By Tony DeMasi, editor
ithin a few years, retailing is going to have a serious personnel
problem. No personnel. Market watchers predict that
attracting and maintaining good, young employees will be a
challenge. Some of the problem will be the classic law of
supply and demand - fewer people for many jobs. The Bureau of Labor
Statistics estimates that the United States will face a labor shortfall of 10
million workers by 2010, when it could have an unemployment rate of 2 percent.
The 500 largest United States companies can expect to lose half of
their senior managers in the next five years.
Some of the problem will be retailing. To many young people, retailing is
not an area of interest career wise. When it comes to careers, less than a
third of college graduates think retailing has a good reputation, says the
National Retail Federation.
With fewer young people willing to consider entry-level retail jobs, there
is a dearth of qualified and experienced retail executives. Retailing, as we
know it today, can be uninviting to top talent due to long hours, a lot of
stress, and little money in comparison to what can be earned in other professions.
After all, every profession will face the same personnel shortage
problem and will be competing for the same talent. Packaged deals, perks
and promises of future advancement will have to be part of the hiring program.
Let them know they are working for a business, not a “store.” Show
them that they have entered a career of variety and adventure.
Follow the lead of some major retailers, including Macy’s, JC Penney’s
and Wal-Mart. Create new, challenging recruitment, training and retention
strategies. Create training programs that include showing new employees
what the company has to offer in terms of advancement as well as benefits.
Introduce new employees to senior management. Create lines of communication
and mentoring. Too often new employees think that retailing is a
dead end job. Prove to them that they are wrong.
Start recruiting early. Find, cultivate and nurture the future stars before
raiding, or being raided by, the competition. Work with high schools, junior
colleges, colleges and job training schools. Create co-op programs with
their marketing and management classes. Give these students real work to
do; they are not free or low-cost menial workers. Giving them real tasks, tangible
rewards, senior-management support and a bit of autonomy may yield
convincing results and spur retention.
At first, the students work for you part time in exchange for school credit
and experience. If you find certain students to be exceptional, hire him or her
on the spot by promising a full-time job upon graduation. Sign a contract so
the student cannot go elsewhere unless you agree to it. After all, you don’t
want to train a would-be great future employee for some other company.
Research reports show that retailers who have gone the school-job route
have high retention with new employees, as many as 80 percent of such students
will take the jobs offered. They will work their way through executive
level training programs, too.
If taking such action is too major a task for you,
then start recruiting from within. Employees know
friends and relatives that would make great employees.
Give current employees incentives to help you
recruit new talent. Ask customers, too. Often customers
make the best employees because they
already know the store and appreciate the merchandise.
Act now. Waiting for graduation or for some
great new employee to wander in the door out of
the blue is going to leave you short handed in more
ways than one.
Retrain current employees, too. Keep them fresh
with information and ideas. The last thing you want
is for a seasoned, exceptional employee to be wooed
away by a competitor.
Think outside the box in your marketing methods
too.
Put a job application on your Web site.
Anyone under 30 is probably more comfortable
completing such things electronically than filling
out actual paperwork.
Invite prospective employees to apply. Visit
your competitors and scope out their best people.
The most important thing you can do to increase
sales and have more satisfied customers is to have a
great staff.
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