RETAIL RECRUITING TRENDS

RETAIL RECRUITING TRENDS2014

1RETAIL LANDSCAPE IN CANADAINTRODUCTION

The Foundry powered by Monster.ca1 Intro | Retail Landscape in Canada

A fascinating industry. The glam of the designers and the dedicated love from consumers. Brands are spending millions to attract clients to their stores, leveraging diverse marketing strategies to stand out from their competitors. Once the customers are in the store, they expect a certain level of service, furthering the brand experience through the interaction with the actual product or service and the staff itself. This exemplifies the importance of hiring the right people to represent the brand. Yet, the retail industry is facing critical recruitment challenges on many fronts. So what are retailers doing? The Foundry, Monster.ca’s digital agency, did a national survey of Canadian retailers to understand their reality. Let’s see what they had in store for us!

Retail has a major impact from a socio-economic

perspective and this is evidenced by different key

statistics. Consider that the retail segment is the

largest employer in Canada with 11.5% of

total employment among all sectors. This accounts for 1.91 million workers, up from 1.82 million in 2006. In addition, more retail jobs were posted online than any other industry segment in 2011.

There are almost 197,000 retail establishments

across the country and this is expected to increase. The construction of new space is up and aging shopping centres are getting makeovers, which point to how sought after and dynamic the retail market is in Canada.

Retail sales reached $473 million in 2011. In

June of this year, retail sales increased 3.1% over the same month in the previous year. Showing a

positive trend, retail sales year-over-year (YoY) averaged 4.5% from 1992 to 2013.

Our American counterparts

are investing in Canada. Both luxury goods and discount retailers are planning to increase their presence, including Target and Wal-Mart.

High-end department store Nordstrom will open up its first

Canadian location in Calgary in the fall of 2014 with four more locations planned

thereafter. Hudson’s Bay, who recently purchased Saks, is planning to open as many as 32 locations in Canada. Marshalls entered the Canadian market in 2012 in the Greater Toronto area (GTA) and is planning six more stores this year.

Retail.

The Foundry powered by Monster.ca 2Intro | Retail Landscape in Canada

This new crop of American retailers in Canada will not only increase the competition in terms of selling

to consumers, but also in vying for talent. Retailers

have always had a challenge in attracting and

retaining talent as they compete with their

peers and other industry sectors. They now

face increasing pressure from international

players entering the Canadian retail landscape.

Furthermore, recruiting in and of itself has changed dramatically over the years. The retail industry must adapt quickly to address the increasingly mobile, social, technology and video savvy candidate pool and entice them to apply for a position using current and emerging methods.

Retail Recruiting Challenge

Retail Methods and Seeker Behaviour

Monster conducted a national survey to ascertain how retailers are currently recruiting at the store level, including what methods, tools and processes are generally used and preferred. The results highlighted the differences as well as opportunities for retailers to reach their different candidate segments and how to increase effectiveness by leveraging known seeker behaviour to optimize the recruitment process.

Retailers need to consider seeker behaviour

to understand how best to connect with them, what entices them to apply for a position, and provide a positive recruitment experience.

Recruiting Trends

The Foundry

Good customer service is the lifeblood of any business so hiring the right staff to provide the level of service required to make customers happy is critical. In retail, the employees are literally the face of the brand. Hiring managers, store managers and recruiters play a crucial role and they must be able to communicate their employer brand effectively and eloquently to explain why their offer stands apart from the others. It is imperative they leverage the many communication channels available today to reach these candidates. Furthermore, the messaging has

This white paper was produced by The Foundry, Monster.ca’s Digital Agency, to share the results from its national retail recruitment survey and provide some key trends in this sector to help retailers improve their talent management strategies.

to adapt to the candidates they are targeting, their interests, their lifestyle, and their communication methods. In addition to proven recruiting methods like job postings and strong careers site, both social media and mobile are important integral components in all retail recruitment strategies.

