Retail surgery: Effective recruitment

It’s not surprising that this is a common problem throughout many retail businesses. Often, head office itself lacks an overview of how customer demand varies from week to week and across the year, so how can store managers be expected to recruit store workers for the most appropriate number of hours?

Peak footfall – and thus the time at which most staff are needed on the shopfloor – varies not only according to the type of retailer but from store to store. While many store managers work to a traditional full-time/part-time mix for their store staff, this can easily be changed with guidance from head office. If they’ve never been advised of the difference a more tailored recruitment strategy can make why should they change their approach?

WorkPlace Systems product director Gordon Gilkison says: “Head office needs to define in the first instance exactly what each store’s recruitment strategy should be.” Equally, store managers need to be given autonomy so that they can work out the best shifts to offer as a vacancy, adds Gilkison, given the variance in peak times from one store to another.

If retailers devote more time to recognising the importance of staff scheduling and helping store managers recruit more effectively, it not only improves service levels but saves money. At a time when retailers need to cut staffing costs wherever possible, many will discover there are opportunities to reduce the number of unnecessary staff hours during off-peak times, too.