Luxury Retail Staffing: Algorithms Won’t Fix Your Shortages
Never has luxury retail focused as much on hiring as they are now. Never has luxury retail hired as many people as they are right now. Nor have they ever spent as much money on staffing as they are today.
Yet the staffing shortage continues to get worse.
November stats in Canada for jobs filled smashed previous pre-COVID records increasing by 154,000 new hires when only 35,000 hires were expected. Hiring is exploding, but it only serves to shrink further the pool of candidates accepting luxury retail roles.
Why Isn’t It Working?
1. Not Interviewing Enough People
The reliance upon algorithms or keyword searches to identify candidates is seriously flawed. Rather than expanding your candidate pool these tools actually shrink your candidate pool to just the few that “hit” your inputs especially for entry level candidates.
Screening out has been the standard go to process Human Resources has used for years to select people. Smart search says you are doing it wrong. What you need to do is double the number of pre screened candidates. Your recruiters need to ramp up the quantity of people they speak to.
Your pool of talent has to be much more diverse. It needs to include folks you would not have looked at before. In some cases, they are all you are gonna get! Don’t underestimate the power of a good training program once you get a willing employee.
2. Overly Broad Job Posting Blasts
Quantity is not quality. Having your brand blasted on every conceivable social media or job board is nearly useless. All your efforts have to targeted to precisely the candidate pool you intend to hire from. Throwing up dozens of ads on Indeed or similar simply smells like desperation: you lower the value of your brand by overexposure.
Your own corporate job board that is rarely refreshed or also has pipeline sourcing (every role posted at all times trying to lure folks in regardless of whether or not there is an actual opening) is offensive. People value their time and are not fooled by seeing the same job open month after month.
Your efforts have to be personalized. How do you do that? Keep reading…
3. The Biggest Mistake of All is Not Using Expert Retail Sourcing Firms to Sell Your Brand
Did you know the vast majority of new hires never applied for the job? Somebody went and sourced them. About 40% of all firms outsource their staffing (Korn Ferry quote); but a lot of them are using the cheapest solutions, not retail experts.
These generic firms outsource in turn to subcontractors in foreign countries such as India, who hire folks to do keyword searches all day long, trying to connect to the algorithm. They know nothing about your local market, or your clients. Is it any wonder why their search yields are not a match for your brand most of the time?
Alternatively, it is foolish to think that you can ever hire enough sources internally to fill your job board vacancies. The head count becomes explosive, and the results barely improved.
Luxury recruiting takes experts at solving vacancy problems. Hire the right firm to solve your problem the first time out. They will make sure to give a personalized approach to every person they speak to about your brand and the positions you are hiring for; and they will do it by reducing your gap to hire fill time.
Benefits of working with a Luxury recruiting professional to reduce your hiring time according to HR colleague Dr. John Sullivan:
- Speed means fewer dropouts of in-demand candidates. Again, if your hiring process is slow, top candidates will drop out of the running. Sullivan says “in-demand candidates are the first to drop out or ghost in frustration.”
- Slow hiring means only the average remain. Once your top performers drop out of the running, you only have lower performing talent to choose from.
- Fast decision-making attracts the best. According to Sullivan, the best talent sees fast hiring as a reflection of your corporate culture.
- Top candidates decide quickly. Sullivan reiterated the fact that faster hiring decisions mean that your “bird in the hand” offer is the first to be available for acceptance.
- Fast hiring reduces candidate bidding. Sullivan also said that if you make an offer before the candidate is bid on, then the salary cost will be lower. This allows you to afford higher quality talent. If you wait too long, the candidate may receive a better offer from your competition, resulting in a bidding war, thus increasing the salary cost.
- Top diversity candidates are gone quickly. High-quality candidates want to work in diverse workplaces, and if your hiring process is too slow, you run the risk of losing these candidates to a more diverse company.
When you need your tooth fixed you go see a dentist, you don’t run ads.