The holiday retail hiring season is coming up quickly, but this year’s outlook is hard to predict with the labor market fully engulfed in a workforce shortage, and the continued uncertainty of a potential pandemic resurge this fall. U.S retailers added 67,000 jobs in June, giving recruiters a taste of what might come for retail hiring in Q3. Many brand names have already raised starting wages for retail positions as an incentive to sign on, but it will take more to staff stores for the season with quality associates.
Improving retail recruitment with hiring technology
Though retail is known for innovating with leading-edge technology in its business processes and the consumer experience, the same can’t always be said for retail hiring. Automated assessments and video interviewing are steps in the right direction to fix outdated recruiting methods. However, in this “new normal,” there is a need to invest beyond point solutions. End-to-end process improvement is required for the faster, highly agile hiring workflows retail recruiters must have to engage and hire enough qualified talent. Modern Hire’s Hiring Blueprints are the template for that improved process.
Hiring Blueprints for retail recruitment
Modern Hire’s Retail Hiring Blueprints help recruiters take candidates smoothly through the hiring cycle from when they apply for a retail position. Hiring Blueprints are recommended workflows built around scientifically validated, job-specific assessment and interview content. They help recruiters identify qualified candidates with more precision while engaging them in a hiring experience that feels personal. Hiring Blueprints are available for these retail roles:
- Retail Store Associate
- Retail Sales Associate
- Manager
- District Manager
- Retail Clerk/Cashier
- Retail Grocery Associate
- Restaurant Manager
Each Blueprint is job-specific. Some core competencies are common across many retail roles, including works efficiently, pursues excellence, and reliability.
Solving Retail Recruitment Challenges
Hiring Blueprints leverage Modern Hire’s science-based virtual hiring platform to enable retail recruiters to hire the quality candidates most likely to stay on the job and be productive on day one. The platform integrates artificial intelligence (AI), predictive analytics, workflow automation, assessment, and interviewing technology to solve retail recruitment challenges by:
- Predicting candidates’ on-the-job success and turnover risk. Integrated pre-hire assessments measure the competencies Modern Hire’s team of industrial-organizational (IO) and data scientists have identified as predictive of success in retail roles using the deepest and broadest talent intelligence in the market. Recruiters can use these virtual assessments early in the hiring process to gain deeper insight at scale into their candidate pool.
- Shortening the high-volume hiring cycle. Faster job offers to the best candidates are fundamental in the retail recruiting environment. Modern Hire enables retail recruiters to get to the job offer stage faster with a combined assessment and interview experience and automated steps in the retail recruitment process.
- Creating personal, brand-forward hiring experiences. Retail candidates typically have many job options. Every stage of the Modern Hire workflow gives candidates personal insight into the opportunity to envision their future with the organization. When candidates are choosing between similar job offers, that emotional connection can be the deciding factor.
- Reducing bias in retail recruitment. Modern Hire’s AI-powered platform reduces bias in candidate selection, enabling retail recruiters to use objective data to drive hiring decisions. The Hiring Blueprints also standardize retail recruiting. The result is a fairer hiring process for all candidates.
- Empowering retail store managers. Modern Hire provides retail store managers with ready-to-go hiring plans for various retail roles and the advanced virtual tools to manage hiring efficiently and effectively. With Modern Hire, they can select the candidates most likely to perform confidently and stay on the job.
Driving ROI with better retail recruitment
Every unfilled retail position represents missed sales opportunities and risk to the retail brand. Modern Hire is proven to improve ROI on bottom-line metrics such as new hire productivity and retention while ensuring retail candidates have multiple opportunities to present themselves well. With Modern Hire’s high configurability and scalability, you’re well prepared for whatever this holiday hiring season brings. Like to know more? Check out this retail recruitment case study.