Time to Recruit the Elves: Hiring Temps For The Holidays

– Don Capman, President, J.D. Associates

The other day while reading my NRF newsletter, I came across a quote worth sharing by Arthur Glaskow, author and humorist, “One of the tests of leadership is the ability to recognize a problem before it becomes an emergency.” Of course we can’t anticipate everything but there are things in the retail arena that are clearly predictable yet often ignored until it’s too late to do anything about them. Unfortunately, bad or inadequate planning can be very costly. So, I’ll ask you a question: Have you started planning your temporary staffing for the upcoming holidays yet? If the answer is “yes”, congratulations, but I fear you might be in the minority. If your answer is “no”, now is the time to start the process. Considering that most retailers make 80% of their annual sales between the end of November and the beginning of January,  poor staffing can result in substantial losses.

Consider this scenario. It’s Black Friday and most of America has taken the day off and stuffed their pockets with credit cards and cash.  As money is tight because of high energy costs and tightening credit, most Americans are on a holiday spending budget. They only have so much moolah to spend, and they’re going to be very cautious. You, the retailer, are ready for the long awaited onslaught. You have spent the last six months buying what you think will be hot this year and your store is decorated to the nines. Because it’s one of the busiest shopping days of the year, you decided to keep the store open from 7:00 a.m. to midnight. To insure a good turnout, you mailed  out coupons to your customer database offering time-limited special incentives to spend their discretionary dollars in your store. WOW! You think you covered all the bases. Oh, you also hired a few extra people last week to work the sales floor just in case it gets busy. Well, the big day is finally here, and you open the doors at 7:00 a.m. You have all of your full-time staff and all of the temps you hired last week. 11:00 a.m. comes around, and you have hardly seen a customer. Your sales force is overdosed on caffeine, and you start getting the heebie-jeebies as you look at all of the dollars you are paying  these people while no one is coming into the store. At noon, you decide that the day is probably going to be a “bust”, and you send your top three sales associates home to rest up for the real shopping days. By 3:00 p.m. the shoppers arrive after ravaging the malls. They’re tired of crowds, poor service, and, worse yet, they’re crabby. You sent your 3 best sales associates home early and you’re left with untrained and unknowledgeable temps to provide service to the angry crowds. Now, you tell me, what do you think is going to happen?

Improper planning for the sales force can spell doom for your busiest season. When is the best time to start planning for your staffing? NOW! Here are several suggestions on how to handle this process.

1. DEVELOP A JOB DESCRIPTION – Articulate your expectations on paper. Make it very clear when the holiday temp position will start and end. Describe the type of personality you want to recruit and tell the prospectiveapplicant why they would want to work in your store. Specify the compensation and any other benefits derived from the job such as commissions, bonuses, and employee discounts. You might even consider a nominal signing bonus. By fully describing the position and the benefits, you will increase the pool of potential applicants.
2. DESIGN AN ATTRACTIVE HANDOUT FOR YOUR COUNTER – Ideally, you want to hire people who are interested in your store. When a customer makes a purchase, slip a handout with the job description in their bag. Because many customers would never be interested in working in your store, print a coupon on the back side of the handout to give it a more “newlettery” look. In other words, “kill two birds with one stone”.
3. POST THE POSITION ON YOUR STORE WEB SITE – If you have a web site for your store,  make sure to include the opening on a prominent page. People who visit your web site are proactively interested in your store and may be great candidates or may know someone who is looking for a temporary position during the holidays.
4. POST YOUR OPENING ON A COMMUNITY BULLETIN BOARD – Where do people tend to gather in your community? Take your job posting and pin it up on a community bulletin board. Make sure the posting reflects the “branding” of your store and is attractive enough to draw attention. State very clearly what people need to do to successfully apply.
5. POST THE OPENING IN A NEARBY SCHOOL – High schools, junior colleges, and colleges are usually more than happy to accept a job posting that will give their students the opportunity to make some money during the holidays. These institutions may also have job fairs where you can interview prospects right on campus. There may also be an opportunity to become a guest lecturer in a business class where you can talk about retail.
6. HIRE PEOPLE YOU LIKE – Recruit people who will fit easily into the culture of your store and who will enhance the coworker and customer experience. You can teach people about your products, but you can’t improve their “likeability”. Leave that to a psychotherapist.
7. CHECK OUT THE REFERENCES – Have all prospects fill out an employment application and provide you with at least 3 references. If possible, these references should be past professional supervisors but could also be a teacher who could attest to their work ethic.  Call the references personally, describe the position to the reference and ask them why they think the candidate would be good for the position. This may sound like a lot of work for just a temp position but, keep in mind, you need them to perform attheir best during the most important time of the year.
8. OFFER TRAINING BEFORE THEY BEGIN WORK – If you hire your temps now, even if they don’t start until the holidays, offer some training on your merchandise and/or selling techniques. If your temps are in college and live at a distance, pick out some web sites thatthey can visit and prepare ahead for employment. Pre-work training keeps them excited, involved, and can provide them with a great head start prior to their employment.
9. PROVIDE SOME INCENTIVES THROUGHOUT THE SEASON –  You know and I know that the retail holiday work schedule can be pure hell. Try to make it fun.  Buy donuts and coffee in the morning. Treat people to pizza once in a while. Have contests where your salespeople can win a prize or a bonus based on specific performance. You need to keep people energized,  excited and smiling.
10. INVITE YOUR GOOD TEMPS BACK – If you had a good experience with your temp help, invite them back when you feel you are going to need extra help. Don’t reinvent the wheel. It is very costly to hire and train new people.

Buying the right merchandise, pricing it right and properly displaying it is critical to successful retail. But you can’t afford to forget the people who have to sell the merchandise. Don’t wait until the last minute until you’re scrambling for ‘warm bodies’ to stand around your sales floor and turn customers away. Start to prepare now and pick a winning team thatcan help you exceed all of your expectations.