September 17, 2007 “It’s the Most Wonderful Time…?” By Janet Dean, President, Advance Corporate Training Ltd. Christmas is coming. Scared? You should be. Have you even begun thinking about your store’s Halloween displays and promotions? Christmas is coming. Worried? You are not alone. December comprises a huge chunk of the retail industry’s annual sales. Christmas is coming. Concerned? It’s understandable. Understaffing during the holiday season could make or break your entire year. Okay, enough with the dramatics. But seriously, if you have not yet started planning how you will recruit reinforcements for the holiday season, you may already be behind the eightball. Adding temporary employees in December has almost become as much of a holiday tradition as Boxing Day shopping. Most of these temporary employees are students – both in high school and post secondary – that are looking to make some extra cash during the semester break. These students are not exactly picky when it comes to where they want to work, so the battle for their services can be intense. How can you get an edge above well, everyone, when it comes to hiring these holiday heroes? Go Back to School Nowadays it seems like students, especially those attending college and university, spend just as much time at school as they do at home…so go to school! Many schools have job boards, where you can post your advertisement for little or no charge. Include as much detail as possible as well as clear contact information to ensure you achieve maximum interest. You can also attend school job fairs or advertise in school papers, which are much cheaper than other papers that target students. Hit the Net Students spend an amazing amount of time surfing the Internet on social networking websites such as MySpace and Facebook. These free sites give you an excellent way to reach students; simply create an account and start searching for prospective employees. Offer Incentives Imagine you are student. What sounds better to you, $500 or “Successful applicants will receive one course’s tuition!” Nowadays a typical post-secondary course costs about $500, meaning you will not end up paying any more than if you were to simply offer the same amount in a cash bonus. Would you pay $500 if it guaranteed you a quality employee over the holidays? No? Well the store next to you just did and you are still looking at being understaffed during the busiest time of the year. Look Inside Thyself Odds are you already have some employees. Offer them $500 if they can refer a friend that can work during the holidays. If your employees cannot think of someone off the top of their head, they are likely to log in to their MySpace account to find someone! These four tips can lead you to staffing success, but what if you do not have the resources to visit campuses or give away $500 per employee? In fact, problems attracting employees during the holiday season can be a continuation of challenges you face during the rest of the year. This can be understandable – after all, you are a retail manager, not a human resources manager. You may need a much broader solution, such as training on how to recruit younger employees. However you go about hiring your staff this holiday season, remember to look at your store and your position from the eyes of the students looking to make money to pay for their textbooks for the spring semester. Unless you enjoy exhausting yourself by working double shifts as you cover for your store’s inadequate staffing levels. Christmas is coming. If you think you need to learn the skills and strategies required for recruiting quality employees, the Retail PEAK course Recruiting and Retaining Top Talent is designed for store managers. Visit www.retailpeak.com for a list of upcoming courses or www.actraining.com to find out how Janet can customize a solution for your recruitment challenges. To reach Janet directly or suggest a topic for a future column, email her at dean@actraining.com.
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