Getting HR right in retail

Retail is arguably one of the most difficult industries to get employee engagement right. The young and part-time workforce that comprises most of the retail industry makes engagement and production challenging since: employees are often students who don’t consider retail their future career path, the turnover is high (particularly during the holiday seasons when there is lots of seasonal hiring) and succession planning is a challenge.

Here are some challenges I have seen retailers experience as they try to enhance the employee experience:

• Understanding which candidates have strong people skills and which ones are not good assets for an organization.
• Engaging a largely part-time workforce to meaningfully interact with customers.
• Providing basic succession visibility so people can be encouraged about a future career in retail.

How can companies in the retail industry approach these challenges to enhance engagement and retain the top talent?

Looking through GPTW Canada’s Best People Practices Hub, which hosts a database of thousands of practices that organizations can leverage, there are many organizations that have effective initiatives in place to enhance the employee experience in retail.

• Enhancing the hiring process: In September 2016, H&M premiered a recruitment campaign called the 'Place of Possible' featuring employees sharing their experiences and their journey at H&M. H&M as a 'Place of Possible' is shared through social media, which helps them promote retail as a great career path and target young, fashion-forward team players who want to grow and develop with the organization.
• Ensuring you hire for culture fit: At Starbucks, job candidates can access the online Virtual Job Tryouts to help candidates identify their fit with the corporate culture to help them determine if the opportunities available to Starbucks partners match what they are looking for in a career. The Virtual Job Tryouts are online interactive assessments that measure candidates against key attributes and competencies required for success in store manager and district manager roles. These attributes include leadership style, work style, disposition, motivation and critical thinking skills.
• Virtual environments: The TJX Canada virtual environment (www.thisistjxcanada.ca) provides an interactive and engaging way for internal associates and potential candidates to explore careers at TJX Canada. The purpose is to display the working environments of the Home Office, Stores and Distribution Centres. Additionally, it allows visitors to browse positions as if they were in that environment and it also is a great internal tool for associates to understand career paths within the organization.

What initiatives have you seen in retail that enhance the employee engagement experience? I would love to hear in the comments below.