Wednesday, June 2, 2010

Recruit Staff from Your Shoppers

As the economy picks up, will you be ready to replace employees who accept jobs elsewhere or go back to school? Now is the time to start building your list of candidates. If you wait until there’s an immediate need for new faces, you’re likely to have to settle for lower quality than you should have on the selling floor, at the cash registers, and in the back office.
     When retailers run low on suitable candidates, they’ll often ask current employees to recommend their family and friends. That can work out well. For instance, there are family-run businesses in which obligations to family keep everyone in line. But if you depend on employees’ families and friends as your recruitment pool, there’s the potential for problems. If you hire a family member of a highly competent employee, your less competent employees are likely to ask why their son, mother, or cousin wasn’t hired. If one family member needs to be disciplined or fired, what happens to the job performance of their relatives and old high school buddies still working for you?
     On the other hand, people who shop frequently in your store can turn out to be excellent employees. They know the store well, and your staff have had an opportunity to interact with them. Your frequent shoppers are also members of your store’s community who will praise your store and defend it against criticism.
     Being a frequent shopper is by no means enough to qualify as an excellent hire. But here is an excellent source for people you’ll screen. Do you have at least one sign in your store that reads something like, “We’re a great place to shop, aren’t we? We’re also a great place to work. Please ask for a job application if you’d like to learn more.”

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