Articles 
The answer to this question is relatively straightforward: retail recruiting is the process of finding and hiring the right candidates for jobs in the retail sector. But the truth of the matter is that recruiting in the retail industry is actually a complex affair that can be a drain on time and resources.
On top of occurring in an industry characterized by high staff turnover, hiring in the retail sector must also accommodate the disparate needs of three key stakeholders: candidates, store managers and the corporate office.
Retail recruitment is strongly influenced by the state of the economy. When economies thrive and consumer spending is high, retail hiring typically follows suit.
However, when the economy fluctuates or crashes, retail faces significant challenges. During a recession, consumer spending slows, forcing retailers to cut back on hiring or even downsize their workforce.
This can lead to fewer job openings, hiring freezes and increased pressure to optimize recruitment strategies to attract top talent while managing tighter budgets. Retailers must adapt quickly to survive in these conditions.
But there are plenty of reasons to be positive. However daunting it may seem, a successful retail recruiting strategy is possible, even in today’s world. Making use of recruiting solutions that combine mobile, social recruiting and smart automation can save time in the short-term, while also offering an efficient approach looking ahead.
In this post, we will take a look at some of the traditional challenges in retail recruitment, shine a light on how they’ve evolved in today’s climate and take a look at how the right technology can help industries enrich their retail recruiting strategy.
Challenges in Retail Recruiting (And How They Look Today)
High Staff Turnover
Probably the biggest challenge in retail recruiting lies with high a level of employee turnover due to the pressures of seasonal hiring, the complexity of shift work and the impact of social and economic factors on long-term employee commitment.
High staff turnover has all sorts of negative consequences, beginning with the cost of replacing employees, which some studies have estimated to be around six to nine months of an employee’s average salary.
Furthermore, staff turnover also translates into lost employee productivity, since it usually takes weeks to train someone new in the intricacies of how a store is run. That’s a drain on the productivity of the trainer as well as the trainee.
High-Volume Recruiting
For retail recruiters, the sector’s inherent seasonality brings with it the pressures of high-volume hiring. Let’s not forget that hiring managers are usually also store managers, and recruiting can add overwhelming pressure at a time when their focus is likely to be on bringing in consumers, rather than staff.
The typical retail job post in high season can receive hundreds if not thousands of applicants and a lack of tools (and preparation) can translate into wasted hours skimming through unqualified resumes.
There are several ways to tackle high-volume recruiting but it all begins with retailers attracting and engaging candidates year-round and not just when consumer demand hits stores. Developing candidate talent pools is a top driver of performance in talent acquisition and can prove to be particularly effective once seasonal hiring pressures arrive.
Having hot candidates at your fingertips reduces the time to fill open positions, which can have a direct effect on revenue and customer experience.
High-volume hiring has long been a significant challenge in retail, but as one of the largest online home goods retailers, Wayfair managed to streamline its process dramatically. By leveraging advanced recruiting technology, the company reduced time-consuming tasks such as resume screening and interview scheduling through automation.
This efficient system allowed Wayfair’s hiring teams to process thousands of applications quickly while still delivering a personalized experience for each candidate, ensuring a balance between scalability and quality in its recruitment efforts.
Retailers need swift and efficient processes that can help them differentiate between unqualified and qualified candidates quickly, painlessly schedule interviews, leverage templates to swiftly extend offers and keep every stakeholder up-to-speed automatically. From screening to sealing the deal, smart automation can revolutionize every step of the process.
Lack of Adequate Retail Recruiting Tech
Recruiting technology has not always been a store manager’s best friend. Historically, store managers were having to rely on stacks of resumes and excels or overly complex systems that came from HQ, making retail recruiting a headache.
Digital solutions designed specifically with store managers in mind, on the other hand, can easily capture candidate information in a centralized talent acquisition system, saving them from repeatedly performing manual processes, such as trawling through spreadsheets.
The right technology should fulfill certain requirements to make retailers’ lives easier. Firstly, it should be easy to use, require minimal training and be easily adaptable to the task at hand. Hiring managers should be able to access centralized databases intuitively, helping to make recruiting a smoother, less time-consuming process.
Secondly, it should accommodate the dynamic nature of their jobs. After all, hiring managers fit in recruiting alongside their time spent on the storeroom floor, interacting with customers, reviewing inventory and overseeing current employees.
The right tech should be mobile-optimized and allow managers to review candidates and funnel them through different stages of recruitment, all while being constantly on the move.
The pandemic deepened the need for technology in the hands of hiring managers, as social distancing protocols and work-from-home conditions forced retail companies to alter how they handle their hiring processes. This has left aspects of retail recruiting fundamentally changed.
For example, face-to-face interviews were replaced by video interviews, which allowed potential candidates to participate in Q&As from the comfort of their own homes.
Digital Transformation
The shift from brick-and-mortar to online retailing, which accelerated rapidly during the pandemic as spooked retailers diversified their sales channels, has become an apparently irreversible trend. Studies suggest that by 2027, 23% of retail purchases are expected to take place online.
A more digital workplace, however, requires a more digital workforce. Retailers who didn’t rely on e-commerce before the pandemic have had to completely rethink and reconfigure their staff, shifting their focus towards digital profiles that can enable their move online swiftly and with ease.
Leadership has also begun to implement systems to ensure that new skills, practices and behaviors are integrated into their organizations in both the immediate and long-term.
In this context, retailers are now competing for candidates with tech companies, the traditional go-to employers for people with such digital skill sets. To stand even a chance against these competitors, retailers must now emphasize their employer brand, going all-in on showcasing what it’s really like to work for them and aiming to build authentic relationships with engaged candidates.
To conclude…
Recruiting at the moment might seem like a daunting task for many retail companies. But implementing the right retail recruiting technology might just be the key to providing store managers and candidates alike with the tools to better navigate an evolving industry.
