7 Things You Can Do To Find The Retail Applicants You Deserve

“Change Please” by Jason Costanza – used under CC BY-SA 2.0 cropped and re-sized from original

Retail managers spend a lot of time hiring (and training) new employees, often to see them walk out the door a short time later. Sometimes you hire anyone because your applicant pool is too shallow. Other times, it may be simply the new hire is just not a good fit for the job. No matter the reason, the hiring and training processes start all over again.

How Can You Find the Right Retail Applicants?

Here are seven things you can do to find the retail applicants you deserve:

1. Know who and what you need before you start the hiring process. What characteristics make an ideal employee? A cashier requires a different set of skills from a stocking person or a floor sales person. Do you need someone who can work independently or someone who works better in a team?

2. Consider expanding your applicant pool. The skills that your employees use in retail are often found in other industries. For example, a barista may have similar skills to an experienced retail applicant. Hiring based on skill set (or potential skill set), instead of just those with retail experience, will open your pool to more high-quality applicants.

3. Use assessments to filter through the candidate pool. Assessments, like Prevue’s Retail-Fit, help you find out if a candidate has the traits (or potential) that will make that candidate a good fit for your store. Can they handle stress? Do they work well with others? Are they comfortable in a sales position? You can make the assessment part of the online application process. That allows you to interview the candidates that are the best fit, instead of wasting time on applicants who are not.

4. Ensure the offered pay rate is competitive. Are you offering a pay rate that is competitive to what your competition is providing for the same job? You may think that you can’t pay that much. But, what is it costing you to keep hiring and training for the same position over and over? Bringing up your offered wage will help retain employees longer, which will end up saving you money in the long run.

5. Make sure your scheduling practices meet the needs of your applicant pool. People who want to work in retail often need a flexible work schedule. They may want to work while the kids are in school. They may want hours that fit around a class schedule. They may want to work nights or weekends in a second job. Being able to meet these needs will give you the ability to hire higher quality employees.

6. Ask for recruiting help from employees, vendors, and customers. These people know something about the job you are hiring for. They already know your establishment’s culture and the requirements for the job. They can help you find great candidates who already have an idea of what the job will entail.

7. Make the application process as easy and as quick as possible. Your application process should be simple: basic information, maybe a couple of screening questions and a resume. Take time every day or so to review applications that you receive. If you have an ideal candidate apply, set up an interview as soon as possible. Otherwise, that candidate will find a job elsewhere. We suggest using an Applicant Tracking System, which will do all of the job posting and the application collection and organization for you!

While retail jobs are often seen as a temporary stop by many applicants, there are many people out there that are looking for long-term jobs in the retail industry. Rethinking how you hire will help you tap into this applicant pool. What changes can you make?