Hiring Well For The Holiday Season

For the retail industry and small businesses in general, the holiday season has started, and for them, this season can be a financial boost for their business.

The significant change in sales, profits, and employment take a front seat during the holiday season, and it can be a breaking or making point for many businesses across many industries.

By November, the retail industry has hired many part-time sales personnel to help with the holiday season, expecting those employees will be ready when black Friday sales start.   Many of those businesses will let go many of those employees, but some of them will stay with the business well after the season is over. 

The benefits associated with keeping those employees on payroll are many, but most importantly, it is the expense associated with hiring new employees every few months that make sense. Many businesses strive to hire quality employees and can see the benefit in training them and keeping them well after the holiday season is over.  The expense of hiring new employees regularly makes no financial sense for them considering the rise in costs associated with it.

According to the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), the cost of hiring a new employee is $4,129.  Not only that,  but it also takes weeks for those employees to be ready to perform their job well, and if not trained properly, the cost of retraining puts a financial strain in the business and their profits.

When paying for a background check before hiring a new employee, or for proper training the first time around, the costs associated with acquiring quality employees can become minimal if done properly the first time around. 

Many businesses now a day hire new employees constantly, never training them well and getting rid of them before their first paycheck arrives.  That’s a very costly way of acquiring employees or retaining the ones they have, and acquiring good employees using this method is riddled with problems from the beginning.

A business needs to invest in properly hiring and training their new hires.  The financial benefits will follow for the business.


Employees are harder to find should this impact the way you conduct seasonal hiring?

As of September 2018, the national unemployment rate is down to 3.7% according to ncls.org. As a retail store owner thinks about what this means for you in terms of trying to hire to fill job openings including seasonal hiring for the holidays. With an employment rate of 96.3% that leaves a sparse workforce as a hiring pool. I have read articles by those who think that with a dwindling number of people seeking work employers are going to have to forego pre-employment background checks. They seem to believe that the need to hire outweighs any baggage the job candidates bring with them.

     Not only are employment background checks being called into question for the reasons stated above there is also a school of thought that pre-employment drug screening may be a bad idea. This line of reasoning includes the limited availability of candidates in the workforce but also suggests that the increased legalization of marijuana use in some states is negating the reasons for having applicants take the tests.

     When taken together think about what it means to the retail employer. Store owners are required to rely on the information supplied by a candidate to make hiring decisions. Screening consists of the responses of the candidate to your questions during an interview and perhaps a couple of recommendations from their list of references. How confident are you in the references provided? Do you know if they are going to be honest about the character of the person you are considering for the job? How many of us really put down a reference who we think will not speak well of us? You also bet on the roll the dice whether your new hire is a drug user. Fail to a drug screen and the chances increase for accidents and even theft. Both theft and accidents can be costly in the long term, whether the employee is a seasonal worker or regular hire. Employee accidents can result in workers compensation claims. Accidents involving a customer as a result of an employee’s negligence can result in a lawsuit against your business.

     The question you need to answer is whether it is worth changing your hiring practices to ramp up your seasonal staffing needs? The short answer is no, you should not modify or change tried and true methods of hiring. Those methods help you bring in new help and reduce your exposure to safety and shortage risks. Pre-employment background screenings can be tailored to meet the criteria you want them to assess so you may review what you are screening for and eliminate some of the categories that may not be as important for a part-time worker. For instance, if a driving record check is part of your normal pre-employment screening is that necessary for someone who will work in your stockroom for a few months? You might not really need to validate someone’s education level if you are only hiring them for the season and they do not intend to apply to stay after that.

      Likewise, a credit history, criminal background check, and review of the sex offender registry are the minimum three searches I recommend every store owner require of applicants regardless of the amount of time they will work for you. The credit history should be checked in case your prospective employee is in dire financial trouble. He/she may see this job as a means of extricating themselves from their problem. The criminal history should be checked because it could include everything from assaults to theft. You don’t want someone prone to violence working around other employees or customers and have them lose control. Nor would you want a convicted thief working around merchandise and/or cash. The sex offender registry check speaks for itself. You are responsible for the safety of all of your employees and your customers and the risk of hiring a person on the sex offender registry is too great to consider.

