Recruitment Strategies: Asking Customers
The retail industry in Australia employs over 1.2 million individuals who work in this industry in various departments. The biggest occupational team is Sales Assistants which accounts for almost a third of employment in the industry. The retail industry has one of the youngest profiles when it comes to age which is nearly three-quarters of employees aged below the age 45 years as well as over a third aged below 24 years. Simply, the only industry which has younger employees is Accommodation and Food Services (Johnson & Distinguished, 2013). The age profiles usually vary expressively in the occupations where younger employees are clustered in roles of sales and older employees are clustered in management roles. The retail industry is known for the significant role it performs in offering several young individuals in Australia their first opportunity in the job market as well as equipping those young people with relevant skills which are greatly sought compared to another group of industries, including teamwork, customer service, communication skills as well as conflict resolution.
The retail industry has a high level of turnover of workers, and this indicates that the industry keeps on recruiting new employees. One of the strategies that the industry uses is asking a customer for recruitment. The industry believes that customers who have a strong passion for a certain business, services, and products can be great workers. The manager may keep an eye on a certain customer by observing the way the customer interacts with the sales person and conclude that the customers who are friendly, pleasant, and show great communication skills can be fit for recruitment. The managers believe that they can strike a conversation with the customer by enquiring where the customer works or whether she appreciates the services offered in the business. It might be a big risk to take because the customer might be recruited in the retail industry and turn out that the idea does not work out (Zhu, Li, Wang, & Chen, 2010).
Retail industry also recruits its employees using the open interviews. When some retailers need an employee, they advertise their position in an open place where they state the time the interview will take place. For instance, the advert may state that the interview will start from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. where individuals are required to avail themselves for the interview. Sometimes, the managers in the retail industry believe that getting the right individual who can succeed to be hired in the industry is limited to an open interview (Pantano, 2014). The reason is that an open interview attracts individuals who might not be working due to one reason or the other.
Open Interviews
The retail industry has a strategy of recruiting workers who work in other stores where the manager might walk around in other stores and observe how a certain employee performs his duties. The process of walking around in a certain store might be awkward, and the employee in that store might not be willing to leave their jobs because they are comfortable working in that store so that manager fails to get an employee in that method (Larson & Dolan, 2013).
High Turnover
The retail industry is famous for having a high level of worker turnover. Evidently, this means that workers regularly come in the industry and go which poses many challenges during recruitment. When recruiting new employees the process of developing and training these individuals is time-consuming as well as constant if the industry has to keep recruiting and hiring new workers (Balaji & Roy, 2017). Additionally, the issue of hiring and recruiting new employees now and then becomes a big issue in building loyalty to the customers who are regular clients in the industry. The customers find it hard to trust new workers especially if they are used to be served by specific workers in the industry. The industry spends a lot of money while recruiting workers and it can be more expensive if the industry keeps doing the same thing now and then. Conducting interviews and coming up with the right employee fit for the job may be time-consuming because employers have to take some time to analyze the qualification of each interviewee and it can be now more difficult if the industry repeats the same things regularly (Worsfold & Griffith, 2003).
Diversity is viewed as a good idea in the industry, and each organization needs to have diversity when it comes to employing individuals. Diversity helps employees to connect in a good way with the marketplace, and people can develop new ideas from others for better results. Evidently, employees generate ideas from others through diversity because there is something that one employee knows and another does not know, but through diversity, they can learn from others to achieve the set goals of the industry. In retail industries when recruiting employees with different culture diversity, there is a problem of establishing cohesiveness because of having employees from extensively fluctuating demographic backgrounds. Clearly, the problem of cohesiveness is always there because different employees have different ideas concerning a particular issue (Ailawadi & Keller, 2004). In this case, every employee wants to be the correct one regarding a certain issue, therefore, unity in the retail industry might be a big problem. Notably, when cohesiveness is not there, attaining goals in the organization may be a problem because, in order to achieve set goals, employees must work together in unity.
Approaching Employees in Other Stores
In order for the retail industry to build a team of employees who are committed, competent and motivated in their work, the retailers should overcome many challenges as well as misconceptions concerning the working environment. Some of the common issues which are in the retail industry are long hours, lack of benefits, lack of full-time jobs, no opportunities for growth and low pay. When employers are recruiting employees in the retail industries, there are few people who are interested in working with such conditions since every individual wants to grow in the industry, have some benefits after working in the right way, guaranteed a full-time job and have a good pay at the end of the day. For example, an employee who works in Woolworth may feel insecure of his or her job because sometimes she is at work, and other times she is not, indicating that there is no job security because such an employee might lose her job anytime. Most employees want job security in the industry to avoid losing the job anytime without doing anything wrong (Rezaei, Fahim, & Tavasszy, 2014).