2SURVEYHOW ARE CANADIAN RETAILERS RECRUITING?

The Foundry powered by Monster.ca4 Survey | How are Canadian Retailers Recruiting?

Monster conducted a national survey to determine which recruitment methods were most popular amongst retail chains in Canada. The retailers in this survey had multiple locations, with a minimum of three stores across the country. Many of the popular brands with a strong local and international presence were interviewed for this survey.

Survey Methodology

Walk Right into Your Retail Career

The Foundry visited 67 stores across Canada and a whopping 75% of them preferred walk-ins. Managers favour meeting the candidate in person to ascertain almost immediately if there is a potential fit between the seeker and the brand.

Most of the stores were in central locations, on busy shopping streets or malls and thus benefited from

a great deal of walk-in traffic. This explains the high number of retailers, 94% relying on walk-ins as a key recruitment option.

The survey was conducted in person and in actual store locations from the East to the West Coast, usually speaking to the store manager or assistant manager. The following four questions were asked:

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How do you receive your resumés?

a. Walk-ins b. Online – corporate website & other sites c. Corporate – head office is involved in varying degrees d. Job fairs

Which method do you prefer?

Is anything done in particular for the holidays?

Do you have internet in the store?

Stores surveyed are located in:

Montreal, QC

Pointe-Claire, QC

Joliette, QC

Mascouche, QC

Laval, QC

Ottawa, ON

Toronto, ON

Vancouver, BC

The Foundry powered by Monster.ca 5Survey | How are Canadian Retailers Recruiting?

WALK-INS ARE CLEARLY THE MOST

PREFERRED AND USED METHOD FOR

RECRUITING RETAIL STAFF AT THE

MOMENT. YET, THERE IS A CLEAR

TREND THAT EMPLOYERS ARE LOOKING

FOR BETTER WAYS TO FACILITATE THE

COLLECTION OF INFORMATION FROM

THE APPLICANT.

Most retailers utilized multiple methods to recruit employees for their store locations with walk-ins being the most popular, that is 94% of stores using this approach. Online came in second with 37% of the stores employing some form of online recruitment, whether through their website, posting jobs on different sites, etc. Online is becoming more and more popular as retailers seek to optimize the recruitment process to hire the best talent as quickly and efficiently as possible for their in-store positions. And it remains the number one option for corporate roles.

A number of store managers commented that they did not have the time to look through a stack of resumes and would prefer focusing on providing customer service and generating sales. They also mentioned that any tools that would facilitate the online application process and offer screening questions would be of great value to them. The most popular recruiting techniques used by retailers were:

1. Walk-ins 94%

2. Online 37%

3. Corporate Office 24%

4. Job Fairs 9%

5. Other 7%

(The percentages add up to more than 100% as many retailers used more than one method to recruit staff.)

Most candidates leave a printed resume although some retailers request seekers to also complete a standard form to help process applications more quickly. In all cases, it is a manual time-consuming method. Store managers mentioned the large piles of resumes that they kept on hand and flipped through to find store staff.Any method to improve this process would benefit both seekers and employers alike. By leveraging today’s technology and understanding the seeker profile, retailers should implement seamless, fast, user-friendly tools to collect the most critical information, such as the candidate’s contact info, retail experience and availability to work (days and hours).

RESULTSof the stores prefer walk-ins

of the stores use walk-ins as a recruitment method

The Foundry powered by Monster.ca6 Survey | How are Canadian Retailers Recruiting?

More Recruitment Options

Online

Online was used 22% of the time, with retailers most commonly receiving resumes from their website and job boards. Generally, head office (corporate) forwards these resumes to local stores. Only a couple of the stores post job openings directly on other sites, such as Craigslist and Kijiji.

