I found a really nice article written by Tony Wanless of BCB Businessonline titled 'Working the Crowd" about a Canadian retailer, Future Shop Ltd who have adopted a simple but effective hiring strategy to overcome a common problem in the retail industry, the need to hire additional staff to handle the traditionally anticipated Christmas and post Christmas sales boom.

Many major European retailers will hire additional 100s if not 1000s of staff and each has a story to tell. At RCE, we want to hear from those in the retail sector who can share their own experiences.

In the case of Future Shop Ltd. they had run the traditional pre Christmas hiring campaigns for many years and been successful. But Future Shop had create a great new brand promise, “that all it’s employees are expert in the wares it sells”. A powerful retail promise, but it meant that to fulfill that promise it didn’t just have to hire and train up to 6000 part-timer staff quickly but that those they hired would have to deliver on the brand promise.

As background, unlike the US economy, Canada has not experienced the same economic downturn and in many Canadian cites there are skill and people shortages, particularly amongst the group that Future Shop wanted to target.
How they did this is a great example of linking marketing, human resources and technology with social-media thinking.

Their conclusions/lessons after their first campaign also make good reading:
• Find opportunity in the problem. Overwhelmed by recruiting, Future Shop created a specialized and disciplined process to tackle the problem. This process can now be applied elsewhere in the operation.
• Narrow your scope to achieve volume. Sounds oxymoronic, but it isn’t. By aiming directly at specific groups and working them, you have a better chance of generating the volume you need.
• Recognize the broader impacts. Simply taking all comers would impact the Future Shop marketing promise of knowledge and expertise. So the system ensured that those chosen fit the philosophy.

Take a look at their career site

Keith Robinson

Last update : 18-03-2009 10:59

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