Introduction
Do you consider yourself a Recruiting Superhero? If you are in retail, this is a super power you need in order to deliver superior customer experiences day in and day out.
A Look Back at our Talent Series
Over the past 5 weeks, we have been talking about Talent. Hopefully you have been following along and have (1) Plotted your team on the Bell Curve (2) Polished up your skills in Confidently giving Feedback (3) Explored how to have a Leadership Pipeline of Talent by understanding what is required when promoting someone from being an Individual Contributor to Managing Others (Passage 1) and then we reviewed the common pitfalls of moving from Managing Others to Managing Managers (Passage 2).
Gearing up for Spring with Recruiting
Now that you have a pulse on your team, we need to cover one last important topic on Talent, Recruiting.
Recruiting top talent takes a combination of commitment and fervor. A good recruiter knows the names of the managers in every store in their mall or market, at least the ones who are relevant to your brand. They know their team, their history and their goals. Does this sound like a lot of work? Are you wondering where you get the time to get to know all these people? It is simple. You make the time.
The Alternatives
If this sounds too time consuming, let’s review the alternatives. (They aren’t good):
- One option is to react every time someone quits unexpectedly resulting in working long hours covering shifts while trying to find someone.
- Settling might even happen because of the desperation to just hire someone so that you can have a day off. Has this ever happened to you? It has happened to all of us. We just don’t want to admit it.
True Sad Story
I talked to one retailer during the Christmas holidays about their staffing needs and they admitted at one point they were so desperate, they were looking for a warm body to fill the shifts. Before you get judgy wudgy, ask yourself, has this ever been me? Could this ever be me? I hope you will commit right now that this will never be you. Why? Because you are going to become a super recruiter.
True Happy Story
When I was a District Manager for BBW, I had a list of managers in every mall I had stores in. I met them personally and only the ones with standards that matched my own made it onto my list. I used a template just like this. (It can also be found on my Resources Page).
When I had an opening, I already knew who I was going to approach about the position. I couldn’t afford to settle, ever. I was the DM in the Columbus market where the BBW headquarters is located. On any given day, you had any number of executives in your stores. But the truth is, I didn’t hone my skills for them. I honed them for my customers. I wanted every customer who shopped in each of my stores to have a consistently great experience. That was only happening with talent in every store. I made hiring mistakes, we all have. But having a robust list of potential candidates soothed the pain of the mistakes. I was the top ranking DM and one year even won $10,000 for my ranking! Top talent wins you the top spot in your company. I am living proof. Many of you are living proof too.
Recruiting Strategies
Here are a few recruitment strategies to help you immediately fine tune your recruiting skills so you can captivate job seekers, create a memorable first impression of your company and successfully hire top candidates.
What is a recruiting strategy?
A recruiting strategy is a plan of action to successfully identify, recruit and hire high-quality candidates.
The How-to’s
These are basic starting points that can help you attract the talent you need.
- Mark time on your work schedule weekly to walk your mall and get to know 4-5 managers. Track it on your recruiting log.
- After a couple months of doing this every week, you will likely know most of the relevant managers in your center.
- Review your list and determine who is a potential candidate. Make it a point to walk through potential candidates stores on different days/times to see what the customer experience is like. If it is consistently good, talk to them, offer to have coffee and get to know them.
- Here is a sample conversation. “Hi Sarah! Not sure if you remember me? I am the (SM/DM) for (Brand). My visits to your store have impressed me with the service, standards (whatever is relevant). I am looking for high caliber super stars to work with me at my company, X Brand. Is this something that might interest you? I would love to chat for a few minutes and tell you more about it?” There, that was it! Like any skill, feeling confident recruiting takes practice.
Your log should fill up pretty quickly. Don’t write anything derogatory on it. It’s meant to simply track names of people you might want to recruit in the future. If you visit a store that doesn’t meet your expectations, just write the store name down and write the date you visited the store.
No Talent in your Mall?
What if you have worked your mall and haven’t found talent? Consider the following:
- Talk to the top talent on your team. Ask who they know who you should get to know.
- Have your eyes open everywhere you go and carry business cards with you. The super awesome guy at the coffee shop? Get his name and call him to see what his Career interests are. He may not want to work at the coffee shop forever. You may not need to hire retail experience, what about looking for personality, competencies and work ethic? You can train the rest.
Time to Jump In
If you are already a Recruiting Super Hero, share this post with someone who should develop the skill.
Haven’t spent time recruiting lately? There is no time like the present to start!
I am rooting for you,
If you like this post, click LIKE below and share with a friend!