly run site visit) may result in individuals withdrawing as job candidates before an employer has had a chance to even present a job offer (Boswell et al., 2003; Rynes, Bretz, & Gerhart, 1991).

 

Most prominently, retail brings in workers from all walks of life. This is largely due to its size and the fact that retail companies are incredibly diverse, selling everything from food to fashion to technology. Retail recruiting, hiring managers and company leaders need to approach these challenges head on. Whether it’s the sheer numbers, stiff competition or high turnover rates, recruiting in this industry will never be a piece of cake. As a recruiter trying to bring in the best talent, there are key points about the retail industry (Dudharejia 2019).

Key points about the Employee Recruitment in Retail Industry

01. High Hiring Volumes

 

High hiring volumes, one of the toughest jobs for recruiters can simply be sifting through massive amounts of applications. The initial paperwork involved in the recruitment process (resume, cover letter) is critical to making a good first impression (Dudharejia 2019). Skills tests, reference checks, maybe personality and IQ tests, and extensive interviews to learn more about them as people (Cappelli 2019).

 

 02. High Competition

 

Product diversity falling under the “retail” umbrella, talented employees has no shortage of options when they're seeking out a new opportunity. Moreover, they don’t always have to settle for compensation. Therefore, the challenge isn’t always hiring the best and brightest talent in the industry; it’s finding the right candidates for the right positions (Dudharejia 2019).

03. High Turnover

 

Need to go the extra mile to retain employees and reduce turnover. This involves better training of valuable skills, transparent career trajectories, and incentives to put forth the effort (Dudharejia 2019). Not addressing current employees can also increase employee turnover, resulting in knowledge loss and reduced productivity. On top of that, there are the high costs associated with recruiting, hiring and training replacements. Companies with high retention rates are able to avoid these challenges and get the most value from their top-performing representatives (Dyer 2018).

Table 1.0: The sectors seeing the most talent turnover: tech (software), retail, and media

                                                                                                                      Booz  2018

 

Tech companies (software, not hardware) had the most turnover over in 2017 with a 13.2% rate. Retail—a historically high-churn sector—follows closely behind at 13.0%, while media/entertainment (11.4%), professional services (11.4%), and government/education/nonprofit (11.2%) round out the top five. Over the last few years, these sectors have consistently seen the highest turnover rates (Booz 2018).

List of References

Greg Dyer 2018, ‘Ways to Attract Skilled Talent in Today’s Tight Labor Market’ Total Retail Report, October 31, 2019, < https://www.mytotalretail.com/article/ways-to-attract-skilled-talent-in-todays-tight-labor-market/>

James A. Breaugh 2008, Human Resource Management Review: Employee recruitment: Current knowledge and important areas for future research, Boswell et al., 2003; Rynes, Bretz, & Gerhart, 1991

James A. Breaugh 2008,  Dana M. Grambow, Therese H. Macan , International Review of Industrial and Organizational Psychology 2008,  Employee Recruitment: Current Knowledge and Directions for Future Research University of Missouri-St. Louis, St. Louis, Missouri, USA.

Manish Dudharejia 2019, ‘Why Retail Recruiting is So Different than Other Industries’, Total Retail Report, May15, 2019, < https://www.mytotalretail.com/article/why-retail-recruiting-is-so-different-than-other-industries/>

Michael Booz 2018, These 3 Industries Have the Highest Talent Turnover Rates, Linkedin Talent March 15, 2018.

Peter Cappelli 2019, ‘Your Approach to Hiring Is All Wrong’ Harvard Business Review May-June 2019