     Seasonal hiring may be a bit more of a challenge when the economy is strong but it is no reason to discard proven methods of shortage reduction. Holidays also tend to be times of increased safety issues. Drug testing and pre-employment screenings are an effective means of maintaining a safe work environment. Don’t lose sight of the fact that there are a lot of people who are looking for a seasonal job simply for a little extra spending cash. There are also young people looking for that first job experience and a paycheck. You may have to find new ways to get the word out about your positions but don’t fret, there is always an honest person looking for a job (or a second one).


     

Thanksgiving – Pros and Cons of the shift of Thanksgiving sales from Friday to Thursday

Traditionally Black Friday has been the kick-off of the holiday shopping season. Families spent Thanksgiving together dining, celebrating, catching up with each other and maybe even watching a football game on television. Early Friday following Thanksgiving store employees would start reporting to work preparing for early openings which often took place at 6:00 am. Retailers had advertised their Black Friday specials (Door Busters) and customers would start queuing up at the doors ready to find bargains. The shopping would then continue into Saturday and even Sunday patrons continued to look for bargains to stretch their dollars further. Then something began to happen, stores started competing for those dollars by opening their doors earlier and earlier. We ( I did this for quite a few years) would report to work and 3:00 am for a 5:00 am store opening. The next year we moved to 2:00 am arrival for a 4:00 am opening. Today stores are opening their doors on Thanksgiving Day. There are Pros and Cons to this shift that I think is worth exploring in a bit more depth.

Pros to an opening on Thanksgiving Day:

  • Shoppers are going to stores on Thanksgiving, according to the balance.com in a story, “What Is Black Friday? Sales and Trends” by Kimberly Amadeo, updated June 20, 2018, 29 million people went shopping on Thanksgiving Day, 2016. That is a significant number of shoppers to just ignore.
  • According to bestblackfriday.com, 16.22% of Americans said they are in favor of stores opening on Thanksgiving and 5.60% were strongly in favor of it. “Thanksgiving Day 2017 Shopping Survey and Analysis”, Nov 4, 2017, by Phil Dengler. Americans may say they are against it but go out shopping anyways.
  • Bestblackfriday.com also reported that “younger Americans favor stores being open on Thanksgiving more than older Americans do.” Appealing to younger shoppers could be a way to increase their patronage on Thanksgiving Day.

Con’s to an opening on Thanksgiving Day:

  • Being open on Thanksgiving can create problems for retailers trying to generate sales on Black Friday as well as Thanksgiving. According to a New York Times article, “More Retailers Are Choosing to Close on Thanksgiving”, by Rachel Abrams, Nov 15, 2016, there are problems in keeping store shelves full for Black Friday and Thanksgiving Day.
  • The same article points out that stores can give a bad impression to customers if they come in on Black Friday and shelves are empty and employees seem to be exhausted. Joel Alden a partner in a retail consulting firm is quoted as saying, “If you do a lousy job over the Thanksgiving period, it may be a while before those customers come back and visit you again.” 
  • “…retailers that open Thanksgiving risk backlash from consumers who would rather the day be preserved for family get-togethers” according to a story in Richmond.com, written by Tammie-Smith, Richmond Times-Dispatch, Nov 23, 2016, “Retail employees working Thanksgiving as stores offer customers some of the biggest sales of the year”

There is finally a mix of feelings about working on Thanksgiving from the employees who have to work when their company chooses to be open on this day. Some are unhappy that they are expected to work when they would prefer to be enjoying the time with their families. There are those employees who prefer to work the holiday for the extra pay they receive. An article from floridatoday.com “Working retail on Thanksgiving: Here’s the scoop”, by Ilana Kowarski, Nov. 26, 2014, provides a glimpse at this split between retail worker opinions. One employee was quoted as saying she wanted “…to make more money for my family, and that’s on me.” A bit further in the article though another employee said, “Corporate greed drives the business to stay open and, therefore, forces us to work on holidays.”