Interestingly enough, in a number of cases,

stores preferred that candidates apply online as they felt it was easier and were too busy to look at resumes. This finding points to the trend that online recruitment will increase in importance as it improves efficiencies for both retailers and candidates alike. Seekers like to research the companies they want to work for online, so offering the possibility to apply quickly will increase the retailer’s ability to attract talent. Also, mobile usage is exploding. If candidates can apply through their Smartphone or tablet, even while in the store, managers can quickly assess the seeker and process the application. The candidates benefit from a

positive experience that suits them better because of their lifestyle and the ways they normally communicate throughout the day.

One store manager mentioned that they

strongly recommend that seekers complete the online assessment as it helps determine if there is a fit between the candidate and the retail position open. This could be tied into an online recruitment strategy as an automatic filter to further improve the process and convert the right candidates to applicants.

Online becomes even more important for

stores that do not have a great deal of walk-

ins as it is the most effective way to reach potential employees. A strong employer brand, combined with an attractive career site, an easy and fast application process, as well as an effective mobile and social media presence, helps retailers become the employer of choice, and thus hiring more of the right people when resources are required. Furthermore, the consumer brand should be leveraged to facilitate recruiting when the retailer has a strong recognizable one that can draw in people.

The Foundry powered by Monster.ca 7Survey | How are Canadian Retailers Recruiting?

Hiring for the Holidays

Internet Usage

Only a quarter of the shops (27%)

organize special activities to hire more staff

for the holiday season. Generally, they just look at the pile of resumes that they have in the store and contact the seekers directly. In some cases, the number of staff remains the same and additional hours are distributed amongst the current employees.

Considering that less than half the stores (46%) have access to internet, it is not surprising that walk-ins is the most leveraged method. It is a level playing field with most retailers competing for staff in the same way. But since they are vying for the same talent, the competition is fierce. Employers can use different strategies, both offline and online (mobile, website, social), to differentiate themselves from the pack and thus attract seekers to their retail locations.

Corporate Office

Job Fairs

Stores deal with their corporate office 14% of the time when hiring staff for their locations. Usually, the head office forwards the appropriate resumes they received via their applicant tracking system or online campaigns to the store. A couple of the retail chains mentioned that the head office filtered the resumes more in-depth and at times did the initial interview as well.

A distinction was made for management

positions as head office was normally responsible for filling these types of roles both at the corporate and store level.

Job fairs are often used when a massive hiring spree is required. Whether trying to attract applicants

for a particular store or for multiple locations in that region, most retailers opt to have a job fair in the actual store.

3JOB SEEKERUNDERSTANDING THE RETAIL JOB SEEKER

The Foundry powered by Monster.ca9 Job Seeker | Understanding the Retail Job Seeker

The Retail job seekers are everywhere. They come from all different backgrounds, with diverse profiles, degrees of education, career paths and expectations. The largest group employed in this sector are in the 25 to 54 year-old age bracket. The youngest age demographic is attractive to retailers because of their willingness to work part-time. More and more, retail employers rely on the 55+ age group for their experience, stability and scheduling availability.

Who are They?

How do Seekers Look for Jobs in Retail?

The younger demographic is an excellent target for mobile solutions. They live and breathe with their cell phones. The best way to interact with them, while leveraging this natural behavior, is to connect through mobile, while they are browsing. Having a mobile corporate website is a necessity today. Leveraging job boards through mobile apps is also a big plus. Don’t forget about social... Start a conversation with the Millenials.

Be a part of their daily lives. 15-24

Percentage of retail employees per age group

The Foundry powered by Monster.ca Job Seeker | Understanding the Retail Job Seeker 10

Top 3 Considerations

Don’t forget to mention career advancement, flexibility, as well as work and life balance if they are part of your company culture. These are the top three elements taken into consideration by retail job seekers when making a decision to work at your store.

25-54

55+

Is signage a must have? The answer is yes. For the job seekers aged 25 to 54 job seekers, searching for a retail job means looking for signage at the mall. They are ready to carry hard copies of their resumés and have a chat on the fly. Knowing this, retail employers should invest in enticing, relevant and up-to-date signage. It is an extension of the brand and part of the application experience. Retailers should also let applicants know from the get-go if they need to provide specific information such as the days and times they are available to work, years of retail experience, etc. Every seeker loves to be prepared. And of course, social and mobile are important for this segment as well.