During festive seasons, most retail industries make a lot of money since the demand is so high during that time to the point that most retail industries end up hiring temporary workers to increase the supply of goods to customers. In this way, they might end up employing some of the employees who are not well experienced and end up having losses instead of profits during the festive seasons like Christmas or Black Friday. Additionally, the recruited temporary employees may alienate regular employees who are more skilled in the industry who are supposed to perform some specific roles during this time. At times the recruited new employees in festive seasons might be a big trouble in the retail industry because they can be a source of loss rather than profit. It might happen that the regular workers might not be willing to work because with these temporary workers which result to disunity leading to a lack of attaining the set objectives (Mukherji, 2012).
Since retail industry faces a lot of challenges in recruiting workers especially in the issue of high turnover, it is recommended that that industry should be recruiting individuals after issuing a good description of the type of work they are offering (Online Retail Industry Profile: Germany, 2011). For example, Woolworths may offer full job description it has to offer so as to reduce turnover in the organization. Good job description entails listing the type of employee needed, the qualification required, the duration of time the employee is required to work in the industry among others. Additionally, the retail industry should recruit a certain number of employees who are then hired and retained in the industry so as to build customer’s trust. It is recommended that a certain number of employees should be retained in the industry because clients are likely to lose trust in the industry if the keep seeing new individuals in the industry. It is also recommended that the human resource manager should ask some specific questions which are related to the kind of work other employees do to avoid inconveniences of recruiting new personnel who are not comfortable working in such areas (Nair, Salleh, & Nair, 2014).
Challenges for Recruiting the Workforce in Retail Industry
Diversity is highly recommended in the workplace, and retail industry sees to it that diversity is included when recruiting new employees. The problem of developing trouble when it comes to cohesiveness may be avoided by the HR trying to manage the issue of diversity to avoid main conflicts and encourage a spirit of teamwork, tolerance, and collaboration. It is recommended that the HR should ensure that there is no irrelevant competition between recruited employees because of diversity. Additionally, the recruited employees should see the issue of diversity as an opportunity to learn new ideas from different workers in order to work together to attain the set objectives in the organization (Mann & Byun, 2011). The HR may include the discussion about diversity in the staff meeting so as to encourage it to all staffs in the retail industry and also ask each employee to discuss his or her differences to others. Evidently, in doing so, the technique may be used to build cohesiveness between employees and work peacefully in the industry (Kent, 2007).
It is recommended that the retail industry may avoid misunderstandings by going out of their norms of not defining the type of job they want to offer to an employee. The industry can offer the regular eight hours that an employee is supposed to work in a day instead of overworking workers for more than eight hours. Additionally, the industry may pay full-time jobs to employees who show competence for their work in order to motivate them to continue working with the same spirit (Vijayan, Kamarulzaman, Mohamed, & Abdullah, 2014). The retail industry may involve rewarding the best employees who have attained their targets at the right time to encourage healthy competition in the industry. It is also recommended that the managers should not take too long to promote best employees in higher positions and increase their salaries to reduce the rate of people resigning and quitting out of the job. There should be benefits such as bonuses, praises, promotions and money among others when employees hit their target. During festive seasons when the demand is so high where the retail industry is required to recruit more employees to work temporary during that time, the employers should first agree with the recruited team that there will be working temporarily to avoid inconveniences when they are supposed to leave the industry (James, McKechnie, & Swanberg, 2011). For example, during the festive season, most people usually shop new clothes in Woolworths which means that the organization must hire new workers to work with the existing workers to help in supplying goods to the customers. It is recommended that the recruited employees must be taught the rules and regulations of the industry so as to work in the right way with others because at times the newly recruited workers may want to take over the roles of regular workers which might reduce the productivity since some of them are less skilled compared to regular workers (Rana, 2015).
Diversity
Conclusion
In conclusion, the main challenge which faces the retail industry is the issue of high turnover which means that workers regularly come in the industry and go which poses many challenges during recruitment. When recruiting new employees, the process of developing and training these individuals is time-consuming as well as constant if the industry has to keep recruiting and hiring new workers. Also, the issue of diversity brings the problem of cohesiveness which is always there because different employees have different ideas concerning a particular issue. The issue of misconception comes in due to lack of clear defining of the jobs offered and lack of full-time job in the industry. The recommendations listed may help solve the problems in one way or the other in the retail industry.
References
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