Are you struggling to find retail candidates with the right skills and experience? You’re not alone. Nearly 7.5 million workers in the US retail space left their jobs in 2021, and now, employers are struggling to fill all those open positions. With unemployment at its lowest since before the pandemic, how can employers fill open positions and ensure they’re hiring the people most likely to stay on the job and be productive from day one?
AI technologies are a driving force in evolving retail interactions. They’re also essential to the solution for TA teams striving to engage, identify and advance retail candidates faster to snare the talent everyone wants to hire.
AI technologies that transform hiring
Retail recruiters are in a tricky position: Accelerated hiring is the goal, but you can’t gain speed at the expense of the candidate experience since retail applicants are often your loyal customers, too. It’s always a challenge to engage candidates with a great experience when you’re trying to fill hundreds of positions. Here are a few AI-enabled technologies that can help you strike the right balance between speed, efficiency, and the ideal candidate experience:
Text screening. With just a few clicks, invite hundreds or thousands of candidates to engage in a brief text interview with custom screening questions. The Modern Hire platform also offers an industry-leading text-based assessment to help predict turnover risk.
Automated screening. Our platform’s on-demand interviewing screening tools offer scalable candidate engagement. Candidates record their answers to your custom questions when it’s convenient for them. Then automatically advance candidates who meet your qualifications to the next stage.
Automated scheduling. What if you could remove the administrative tasks that take up too much of your recruiting teams’ time? What if, instead of playing phone tag with recruiters, candidates could schedule their interviews at a convenient time for them and your team. Automated scheduling with Modern Hire allows for precisely that. AI-enabled assistants also handle interview cancellations and rescheduling and send interview reminders. It happens in a simple, convenient, and mobile experience for candidates that speeds along retail hiring, especially with high-volume candidate pools.
Predictive intelligence and talent analytics. AI applications crunch the numbers and find emerging patterns that help TA teams better understand the critical characteristics of front-line associates and the criteria for an improved retail candidate experience. Armed with the data, hiring teams can make smarter hiring decisions.
Scientifically validated assessments. Hiring mistakes are costly and painful. Modern Hire’s science-based Virtual Job Tryout® simulation- and text-based assessment tools quickly measure competencies and the likelihood of staying on the job. No guessing or over-reliance on resumes. And candidates get to experience what the job is really like.
Unbiased candidate review. By masking candidates’ identifying information in on-demand interviews such as name, zip code, and area code, AI in retail hiring is enabling teams to reduce unconscious bias and zero in on candidates within large applicant pools who have the best sales demeanor, skill in handling customer complaints, and enthusiasm for the job.
Is Same-Day Hiring a Possibility for You?
With AI technologies’ speed and time savings, some in the retail industry have shifted to same-day hiring. The value of this innovative strategy is clear, especially when retail managers own the hiring for their store. If you’re interested in pursuing same-day hiring in your organization, read Modern Hire’s Retail Hiring Blueprints. Find out how an AI-enabled hiring solution can support your transformation to faster, fairer, and more candidate-centric hiring.