For the 55+ segment, retailers get the most traction by

advertising in local papers and posting in-store signage. NETendances 2013 indicated that this group is adopting social networks at a steady pace, increasing from 58.9 % in 2012 to 73.9

% in 2013. Social media is becoming a strategic choice for this group as well, underscoring the importance for the retailers to engage seekers through these networks as well.

Work and life balanceCareer advancement Flexibility

4TRENDSRETAIL RECRUITING TRENDS TO CONSIDER

The Foundry powered by Monster.caTrends | Retail Recruiting Trends to Consider12

For many, retail is an entry point into the world of employment; however, when it comes to searching for a long-term career, retail is rarely top of mind. In a new research study conducted by the National Retail

Federation (NRF) 80% of those aged 18 to 24

do not pursue a career in the retail industry.

While the retail industry offers a vast array of career opportunities, there has been little done to change the perception that it is “just for students”. That is starting to change. Employers like Staples, HBC and CARA are showcasing the rewards of a career in the retail industry. Organizations like NRF are also working to change this perception by showcasing the stories of successful people who have a career in retail on their site thisisretail.org and through various media campaigns.

Retail is steadily becoming a conscious choice

for many people. As an international industry that is constantly evolving, financially rewarding and provides a variety of experiences and choices, retail provides

Attracting Millennials

Who are they? Gen Y or more commonly known as The Millennials, have been defined as those born between the 1980s and 1990s. They have grown up in a technological world where everything is only a click away. This generation of self-confident innovators, believe they deserve respect and place value in career advancement, competitive salaries and a challenging work environment above all else. They have been pinned as lazy and entitled but have also garnered a reputation for being great at multi-tasking and team-building.

more opportunities to build a career right out of school than most people think. Furthermore, store level experience has been proven to be invaluable especially for retailers who prefer to promote from within.

How can employers capitalize on this? By establishing their brand as an employer of choice

for graduating students, highlighting the career

opportunities within the organization and

showcasing employees who have progressed

from the shop floor to store management

to the corporate office. Furthermore, the best retention rate is witnessed when employers demonstrate a career path within their organization.

Retail as a Career, Not Just a Part-Time Job

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on survey results and The Foundry’s constant contact with thousands of retailers across the country and world, the following four leading trends were identified.

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Based

The Foundry powered by Monster.ca Trends | Retail Recruiting Trends to Consider 13

Do you know where your candidates are?

In a recent survey conducted by ConnectEdu and Achievers, 10,000 students and recent graduates were polled on their career expectations after graduation. The study indicated that employers across all industries should place a greater emphasis on brand recognition and campus presence more than

ever before. Close to 90% of the respondents

planned to submit their applications directly

through a company’s website while 70% said

they would be looking for jobs at networking

events. All indicators point to the need for a strong and consistent retail employer brand presence both on and offline.

Creating a strong careers section on your

corporate site where the younger demographic can research your company, search for job opportunities and apply for positions online will enable you to capture the best and brightest talent. Career fairs enable you to showcase your company as an employer of choice. Building relationships with the career services offices at your local universities and colleges will let you know when to host a career fair or take advantage of speaking opportunities.

It’s not just about being in the right place

at the right time. You need to ensure that your

message resonates with your audience. Millennials

are interested in challenging roles and

opportunities for advancement. They are not aware of the wide variety of careers available within retail so employers need to promote these types of roles, such as:

With Baby-boomer retirements on the rise, employers are turning to Millennials to help fill the gap. With so many employers competing for the same talent, how can employers set themselves apart from the competition? Retail employers should capitalize on the Millenials’ career aspirations to attract this demographic.

40%Want their opinions heard

25%Want the chance to own and manage projects

31%Want their decisions implemented

Millenials know what they want out of their first job.