     So what’s the answer? It would seem there is no right or wrong answer, only pros, and cons for the retail owner to consider. Balance the benefits of opening on Thanksgiving with the potential problems that may arise from doing so. Perhaps the best answer you can get is to talk with your employees and find out what their thoughts are on the subject. If enough workers are on board to open the store and run it each day of the holiday weekend and do so with a great attitude you may have the winning solution to the problem!


Strategies to Keep Black Fridays From Becoming Bleak Fridays (A Focus on Sales, Safety and Security)

Black Friday and the holiday shopping weekend has generally been the time of the year that most retailers are excited about. This is the time when shoppers are going to pull out their wallets and spend money. Deep discounts, doorbusters, even gift bags for the first customers, have been used to entice shoppers to visit stores early. It has been so successful as a marketing tool that stores have even advertised early Black Friday sales in JULY! Unfortunately, it seems that there has been a dark cloud overshadowing this weekend and it is more ominous each year. This cloud is one that can turn a Black Friday into a Bleak Friday if a store owner isn’t prepared for it.

     The black cloud involves the safety and security of customers and retail sales for the store owners. There are factors owners must take into account to keep that cloud from raining on a weekend that should be making shoppers happy and keeping registers ringing. As a Loss Prevention Manager, I have seen to it that my stores have remained safe during the Black Friday weekend but I have followed incidents at other stores where things turned ugly. Customers have gotten hurt rushing into stores. People have fought over doorbuster items that were limited in quantity. I have had to intervene when shoppers argued over not receiving a raincheck for a one-time purchase item. I have also worked a Black Friday when all of the registers went off-line and customers became angry and abandoned shopping carts. All of these can have a negative impact on sales and hamper the weekend that should be one of significant profits for a store.

     Here are some suggestions for preparing your store and employees for the event:

  • One of the things that set customers off is waiting in a line only to find out that a particular doorbuster is sold out. If you have some item you expect will draw in customers but there is a limited quantity, have a ticket for each item. Have someone go through the line as it forms and ask who is there for that item. Pass out the tickets and set aside enough to fill those orders. Continue to do this until you open the doors. If you run out of tickets before you open the doors be honest with the customers who are continuing to walk up and let them know you are out of that item.
  • Consider hiring a security company to provide a presence at the front of the stores to help keep order. A lot of altercations begin outside when people who have formed orderly lines and have waited patiently believe others are cutting in front of them. They are also a great presence to keep shoppers safe as they leave with their purchases to go to their cars. If you don’t want to hire security you can see if local police are willing to make frequent drive-by’s. Another alternative is to have two or three employees mingle with the line, talk about the sale items and even hand out store maps where specific sale items are located.
  • Check all of your point of sale equipment at least a week in advance to try to ensure there are no equipment failures on Black Friday.
  • Have a technician test all of your electronic article surveillance equipment to minimize false alarms and reduce the opportunity for theft to take place.
  • A lot of cash transactions take place on this holiday weekend and it is a good time for counterfeit bills to be passed. Be sure cashiers are using counterfeit pens for $50 and $100 bills. If possible a counterfeit bill detector for each point of sale is a better solution. Know that if you take counterfeit bills your store is not reimbursed or covered by your financial institution.
  • If your store happens to use display cases for some high ticket items, be sure more than one employee is carrying keys to assist customers and minimize wait times (also consider all of the retail anti-theft options available from Sensormatic that can improve security while enhancing sales).
  • Think about offering free coffee or tea to patrons who may be waiting outside for the store to open. You would be surprised at the positive response you will get from shoppers.

By taking the time to prepare in advance and plan out your Black Friday weekend you can minimize safety and security risks. The same planning will boost sales and ensure that your business truly experiences a very profitable holiday.