I’ve had a lot of cool jobs. While CEO is up there on the list, my favorite? Retail Associate. Yes, I worked retail – and I loved it. Especially during holiday season. I worked at American Eagle. I was a sales and folding machine – the two key components to being successful at a clothing store. In fact, I almost took a job in retail instead of going to college.
What I loved most about it was the sense of completion. You know when a jean wall is full, the stock is unboxed, and the registers are cashed out. There’s a sense of satisfaction that comes with a job where you aren’t constantly setting the next goal or taking work home.
The best/worst time of the year? Holiday season and seasonal hiring. It made the joy of completion feel like a hard task to achieve. There I was – the year-round employee – surrounded by people we had to teach to catch up. And quickly. Typically we were hiring these folks in herds with only 60 days until our busiest time of year. It was hard to get pipeline and hire great people – and this is before companies could spend a bunch of money to run ads.
Stats: Seasonal Hiring Will Not Make You Feel Merry
I don’t envy the folks trying to figure out holiday hiring this year. This year, retailers are expected to add around 575,000 to 650,000 seasonal positions, according to a forecast by the National Retail Federation (NRF). This is a slight increase from previous years for an already tough job to fill that includes long hours, nights, and weekends.
I did this kind of hiring in 2007 and it was tough to hire. Costs were rising. Fears of instability were rampant. It’s not that different from now. Today, employers are trying to find a wage that competes with inflation and meets rising living costs. Job seekers have to prioritize the stability of higher wages, guaranteed hours, and better benefits. Inevitably, that means talent pools for seasonal hiring are shrinking.
Retailers, in turn, have to do something. While adding a couple bucks to the hourly rate wouldn’t hurt anything, standing out in this crowded market is going to take more than putting the pay in the salary or using the highlight text feature on your Indeed job ad. There are a lot of jobs out there and few stand out. That ain’t it.
5 Ways You Can Stand Out In High-Volume Hiring
The problem right now is that recruiters at these companies are either getting an insane amount of applicants (with only some qualified) or they’re getting applicants that are all unqualified. Neither are going to help with that hiring goal. That’s why I recommend taking some steps to stand out before it’s too late to fill these roles this fall. And no, I’m not going to tell you to have a referral program. Duh.
- Change the marketing job title. That’s the job title you use to post the job. Whenever people tell me they aren’t getting qualified candidates, this is the first thing to do. Make sure it’s being found by using an accurate, searchable job title. Advice on how to pick that job title and my free AI job title generator here.
- Write a job post that stands out. If your post starts with something about an “exciting opportunity,” it’s time to go back to the drawing board. At a minimum – make sure you’re setting expectations about hours, salary, and the work. Need help? We can knock this out together in a 1-hour session. Let’s talk.
- On-the-spot interviews. Talk to everyone who comes in about if they’re looking for a job and train your on-site team to offer on-the-spot interviews. Create a space for people to fill out applications. It might feel old school, but you can cut time to fill in half by removing the phone tag element. No one answers their phones now anyway.
- Dig into pipelines. Figure out what everyone has in common and target that. For example, the majority of folks come from 1 college or have another part time job as a waitress. Then, find ways to segment that audience.
- Hit up your old applicants. There’s a gold mine sitting in most organizations that they never touch: the people that already applied. Retarget, reengage, and rehire old employees and applicants.