Merchandiser Forecasting trends & budgetingStore Manager Running a store, managing staff & meeting targetsVisual Merchandiser Designing product displays Sales Associate Knowing fashion trends & giving advice to customersLogistics Planner Distributing & storing products Buyer Finding new products & anticipating demand Design Creating and developing new products & packaging


Having a talent pool with the type of resources who have the skills, knowledge and experience that would positively impact your business reduces the amount of effort, time and cost to replace one of your current employees or add someone to the team.

One of the most effective ways to build and

extend a company’s talent pool is through online networking. Social media makes it easy to build relationships, have conversations, and stay in touch

Social media is an important avenue for finding talent with over half of hiring managers and recruiters now making this an integral part of their recruitment process. It is more of a long-term strategy that allows companies to effectively build a talent pool that can be accessed quickly when positions open up.

How to Build and Extend Your Talent Pool

Social Media Recruiting: What are You Waiting for?

Share What Seekers Want to Know

IBM CEO Ginni Rometty paraphrased the value of social media for an organization best when she said, “Your value will not be what you know, but what you share.”

Seekers want to understand what makes your

company tick, what kind of environment they can expect, and what values you share. This human aspect often is sought through social media which they gravitate towards frequently, often on a daily basis. According to a survey from WorkInRetail.com, 50% of the retail workers who use social media are interested in seeing information on the company’s social media pages.

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with both active and passive seekers alike. Retailers should be encouraging its current employees, previous job applicants, and clients to engage with their employer brand online.

Just as happy employees are your best

ambassadors both in the store and outside, they also share their experience and convey their passion through their social networks of choice, and thus by extension promote your employer brand.

Focus your message around what your company has to offer in these areas to attract the “right fit” for your company while making sure to be transparent. Your company culture should be obvious and attractive. If you are looking to attract top talent that has long-term leadership potential in retail, you need employees who will easily amalgamate into your organization. Give them an opportunity to interact with your brand through all types of media.


Access Your Existing Retail Community

Retail is one of the more active industries in social media, driving high engagement and traffic to the products and services offered. Unfortunately, in most cases, this is not leveraged from a recruiting perspective. This same community should receive career-related messages, information on the company culture and the key differentiators. The more engaged your audience is, the more likely they will be to respond, whether it be more traffic to your careers site, more applicants, etc.

What types of information are candidates looking for? Here are some ideas of what to post:

Perks of working for the company


Mobile is No Longer an Option

“The shift to mobile is happening at an extraordinary speed,” Mashable CEO Pete Cashmore wrote in a post on 2013 tech predictions. This is now a reality with mobile having caused a fundamental shift in peoples’ everyday habits. 79% of Canadians don’t leave home without their mobile device. Analysts at IDC predict that tablet shipments will exceed personal computers (PCs) for the first time in the fourth quarter (2013). On the recruiting spectrum, a recent study

by Simply Hired showed a similar trend with 70% of

job seekers using their mobile phones to find

jobs. There are now more screens and more ways to

reach candidates so mobile has to be an integral part of a company’s recruitment strategy as employers seek to reach and hire the top talent. Yet, surprisingly

a report by Seven Step found nearly 70% of the

Fortune 100 companies did not even have

mobile optimized career pages.

Most convenient way to search

Quickest way to search

53%

62%

4Why is mobile so important?


Reach Your Consumers… Reach Your Ideal Candidates…

Immediate Interactions in Ideal Situations

Offer a Great Experience

Mobile is often used to help make quick decisions because of the endless resources accessible, such as the internet, apps, peer and friend reviews, etc. Consumers are reaching for their cell when they want to learn more about your products or do some comparison shopping. This provides retailers opportune moments to connect with their clients who are also their prime candidates. Customers are the ideal candidates as they already know and love your brand. They know your products and you know how to reach them. Another big plus is that customers are also the hard-to-reach passive seekers with whom recruiters are always striving to engage.

