Recruiting and Retaining the Very Best Store Associates

Like many industries, the retail business is currently experiencing a crisis of recruitment. According to Retail Dive, 90% of retailers are reporting significant talent shortages and the issue is now being compounded by the exodus of seasonal staff following the Christmas period.

It’s not hard to see why people are no longer finding the prospect of working in retail attractive. Throughout the COVID-19 crisis they will have witnessed millions of people able to work from home or engage in other less fixed roles such as courier work, while they were expected to continue as normal, facing the risk of infection, as well as the potential for abuse from less reasonable customers.

This means retailers need to rethink their recruitment and retention strategies if they want to fill those vacant roles and prevent their best people from looking over the garden fence to see if the grass is truly greener – or at least less infectious.

Recruitment

These are truly desperate times for the retail business, with some employers in the space even offering outlandish benefits to attract candidates to entry level store associate positions.

Mobile devices, substantial referral bonuses, and even college tuition reimbursement are among the enticing perks being offered. Once upon a time, benefits such as these would be expected for candidates applying for executive positions, which only serves to amplify the scale of the problem.

With more job openings than there are candidates to fill them, it is now their market, and they can afford to be pickier. Jobseekers today have elevated ideas of what to expect from an employer and those companies looking to fill their talent gaps need to be aware that candidates can effectively name their price.

"After over a year of constant change spurred by the pandemic, retailers now find themselves at war for talent – not just with their competitors or other service businesses, but with companies of all stripes that are seeking out staff in one of the tightest labor markets in recent memory," reports Oracle Retail.  "In an era where there are conceivably more job openings than people looking to fill them, the stakes are higher, and the field is more competitive than ever for would-be employers."

Employees are looking for more than simple compensation. They are seeking out brands with values and an ethical stance which matches their own, they are looking for additional perks such as those listed above, and they are searching for companies which treat their employees fairly.

These are all factors your brand needs to consider when carrying out a recruitment drive for new store associates.

Retention

In this shifted recruitment landscape and in the face of severe talent shortages, holding on to the staff you already have becomes even more critical than usual. Retailers have historically had high staff turnovers but can no longer afford to assume positions will be filled as quickly as they are vacated.

Retailers may be tempted to offer one-time incentives to keep staff on board, but this would be a mistake. Brands in the space need to take a holistic view of their entire operation and find ways to make its proposition to existing workers altogether more attractive. The last thing you want is for staff to stay purely for a transitory bonus as these staff will not be as engaged as those who are interested in a wholly improved workplace experience.

"Even fast-food operators are promising retention bonuses between $500 and $1,500 to attract new talent," sates Harvard Business Review. "While these approaches may be effective for filling vacant positions, they are unlikely to yield long-term employee engagement and high performance. Worse, these approaches might actually engender the "dysfunctional retention" of reluctant talent: an employee who prefers to leave but ends up staying and performing poorly."

While it’s true employers are desperate to fill positions, hiring and retaining the wrong people for the wrong reasons still has the power to do more harm than good to a brand. Making sure the workplace culture as a whole is a healthier and more attractive culture will make it more likely those serious about making a valuable continuation in exchange for fair compensation are drawn in.

Final Thoughts

The talent crisis is giving the retail business pause for thought, as well it should. However, brand in the space should resist the temptation to offer superficial on-time incentives and focus instead on making the entire workplace an attractive career proposition.

This way, retailers stand a better chance of weathering the storm, while retaining the absolute best people possible.

The retail talent crisis is set to be a hot topic at Future Stores Seattle 2022, taking place in July at The Sheraton, Seattle.

Download the agenda today for more information and insights.