Retailers are a step ahead than most other industries since they have face-to-face interactions with their customers. The Seekers are already in the store and engaged with the brand and thus more open to career opportunities. To take advantage of this, companies should connect seekers to their mobile career sites with posters displayed in their store windows that have QR codes so candidates can easily and quickly access the job postings. Another successful method is to indicate that you are hiring and including your career site URL on the physical receipts that accompany your customers’ purchases.

In the retail industry, the customer experience is key to driving sales. This also applies to a mobile recruitment experience whereby a seeker may be more likely to convert to an applicant when they have a positive user experience. By offering a simple, neat and effective online purchase or application process through a mobile-optimized site, retailers engage their customers and seekers alike in a productive manner; thereby potentially leading to more conversions, whether that be in terms of more sales or more hires.

In addition, the store is perceived as connected,

trendy, modern and one that cares about its customers and candidates. The resulting positive feedback closes the loop on the user experience and generates that added engagement companies constantly pursue. Make it good. Make it viral.

Adapt content according to device screen size and resolution

Build a single site for all devices

5CONCLUSIONYOU ARE NOT ALONE

The Foundry powered by Monster.caConclusion | You Are Not Alone19

Recruiting across all industries is changing at a rapid pace due to seeker behaviour, technology and market demands. This is highly visible in the retail world where the competition poses an additional challenge due to the sheer number of stores, new international retail chains entering Canada and the transferable skills that make the candidates ideal recruits for other industries as well.

Yet of all these changes also offer retail

establishments many opportunities to source, reach, connect, engage with and convert seekers to work at their stores. How?

Challenges & Opportunities Key Drivers in Retail Recruiting

It’s a lot to consider for anyone or even a team of people… Each area involves a certain level of expertise and knowledge to build a proper strategy and implement the plans and tools that will generate the results sought after. With budgets getting squeezed more and more and having less and less time to deliver on corporate objectives, HR professionals, out of necessity, are reaching out to experts that have both the digital and employer marketing savviness. The valuable insight they offer ensures a focused approach that drives performance.

The key drivers in attracting the right talent:

Develop a strong employer brand that truly explains who you are and what differentiates you from the pack

Connect with users through all of the channels available today. In addition to your corporate (careers) website and the use of job boards, those channels should include mobile, social media, in-store signage and local advertising

Adapt messaging according to the media (device) and seeker segment you are reaching out to

Promote the benefits and advantages of working in retail and how it can be a fulfilling and lucrative career

Hire your own customers

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The Foundry powered by Monster.ca Conclusion | You Are Not Alone 20

Monster’s Digital Agency

Career Resources Portal

The Foundry

Monster.ca

Monster.ca brought together a team of digital strategists and solution experts to create The Foundry. Our focus is to help recruiters and HR professionals across Canada tell their story, build and promote their brand, reach and engage with their ideal candidates - all while leveraging the digital solutions and trends to achieve measurable results. Our in-depth knowledge and years of experience help companies like yours develop a strong employment brand that reflects who you are as an organization. This becomes the core of targeted messaging that is created to engage the right candidates across the recommended media channels to create and build relationships with great talent.

Monster is the global leader in successfully connecting job opportunities and people. Monster uses the world’s most advanced technology to help people Find Better, matching job seekers to opportunities and employers to the best talent using a vast array of products and services. As an Internet pioneer, more than 200 million people are registered on the Monster Worldwide network. Today, with operations in more than 40 countries, Monster provides the broadest, most sophisticated job seeking, career management, recruitment and talent management capabilities both locally and globally.

Sources: The Foundry gathered data from a multitude of expert resources, research papers, statistical analyses, polls, and panels. For more information on the identified trends or to learn about our

solutions, please contact us at [email protected]

bythefoundry.ca

The Foundry powered by Monster.ca Retail Recruitment Trends | Intro21

RETAIL RECRUITING [email protected]

bythefoundry.ca 2014

RETAIL RECRUITING TRENDS

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